European Rubber Journal articles from April 1999

European Rubber Journal archives from April 1999

Death throes of INRO leave it impotent.
April 1, 1999... INRO has run out of money to buy rubber and plans to discuss its options for closing down at its next council meeting; April 20-23 in Kuala Lumpur. Thailand, however, has not yet given formal notice of its intention to leave the...

No strike at Continental.
April 1, 1999... [] Newbridge Scotland--Workers at Continental's tyre plant in Scotland voted against strike action. In the last issue of ERJ we said they had voted in favour, but this was based on incorrect information. We are happy to point out that...

ERJ newsbriefs.
April 1, 1999... Yokohama restructures [] Japan--The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd has announced a two-year restructuring and re-engineering process in an effort to reach its projected profit of [yen] 24 000 million ($210 million). Talks are taking place...

New infant car seat uses NR shock mounts.
April 1, 1999... The prototype seat, designed to protect infants up to 9 kg and 68.5 cm long sports a plastic frame protected by natural rubber shock mounts, XSCi mechanical engineer David Clement said. Xportation Safety Concepts Inc., a developer of car...

New speakers for IREC.
April 1, 1999... The organisers of the International Rubber Exhibition and Conference (IREC), planned for 7-10 June in Manchester, UK have announced some changes to the advertised programme. Four new papers have been arranged, while four speakers are no...

Forsheda to mix perfluoropolymers.
April 1, 1999... As part of its efforts to supply the process engineering sector with seals, Forsheda plc is expanding the moulding operations for its range of perfluoroelastomer seals under the Isolast trade name. The company declined to give any figure for...

Rapra produces new synthetic elastomers handbook.
April 1, 1999... A new single-volume source of data on elastomers is available to answer those questions that arise day-to-day in the rubber world. `Who makes Breon?', or `What type of elastomer is Dutral?', `Where can I get an alternative...

German institute involved in EU rubber projects.
April 1, 1999... The Institute fur Kunststofftechnologie at the University of Paderborn is involved in Brite-Euram funded rubber mixing and extrusion research projects, with participation from a range of rubber part makers and suppliers across Europe. The...

EP rubber global supply to climb by 20%.
April 1, 1999... EPDM shortages should ease further in the next few months, as new sources of supply come up to full production, and the industry's largest producer starts expansion projects in the US and Europe. Users of ethylene-propylene rubber, caught...

Nitrile rubber supplier targets Europe.
April 1, 1999... ParaTec, a new joint venture between Uniroyal Chemical and Girsa SA is building a single, world scale nitrile rubber plant in Altamira, Mexico, and wants to sell the material into Europe ParaTec LLC is a new company aiming to win a slice of...

ERJ people.
April 1, 1999... [] LARS THUNELL is to be recommended for appointment to the supervisory board of Akzo Nobel NV, based in The Netherlands, at the annual meeting on 22 Apr 1999, the appointment to be effective from 1 May 1999. He is currently president and chief...

world news.
April 1, 1999... These reports have been taken from the various publications and newswires from around the world. Readers are warned that ERJ has not/checked these stories, which might contain misleading or biased India [] The Indian government has...

Wellington's results down, prospects good.
April 1, 1999... Difficult trading conditions in the UK and in its major markets affected the 1998 results of UK seal-maker and compounding group Wellington Holdings plc. Sales were down to 47.8 million [pounds sterling] ($77 million) from 52.4 million [pounds...

IRRDB reviews GMOs.
April 1, 1999... The IRRDB (International Rubber Research & Development Board) has become interested in genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In its latest newsletter the board says the issue is relevant to rubber cultivators as a means of achieving higher...

Goodyear to hike truck tyre output.
April 1, 1999... Goodyear will invest $28 million to expand light truck tyre production at its Union City radial tyre plant, the company said on 26 Feb 1999. Increasing radial capacity at the facility is part of Goodyear's $40 million capital investment...

Nissan to overhaul purchasing strategy.
April 1, 1999... Nissan North America Inc. is overhauling its purchasing strategy to make its supply chain more efficient. Nissan's chief objectives are to involve North American suppliers in more corners of Nissan's business, and to empower Nissan parts...

Dunlop UK invests in racing tyres.
April 1, 1999... Dunlop Tyres Ltd has invested 1 million [pounds sterling] in a new facility to house its racing tyres unit in Birmingham, UK. The company said the new facility will house the company's motorsport design and development team, together with...

Michelin reports lower profits on higher sales.
April 1, 1999... Groupe Michelin reported a 10 percent fall in net profits for the year to December 31, 1998, despite a 3.8 percent increase in sales. The company reported profits of FF 3510 million ($580 million) on sales of FF 81900 million. A year earlier,...

BLIC and the challenges of the 21st century.
April 1, 1999... The February issue of ERJ drew attention to a vital issue for the health of the rubber manufacturing industry in Europe: how it can be most effectively represented at the European level. There is a vibrant debate about this going on at the...

Continuous rubber mixing-`the jury's out'.
April 1, 1999... Is continuous mixing of rubber a pipe dream--or the next necessary step in modernising an industry which currently uses old-fashioned technology? ERJ has heard a range of views, from the sceptical to the highly enthusiastic. But there is a...

It works small scale.
April 1, 1999... Union Carbides Tom Italiaander compared continuous mixing with current batch mixing systems in a paper presented at the Anaheim ACS meeting in May last year. Problems with batch mixing include the need for two-stage working or even...

June start-up for Cabot's powdered NR unit.
April 1, 1999... Cabot is implementing a design change at the Cabot Elastomeric Composites semi-works unit at Port Dickson in Malaysia. This modification will improve the process by improving Cabot's ability to minimise compositional variation, both within a...

Clever, computer-designed mixers may be coming.
April 1, 1999... Mixer design may be on the move if the academic research currently being carried out in France and the UK proves fruitful. In internal mixer design, "my view is that the market is nearly static in terms of developments," said Professor lean...

Integration, automation, low costs -- key factors in mixing rooms.
April 1, 1999... Mixing rooms are under pressure to be faster, cleaner and to use less labour. Integration of factory floor machine controls with the plant supervisory systems is becoming essential. As pressure grows, one-stage mixing of compounds which are...

Cleanliness has high priority in silicone rubber mixing.
April 1, 1999... Good housekeeping is essential in silicone rubber mixing. Clwyd Compounders in Wales has just installed a new clean room for mixing high quality silicone, in addition to a standard range of elastomers. An easy-to-clean two-roll mill from IR...

Tyres as designer products.
April 1, 1999... Europe's fourth largest tyre maker, Vredestein Banden wants to continue making about 4 million tyres per year, but aims to increase the margin on each of those units. Vredestein's latest trick is to put the name of top designer Giorgetto...

Two years of remarkable change.
April 1, 1999... Two years after Cooper Tire bought Avon Tyres from the Avon Rubber Co, the company is looking forward to more investment and greater freedom under the Cooper umbrella than it ever had with Avon. Cooper-Avon Tyres Ltd has seen remarkable...

Mega factory rides the crisis.
April 1, 1999... PT Mega Safe Tyre Industry has delayed plans to double capacity for radial car tyres at its 1350-unit-per-day plant in Perak, Indonesia. The company originally brought the plant on stream in 1997, just as the economic crisis broke in the...

Retreaders rank tyres.
April 1, 1999... In a pan-European survey sponsored by Bipaver, Michelin came out as the most retreadable tyre brand across Europe. Bridgestone, Continental and Goodyear also achieved good scores. Michelin is the most popular tyre among European retreaders....

Retreaders won't use silica.
April 1, 1999... A panel of retreaders were unanimous in agreeing that silica was unlikely to be used in retread compounds in the near future. At a seminar organised by Bipaver, the European retreading organisation, a series of speakers said the retread...

Technology and service.
April 1, 1999... I have been looking at how companies can continue to be successful in today's competitive environment. Over the last decade or so we have seen each of a number of areas of business activity receiving attention. The first was manufacturing....