British Plastics & Rubber articles from April 2001

British Plastics & Rubber archives from April 2001

Marking plastics with laser light.(tutorial by Dr. Volker Pfeufer)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2001... Laser marking of plastics started in the 1970s and has developed into a well-established technology. It has the advantages of being contact-free, clean and dry, flexible and economical in use. Laser marks are permanent, heat, chemical and...

Screen printing: old technology but right up to date.(technique explanation)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2001... Screen printing has been used on plastics mouldings from the very beginning. During that time new printing technologies such as flexo, offset, pad printing and digital printing have evolved. But as the European Screenprinting Manufacturers'...

How to add shielding with the environment in mind.(InterAct Inc. production methods and techniques)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... EMIIRFI shielding has increasingly to do more than just carry out the function it was designed for. It has to do it under conditions of growing environmental awareness. Christine Bolan describes the steps taken by her company, ACT, to be more...

IMD developments open international markets.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WHATEVER the outcome on its British suppliers of Ericsson's decision to move its mobile phone manufacturing to Flextronics in Singapore, working for the company will have left a technology legacy which can be put to good use at Lenstech Display...

Plastics paints.(Cromadex Plastic Paint products)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Two pack PU and non isocyanate systems are included in the Cromadex Paint for Plastics range of finishes for various industrial applications. A chemical bond is formed with the substrate to ensure resilience and a wide choice of colours and...

New inkjet range from the simple to the sophisticated.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... THERE are five models in the new Imaje S8 range of inkjet printers, from a simple entry level machine to special purpose models including the S8 Contrast for marking with high contrast and white inks on dark coloured products such as wire,...

PBE integrates CER since Dubuit takeover.(product integration information)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... DURING last year PBE Marking Systems, a long-standing name as a British manufacturer of hot foiling equipment, was bought by Dubuit of France, which sells hot foiling equipment under the CER brand. PBE is now selling the CER range,...

Release agents for when silicones just won't do.(production management techniques)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... SILICONE release agents have been widely used for many years to give a very low surface tension release agent film which also improves the gloss of the moulded article. However, there is inevitably some transfer of the silicone from the mould...

CIL uprates colour matching For PU in-mould coatings.(Polyurethane product development)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... In-mould coatings for polyurethane products have traditionally been solvent-based but environmental demands have led to the formulation of water-based systems. Compounding Ingredients has updated its Cilcoat range to incorporate...

Hot air staking cut costs and maintained consistency.(Nissan Motor Company Ltd)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... LE PROFIL rejected ultrasonic welding, as initially recommended by Nissan, for the assembly of windscreen demister vents after demonstrating that Phasa Developments' hot air staking technique met all manufacturing criteria and reduced costs....

A fuzzy finish can be pretty and practical.(Flocking finishing technique information)(Brief Article)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2001... FLOCKING is a finishing process not much mentioned in magazines, but in fact with a broad range of application from purely decorative to physical. It creates a seamless textile surface on a non-textile substrate, with finishes like velour,...

Pulse staking welds pairs of rocker panels for new Vauxhall Epsilon.(PEGUFORM UK's new production machinery)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... PEGUFORM UK has ordered a novel type of joining and assembly machine for automotive components from ATM Automation at a cost of [pound]70,000. It is due for delivery in May and uses pulse staking technology for the assembly of plastics rocker...

Vibration welding meets critical automotive lighting requirements.(at Automotive Lighting UK.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... A CLEAR PC lens is joined to a PC/ABS housing by a Forward Technology Industries LVW 2046 vibration welder at Automotive Lighting UK. The machine is used with three sets of twin impression nests for various automotive left and right turn...

French adhesives bond critical components.(Adekit epoxy from Axson)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2001... FRENCH adhesive manufacturer Axson has introduced Adekit epoxy, PU and methacrylate adhesives for the aerospace, automotive, nautical, electronics and other industries. Applications include bonding the leading edges of helicopter blades. ...

High speed adhesives for product assembly.(Tufloc product introduction)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2001... ULTRAFAST bonding grades for product assembly have been added to the Tufloc cyanoacrylate range of adhesives supplied by TLIP Adhesives. Tufloc products are used in the manufacture of electrical and electronic devices, domestic appliances and...

TLIP.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... TLIP has now been taken over by Chemence, which also makes cyanoacrylate adhesives for industrial, consumer and medical use. Its brands include RiteLok, KwikFix and Verbatim.

Rapra improves rubber deflashing service.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... RAPRA Technology has upgraded its cryogenic rubber component deflashing service. An Air Products Mini-Trim $4/400 unit is used to reduce the temperature of the rubber to below glass transition temperature before plastics shot is fired to remove...

Araldite bonds SMC for Audi number plate panel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ARALDITE AW 2101/HW 2951 two component epoxy adhesive has been selected by Mitras of Germany, which makes SMC automotive parts, for the production of 8,000 Class A module rear number plate panels a year for US and Japanese versions of the Audi...

Fasteners avoided by switching to hot air staking.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... USE OF expensive threaded fasteners has been avoided in assembling new plug-in RCD (Residual Current Device) modules developed by Harlow-based PBT by applying Phasa Developments hot air staking technology. The modules require permanent and...

German packaging regulation 'discriminates against imports'.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... GERMANY has fallen foul of the European Commission in its attempts to legislate on reusable bottles, and is being taken to the European Court of Justice. The problem stems from the requirement in the German re-use scheme for a...

Smart cards from recycled CDs.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ORGA claims to be the first company in the world to produce smart cards from recycled CDs. Scrap discs are cleaned and crushed to make a granulate which is treated with additives to adapt it for reuse. The patented cards are made at the...

Climate tax could lead to recycling decline -- BPF.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... THE government's Climate Change Levy which, from this month, imposes a tax on energy consumption, will cost British plastics recyclers [pound]1 million a year when they can least afford it, says the British Plastics Federation's Recycling...

Sony finds borrowing a baler is the Bestway to reclaim packaging.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... RECYCLING company Bestway Recycling of London is loaning balers to distribution companies to improve the recycling of polyethylene film. One recent example is Sony United Kingdom which has started baling the waste polyethylene film at its...

du Vergier devises lead-free acrylic reclaim process.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ACRYLIC is now being reclaimed by a lead free fluidised bed depolymerisation process at du Vergier. PMMA sourced mainly from primary manufacturers of acrylic sheet and secondary fabricators of sanitary ware, signs and other products can be...

Shredder is built in as first stage of the reclaim extruder for bulky scrap.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... RECLAIM extruders can be expected to recycle scrap from a wide range of sources, many of them, like head waste, purgings and film rolls, extremely bulky. This means that they need a size reduction process before introducing them to the...

Short screws keep Plasmac machines Compact.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... PLASMAC New Compact series recycling extruders incorporate the company's short dual diameter screw to convert film trim, reels or loose material into granulate. Latest screw designs yield 30 per cent greater output than previous types. Film...

100 per cent RPET water bottle leads 'Get Green' campaign.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... FULL SCALE production has started in the USA of a food-contact bottle made from 100 per cent reclaimed post consumer PET. This is said to be the first commercial bottle in the world to be made from 100 per cent RPET, and is made by Plastic...

Pallets from RPET outpace conventional production.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ONE use for standard reclaimed PET is in the moulding of transport pallets. Remaplan builds machines for this task and says that the principles it uses tip the scales in production economics which are otherwise weighted against plastic pallets....

Filtration specialist moves into full reclaim line construction.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Kreyenborg is expanding its interests n the recycling market to capitalise on its filtration and associated BKG pelletising systems. It has set up a project management team to extend its production of complete lines, such as a line for...

Reclaim to FDA standards raises the value of RPET.
April 1, 2001... PET is a fast-growing waste stream and so attractive for single material recycling but, while the virgin product is relatively expensive, the normal use for reclaimed PET is in low value products. It is mostly used in fibres (for stuffing...

Film lines take PET bottle flake without prior drying and crystallising.
April 1, 2001... EXTRUSION systems for reclaiming PET bottle scrap as mono- or co-extruded film have been produced by Bandera. The lines use co-rotating vented extruders and are said to eliminate the separate dehumidification of virgin and...

First break it up, then grind it up.
April 1, 2001... BOSTIK has improved its reclamation of hot melt adhesive blocks by installing a Weima two stage shredding and granulating line. Scrap blocks were previously put through a single granulator which worked slowly and caused production delays....

Specialist service recovers inserts for re-use.
April 1, 2001... Recovering scrap from an insert moulding operation can be complex. Steel shafts, bearings or other metal parts in the mouldings make conventional scrap recovery methods difficult or impossible. The temptation is simply to throw the scrap away....

Reclaim scrapped product and its packaging.
April 1, 2001... MIS-PACKAGED, mis-labelled, expired or sub-standard products can be reclaimed using the Scott Turbo Separator now available from BMH Chronos Richardson. Whether the product is a liquid or a solid, packaged in either cartons, bottles, cans,...

Granulators return [pound]11,000 of scrap to production.
April 1, 2001... AUTOMOTIVE component manufacturer R-Tek derives up to 10 per cent of the material used by two of its injection moulding machines from regrind and recycles sprues to the value of [pound]11,000 per annum with two Blackfriars by the press...

Addition planned to Scutter slow rotating granulator series.
April 1, 2001... A new low-profile unit is to be added to the Scutter granulator range from Tria UK in the next few weeks. The Scutter is a screenless slow-running granulator for by-the-press use. Unlike conventional machines that have fixed and rotating...

Shredder agreement gives Cumberland a cutting edge.
April 1, 2001... CUMBERLAND is adding a range of shredders to its granulators with an agreement to distribute machines made by Vecoplan of Germany. Vecoplan's RG range of single shaft shredders with capacities from 400 kg up to several tonnes per hour, will...

Waste costs up to 15 times more than the cost of dealing with it.
April 1, 2001... Waste is a significant hidden cost for many plastics processing companies and is typically 10-15 times more than the cost, of disposal. A new Good Practice Guide from Envirowise, Finding and Reducing Waste in Plastics Processing, describes the...

Trim removal system separates dust as well.
April 1, 2001... WHEN Fuji Copian, producer and converter of thermal transfer ribbon (TTR), opened a converting plant in Gillingham, Kent, and installed a TTR slitting machine, it required a trim removal system and dust filter to enable it to run at its...

Things to watch for when feeding back extrusion scrap.
April 1, 2001... ADDING back regrind on an extrusion line can be more problematical than seems at first sight. Apart from the need to adjust extrusion conditions according to the level of regrind, there can be problems in handling the re-ground materials. ...

Arburg machine for multi-component training.
April 1, 2001... POLYMER Training -- the new persona of the British Polymer Training Association's training arm -- has bought an Arburg Allrounder 420C 1000-350/150 multi-component injection moulding machine for two-shot moulding at its Telford training centre....

Battenfeld adds an option for even better platen parallelism.
April 1, 2001... OPTIONAL guide bushes for improved platen parallelism are now available for the mould closing system of Battenfeld's HM series of hydraulic injection moulding machines from 270 to 4,000 tonnes clamp. These guide bushes provide additional...

BASF caters for high growth in powder injection moulding.
April 1, 2001... BASF is increasing its capacity for ceramic and metal powders for injection moulding with the installation of what it says is the world's first continuous manufacturing plant. The new plant, due on line in 2002, will expand the capacity for...

British moulder adds lower labour cost facilities.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MEDIA Moulding Technology, the Welsh-based custom injection moulder in the MMT Group subsidiary of Magnetic and Memory Technology, is joining forces with a Latvian company. It is setting up a joint venture near Riga with the European Plastic...

Italtech puts MuCell on big machines.
April 1, 2001... Italian manufacturer Italtech, which builds high tonnage injection machines for the automotive industry, has taken a licence to use MuCell microcellular moulding technology. The company has already accepted orders for two 3,000 tonne...

while Ticona plans to install MuCell test bed.
April 1, 2001... Ticona has bought a licence for the MuCell microcellular moulding process and is to install a facility for trials in a laboratory being built at Kelsterbach in Germany. Its aim is to provide back up for companies considering MuCell and needing...

and JSW goes all-electric.(Japan Steel Works )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The first all-electric injection moulding machine to be fitted with MuCell microcellular moulding equipment has been built by Japan Steel Works for a Japanese company. The model is also available in the USA and Europe.

SIG reaches 96 cavities with its Premax.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... OUTPUT capacity of its new Premax 96 PET preform injection moulding machine is claimed by SIG Corpoplast (formerly Krupp Corpoplast) to be 15 per cent higher than previous models. The machine's plasticising unit has a specially developed screw...

Preferential heating gets oval bottles out of cylindrical preforms.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The production of highly oval PET bottles from a standard round preform causes obvious problems of uneven wall thickness distribution. Making specially profiled preforms for each bottle design is an expensive solution. For its Ecomax...

Tetra Laval plans to buy Sidel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... THE Tetra Laval Group, which incorporates Tetra Pak and DeLaval, is bidding for French PET bottle machine maker Sidel. This is the first step in structuring the group into three elements -- equipment, packaging and closures. Tetra Laval's...

Blow moulder designed for product development.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MCP EQUIPMENT, which makes vacuum casting machines for prototyping, is now building blow moulding machines for prototypes and short series production. The MCP 50/E blow moulder is intended to be installed in the design department, alongside...

Milk could be the new pop in PET.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... MILK and dairy products are identified as a significant potential market for PET in a new report from PET Packaging, Resin & Recycling. The research company estimates that the market segment potential is 500,000 tonnes in North America and...

Graham buys in five gallon water bottle technology.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... GRAHAM Corporation has bought US-based reciprocating screw blow moulding machine manufacturer Improved Blow Molding Systems. With it comes the WTR Systems International brand which is turnkey technology for producing five gallon polycarbonate...

UV-protective PET is hot-fillable as well.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... EASTMAN has introduced a hot fillable PET -- Heatwave CF746 -- with UV protection for beverage packaging applications such as for fruit juices. Heatwave is a clear material with UV absorbers to protect such products. It also gives good...

Study selects the best plastics for fuel systems.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... IN A paper presented at the SAE 2001 World Congress (Detroit, March 8, 2001), researchers from Ticona and PerkinElmer Fluids Science concluded that testing for plastics in automotive fuel systems should extend to as much as 5,000 hours instead...

Improved impact properties from new mica flake.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... A NEW source of mica reinforcing filler has started up in Canada, and is looking for European distribution. Quinto Technology is mining naturally-occurring 4 micron mica. Most mica is produced in large flake form in North Carolina as a...

Hexcel introduces composites systems for automotive use.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... A NUMBER of new composites materials intended for automotive use are being introduced by Hexcel Composites. HexWeb EM is a thermoplastic honeycomb, designed to meet FMVSS 201U head impact requirements where low crush strengths are needed...

PEEK outperforms aluminium.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Victrex PEEK polyaryletherketone has replaced and surpassed aluminium for the finger and thumb grips of a self-aspirating dental cartridge syringe. The aluminium components were being degraded by caustic dental cleaning agents, and allowed...

High purity fluoropolymer gets better.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... DUPONT Fluoroproducts has developed an easier-flowing Teflon fluoropolymer with better flex life and stress cracking resistance. Teflon PFA HP Plus is an enhanced version of DuPont's current Teflon PFA HP grade for high purity fluid...

TPE for overmoulding automotive glass.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ATOFINA has developed a thermoplastic elastomer specifically for overmoulding seals on automotive window glass. One of the first applications has been to seal the rear quarter lights of the new Citroen C5 car. The new Sunfrost material...

Ticona Road Shows on again.
April 1, 2001... Ticona is taking to the highways again for the eleventh year of its Engineering Thermoplastic Road Show. Once again, there is a completely new programme designed to provide something of interest for everyone. The agenda includes material...

GE devises blending process to add PP to Noryl.
April 1, 2001... GE PLASTICS has developed a new grade of its Noryl polyphenyl ether family incorporating polypropylene, and achieving a combination of stiffness, heat resistance and high flow for thinwall mouldings. PPO and PP are basically incompatible but GE...

Injection moulding.
April 1, 2001... MORE THAN 90 per cent of the energy costs in injection moulding are accounted for by electricity. This makes electricity purchasing very important for moulders and costs can be significantly reduced by good purchasing and operational controls....

Stopping scale in water tower cooling systems.
April 1, 2001... ELECTRICAL treatment of cooling water to inhibit the growth of scale and thereby prevent the deterioration of cooling systems can be counterbalanced on circulating water systems by evaporation in the cooling tower. Flocare, which makes the...

Air moving equipment is designed for economy.
April 1, 2001... AIR CONTROL Industries has launched a range of energy-efficient fans, blowers and air knife equipment. The company says that benefits are available from the use of its Efficiency 1 motors or from the installation of appropriate...

Barrel jackets cut power consumption 20 - 25 per cent.
April 1, 2001... HOT RUNNER system manufacturer Plasfeed has added to its range of injection moulding supplies a range of thermal insulation jackets for barrel heaters which it says can reduce power consumption by 20 - 25 per cent. Pay back time is estimated at...

e-rating the UK.
April 1, 2001... E-BUSINESS surveys are thick on the ground but they are of limited value to the UK seeker after truth. Most confine themselves to US practice and very few touch upon plastics interests. Many are generated by companies with a vested interest in...

Department of New Ideas.
April 1, 2001... PEOPLE are still thinking up clever new ways to use the web, both commercial and technical. Eastman Chemical Company has come up with something new for accredited institutional investors. In addition to its conventional channels, the...

The next big thing.
April 1, 2001... THERE is always a next-big-thing on the boil in internet circles and at the moment it is XML or extensible markup language. To explain we must first go through some techie stuff. Most web pages are written in HTML; that's hypertext markup...

Campus 4.5 previewed.
April 1, 2001... M-BASE Engineering + Software has given a foretaste of what we can expect in version 4.5 of Campus, the world standard database for plastics producers' grade data. For the first time, the database will include information on chemical...

Free software from Delcam includes multi-format CAD viewer.
April 1, 2001... DELCAM has released a new version of its free corporate CD. The contents include new video demonstrations of all Delcam's Power Solution programs -- PowerSHAPE hybrid modelling, PowerMILL multi-axis machining, CopyCAD reverse engineering,...

Moldflow acquires Bran den and moves on.
April 1, 2001... MOLDFLOW Corporation has completed its acquisition of Branden Technologies, the developer of the Shotscope and EZ-Track systems for real time process and production monitoring in the plastics and die casting industries. Moldflow sees the...

New partners for Paulson broaden the scope of computer-based training.
April 1, 2001... COMPUTER-based training specialist Paulson Training Programs continues to extend its range by forging new alliances. A cooperation with Compuplast International, the developer of Flow 2000 extrusion simulation software, will result in an...

Omnexus in Europe.
April 1, 2001... When it was launched at NPE 2000 (Chicago, June 2000), Omnexus promised a European roll out on New Year's day. By the time the site went live in North America during October 2000, the plan had been revised to a first-quarter launch in Europe....

The Plastics Web Network.
April 1, 2001... The Plastics Web Network is a web site design and services company run by plastics-savvy people for small and medium sized plastics companies. As well as design, the company provides hosting, maintenance, promotion, database collation and most...

MachinePoint reaches out to India.(online plastics reseller)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... MachinePoint aims to be the leading web presence in used plastics machinery and is currently selling some 380 machines per month from what is claimed to be the world's largest database of pre-owned plastics machinery. The philosophy is to unify...

Phillips Foils.(redesigned web site)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Phillips Foils has completely redesigned its web site to provide more product information and customer interaction. The complete range of United Silicone hot stamping equipment is detailed, together with a range of barcode printers. Foil...

WLT.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Static control specialist WLT includes an imaginative static problem solver on its site. Simply by clicking on multi-choice questions you can identify the best device for your application, whether that is removing static, inducing it or...

Cabot Corporation.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Cabot has set up a comprehensive web guide to its masterbatches, conductive compounds and carbon blacks for the plastics industry. The site includes selection and application guides, together with brochures for some 150 products. Backup...

GE Silicones.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... GE Silicones has set up a new web site for custom compounded elastomers. The site is said to be the first in the silicones industry to offer comprehensive online services for materials specification, product design and order placement for...

Driers are cheap 'and will stay cheap'.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... TEW hot air driers from Taiwan are now available from STV of Milton Keynes, with the emphasis firmly on low price. The company reckons to be in a position to cut its sales costs compared with other drier distributors, and so keep the price...

Ciba extends additive range with distribution agreements.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Ciba Specialty Chemicals is extending its portfolio of polymer additives sourced worldwide. From Japan it is to bring inorganic (silver) antimicrobials made by Kanebo Chemical Industries. Ciba will distribute them outside Asia as Ciba...

Brian Ward adds presses and microwave curing agencies.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Two more rubber equipment suppliers have joined the portfolio of Brian Ward (Manchester). Terenzio of Italy makes compression and injection presses for rubber, composites and thermosets. Rubber compression presses are available in frame or...

High efficiency pelletiser.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Erema has developed an improved hot die face pelletiser with a knife service life up to ten times greater than the old model. This is due to a new cutting geometry and the ability to adjust knife pressure during pelletising. A more...