Free-Flow Packaging International Inc. of Redwood City has acquired Novus Packaging Corp. of Richmond, California, gaining another line of equipment for production of on-demand cushioning. The Novus machine uses LDPE film in on-site production of a variety of air cushions including bubble material. The system helps customers avoid storing bulky bubble rolls.
Effective July 1, Bristolpipe Corp. will close its Columbia PVC pipe production facility. Capacity from the four-line, 10,000-square-foot facility will be moved to the company’s plant in Greensboro, Ga., said Bill Schmuhl, president of Bristolpipe’s holding company, Heywood Williams Group plc. The move will affect 22 employees.
Romeo David has joined Extrusion Dies, Inc. (EDI) as a Design Engineer after serving for more than six years with a competitor as a designer of film, sheet, and coating dies, deckles, and gauge-profiling systems.”Romeo David brings a wealth of experience as an engineer responsible for designing extrusion and coating systems from the simplest dies to triple-manifold units with power deckling systems,” said Timothy C. Callahan, President and CEO of EDI. “He has worked directly with many extrusion processors and web converters to develop systems for these companies and has also trained a large number of new die designers.”
BASF Corp. is building a styrenic block copolymer plant with annual capacity of 100 million pound in Altamira. The plant will begin production of Styrolux resin in 2003 and serve markets throughout the Americas. The company is targeting food-packaging markets such as film wrap and drinking cups, as well as a number of injection molding applications.
Sealed Air Corp., USA, has acquired shrink film competitor Epsilon Opti Films Corp. A competitor said Sealed Air may have felt its dominant position in packaging film was threatened as the young Epsilon and other players such as Intertape Polymers Group Inc. and DuPont have grown.
Teknor Apex, USA, has opened a new sales office in Toronto, its first in Canada, as well as a sales office in Singapore, its first in Asia. The company has doubled its vinyl sales in Canada within the last couple of years and expects further growth, particularly in the wire/cable and automotive markets. New demand is also expected in the Pacific Rim for the company’s vinyl and TPE compounds in markets like appliances, automotive, medical devices and wire/cable.
A 56 ft wide blown-film, one of the world’s widest, is running on a three-layer coex line from Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co., USA. The line was installed a year ago at a new agricultural-film plant of Tyco Plastics (formerly Sunbelt Plastics) in Monroe, La. Tyco has been making 6-mil Tufflite film for greenhouse covers on it.
A new decorative formable thermoplastic sheet for in-mold insert decorating (IMD) is said to give a soft, leather-like feel to automotive and truck interior trim. Soft-Touch laminate from Performance Films, USA, is designed to replace soft-touch paint on ABS, TPO and polycarbonate. Soft-Touch film laminate permits changing both the look and feel of a plastic substrate. It provides a low-gloss appearance with printed color coats and patterns protected by a clear coat.
Davis-Standard Corp., USA, and Nordson Fiber Systems in Dawsonville, recently announced a formal strategic alliance. Davis- Standard will become the preferred extruder provider for Nordson’s melt-blown and spunbonded fabric systems. The two companies have worked together for nearly 10 years and Davis-Standard has frequently custom-engineered its Fibermaster extruders for Nordson applications. The new alliance focuses on bi-component fiber systems for SMS (spunbonded-meltblown- spunbonded) and SMMS (spunbonded-meltblown- meltblown-spunbonded) laminations, a rapidly growing area for infant and personal-care products.
Paraloid KM-399 is said to be 20% more efficient as an impact modifier in vinyl building profiles than any competing product. The new all-acrylic grade is supplied by Rohm and Haas Plastics Additives. KM-399 reportedly displays better low-temperature toughness than other acrylic modifiers or CPE. It exhibits outstanding weatherability in terms of color hold and impact retention in outdoor profiles like siding, fencing and window products, according to Rohm and Haas.