Strictly-Extrusion

New non-contact capacitive thickness measurement device specifically for barrier films. Major issue with EVOH and NYLON resins with standard capacitive technology above 50 degree C causes measurements to be inaccurate and only measures EVOH & PA layers. PLAST-CONTROL\’s new system scans across the double layflat in 20-30 seconds where the film is below 50 C. Requires oscillating haul-off for film movement. After first 6 scans (2-3 minutes) accurate profile is displayed and ready for automatic gauge control correction. There after, every scan displays new profile information. Max. layflat for C-scan is 2.2 meter. Wider O-scan frames in development. Contact Mark Anderson at 978 462-0306 for more information.

Novatek (www.novatek.ru), Russia, has commenced production at its EUR 50m BOPP film line in Novokuibyshevsk in the Samara region of Russia. The new unit is capable of producing a wide range of BOPP packaging for the food, tobacco, perfumery, medicine and textile industries with an annual capacity of 25,500 t. It can produce films of up to 8.2 m in width and from 10 to 60 micron in thickness. The company said output from the plant will replace films previously imported.

German diversified industrial and trading group L. Possehl & Co has acquired rubber machinery firm ThyssenKrupp Elastomertechnik.
Elastomertechnik makes and installs equipment for rubber manufacturing including tyre-makers, mixers, extruders and driers. It has around 1,050 employees with manufacturing facilities at Hamburg-Harburg and Freudenberg in German, Belisæe in Croatia, and Topeka in US. Its sales last year reach E150m.
Chairman of Possehl’s executive board Uwe Lüders said: “Elastomertechnik will form an independent division within the Possehl group. The company will be able to further consolidate its market position, while still maintaining its own identity.”
ThyssenKrupp said the sale was part of its strategy of “active portfolio optimisation”. The purchase price was not disclosed.

In 2004, the window market in central and eastern Europe (CEE) showed the first signs of recovery in four years. Sales grew by 2.6% compared with 2003 to 8.4m units, driven by the underlying continuous improvement in incomes in the new EU member states. On a value basis, growth was stronger at 3.1%, says a new study by market research agency InterConnection Consulting Group,Germany. According to the study, PVC is the most popular window material and is expected to hold 50% of the CEE market by 2007. In Poland and the Czech Republic, PVC windows already account for over 50% of all windows sold.

A sheet extruder has found a route to lower material cost by compounding up to 70% crumb rubber from recycled tires into polyethylene or polypropylene. Carolina Materials LLC, USA, uses patented technology to encapsulate the crumb rubber on a counter-rotating twin-screw from Sino-Alloy Machinery Inc. in Taiwan before extruding it into sheet on a single-screw from Cincinnati Milacron. Carolina Materials makes some sheet from pellets and some is directly compounded in-line. Commercial applications include bases for satellite dishes with up to 70% rubber and flooring with up to 50% rubber. Carolina Materials is developing non-skid mats and will also market its 70% rubber-filled PE in pellet form (“grade 1370”). www.carolinamaterials.net

What is said to be the world’s largest counter-rotating, conical twin-screw extruder for wood-plastic composites was shipped last year by Cincinnati Milacron, USA, to Hughes Processing in La Mirada, USA. That model TC96 extruder, with screw diam. of 202 mm at the large end, tapering to 96 mm and 30:1 nominal L/D, is double-vented for high outputs with wood fiber. It runs wood-filled ABS, ASA, PP, HDPE, and PS at over 2000 lb/hr and wood-filled PVC at over 2600 lb/hr. Previously, the highest output of wood composite from a conical twin-screw was 1700 to 2000 lb/hr. With the new machine, Hughes increased its wood content from the prior 25% maximum to 30%. Milacron says the TC96 can process up to 70% wood.