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In March 2010 Bain Capital Partners announced its intent to acquire the Styron business division of The Dow Chemical Company, and this week the sale officially was completed. Paul Moyer, VP plastics of the newly formed independent company, took time out from a busy first day at the 'new' firm to tell PlasticsToday where Styron is headed.

Last summer Reifenhäuser acquired the film extrusion machinery business of Kiefel, and now the merged company has introduced its first co-developed machine range, dubbed the Evolution. Although the official introduction of the new range is slated for K 2010, orders from customers already have been fielded, including one just last weekend.

Complex tooling jobs need not consume undue machining time with the latest CNC machining center controller from Fanuc CNC America (Hoffman Estates, IL).

The 30i-B Series CNC Control supersedes the 30i-A Series and offers enhanced features and functions with advancements in operability and maintainability including a USB memory port, enhancements in dual safety check, and laser functionality.

Boy Machines Inc. (Exton, PA), the sole U.S. importer of the German-made Boy injection molding machines, has realigned its management structure, with Robert Koch leaving the president's post and Carl Schiffer, managing partner of Dr. Boy GmbH and co-owner of Boy Machines Inc., taking over as president.

Brazilian molder and moldmaker Jaguar Indústria e Comércio de Plásticos Ltda. (Jaguariúna) has invested approximately $18 million in 220,000m² of land in its current city where it plans to build a new 35,000m² facility. This summer, it also plans to take delivery of seven new injection molding machines, investing in all-electric and hybrid presses from Demag (four) and Arburg (three).

Brazil-based additive and masterbatch supplier Cromex (São Paulo) has plans to move to a new facility in São Paulo within the next nine months, outfitting the site with nine new compounding extrusion lines in addition to moving some existing equipment. Cesar Ortega, Cromex commercial director, and Enio A. Ferigatto, projects and products manager, revealed the plans to PlasticsToday during a tour of the company's existing site.

Less energy use, less time, and less trouble are being promised by Italian machinery manufacturer Moretto with its new Flowmax drying system. The automatic modular systems offer up to 10,000-12,000 kg/hr capacity without requiring either compressed air or cooling water. The manufacturer argues that a modular system composed of multiple dryers is the safer bet for an injection molder than a single large dryer which, if it fails, could then put a halt to a processor's entire operation. 

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.