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Mar 14th, 2008                                Print this article

e-Weekly News Briefs, March 11, 2008

By Modern Plastics Editorial Staff

Chinaplas boosts foreign participation

Chinaplas organizer Adsale is anticipating a more international flavor at the upcoming show (April 17-20; New International Exhibition Centre; Shanghai), with roughly half of the pre-registered attendees expected from outside China. Adsale believes it will draw 63,000, a new record, to Shanghai; as yet, those who have preregistered originate from more than 100 countries or regions. In part, Adsale credits its partnership with Messe Dusseldorf China Ltd. (MDC), which has been the show’s co-organizer since 2005, for the increasing internationalization.

Chemtura takes control of Baxenden

Plastics additives supplier Chemtura (Middlebury, CT) has acquired the stock of Baxenden Chemicals Ltd. owned by Croda International Plc. in an all-cash transaction for GBP 13 million ($26.26 million), increasing its ownership to 100%. Chemtura previously held 53.5% of Baxenden’s stock Baxenden supplies polyurethane dispersions (PUD), specialist polyurethane prepolymers, and blocked isocyanate products. It has 212 employees and generated 2007 revenues of approximately $70 million, with manufacturing facilities in Accrington and Droitwich, England.

Toyota recognizes North American suppliers

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (TEMA; Erlanger, KY), the U.S. manufacturing headquarters for the Japanese automotive OEM, has announced its 2007 awards for North American suppliers in the categories of Launch Performance, Technology, Supplier Diversity, Value Improvement, and Quality.

In plastics-related categories, Johnson Controls’ Plymouth, MI facility was recognized in Supplier Diversity for seats and interior trim, and Kyowa America Corp. in Westminster, CA was honored for quality in injection molded, painted, exterior body parts. Also honored for quality were Advanced Composites (Nashville, TN) for resin, Intertec (San Leandro, CA) for instrument panel trim, Johnson Controls (Livermore, CA) for seats and interior trim, and Yazaki North America (Cambridge, ON) for wire harnesses and electronics. Amtex Inc. (Lebanon, OH) was recognized in the supplier diversity category for its acoustical trim components, and Mitchell Plastics (Kitchener, ON) garnered the technology award for interior trim.

The awards were presented at Toyota’s Annual Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, where it annually hosts 500 North American suppliers to communicate objectives for the current year, award performance, and enhance relationships. Toyota currently has six vehicle manufacturing and seven engine/component plants in North America. Later this year, a plant in Woodstock, ON will begin building the RAV4, and a new plant is under construction in Blue Springs, MS for Highlander assembly.

Flame retardant, TBBPA, makes the EU grade

The conclusions of a risk assessment of brominated flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) are to be published in the European Union (EU) Official Journal, which should enable a smooth transition of the material through the REACH registration procedure. The Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) legislation entered into force in the EU on June 1, 2007.

Veronique Steukers, chairwoman of the European Brominated Flare Retardant Industry Panel (EBFRIP), remarked, “TBBPA has undergone an eight-year EU Risk Assessment to evaluate its effects on human health and the environment. The Risk Assessment, and the subsequent Risk Reduction Strategy, did not foresee any legislative restriction for TBBPA. TBBPA is therefore approved for use by the EU for all its applications.”

TBBPA is widely used to improve the fire safety of printed circuit boards and plastics in electrical and electronic equipment. According to the EBFRIP, it sees use in more than 70% of the world’s E&E appliances.

Briefs

Plastics recycling equipment builder Erema (Ansfelden, Austria) says that since last year’s K plastics show in October, the company has received 12 orders for its Vacurema PET bottle-recycling lines. The sale of these systems, which generate FDA-certified material, means that total PET bottle-to-bottle recycling capacity using Vacurema systems exceeds 500,000 tonnes/yr.

Organizers of next year’s Plast 09 show in Milan, Italy from March 24-28 say the show has already drawn twice the number of applicants for stand space compared to the same period three years ago. The exhibition is co-located with three other trade shows, IPACK-IMA 2009, GRA-FITALIA, and CONVERFLEX 2009, at the Rho-Pero exhibition grounds run by Fiera Milano. The 2006 show drew 1551 exhibitors and 65,583 attendees. Plast will be the largest plastics trade show in Europe next year, and is co-located with three events devoted to packaging, converting, and graphic arts/industrial decoration. For further information on the show, visit the web site www.plast09.org.

Welsh-based C.J.P. Sales Ltd. has begun distributing DynaPurge purging compounds manufactured by Shuman Plastics (Buffalo, NY) to processors in the U.K. and Ireland. C.J.P Sales takes over from P.A.P. Sales Ltd., which was acquired by the former company at the end of January.

For this year’s Vinyl 2010 Essay Competition, 35 people from across the EU and aged between 18-30 submitted entries to the question: “Are sustainable development and economic growth mutually exclusive?” Taking first prize (euro 3000) was Maja Dercar of Slovenia, second prize (euro 2000) went to Daniela Jungova of the Czech Republic, and Francesco Falcone, an Italian resident of Brussels, Belgium won third prize (euro 1000).

Injection molder PTI Engineered Plastics (Clinton Township, MI) says it can now offer prototype tooling that’s durable enough to support “substantial production quantities”. Calling the technology P3, PTI says the same tool that provides the prototype for testing and validation can be used for production, and in some low-volume scenarios, it could undertake the entire production run., PTI, which is 25 years old with 150 employees, plans to move into a larger, newly constructed engineering and manufacturing facility in summer 2008.

LPKF Laser & Electronics has expanded their North American headquarters and moved to Tualatin, Oregon. The new 18,000-sq-ft space includes administrative offices, a warehouse, and product-demonstration rooms. The expansion will help support the company’s ongoing growth, it says. LPKF’s global headquarters is in Garbsen, Germany.

Materialise (Leuven, Netherlands) 3D-printing technology was used for several components for the Pininfarina Sintesi concept sports car displayed at the 78th International Motor Show in Geneva (March 6-16). Additive stereolithography (SLA) created the instrument panel, radiator, control panels, roof antenna, remote controller, and roof light cover. In the Sintesi, the instrument panel is designed as one integrated semitransparent piece.

Bayer MaterialScience (Leverkusen, Germany) is taking its Color Competence Centers online at www.competenceincolor.com. The CCC assists customers with choosing from various color technologies and collaborates for customer-specific color and effect development. The site, which will be administered from Bayer’s Filago, Italy CCC, is currently available in English with more languages to follow. The site features a Color Search function where colors can be selected either on the basis of Bayer MaterialScience color codes, a color graphic resembling an iris, or other color tables, such as RAL or Pantone, with a 3D rotating cube showing the selected color.

Healthcare packaging manufacturer Cope Allman (Portsmouth, England) has purchased Jaycare Ltd. out of administration. Based in Newcastle, Jaycare injection molds, blowmolds, and handles cleanroom assembly for rigid plastic packaging, medical devices, and technical components used in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. John Sidnell, Cope Allman’s managing director, said in a release there would be some “rationalization” of jobs, but he anticipated the newly combined company would maintain manufacturing in Portsmouth and Newcastle. Jaycare has approximately 200 employees.

Celebrating 10 years in India as of January, stretch blowmolding machinery supplier Sidel India has grown to 105 employees and three sites, with offices and/or manufacturing in Pune, Gurgaon, and Mumbai. Sidel says the local presence has pushed it into a leadership position in India’s bottled water, soft drink, and fruit-juice market. Back in 1998, Sidel says the Indian industry, which had been dominated by polyvinyl chloride, was beginning to switch to polyethylene terephthalate.

The company opened an assembly plant in Chakan, near Pune, in 2001-2002 for the production of small linear blowmolding machines. Today, following the 2005 merger of Sidel and Simonazzi, Sidel India offers Indian customers all of the machines found on a bottling line. In coming months, Sidel India will expand its manufacturing operations to include the assembly of additional packaging line equipment.

Vision-guided robotics and global robotics services provider Adept Technology Inc. (Livermore, CA) has expanded into the Korean market with the signing of Han Shin Power Tech Co. Ltd. as its exclusive dealer there. Adept says that Korea is presently the fourth largest robot market globally, driven by growth in areas such as packaging, material handling, and assembly. Han Shin Power Tech supplies factory automation and engineering with more than 35 years of experience, factory headquarters near Seoul in Paju-City, and a central Korea branch office at Daejeon-City.

Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI; Washington DC) business unit, the Bio-Process Systems Alliance, will now accept end-user members into the organization. SPI says the participation of biopharmaceutical and biotherapeutic drug companies fulfills business plan initiatives BPSA set down when it was formed in 2005. Currently, the majority of BPSA’s 44 member companies are single-use component manufacturers, systems integrators, or contract manufacturers.

3M’s (Minneapolis, MN) fluoroplastics, fluoroelasatomers, and specialty additives business, Dyneon (Oakdale, MN), has acquired custom compounder Hitech Polymers (Hebron, KY). Started in 1983, Hitech offers polymer blending, alloying, compatibilization, and reactive processing as a custom and toll compounder. In addition to its fluoropolymer products, Dyneon undertakes custom compounding for more than 2200 products. Hitech employs 15 at its plant outside Cincinnati, OH.

Auto, motorcycle, appliance, and agricultural engine part manufacturer Thai Summit Group will launch a Chinese joint venture in the Hebei province near Beijing, according to a report from The Bangkok Post. Production is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2009, with the operation becoming Summit’s fifth facility outside Thailand. Established in 1977, Summit now has 32 companies and 14,000 employees with capabilities in assembly, injection molding, blowmolding, aluminum die-casting, wiring harnesses, stamping dies, and tooling.

Names in the News

Corvaglia Group (Eschlikon, Switzerland) President and CEO Romeo Corvaglia named Roger Müller as the new CEO for Corvaglia Moulds. Romeo Corvaglia stepped aside on Dec. 1, 2007 for Müller, announcing in a letter sent late last week his plan to increase his focus on technology issues and group management. The Corvaglia Group, which includes Corvaglia Mould, Development, and Closures, was formed in 2001, when Romeo Corvaglia bought out former partner Kellenberg AG. In 2004, the company went beyond the production of closure molds to actually molding closures, and now has closure-molding sites in Mexico and Europe. MPW reported on the firm in 2006; that article is here.

Structural foam/web molder Horizon Plastics Co. Ltd. (Cobourg, ON) has hired 25-year industry veteran John Barrett as its new product-development manager. Barrett, whose structural foam experience includes time with Horizon competitor Fort Wayne Plastics (Fort Wayne, IN), will assist Horizon President Brian Read and VP of Sales and Marketing Mike Springer to develop new business. Barrett joins a number of other recent hires at the company, which brought on Laird Brownlie as a new plant manager in January; Neil Dick in the new position of general manager; and Joyce Nicholson as its new human-resources manager. The company operates 21 low-pressure structural foam machines sized from 200 to 1000 tons at a 300,000-sq-ft site one hour east of Toronto.

A sign on the increasing importance of the region for compounding, polymer powder producer ICO Polymers (Houston) has hired Andy Ubhi as VP Middle East and India and named Mohamed Zahir Bin Hassan Mohamed as the general manager of its ICO Polymers Middle East manufacturing site in Dubai. Ubhi has 17 years of experience in chemicals and plastics, including stints with Multibase, Asahi Kasei Plastics, and the former GE Plastics. Zahir most recently worked in commodities trading with Petronas. In a press release, ICO President and CEO John Knapp said, “We are committed to the growth of ICO’s business in the Middle East and India,” areas that have seen a substantial increase in resin manufacturing and consumption.

Thermoplastic sheet manufacturer Kleerdex Co. LLC (Bloomsburg, PA) has named Eric Vitunac as its director of manufacturing. Vitunac comes to Kleerdex from the Alcoa Companies, where he spent 12 years.

Long-glass-fiber-compound supplier Plasticomp (Winona, MN) announced that Zhehui Liu has joined the firm as its development scientist. He is to help it further develop its Pushtrusion direct long-fiber-reinforced-thermoplastic (D-LFRT) compounding technology and its Complet LFRT pellet technology. Plasticomp licenses the Pushtrusion process to compounders or processors, and also markets LFRT pellets under the Complet brand.

Packaging company Sirane (Telford, England) has promoted Magda Duczak to manufacturing-services manager. She joined the company in 2006. Her job includes balancing and negotiating with the company’s suppliers.

New members to the board of directors of Germany’s composites and thermosets association (AVK, Frankfurt) are Gabi Thomas (Ticona), Gerd Esswein (Freudenberg Forschungsdienste), and Lars Peters (Polymer-Consulting). Newly elected chairman and existing member of the board is Jürgen H. Aurer (BÜFA Reaktionsharze).

Global Plastics Bulletin Board

Koplas 2008, the 19th international plastics and rubber show held in Kintex, Korea, is scheduled to run March 26-30. (www.koplas.com).

A conference highlighting Polymer Sourcing is being conducted by AMI Bristol, England) takes place in Barcelona from April 15-17. Key presentations will be delivered by Ineos Polyolefins, AMI Consulting, SolVin, DuPont, Sabic, London Metals Exchange, and Distrupol.

Extrusion equipment manufacturer Reifenhäuser (Troisdorf, Germany) holds its own open house at its Suzhou, China facility on Friday, April 18 for interested visitors and customers. The venue takes place during this year’s Chinaplas (April 17-20) plastics show in Shanghai, where Reifenhäuser will be exhibiting a Filmtec 3-1000 FFS blown film line at its booth (E1G31).

On June 6, 2008, CMAI Europe Ltd. will simultaneously hold two one-day industry workshops: the Petrochemical Industry Fundamentals Workshop, and for the first time in Europe, the Polyolefins Industry Workshop, at the Royal Garden Hotel in London, United Kingdom. Registration is now open at www.cmaiglobal.com.

Weekly futures activity from the LME

LME Plastics Evaluated Prices (US$ per tonne) for the March 3-7, 2008 trading week

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