British Plastics & Rubber articles from January 2002

British Plastics & Rubber archives from January 2002

What's happening in injection moulding robotics. (Automation & Robotics).
January 1, 2002... HANDLING robots have been used in the injection moulding process for some 30 years or more. Over much of that time the emphasis has been on improving the efficiency and speed of the robots themselves, which, certainly in the early days, have...

Precision needed to prevent paint cans leaking.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... BRADFORD-based Barplas, which makes paint containers up to 10 litres, has installed two Sandretto Series Nove 300 tonne moulding machines with Dal Maschio 3E1200K three axis servo drive demoulding robots. All container parts from handles,...

Sprue picker has options on action and improved mould change positioning.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... MORE flexibility has been built into the SP-FIII sprue picker from Star Automation, which is available in three models to suit moulding machines from 30 to 250 tonnes. Two motion options allow the arm to descend directly to grip the sprue...

Robot over-rides machine control to initiate opening and closing. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... HEKUMA has developed a novel robot control system for the simultaneous production of four CD jewel cases on a 4.2 second cycle. Previous take out systems required 6.8 seconds and were governed by the control system for the machine. A time lapse...

Automation systems for high speed handling of bottles. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... VACUUM handling systems have been designed by Giles & Partners for companies shipping boxes of empty containers. They are intended to deal with a wide range of container sizes and shapes and box formats. In standard form they incorporate...

Automating bagmaking cuts operator fatigue. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AUTOPACK robots designed by Lemo Maschinenbau to operate in conjunction with its bagmaking machines enable manual operators to be relieved of exposure to carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injury. The robots take finished packs...

Auto cell built into vertical moulding machine. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Automation systems always look good on exhibition stands. At k2001 Boy used the production of a plastic-headed bolt to demonstrate how such a system could be integrated with its vertical injection moulding machines. Bolts were fed to a...

Robot controller turns off power to idle motors. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A new controller for Star Automation's EMIII series robots adds power-saving and wear reduction features. The STEC-460 saves power at both the robot and its own terminal: a timer-controlled servo sleep function shuts off power to the servo...

Control function benchmarks a robot for life. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A function to ensure accuracy throughout a robot's life has been developed by ABB. The company says that inherent mechanical intolerances and deflection because of load progressively decrease a robot's absolute accuracy. Practical compensation...

Servo drive added to Dal Maschio robots. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SERVO drive is now available on Dal Maschio Nepal and Phuket ranges of demoulding robots, supplied through Sandretto. Designed for machines from 250 to 500 tonnes, the Nepal S3W3 is a development of the $3 and has brushless drive to all three...

Boxing clever. (Automation & Robotics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A MODULAR approach was adopted by TQC when it designed an automation system for the assembly of a glove box for a high volume car maker because the latch for the box is produced in different formats. All parts are automatically fed from...

Adjustable rolls control cooling lay-on. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... REIFENHAUSER has built additional control of cooling according to sheet thickness into its Serex and Mirex thermoforming sheet lines. It has done this by making one of the end rolls (depending on configuration) in the three-roll stack...

All-round improvement of its coextrusion blown film lines by Reifenhauser. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * All-round improvement of its coextrusion blown film lines by Reifenhauser has brought greater flexibility for reducing downtime. New screw designs enable the extruders to process a range of PE types and ionomers, as well as new...

Laboratory film line gets a new name. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The compact laboratory blown film line made at Luton by Betol for many years is now known, under its new ownership by Davis-Standard, as the Paragon and has a number of new features. It comprises a 25 mm floor level extruder, tower and...

Air ring is automated to improve control. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DAVIS-STANDARD has automated its Wes-Jet air ring to provide segmented air volume control. Segmented air streams are regulated through a gateway actuator to control film thickness, eliminating need for heating the die lips. The Wes-Jet is...

K-M modifies extruders for flat film work. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... KRAUSS-Maffei 30 D extruders have been modified for flat film extrusion. A new mixing head screw is said to provide good product quality and lower costs and a redeveloped chill roll unit with extra cooling ensures adequate film relaxation....

Seven layer line goes into pilot plant for product development. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AMCOR Flexibles Europe has installed a Davis-Standard ProPak seven layer coextrusion die at its pilot extrusion facility in Ghent, Belgium, to develop new structures for customers. These will be between 30 and 220 microns thick for food,...

Who's who in sheet extrusion. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... Europe's 50 biggest producers of plastics sheet are detailed in a new report from Applied Market Information. The research company says that between them these companies consumed some 2.3 million tonnes of polymer in 2000, and six of them each...

Screen changer avoids black spots. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A NEW screen changer from industrial Plastics is said to be particularly suitable for film and sheet extrusion because the slide plates carrying the screen remain in the melt at all times except for a few seconds during screen change, so...

Rolls don't bend. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SWISS coating and laminating machine specialist Polytype has developed a roll construction system intended to beat the problem of roll deflection. The rolls can be made for webs up to 2,500 mm wide, and give nip pressures varying by no...

Masterbatches turn base polymers into geomembranes. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... CABOT has introduced a range of master-batches for the production of geomembranes and geotextiles used in civil engineering. Geosynthetic masterbatches are added to base polymers by geomembrane manufacturers to meet performance requirements for...

Sussex and Kundig in film gauging co-operation. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... TWO competitors in process control of blown film are to co-operate in thickness measurement systems. Sussex Instruments has granted a license to Kundig of Switzerland to use its patents on non-contact capacitance gauging of delicate or sticky...

New thickness gauge overcomes signal noise. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... THE NEW TFG-710 thickness measurement gauge made by NDC Infrared Engineering can measure down to 5 microns or less. Designed for cast or biaxially oriented films, it measures in real time in a single scan and NDC claims to have overcome the...

Controlled static can be an aid to film extrusion. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Introducing controlled static charges and discharging unwanted static at specific points during cast or blown film production can improve quality and increase speeds, says Arrowquint, UK and Ireland agent for Eltex. Parallel functions can be...

Corona treatment for webs up to 3 m wide. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... TANTEC has introduced a corona treating station for single or double sided treatment of web widths from 500 to 3,000 mm. It is said to give increased surface energy on webs in plastics and metallised foils and to be simple to install on new or...

Kiefel buys more winder business. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... KIEFEL Extrusion of Germany is to take over the winder business of Christian Maier on April 1. In October 2000 the company bought Wintech Winding Technology of Switzerland. The full winder range will be sold under the Kirion name and...

Reclaim bottle flake as PET sheet without re-pelletising. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... PET sheet can be made from a mixture of virgin and reclaimed material, or from wholly reclaimed material, without an intermediate pelletising step using new equipment from Erema and SML of Austria. Erema specialises in recycling equipment...

No need to adjust the roll gap. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The Davis-Standard EX-M-PLAR III vertical roll stack with individual roll motors and drives eliminates need for manual adjustment of the roll gap for the production of cast film sheets with a nip gap of 0.0.127 mm. Processors can adjust the...

Granulator designed to reclaim rigid roof sheets. (Film & Sheet).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... DOUBLE welded PC sheets 4 m long, 600 mm wide and 32 mm thick, as used to make conservatory or car port roofs, can be reclaimed by the Getecha RS 3009 granulator, which has been specially made to deal with these highly rigid components. ...

Birkby's takes its technology to Motown. (Injection Moulding).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... BIRKBY'S Plastics, part of the Marubeni Corporation, has made a bid for more automotive work by opening a technical centre in Detroit, USA. The centre becomes the company's third site in Detroit. Birkby's currently numbers Ford, Toyota and BMW...

New version of two-in-on injection technology. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... THE Twinshot process which enables co-injection on a single barrel injection moulding machine by plasticising the core material with a second screw rotating within the main screw, has been refined to replace the screw-within-a-screw structure...

Mold-masters saves space with nozzles and controllers. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... NEW MIM Dura Atto nozzles for installation at short pitch distances have been produced by Mold-Masters and are intended for products with core diameters greater than 16 mm such as lipstick caps and medical components. The cartridge heated units...

EP moulding buys new machines. (Injection Moulding).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... TWO new Sandretto injection moulding machines have been installed at EP Moulding of Knowsley in Liverpool, bringing the company's fleet to 26 machines, 16 of them from Sandretto. Both machines were installed as independent production cells with...

Hasco adds a hot half. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... Standard prewired hot runner manifolds have been introduced by Hasco. They are thermally, rheologically and mechanically optimised and ready to be plugged in. Wiring is according to Hasco standard or customer specification. The manifolds are...

Mouldmaker adds multishot moulding turntable range. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... SCHOTTLI has introduced a range of tour mould turntables for the production of multi component parts. The basic unit comprises the turntable and controller, to which an index plate and an unscrewing mechanism may optionally be added. The...

UK moulding machine sellers feel the pinch. (Injection Moulding).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE decline in the British market for injection moulding machines is second only to the collapse in the USA according to Demag Ergotech's managing director Helmar Franz. Figures compiled by Demag Ergotech show that this year the UK market...

Moulding tolerances measured in microns. (Injection Moulding).(Matrix uses Ticona UK Ltd. polymer for precision work)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... US precision injection moulder Matrix of East Providence, Rhode Island is using Ticona's Fortron polyphenylene sulphide to meet tolerances of 4 microns or less. The latest example is an IBM optical transceiver subassembly in the form of a...

Nissei introduces vertical electrics. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... NISSEI has launched a new range of 12 electric vertical injection moulding machines comprising single stage and turntable models with centre or parting line injection. The machines have AC servo motors and can cycle at 11 per cent shorter times...

CSD cap moulds available off-the-shelf. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... MOULDS for the production of 28 mm disposable HDPE caps for PET carbonated drinks bottles are now available from Schottli in 24, 32 and 48 impression versions with the forthcoming introduction of 16 and 64 cavity types. The lip of the cap...

Mould watch camera control built-in by Milacron. (Injection Moulding).
January 1, 2002... THE MoldWatcher II mould monitoring system can now be applied to Ferromatik Milacron North America machines with Xtreem control without separate control hardware. The camera and image viewing system is available as an option with Xtreem control...

Beer bottle alternative undergoes blow moulding trials. (Blow Moulding).(Safeglass uses AronX to make beer bottles)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ATTEMPTS to enter the beer bottle market with its styrene-based AronX product have come a step closer for Safeglass (Europe) with trials in Canada to blow mould bottles. The company announced its intention to develop this application in...

Husky makes more preforms per machine. (Blow Moulding).
January 1, 2002... A NEW Micropitch design for its PET preform moulds has enabled Husky to get half as many preforms again out of a given size injection moulding machine. The 144 cavity mould fits existing 600 tonne machines for which 96 cavities was the...

Hot fill squeeze bottle 'for the ladies'. (Blow Moulding).(Ergo-Grip 75 ml bottle; Schmalbach-Lubeca)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE Ergo-Grip 75 ml bottle developed by Schmalbach-Lubeca in cooperation with Coca-Cola for Aquana sports water is claimed to be the first heat resistant PET container for hot fill beverages which is also squeezable. Launched in Luxemburg and...

Alternatives to PVC for leather-look in TPE. (Engineering Materials).(from Italian company So. F. ter)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... POLYONE's Italian joint venture partner So.F.teR has developed thermoplastic elastomers to contest the markets for synthetic leather applications with plasticised PVC. Two materials are available. Forprene 6LH TPE-V is a vulcanised...

Alternattive to PVC for leather-look in TPE and polyurethane. (Engineering Materials).(from Dow Chemical Co.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ALSO working on the leather look is Dow Chemical. The company has produced a fabric-free moulded polyurethane foam technology for automotive seating, headrests and interior trim. The single-step technology uses an elastomeric layer over...

Fortron fuel rail cut weight, costs and component count. (Engineering Materials).(DaimlerChrylser switches to plastic fuel rails made by Dana Corp. and MultiPlastics from Fortron Industries polyphenylene sulphide)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A SWITCH from stainless steel to plastic fuel rails has saved DaimlerChrysler 25 per cent in costs while cutting the component weight by 30 per cent. At the same time, design consolidation cut the component count from seven to a single...

Polycarbonate colours and effects for branding CDs and DVDs. (Engineering Materials).(GE Plastics develops new coating)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... GE Plastics has developed a new line of Lexan optical quality polycarbonate with special visual effects that can help producers of CDs and DVDs differentiate and brand their products. Known as Signature OQ, the new materials are aimed...

Cylinder head gasket coated with PEEK and PTFE. (Engineering Materials).(STE development)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... GERMAN manufacturer STE has developed a new cylinder head gasket using a powder coating process that combines PTF and Victrex PEEK. The Monomet gasket is as eel stamping that is coated to a thickness of only 20 microns. The polymer coating...

High temperature material developed for automotive lamp reflectors. (Engineering Materials).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... EMS-Grivory has engineered a variant of its high-temperature resistant Grivory HT aromatic polyamide specially for automotive lamp reflectors. The fashion for compact designs -- particularly in fog lamps -- combined with high illumination...

New ABS grades for ITE markets. (Engineering Materials).(Dow Engineering Plastics develops resins for the information technology equipment market)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Dow Engineering Plastics has developed its new Emerge family of resins specifically for the information technology equipment (ITE) market. The Emerge line uses Dow's MASS ABS technology to produce materials with good processability in...

Advanced polymer architecture creates new Viton fluoroelastomers. (Engineering Materials).(DuPont Dow Elastomers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DUPONT Dow Elastomers has developed a new generation of Viton fluoroelastomers made with the company's proprietary 'advanced polymer architecture'. These peroxide-curable Viton grades will be identified by an 'S' suffix on the grade number...

Turbo pig cleans the places that other methods miss. (Materials Handing).(Turbo-Molch system)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE Turbo-Molch system is a new means for cleaning materials distribution pipelines without water wash down between colour changes and ensures the complete removal of residuals from the previous batch, claims Motan-Fuller Verfahrenstechnik. ...

Gravimetric blender has only one moving part. (Materials Handling).(TSM Micrabatch)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... THE TSM Micrabatch 60 kg/hr gravimetric blender has only one moving part to mix four components. Low throughputs can be handled and Micradose dispensing valves are capable of dealing with batches down to 1 g. Batch to batch accuracy of 0.1 per...

Masterbatch developed for silicone colouring. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SILICONE rubber can now be masterbatch-coloured using a mixing system developed by Colmec and Dow Corning. By dosing uncoloured Silastic silicone rubber compounds with coloured masterbatch or other additives and fillers costs can be reduced by...

Single-step process for silane crosslinking. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... CROSSLINKED PE pipe can now be produced in a one-step process with Davis-Standard extrusion technology and XL-PEarl dry silane, a product of OSi, an associate company within the Crompton Corporation. The silane process previously involved...

Crosshead is adjustable for close wall tolerances. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).
January 1, 2002... GUILL Tool & Engineering, of Rhode Island, USA, has redesigned its 700 Series adjustable centre crosshead for close wall tolerance extrusion of various products including medical and electronics tubing, wire and cable and advanced high tech...

New load cells and controls eliminate feeders and mixers. (Materials Handling).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... New load cells and control technology are used in the latest Colormax Multi Weigh four station loss-in-weight gravimetric blender, which has a metering plate feeding device. The unit has no screw feeding mechanisms or mixing chambers but...

Gravimetric blender for 60 kg/hr. (Materials Handling).
January 1, 2002... The Ultrablend UB005 is an addition to the Colortronic Colorbiend range of gravimetric blenders. The 05 kg blender is suitable for applications involving throughputs of about 60 kg/hr and is available with up to four stations. A vertical slide...

Feeding mechanism maintains consistency over wide feed range. (Materials Handling).
January 1, 2002... The Posimax additive feeder introduced by Colormax uses a positive displacement channel feeding mechanism to accurately control flow of material, such as colour masterbatch, by volume. Good linearity is said to be achieved over feed rates...

Screw conveyors up to 100 t/hr. (Materials Handling).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tubular screw conveyors for powders and granulates available from H-Tech have capacities up to 100 tonnes/hr for plastics materials and incorporate interchangeable screw elements. The company also makes flexible, vertical, weighing and U and V...

Improved conveying controller. (Materials Handling).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A new Colortronic CSE controller for single conveying units gives a clear indication of the functions and enables connection of a line clear valve. CSE1 and CSE5 units now have a cloth filter and mechanical cleaning as standard and operate with...

Non-stop coiler lets you extrude flat out. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SPEED restrictions on the extrusion of flexible tube or profile have been lifted by Boston Matthews with a new winder which can wind to reels or coils without having to stop for a reel change. The company says that conventionally extruders...

Electronic drive prates four-head winder. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AN electronic four head winder for products such as flat strip, has been introduced by Plastic Extruders to replace older designs with a gearbox and mechanica1 drive. The machine can be programmed to give optimum pitch and width for each reel...

Davis-Standard introduces replacements for redundant control systems. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DAVIS-Standard has prepared replacements for its 301 and 401 extrusion control systems, which are to be discontinued because of component obsolescence. The ETS/RP-DIS retrofit package is intended t replace the temperature and monitoring...

Automatic filtration reduces production costs. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SUBSTANTIAL savings in production costs are claimed for the Gneuss RSFgenius 400 fully automatic screen filtration system. It regulates pressure across the filter to less than [+ or -]2 bar and records the amount of material lost by screen...

Haul-off belts have no joints. (Pipe & Profile Extrusion).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Cigo jointless endless haul off belts introduced by Warbrick International provide uniform thickness and straight running characteristics and are available in sizes from 600 mm to 20 m long and up to 2 m wide and 800 mm deep. Inner surfaces may...

Design tools for tool design. (Software Review).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... With the high level of sophistication -- and cost -- of many of today's design programs it comes as something of a surprise to find a truly budget-priced tool for something as complex as mould design. Clive Maier tries out a calculator that...

New modules from Syscon-PlantStar. (Software Review).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SYSCON-PlantStar has introduced new barcode printing software for its Portrait and Panorama production and process monitoring systems. Barcode labels can be generated each time a user-specified parts count is reached. The label can be any...

Moldflow integrates C-Mold. (Software Review).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... MOLDFLOW describes Release 3 of its Plastics Insight suite as perhaps the largest development in its history. For the first time, the best features of MPI and C-Mold 2000 are integrated in a single product. The release also includes a number of...

Ametek. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Materials testing specialist Ametek has launched not one but four new websites; two for its Chatillon brand and one each for its Lloyd Instruments and Davenport brands. The sites are co-ordinated for look and feel, with particular attention...

DuPont Engineering Polymers. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DuPont has launched a global e-commerce site with instant online order entry and order status reporting in multiple languages. The company sees the site as complementary to its presence on Omnexus. Following worldwide customer trials during...

Distrupol. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Polymer distributor Distrupol is another taking the e-business path. The new site has been demonstrated in Sweden to an invited audience of customers, and is due to be launched in the UK during the first quarter of the year. The service will be...

Ides i-Catalog. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Advanced Elastomer Systems (AES) has added i-Catalog Platform technology from Ides to its site. The solution guides AES customers through an online product selection process. Content is served from the i-Centric Database, a database of plastics...

FlowTech Design. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... FlowTech design offers injection flow analysis and design services including mould filling, cooling, shrinkage, warping, gas assist and stress studies. The site details the company services and includes a sample study report to show the kind of...

Turbo 10. (What's New on the Web).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... It is not a plastics site but readers might be interested to know about Turbo 10, a new UK metasearch engine. This has two interesting features. One is the ability automatically to group results into clusters covering particular topics. The...

Developments at Delcam.(new products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AMONG new software releases from Delcam, PowerMILL 4 has new strategies for high-efficiency roughing, high-speed finishing and 5-axis machining. The roughing strategies take advantage of the latest cutter designs that can cut with the side of...

The waste walkabout: Continuing the series by Dr Robin Kent intended to help the plastics industry reduce costs through waste minimisation. (Waste Minimisation).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... WASTE is all around your business and some companies put up signs exhorting us to 'Stop Waste!'. This treats us all unfairly because most people would stop waste if only they knew where to look. The signs should really read 'Find Waste!'...

Long life claim for particle metallurgy tool steels. (Tooling).(Crusteel process increases wear life)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SHEFFIELD-based Crusteel claims that wear life of its tool steels made by the particle metallurgy (PM) process may be five times as long as for conventional steels. The company is a subsidiary of the Crucible Metals Corporation USA and its...

Product handling. (Installation Round-up).(Abaloid Plastics using scales from Mettler Toledo)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Injection moulder Abaloid Plastics has installed 20 Viper MonoBloc counting scales from Mettler Toledo. The scales are used to count components into boxes as they come off the company's 20 injection moulding lines. The Viper MonoBloc has a...

Foamed sheet. (Installation Round-up).(Zotefoams expands capacity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Nitrogen-expanded polyolefin foams specialist Zotefoams is to install new capacity at its Croydon plant. The company's Azote foams are made by a high pressure process in which sheets of solid PE or PP are impregnated with nitrogen under...

Machining. (Installation Round-up).(Flow UK supplies cutting machine to Dunlop Precision Rubber)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Flow UK has supplied an advanced water jet cutting machine to Dunlop Precision Rubber. The machine is an Integrated Flying Bridge 2012 that will be used initially to cut rubber components of around 16 mm in thickness. This unit has an...

Thermoforming. (Installation Round-up).(MY Plastics makes investments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Packaging thermoforming MY Plastics of Aylesham in Kent -- formerly Sharp Interpack -- has installed one Sentinel and three TFT thermoforming machines in a [pounds sterling]3 million tranche of a [pounds sterling]7 million investment programme....

Toolmaking. (Installation Round-up).(Ryford makes investments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Ryford has invested [pounds sterling]500,000 in automation equipment for its toolmaking operation in Walsall. It has installed two EDM cells from Agie Charmilles equipped with robotic handling equipment. Each cell can hold up to 660 tool and 44...

Anti-blocking agents for EVA. (Anti-Blocking Agents).(Ferro Specialty Plastics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Ferro Specialty Plastics has developed a range of highly concentrated slip and anti-block additives specifically for use with EVA films. These are intended to combat the strong blocking effect presented by EVA polymers with a high vinyl acetate...