Strictly-Extrusion

The first seven-layer blown film line in the U.S. from Hosokawa Alpine America Inc., USA., will be delivered this summer to FlexTech Packaging Inc., a Cincinnati maker of specialized, oriented barrier films. The line will be the first anywhere to use a new Alpine seven-layer die that is approximately the same height as Alpine’s previous five-layer models. Alpine accomplished this by replacing two standard plates in the stack with plates that accommodate two spirals each. FlexTech plans to use this approach to retrofit its existing five- layer die for seven layers without increasing its height.

Peter Cloeren, CEO of Cloeren Inc.in the U.S., is this year’s recipient of the Jack Barney Award granted by the Extrusion Div. of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).The award is presented to persons contributing to the advance of the sheet extrusion business. Cloeren donated the honorium to the Lew Erwin Scholarship fund, which provides funding to students pursuing advanced studies in extrusion technology.

TPE supplier Advanced Elastomers Systems, USA, and Hydro S&S Industries, an Indian manufacturer of engineering thermoplastic compounds, have formed a strategic alliance to develop and market TPEs in India. Hydro S&S will manufacture new lines of TPEs based on AES’s technology. With marketing and technical support from AES, the Hydro-branded TPEs will be initially targeted to the growing Indian automotive markets and later expanded to other markets such as appliance and consumer goods.

A new crosslinking technology for styrene block copolymers which imparts higher temperature resistance has been developed by Kraton Polymers. SBCs produced by Kraton are ultraviolet or electron beam cured to give a crosslinked structure, but this is physical and not chemical and so is reversible - when the polymer is heated above 90 degC it begins to soften.
The new technology uses aluminium acetylacetonate as a crosslinking agent, reinforcing the physical crosslinking and increasing the softening point to about 150 degC.
Chemical crosslinking now opens potential for Kraton SBC applications under the bonnet, and also adds resistance to solvents and PVC plasticisers, enabling them to be used in adhesives on PVC film labels.

Xerium Group member Stowe Woodward, which describes itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of elastomeric roll covers, has just got bigger with the acquisition of the Swedish Trelleborg Group’s roll covering business. Trelleborg Rolls, located in the Swedish town of Trelleborg, has been renamed Stowe Woodward Sweden. It was already a licensee of Stowe Woodward technology.

PCL Packaging Corp., USA, has entered high density polyethylene bags by acquiring assets from BPI Packaging Technologies Inc. The assets include eight blown film lines and bag-making machinery in North Dighton. PCL bought the equipment at a June 15 auction and plans to keep it in North Dighton, according to Bill Swinimer, PCL chairman and chief executive officer.

A silicone-modified polycarbonate from GE Plastics, USA, is being offered for a new field of applications in replacing metal for exterior telecommunications housings. Lexan EXL 9330 is a PC-siloxane copolymer that offers outstanding low-temperature notched Izod impact strength of 11 ft-lb/in. at -60 F. This non- halogenated material is rated UL 94V-0 at 0.059 in.

Klöckner Pentaplast of America Inc. plans a US$10 million expansion that will double its North American shrink film capacity by mid-2002. The company said that it will add new equipment to produce transverse-direction-oriented film at its plant in Rural Retreat.

Color-Tec, USA, has announced the development of a low cost on-line color measurement instrument for extrusion lines. Mounted at the end of the extruder, the instrument is cable connected to a PC for color measurement control and analysis. Based on dependable LED source technology, which has already been proven in portable color instruments, the new on-line instrument is rugged and dependable. Further information: www.color-tec.com

The production of pipes in the world has strongly increased in these last years, not only in quantity, but also as typology of diameters, thickness and lengths. The great manufacturers of pipes have therefore to dispose of remarkable quantities of big and heavy pipes, which are difficult and dangerous to be handled manually. Due to specific requirements of major processors, Tria has designed, manufactured and standardized an automatic feeding system for pipes by hydraulic tipping channel. The tipping channel has such a section, that it can be charged with one big pipe only or with more pipes of smaller diameter, allowing the processor to charge into the tipper the entire production range.

Pipes of various materials can be charged and then ground, in PVC, Polypropylene and HDPE, with max. diameter of 630 mm and lengths up to 6 mt. and weight up to 500 kg.
At a first stage the pipes are placed on an inclined structure, to assist the pipes gliding into the tipping channel, which, when it is full, becomes closed by a cover. With the grinder and the operating suction equipment, can begin the working cycle: he closed tipper is lifted up to the maximum point, where opens the front door, which lets fall the pipes into the loading hopper of the grinder; the pipes are braked by the electropneumatic brake, which avoids that the pipes reaching the rotor. After a predetermined time the brake opens and allows the pipes to reach the rotor to be ground. When the control system of the grinder indicates that there are no more pipes to be ground, the machine begins automatically the return operation of the tipper in its original position, to begin a new cycle. The feeding cycle has a duration variable between three and five minutes, depending upon various factors such as the screen holes diameter and the dimensions of the grinder. The system is supplied with a grinder placed in a pit, of the series DN or FN, depending upon the production requirements, from 1000 up to 3000 kg/h.