Strictly-Extrusion

Hosokawa Alpine Ltd of Runcorn, Cheshire have appointed Edlon Machinery Ltd as the sole Agent in the UK and Ireland for their complete range of blown film extruders, film winders and film orientation lines. Produced at the Film Extrusion Division in Augsburg, Germany. Alpine has been a leading supplier of such machinery since the early 50’s, offering complete systems for the manufacture of single or multi-layer (up to 7 layers) barrier films for packaging and industrial applications. Newly developed mono-axial orientation lines provide the opportunity for converters to produce innovative and enhanced film structures. Hosokawa Alpine, who have several production Pilot Lines at their facility in Germany for customer trials and development purposes, approached Edlon initially, because of the Potters Bar based company’s considerable experience in the field of packaging and converting. Lawrence Wild, Director of Edlon commented ‘the Hosokawa Alpine range of products ideally compliment the printing machines of our Principals Fischer & Krecke and Kochsiek, and the coating and laminating machines of our supplier Polytype SA, and will allow us to expand our business into a wider sector of the packaging and converting industries’.

Further information from Lawrence Wild or Julian Cook at Edlon Machinery Ltd
Tel:01707-828798 e-mail: cook@edlonmachinery.co.uk

Pipe maker PW Eagle Inc. will conduct its polyethylene and PVC pipe businesses as separate operations. The Minneapolis-based extruder is restructuring its two business units to grow both operations. The PE pipe segment now will be known as PW Poly; the PVC pipe segment will continue operating as PW Pipe.

Clariant generated sales growth of 4.7% in local currencies (-3.3% in CHF) despite difficult economic conditions. All divisions contributed to the result. Since developments in the Life Science units did not come up to expectations, the company made an extraordinary writedown of CHF 890 million. Owing to this measure, Clariant reports a net loss of CHF 648 million for fiscal 2002. If this writedown were factored out,
Clariant would have posted a net profit of CHF 242 million. The net loss and
negative currency effects reduced equity capital to CHF 914 million. No
dividend will be paid.
The Board of Directors approved a package of measures at its meeting that
took place on February 19, 2003. The measures are aimed at strengthening the
equity base and improving operating performance. Legal entities will be
formed in order to enhance strategic flexibility for certain business areas.
Moreover, Clariant will sell off non-core activities.

Specialist pipe manufacturer Asset International is planning to increase its output by 50% with a EURO 222,000 investment at its plant in Newport, South Wales. The firm makes large diameter PE pipes under licence from Finnish company KWH. General manager Simon Thomas said the investment was for new tooling developed by the Finnish firm. He said the investment would add 10 jobs to the firm’s 30-strong workforce. Asset’s products include 3 metre diameter pipes for flood alleviation and storage tanks for storm water and sewage. He said turnover had increased from EURO 741,000 in 1996 to around EURO 7.4m today. The company moved into new purpose-built premises last year.

Through the developments and manufacturing of the coilers SUN 2200 and SUN 3200, CALINI (www.calini.it ) has achieved that goal. The automatic coiler SUN 2200 corresponds to all productions and quality requirements which are necessary to coil from 16 to 75 mm O.D. HDPE gas pipes and the SUN 3300 for pipe O.D. 32 to 125 mm.

The following are the main features:
- High coiling speed.
- Coil changing without speed reducing of the extrusion line.
- Traversing unit to get a perfect and compact coil .
- final bindings and intermediate bindings.

CALINI (www.calini.it) have recently bought the coiler production of the company LYCRO / ex NORCOIL. Due to the acquisition Calini is in a positions to offer a wider product range, as automatic coilers with strapping machine, even the automatic coilers with wrapping film system.

An agreement signed this month by Teknor Apex and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturer VESTOLIT GmbH & Co. KG grants Teknor Apex exclusive worldwide rights to develop and produce vinyl compounds based on new copolymers with blood clot-preventing molecules incorporated directly into the PVC polymer backbone, it was announced today by Teknor Apex, Vinyl Division, during MD&M West.

In tubing, catheters, extracorporeal circuits, and other medical devices, the compounds will provide substantial cost-performance advantages over the anti-clotting (anti-thrombogenic) coatings currently applied to the inner surfaces of such devices, according to Bertram M. Lederer, senior vice president of Teknor Apex. ‘By increasing the reliability of devices that process living blood during critical medical procedures, the compounds based on VESTOLIT’s new resins will benefit the healthcare industry and even have the potential to save lives.’

Unlike standard anti-thrombogenic coatings, the bioactive components in VESTOLIT resins are permanently affixed to the PVC backbone and are non-extractable, according to Peter M. Galland, industry manager for Teknor Apex. ‘While compounds based on these specialized copolymers will cost more than standard medical-grade vinyl, device manufacturers can minimize costs by co-extruding the compounds onto standard vinyl in thin layers. As a result of limiting the bio-active compound to a thin inner layer and allowing the bulk of the wall of the device to consist of conventional medical PVC, the overall material cost will rise by less than the added cost of current coating methods.’

The tendency of blood to clot or coagulate when it contacts foreign objects poses a problem in procedures like open heart surgery, dialysis, platelet collection, wound drainage, and insertion of catheters into arteries and veins. The bioactive components of the copolymers
developed by VESTOLIT simulate the anti-thrombogenic messages generated in the lining of
blood vessels by the naturally occurring substance heparin.

‘Drawing on decades of experience manufacturing medical-grade vinyl, Teknor Apex will develop and produce compounds that perform this critical function in the lining of medical devices without compromising other properties that have made vinyl the most widely used and trusted thermoplastic for healthcare products,’ said Galland.

Agreement Gives Teknor Apex Assured Resin Supply and Access to Technology
Under the agreement with VESTOLIT, Teknor Apex has acquired world-wide rights to use the new PVC resins in vinyl compounds and to market them as Teknor Apex products, according to Lederer. ‘This exclusivity includes access by Teknor Apex to supplies of the resin and to technical data concerning it. The agreement provides for continuing technology interchange between the two companies to further this process.’

Teknor Apex expects to have anti-thrombogenic compounds ready for commercialization in about two years.

Development of the resins on which these compounds will be based was a natural extension of VESTOLIT’s ‘preference for more specialized PVC products,’ said Dr. Radu Bordeianu, head of research for the German-based PVC manufacturer. ‘In the early 1990s, VESTOLIT’s quest for new, unconventional vinyl chloride-based materials led to a cooperative research venture with Prof. Marcel Jozefowicz, then of the University of Paris-Nord, in the area of blood-compatible copolymers with anti-coagulant properties,’ Bordeianu said. ‘After years of intensive research, we succeeded in synthesizing a copolymer which, in vitro, shows remarkable anti-coagulant and bacteriostatic properties.’

For further development and world-wide marketing of products based on this patented innovation, VESTOLIT searched for ‘a competent and experienced ally,’ according to Robert Bornhofen, CEO of VESTOLIT. ‘We selected Teknor Apex as a partner because they enjoy an excellent reputation in the field of compounds for medical devices, and we are confident that this joint effort will further consolidate the pre-eminent position of PVC in medical applications.’

Germany-based Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik has acquired Kuhne Anlagenbau’s technical know-how for production of fibre reinforced thermoplastics pipes. The tried and tested Kuhne fibre reinforced pipe technology will expand its own existing single screw extrusion machinery range for production of high performance pipes.
Fibre reinforced pipes can withstand operating pressures of up to 600 bar. Developed for the oil and gas industries, they are currently manufactured in diameters up to 400mm. Advantages over steel include easier installation and improved corrosion resistance. Under the deal Kuhne will cease marketing and production of fibre reinforced pipe machinery. The company, which is based at St Augustin in Germany, will in future focus on its mainstream blown film and sheet extrusion.

Pluss Polymers Pvt. Ltd. in association with Manas announces the launch of a compound for synthetic paper by the Blown Film route. Manas has been at the forefront of technology development in India and has now pioneered the technology for production of the compound to be used in multilayer film structures for synthetic paper by the blown film route. Thus far, BOPP based synthetic paper was prevalent in India. The process for BOPP based synthetic paper had also been pioneered by researchers at Manas. Pluss Polymers, a sister concern of Manas will be exploiting the new technology. The product is slated for launch at Plastindia 2003. Visit Pluss Polymers at Hall 7A-Stall R7 at Plastindia 2003 being held in New Delhi, India from Feb 15-20 for more details. Or email at pluss@manasindia.com.

Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. has taken over Quail Piping Products Inc.’s corrugated polyethylene pipe business. In the deal Ohio-based ADS acquired two corrugators from Quail’s plant in Kingman and its customer list, officials said. Quail is based in Magnolia, Ark. ADS is one of the largest players in the corrugated market.