Extrusion-Pipe & Profile

When Adam Reiser and a partner founded a magazine nine years ago titled “Made In USA,” they wrote articles about companies making products in the USA. However, Reiser, who today is CEO and co-founder of Made In USA Certified (www.usa-c.com), found out that “people speak with forked tongue.” While they were telling Reiser that their products were being made in this country, in actuality they were shipping products in from China and relabeling them “Made in USA.”

The concept of "reshoring" sure gets a lot of buzz in American manufacturing media these days. You've seen the stories. America is more competitive because labor prices are rising in China; Asian quality is inferior; communications problems torpedoed a project; shipping costs are rising, etc. The newest line is that lower natural gas prices will bring manufacturing back to the United States.

A new 125-page report from Morgan Stanley called "U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance: Is It A Masterpiece Or A Fake?" throws cold water on that argument.

After a few challenging years including a trip through—into and out of—bankruptcy, a reinvigorated Milacron looks toward a bright future. The company showcased its product lines, including new products, at its Open House April 24 and 25, where the excitement and enthusiasm were palpable. The company’s investors, CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, are truly interested in the company’s growth and success, noted Dave Lawrence, president of Milacron’s Global Plastics Machinery and DME, in an interview at the Open House with PlasticsToday.
   

A joint venture of Arabian Chevron Phillips Petrochemical Co. and The Saudi Industrial Investment Group is on track to start up the Middle East's first nylon 66 plant in late 2013. Petrochemical Conversion Company Ltd. (PCC) recently announced the successful transport of four process modules to the Port of Jubail in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the company's new 50,000-tonnes/year plant under construction in Jubail II Industrial City.

Peter Roos was given worldwide responsibility for all activities of KraussMaffei Berstorff effective Feb. 1, becoming the president of the Extrusion Technology Segment in the KraussMaffei Group. Roos, who is a mechanical engineer by training, replaced Hans Ulrich Golz.

"Fully fibrous" is how Eovations describes its wood polymer composite (WPC) product, a technology that originated at a British polymer research institution and was a Dow Chemical project at one time. The patented process results in a composite profile that "replicates the fibrous structure of wood and creates a unique combination of strength, durability, aesthetic and workability properties," according to company information.

New precision equipment is emerging to meet growing quality control demands for producing tight tolerance micro extruder catheters and other types of tubing made from medical plastics.

A data accessory called "Pinpoint Capture" from Pinpoint Laser Systems (Peabody, MA) supplements Laser Microgage industrial measuring and laser alignment systems. It is said to allow operators to quickly grab measurement readings from as many as four remote laser receivers to analyze the alignment and performance of extrusion and other industrial equipment.

Navtar, a producer of close-tolerance tubing components, will start manufacturing in a new plant in Costa Rica this June to meet the growing need for medical plastics extrusion in the country.

The facility joins four plants located in the United States, Asia and Europe. Applications for its tubing include chemotherapy, wound care and cardiovascular procedures.

2012 was a capital year for North American plastics capital equipment, with orders for injection molding machines, blown-film lines, auxiliary equipment, thermoforming equipment, and hot runners all up compared to 2011. Even for single-screw extruders, where annual orders were down, albeit less than 2% (13 units), the full-year dollar value was up a gaudy 38% compared to 2011. The only market truly off in 2012 was the blowmolding segment. There, the total number of new of blowmolding machines ordered in 2012 was 67 units, down 18 from 2011, with the full-year dollar value off 34%.

Evaluate MedTech, a new forecasting service based in Boston, predicts that the medical device market will grow 4.4% per year from 2011 to 2018, achieving global sales of $440 billion.

"Previously in the shadows of the pharmaceutical sector, the medtech market is set to outperform the prescription drug market with 4.4% growth per year (CAGR) versus 2.5% growth for the prescription drug market between 2011 and 2018," says Anthony Raeside, head of research.