British Plastics & Rubber articles from April 2008

British Plastics & Rubber archives from April 2008

Conferences & exhibitions.(Calendar)
April 1, 2008... Applications--automotive May 14-18 Plastics-In-Motion. Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. Executive Conference Management, +1 734 73737 0507 (fax +1 734 737 0508). [email] ecm@executiveconference.com [website]...

Plastics shows collide.
April 1, 2008... THE Plastics Design and Moulding exhibition, held recently in Telford, has been scheduled next for May 2009. The organiser, Crain Communications, says that the break from the normal 18 months cycle has been in response to requests from the...

Successful design with plastics: Dr Chris O'Conner, technology manager at polymer consultancy Smithers Rapra, explains the common causes of product failure and how to avoid them.(design)
April 1, 2008... PLASTICS are tremendously versatile, offering many new design opportunities through their ease of processing, fabrication and decorating. But these opportunities bring with them commercial pressures to reduce the costs of tool sampling, product...

Environmental stress cracking.(design)
April 1, 2008... ENVIRONMENTALLY assisted cracking (EAC) or environmental stress cracking (ESC) can be defined as the premature initiation of cracking and embrittlement of a plastic due to the simultaneous action of stress and strain and contact with specific...

On the road to electric moulding.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INJECTION moulding will go on the road in Europe this year as Engel and Arburg both take electric machines on tour. Engel's tour started in the middle of April and goes on to the beginning of July, during which...

Arburg expands Golden Edition with rotary table machines.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... ROTARY table machines have been added to Arburg's AllRounder Golden Edition range introduced two years ago to mark the company's fiftieth anniversary and still being expanded as an economy-level machine series to provide an "optimum...

More twin shot all-electrics.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... THE twin injection all-electric machine series from Sumitomo Heavy Industries has been doubled with the addition of two machines at 230 and 280 tonnes to the existing 70 and 130 tonne models. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Platen rotation...

Ferromatik Milacron adds budget Elektra range.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... NEW basic model has been added to the Elektra all-electric machine series from Ferromatik Milacron. The Elektra selection is available in the three standard clamping force sizes 50, 75 and 110 tonnes, each with the option of three injection...

Take advantage of the opportunities in silicones.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE surging popularity of products made from liquid silicone rubber (LSR), high temperature vulcanising (HTV) silicone rubber and other elastomers means different things to different moulders. If you're a plastics...

'Watermark' adds security to plastics mouldings.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A METHOD of adding a security "watermark" to plastics mouldings has been developed at the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group. Commercial confidentiality precludes a detailed description of the process but it is understood...

MuCell screw developed for LFRT.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A SCREW design to enable the MuCell microcelluar foam process to be used with long fibre-reinforced thermoplastics has been developed by MuCell company Trexel, and Ticona which makes Celstran long fibre composites. The addition of MuCell...

On-machine process makes variable blends of TPO.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A PROCESS to produce talc-filled TPOs for exterior components such as bumper fascias directly on the moulding machine has been developed by Dow Automotive. Essentially it is a highly concentrated talc masterbatch in an elastomer, added to...

Lasercusing comes to Britain.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... EQUIPMENT for "lasercusing" from Concept Laser in Germany is now available from ES Technology in Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire. Lasercusing is a contraction of laser concept and fusing, and involves fusing metal powders with a scanning laser...

"Spray-on" heaters may have moulding potential.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A NEW technique for producing heating surfaces may offer potential in injection mould tooling. Liverpool-based 2D Heat has developed a technology for thin electric heating elements. A "spray on" process applies a conductive coating -...

Prototyping machine takes over production.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A 12 tonne all-electric machine has replaced a 25 tonne hydraulic machine moulding toner cartridge caps at Ricoh UK Products. When moulded on the bigger machine the push caps were produced in a four-cavity mould. However, the part was...

All-electric machines set the pace at Swiss watch maker.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... HYDRAULIC machines are becoming a thing of the past at Swiss watch-maker Ronda, which makes big demands on small mouldings. The company is the "made in Switzerland" behind some 30 million fashion analogue watches from around the world, with...

Babyplast gets uprated hydraulics.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... THE table-top Babyplast injection machine is now equipped with proportional valve hydraulics as the model 6/10P for volume production of parts in the 0.01--15 g shot weight range. The 6 tonne fully-hydraulic Babyplast 6/10 is built to a...

EC to investigate state aid to Sandretto.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... TROUBLED Italian moulding machine manufacturer Sandretto has hit more trouble, this time from the European Commission. After a spell under the ownership of the Cannon Group, which bought it out of bankruptcy, Sandretto was sold to its US...

Monosandwich Maximas make garden planters.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... THE monosandwich process to mould two-component products through a single injection nozzle has been incorporated on four 1,300 tonne machines shipped by Ferromatik Milacron to German garden products and Playmobil toy manufacturer Geobra...

1 m [pounds sterling] investment by Hozelock.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... GARDEN equipment manufacturer Hozelock is investing 1 million [pounds sterling] at its Birmingham plant with the installation of three Demag Systec injection moulding machines (80, 125 and 210 tonnes) and two Arburg 35 tonne machines. These...

Medical moulding at Husky.(injection moulding)(Conference notes)
April 1, 2008... HUSKY is re-running the medical and health care day that it ran for the first time last year at its Luxembourg headquarters on May 29. Alongside the machine demonstrations will be a conference on trends in medical moulding, with speakers...

Engel delivers 5,500 tonne moulding machine.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... A 5,500 tonne injection moulding machine has been built by Engel to make underground storage tanks and logistics containers for Otto Graf at Teningen in Germany. The machine is based on Engel's two-platen duo model and is fitted with three...

Space-saving hot runner control and reintroduction of undercut system from D-M-E.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... NEW hot runner temperature controls and and an old undercut release system have been introduced by D-M-E. The new controller is the space-saving integrity unit, and the undercut release system is a reintroduction to the range of the UniLifter....

The wireless way to monitor hot runner operation.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... HOT RUNNER monitoring can be stripped of its cabling with a wireless option from Gammaflux Europe. The company's Wireless LAN cuts the cost of remote monitoring of the temperature controllers and the operating condition of the hot runner system...

Easy water connections with nylon insert.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... DMS-Diemould has introduced water Flow Links to allow water to he easily connected through cavities without need for complicated lines. The links ore simply incorporated by machining a small pocket between cavities. The Flow Links ore placed in...

LinPac to close two sites and expand Winsford.(injection moulding)
April 1, 2008... LINPAC Allibert is consolidating its returnable packaging operations in Britain at its Winsford site in Cheshire. The Walsall and Bromsgrove sites are to close with some of the employees moving to fill the I00 new jobs being created at...

Combining skills in automation.(automation & robotics)
April 1, 2008... THREE robot suppliers have formed partnerships that extend their scope. Fanuc Robotics and Star Automation have both teamed up with Hi-Tech Automation, and Toshiba agent TM Robotics (Europe) has established a machine vision partnership with PCS...

Lighter weight robots are faster.(automation & robotics)
April 1, 2008... TWO three-axis servo-driven CNC robots have been introduced by Apex Robot Systems for injection moulding machines under 150 tonnes where high take out speeds and precision are needed. The increased speed and accuracy of the SC750 and SC950...

Water filter production improved by new assembly machine.(automation & robotics)
April 1, 2008... THE potential for separation and misalignment of components during manufacture of Kenwood water filters has been overcome by an automatic rotary indexing machine from Aylesbury Automation. It has also increased productivity and product quality....

Spiral conveyors build delays into process sequences.(automation & robotics)
April 1, 2008... A range of spiral elevator systems from Riley Automation combines a minimum footprint with maximum conveying length for products to be either elevated or lowered from between 0.5 and 5.0 m to give time delays between adjoining processes within...

Software creates robotic router programmes from CAM toolpaths.(finishing)
April 1, 2008... NEW CamPro software from KMT Robotic Solutions automatically creates programs for its routing robots by translating tool paths generated in CAM systems. The CamPro CADCAM system is intended for use with KMT's range of turnkey RoboTrim 6-axis...

New PMMA grades have higher chemical resistance.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... A NEW range of acrylics from Altuglas International has enhanced chemical resistance. There are three grades in the new Altuglas series. AItuglas CR 8 and CR 12 offer good resistance to chemicals and good impact resistance--CR 12 has the...

Carbon nanotube deal between Bayer and Clariant.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... "INDUSTRIAL quantities" of Baytube carbon nanotubes are to be supplied by Bayer MaterialScience to enable Clariant Masterbatches to develop compounds and masterbatches. The carbon nanotubes will initially be used in the new CESA conductive...

Low-warp LCP for thinner parts.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... A NEW grade of liquid crystal polymer from DuPont meets the demand for ultra-low warpage in the thinner part designs used in ever-smaller electronic devices. The company found that standard grades that perform perfectly well in thicker parts...

Polyester composite BMC receives highest UL temperature rating.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... THERMOSET moulding compound producer IDI Composites International has received a UL temperature rating of 170 degC, the highest UL temperature rating in the thermoset polyester composites industry, for its 46-16-26-S grade bulk moulding...

TPE has improved heat resistance for air induction systems.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... ELASTOMER producer Zeon Chemicals has developed a grade with improved heat resistance for use in air induction systems. Zeotherm 131-90B thermoplastic elastomer is targeted at clean air intake ducts, charge air cooler (CAC) ducts, and crankcase...

Substantial increase in acetal properties.(engineering materials)
April 1, 2008... MODIFICATION to the chemical backbone of its Hostaform POM has enabled Ticona to produce an acetal with 50 per cent more impact resistance and 100 per cent more weld line strength. And the company says this is without sacrificing other key...

Relaxation of German packaging directive 'good for bioplastics bottles'.(biopolymers)
April 1, 2008... A CHANGE to the German Packaging Directive exempting biopolymer bottles from the compulsory deposit for single use drinks bottles has been welcomed by the trade association European Bioplastics. From January 1, 2009 bottles "produced from at...

Thermoplastic starch blend materials with low carbon footprint.(biopolymers)
April 1, 2008... CANADIAN biopolymers developer Cerestech has introduced a number of thermoplastic starch (TPS) blends which it says have a substantially reduced carbon footprint compared to plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene, biodegradable polyester...

Chinese biopolymer investment by DSM.(biopolymers)
April 1, 2008... FOLLOWING its recent links with companies in France and the USA to pursue biological sources for polymers and other materials, DSM has tied up with a Chinese company. Its DSM Venturing arm has taken a stake in a $20 million financing round for...

Recycling begins at home.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... CHINA'S recent ban on importing mixed plastics comes as no great surprise, in the year of the Beijing Olympics, China does not wish to be perceived as the world's dustbin. But this isn't the whole story. China remains desperate for...

Yorkshire folk know the value of recycling.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... ONE of the more pro-active regions in Britain in terms of recycling is the Yorkshire and Humber district where Recycling Action Yorkshire, a not-for-profit regional programme funded by Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development...

Central granulators for 1 tonne/hour plus.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... SHINI UK has introduced two large central granulators designated SG-S060 and SG-S090. The SG-S060 model has a cutter chamber measuring 600 x S00 mm with a 37 kW drive motor which can handle throughputs of up to 1,000 kg/hour. The larger SG-5090...

Grinder achieves 98 per cent fine powder.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... GRINDING PVC and polyethylene waste into powder has been improved on the latest Herbold Meckesheim PU 650 pulveriser with a redesign of the grinding chamber. The rotor shaft is now installed vertically, which the company says has reduced the...

Free-fall speeds optical sorting.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... UNRELIABLE material separation can be eliminated with its new Spektrum G optical sorter says S+S Inspection. The conventional feed chute or conveyor has been replaced by a free fall system to increase net yield. The company says that...

Post treatment optical sorting can improve rPET.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... OPTICAL sorting of washed recycled PET before it is reprocessed cleans up the material stream, but is that enough? According to Andreas Christel, PET recycling product manager at Buhler's Thermal Processing Division, PET should be optically...

Beside-the-press granulators are wear resistant as standard.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... NEW Mini and Maxi compact granulators from Tria are designed for closed loop recycling of sprues. In standard form the grinding chamber, blades and screen are made in anti-wear materials making these granulators suitable for use with abrasive...

Flame retardant PS has high recycled content.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... AXION Polymers, a division of plastics recycler Axion Recycling, claims a technical breakthrough in the production of new flame retardant impact polystyrenes with a high recycled content. With up to 70 per cent recycled content, the company...

Luxus closes the strapping loop for Plastic Extruders.(reclamation & recycling)
April 1, 2008... CLOSED loop recycling A process for reclaiming PP strapping scrap has been set up by Luxus for Plastic Extruders in Wickford, Essex. Plastic Extruders makes strapping from a polypropylene homopolymer that includes a process stabilisation...

East European expansion by Amcor.(film & sheet conversion)
April 1, 2008... AMCOR is to invest 25 million [euro] in Poland with a new flexible packaging factory to replace the one it has in Lodz. The new plant, referred to as AF Polska Greenfield, will be built in the Lodz Special Economic Zone and will take in the...

In-mould cut thermoformer can be reel-fed or run in-line.(film & sheet conversion)
April 1, 2008... THE new TFT FT900 in-mould cut thermoforming machine has a tilting lower platen which rotates through 75 degrees and can accommodate tools up to 880 x 520 mm in size. It is available as a reel-fed off-line unit or can be combined with a sheet...

D-S packages film conversion.(film & sheet conversion)
April 1, 2008... COMPONENTS from Davis-Standard and its Egan, Er-We-Pa and Black Clawson Converting Machinery divisions have been brought together in complete plant packages for extrusion coating under the name Synergy. The aim is to provides processors...

Bobst to focus flexo technology on former F&K site.(film & sheet conversion)
April 1, 2008... THE Bobst Group of Switzerland is to open a centre of competence for flexographic printing for flexible materials in Bielefeld, Germany following its acquisition of German flexo press manufacturer Fischer & Krecke. Bobst's Schiavi flexo press...

ICS/Tricool move to bigger premises.(temperature control)
April 1, 2008... ICS Cool Energy and Tricool, the company it bought out of receivership a year ago, have moved to new purpose-built offices and warehouse in Totton, near Southampton. The new premises are 50,000 sq ft with room for further expansion. The...

Low price mould heater added by Shini.(temperature control)
April 1, 2008... THE STM-907 is a mould heater suitable for use with water or oil introduced this month by Shini UK. it is described as "low price high specification" and has switchable 6 or 9 kW heating which makes it suitable for oil up to 160 degC or water...

Many layers make film go further.(film & sheet production)
April 1, 2008... MICRO-layer film that stretches up to 45 per cent more than conventional three-layer products has been produced by Extrusion Dies Industries by applying its layer multiplier technology. One claimed result is that users of stretch wrap will need...

British film plant to be sold in Amcor Flexibles rationalisation.(film & sheet production)
April 1, 2008... THE Amcor Flexibles plant at Highbridge in Somerset is to be sold to Swedish private equity group Accent Equity 2008 along with a plant in Lund in Sweden. The plants are primarily involved in making unprinted films for meat and fish packing and...

Plastics capital adds film extruder.(film & sheet production)
April 1, 2008... DUNSTABLE-based polyethylene film packaging producer Palagan has been bought by Plastics Capital, which bought plastic bearing manufacturer Sarnatech BNL in 2005.

Melt flow combining adapter improves layer uniformity.(film & sheet production)
April 1, 2008... A NEW Davis-Standard combining adapter is claimed to simplify interchanging melt flow paths from multiple extruders for better layer uniformity, accuracy and quicker changing when processing multi-layer coatings and films. Also known as an...

PET wine bottles compare unfavourably against glass ...(blow moulding)
April 1, 2008... A COMPARISON between glass and PET wine bottles by WRAP, the government-funded Waste & Resources Action Programme, has concluded that while PET wine bottles have a lower carbon footprint than conventional glass wine bottles, there is little to...

... Even though they may look the same.(blow moulding)
April 1, 2008... A WINE bottle produced by PET Engineering in Italy was designed to mimic a typical bordolese glass wine bottle and to be filled on a standard glass bottling line. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 0.75 litre bottle has a cylindrical shape...

PET bottle monitor shows complete wall profile for every bottle.(blow moulding)
April 1, 2008... WALL thickness monitor which can produce a profile of the entire sidewall of every bottle going through a stretch blow moulder has been introduced by AGR International with the first commercial unit about to be delivered to "a major bottled...

BASF explores blow moulding potential of styrenics.(blow moulding)
April 1, 2008... A 25 per cent saving in material cost for milk and yoghourt beverage bottles is claimed by BASF by making them in polystyrene instead of PET. The development, in association with bottle producer Alpla, enables a specially optimised...

Bottle and cap moulder starts investment programme.(blow moulding)
April 1, 2008... SOUTH Wales bottle and closure manufacturer Gwalia Packaging is to invest more than 1-5 million [pounds sterling] at its Pontypridd site. Gwalia--the poetic Welsh name for Wales--was formed last summer by the combination of bottle blower...

Wheel dryer prices are being reduced.(materials handling)
April 1, 2008... THE PRICE of Shini UK's rotating honeycomb dehumidifying dryers is being reduced to compete with twin bed dehumidifiers. The SDD dryer combines a dehumidifying and drying system in a single unit. The insulated material hopper has a...

Colortronic centralises control.(materials handling)
April 1, 2008... CENTRAL monitoring and control of its drying, conveying and blending equipment has been introduced by Colortronic with an upgrade of its Covis control system using the Siemens Simatic WINCC Flexible interface software. All equipment on the...

Moretto and Summit.(materials handling)
April 1, 2008... IN last month's report on Moretto setting up a subsidiary in Britain we referred to the equipment being "previously sold by Summit Systems". This is incorrect. Summit continues to supply and support Moretto sales including the latest...

Web site finds your ideal feeder.(materials handling)(Website overview)
April 1, 2008... BRABENDER Technologie has added to its web site a programme for the selection of the optimum gravimetric or volumetric bulk ingredient metering feeder for a specific application. Relevant basic data is entered and the FeederScout programme...

Bespoke materials handling plant keeps medical materials clean.(materials handling)
April 1, 2008... A waste extraction facility installed by UPM at Boehringer Ingelheim's Bracknell factory a couple of years ago has been augmented with a turnkey materials handling plant. Baehringer's main LLDPE supplier had wanted to convert from bag...

Mould with a mind.(software)
April 1, 2008... To redefine injection moulding. That is the radical aim of EMOLD, a three-year European collective research programme involving 15 partners from eight nations. The concept revolves around the fundamental agent in creating plastics parts the...

Economical process data acquisition system.(software)
April 1, 2008... SYSCON-PlantStar has introduced a new process data acquisition system which uses PC technology-based process data acquisition modules (PDAMs) to gather process data from processing, auxiliary and assembly equipment. Data is gathered either by...

Injection moulding simulator has embedded CAD.(software)
April 1, 2008... FRENCH injection moulding simulation software developer Simpoe has launched Simpoe-Designer. This is a stand-alone version of its Simpoe-Mold flagship product, but with the addition of its own embedded CAD kernel. That enables Simpoe-Designer...

Moldflow Plastics Insight upgrade doubles 3D speed.(software)
April 1, 2008... MOLDFLOW Corporation has released version 6.2 of its Moldflow Plastics Insight injection moulding simulation software suite. The new release includes enhancements that allow more people to work faster on larger models and interface to more...

Software directory.(software)(Directory)
April 1, 2008... composites design CoDA (Composite Component Design Analysis) National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Contact: Anaglyph Ltd Tel: 020 8987 6056 E-mail: sales@anaglyph.co.uk Web site: www.anaglyph.co.uk CoDA assists in...

What's new on the web.(software)
April 1, 2008... Alastian online seminars This year is likely to be one of major change for the global polyolefins market according to Mike Smith, director of global chemical industry consultancy CMAI. Mr Smith, along with other industry experts, shared his...

Oman PET production to be expanded again.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... WITH its integrated PET polymer and APET sheet plant well underway in Oman, Octal Holding is now planning a 500,000 tonnes PET plant targeting the soft drink and bottled water markets in Europe, the USA and the Middle East. Ultimately its...

Borouge to expand yet further in polyolefins.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... IT'S not due to start up until 2010, but already Borouge is looking beyond its massive Borouge 2 petrochemicals project and has started feasibility studies into Borouge 3 which would more than double its polyethylene capacity. Borouge 2 is...

Zotefoams looks east.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... CROSS-linked foam manufacturer Zotefoams is considering a polyolefin foam plant in Asia as it pushes for "double digit percentage growth" in North America and Asia. It has a factory in Kentucky supplying US customers and in his annual review of...

BASF to more than quadruple biodegradable plastics production.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... A PRODUCTION of biodegradable plastics is to be increased by BASF to meet what it predicts to be a 20 per cent year on year increase in demand. Ecoflex is sourced from petrochemicals but is biodegradable in accordance with DIN EN 13432...

Biggest ever Dyneema investment planned by DSM.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... A $450 million expansion is being planned by DSM for its Dyneema high strength PE fibre business, following a 15 per cent annual growth in sales over recent years. This will be the largest investment programme since the start of large-scale...

European Court backs ban on deca-BDE flame retardant.(update)
April 1, 2008... THE brominated flame retardant deca-BDE (decabromodiphenyl ether), which has been banned and unbanned, is now being banned again. From June 30 it will be forbidden for use in electrical and electronic equipment in Europe. Deca-BDE was...

Faurecia rejigs dashboard skin business to cut costs.(update)
April 1, 2008... CHEAPER competitive systems are forcing automotive components supplier Faurecia to revamp its dashboard business. Its PVC slush moulding process for dashboard skins is around 30 per cent more expensive than systems operated by its competitors....

Recent price increases.(materials marketplace)
April 1, 2008... recent price increases Material Producer Increase Effective Thermoplastic moulding materials Nylons DuPont Zytel, Zytel HTN and Minlon May 1 Engineering up...

Canada moves to ban PC babies' bottles.(update)
April 1, 2008... AFTER years of debate over the health risks of its major building block bisphenol A, polycarbonate is to be banned for use in babies' bottles in Canada. And the wider implications are taking effect with the withdrawal from sale of other...