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Dry ice is the medium employed in the Aero 40 HP compact, high-pressure blast cleaning system offered by Cold Jet (Cincinnati, OH).

The Aero system is said to provide advanced economical dry-ice blast cleaning in an environmentally friendly format with optimum best pellet integrity, maximum cleaning aggression, and the most reliable blast stream on the market. In addition, the Aero 40 HP uses Cold Jet's SureFlow system to prevent clogging and pellet sublimation, ensuring uninterrupted cleaning performance.

The North American plastics packaging business continues its realignment with today's announcement by Ball Corp. (Broomfield, CO) that it has agreed to sell its plastic packaging business to multinational packaging supplier Amcor (Hawthorn, Australia) for approximately $280 million.

PVC profile processors, take note: the K 2010 tradeshow will be the official market launch of a new range of parallel twin-screw extruders, said to offer throughput increases of 25% above current machines, while also offering an improvement in energy efficiency.

The march of plastics replacing more established materials has hit a speed bump at UK retailer Marks & Spencer. That company is the first to choose a thermoformable paper alternative to plastics for sliced ham. Billerud, the supplier of the thermoformable paper, says other major retailers also are specifying the material and that other applications soon will be commercialized.

Vuvuzela—it's not a word you likely heard before the World Cup began, and we'll wager it fades from memory soon after the champion is crowned. But for now, if you're watching soccer, then you know the word and you definitely know the sound vuvuzelas make—like a horde of bees swooping through the stadiums.

The global outsourcing market for medical devices is projected by market research publisher Global Industry Analysts to reach about $42.6 billion by the year 2015. GIA also says the current economic slowdown is putting more pressure on device OEMs to reduce costs by outsourcing to low-labor-cost areas like India and China.

Flexible packaging supplier Bemis Co. Inc. (Neenah, WI) has sold its Menasha, WI, and Catoosa, OK facilities to Exopack Holding Corp. (Spartanburg, SC), in a deal that it believes will satisfy a competitiveness requirement from the U.S. Dept. of Justice following its 2009 acquisition of Alcan Packaging Food Americas.

Market overview: Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) prices continued to fall last week, with PE dropping $0.01-$0.02/lb and PP down another $0.02/lb. After a two-month slide, monomer markets did find some stability, however, according to plastics spot-trading platform, The Plastics Exchange (TPE), with two-sided action seen. Overall spot resin supplies have improved and contract resin buyers will find "considerable relief" in June, according to TPE.

A major merger in India brings together Rajoo, a leading manufacturer of blown- and cast-film extrusion machinery, with Wonderpack, which makes thermoforming machinery for both roll-fed and heavy-gauge sheet-fed applications.  

Its exports sank last year but the Chinese domestic market proved strong enough to drive sales and earnings higher for Haitian, the world's largest manufacturer of injection molding machinery. CTO Helmar Franz predicts continued growth for the company, and also offered a preview of its newest machines.