Strictly-Extrusion

TSM Control Systems, ancillary equipment manufacturers for the plastics industry, are consolidating their position in the UK market by appointing Albis UK as their agent in this area.

The ALBIS UK sales office, based in Knutsford, Cheshire was founded in 1966. It provides a total service package to develop plastics products from conception to final application, supplying Thermoplastics, System Compounding, Technical Service, Master Batch , as well as machinery and equipment to plastics producers.

Tim Peet - Albis’s UK Sales Manager is enthusiastic over the development: ‘After over 20 years in the industry as designer/manufacturers of reliable, quality process control equipment TSM are well recognised as providing technologically advanced solutions with excellent after-sales support. Albis need to ensure we continually supply our customers with the best systems to help enhance their profits. We firmly believe that TSM will allow us to do that.”

TSM’s new Business Development Manager Neil Bodger is also delighted with the new business alliance.

‘With a growing portfolio of products to sell into injection, cable and pipe producers, as well as our key blown film sector, we know Albis will promote our equipment to the key markets and producers.”

Exactly 75 years ago, the ”Gersthofen Chemical Works” commenced technical-scale modification of raw montan wax, a product extracted from lignite. At the time, the bleaching agent used was chromic acid. The first 25 years were marked by a tough struggle to survive, before it became clear that the use of chromic acid was to be the basis for long-term success: the acid needed for oxidation is completely regenerated following the process, making it a prime example of product-integrated environmental protection. Over the years, the montan wax production developed into one of the primary pillars of the entire chemical site. The original annual capacity of ca. 250 tonnes reached its first peak in 1939 with 2,800 tonnes and today, following continuing expansion, lies at several thousand tonnes per year.

On 1 July, 1997 the Gersthofen Works, which for many years had belonged to Hoechst AG, devolved into Clariant AG. Clariant is by far the market leader in this product group, supplying a large range of different wax types. They have made themselves indispensable in almost all branches of industry and assume the most varied of tasks: from protecting and enhancing to binding and separating, and on to bonding and coating. Melted wax can be poured, dissolved, dispersed and emulsified, permitting the selection of the method best suited to the intended further processing. Clariant waxes are available as powder, flakes, fine powder, granules or as micronized micro powder (Ceridust®). The most important applications for montan wax are in polishes for floors, furniture, shoes and cars.
In the plastics industry, montan waxes serve primarily as processing aids – as a slip agent during extrusion, as release agent in injection moulding and for improvement of pigment dispersion in technical thermoplastics.
The key to the success of montan waxes is the enormous diversity within the product group and their capacity to adapt to the constantly-changing market environment – ensuring continued growth with waxes well into the future.

Turkey’s largest producer of BOPP film is to step up production in 2003 to meet increased demand from the food sector. Polinas, situated in Manisa, western Turkey, will increase BOPP capacity to 100,000tpa from the current level of 65,000 by the middle of next year. The company is building a seventh BOPP line to help achieve this target. The company said demand for food packaging from both within Turkey and from outside had led to the move. Exports account for around half of Polinas’ business. Its 2001 sales were TL87trillion (€54m). Latest figures from Turkey’s packaging manufacturing association, the ASD, show the country has a plastic packaging manufacturing capacity of 80,000tpa equal to a value of US$1.2bn (€1.2bn). The association forecast growth of 3.3% a year over the next five years.

Norwegian company Elkem Materials will be launching a new inorganic impact modifier for the plastics pipes industry. Sidistar T100 is an inorganic impact modifier based on amorphous silicon dioxide that is claimed to improve low temperature impact strength while increasing modulus, improving surface quality and lifting output rates. According to Elkem, the material can be used to replace conventional organic alternatives such as acrylic, MBS and CPE in pipe and profile applications. It can also be used as a process aid in foam core pipe production, the company claims. Elkem is targeting applications in PVC and polyolefin pipe production.

With its innovative products and systems of the filtration technique the Kreyenborg GmbH worldwide belongs to the first addresses of the international plastics manufacturers. Now the Kreyenborg GmbH supplies the two largest double piston screen changers, which have ever been manufactured, for an existing polymerization plant in Asia. The two units with a total weight of together 36 t dispose of a filtration area of 3180 cm2 each and are dimensioned for a throughput capacity of 13 t of polymer melt per hour.

Owing to logistic reasons the delivery scope will be knocked down into components and at site it will be completed and implemented into the lines by Kreyenborg service engineers. The initiation of the impressive machines (length x height amounts to 4170 mm x 2500 mm) is scheduled for the end of September 2002.

Monmouth Rubber recycles the scrap materials that it generates. The recycling program has been so successful that it is being offered to all of its customers in North and South America. Plans are also underway to offer a similar program to the European community through its UK partner Rubber & Plastics Converters. Monmouth Rubber will accept back 100% of the materials that it supplies from its Long Branch, NJ facility, including skids, banding wire, stretch wrap, as well as all the cellular and solid materials it sells.
New and innovative products have been the result of Monmouth Rubber’s proprietary BondaflexÔ process. The Bondaflex process is based on controlled particle size and particle size distribution through a proprietary process that yields uniform high and low density products at cost effective pricing.

Recycled Bondaflex offers high density material (pounds per cubic foot) at a cost effective price. Bondaflex is used in the component parts for automobiles, federally specified concrete expansion joint applications, industrial components and packaging requiring high density with low costs such as underpadding for playground equipment. The latest recycled product to become commercially available is recycled non-crosslinked and crosslinked polyethylene foam and EVA foam.

Monmouth Rubber can recycle plain material and material with pressure sensitive adhesive on it. The Monmouth Rubber Bondaflex recycling process is also available for products not sold by Monmouth Rubber and for licensing. For inquiries contact: John M. Bonforte, johnsr@monmouthrubber.com Internet: www.rubberplastics.com

Bud Smith, who led PCL Packaging Corp. and worked at DuPont Canada, was named the new president and chief executive officer of film equipment maker Brampton Engineering Inc. Smith replaces Bill Wybenga, the long-time top executive. Wybenga will continue to serve on the board and will act as a consultant to the firm.

A new variation of a Maddock Mixer is able to pulverize unmelted material like paint on bumper regrind, EMI shielding on electronic parts, or aluminum coatings on metalized film. The patent-pending screw, in which the three shear zones are scored crosswise, was designed by Robert Malloy of the Plastics Engineering Dept. of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and was built by Spirex Corp. It was tested on a 38-mm single-screw lab extruder, where it produced paint particles from 1.78 mm down to 0.09 mm. Particle size ranged from 2.64 mm to 0.15 mm in regrind processed using the same Maddock mixer without teeth.

British Polythene has sold its division making protective film products for the motor industry to TVIP (Corby). The division, known as bpi.packaging service (Automotive), will now be known as Automotive Packaging Services. Its principal products are protective seat covers and rust protection brake disc liners used during vehicle manufacture. TVIP has been making products for the motor trade since 1968, including elasticated seat covers, and has been active in the development of non-oil anti-rust products including a corrosion inhibiting polyethylene.

EVC Rigid Film GmbH, Germany, subsidiary of PVC producer EVC International, The Netherlands, celebrated its 40th anniversary in September. The company and its sister firms in Weißandt-Gölzau, Germany, Castiglione and Cagliari, Italy are among the world leaders in rigid films. At its locations in Staufen and Bötzingen, Germany, the company operates calendering units with capacity for 50,000 t/y of films. Production and processing of rigid PVC film is done mainly for pharmaceutical packaging, office supply products, printing and decorative articles, transparent packaging, furniture film, shrink film and technical applications. EVC Rigid Film, which had sales in 2001 of EUR 110m, employs 600.