Extrusion

Making its third machinery order in the last 12 months, film manufacturer Next Generation Films (Lexington, OH) has ordered an additional 3-layer Varex coextrusion line from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. (W&H; Lincoln, RI) as it waits for delivery of a previously ordered Varex. The latest machine will be the sixth for Next Generation from W&H (MPW visited Next Generation in August 2009).

Custom injection molder Dickten Masch Plastics (DMP) has hired Andy Bondhus to work as a plastics engineer at the firm.  Bondhus will work out of the company's processing facility in Iowa, where he will support part design, mold flow, tooling, and tool design for DMP. Bondhus began his career at Lake Tool Inc. as a moldmaker, ran his own company (Plastic Solutions Inc.) for 11 years, and most recently was a tooling and design engineer at Innovative Injection Technologies Inc. (i2tech).

Bemis Company Inc. (Neenah, WI) has received all necessary reviews and approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), clearing the way for it to sell its FreshCase film for fresh beef packaging applications.

Germany's Pagendarm Technologie GmbH (Hamburg) and South Korea's Sungan Machinery Co. Ltd. (Hwasung-City) have announced the creation of a new joint-venture company called Sam Pagendarm (Hamburg) that will supply extrusion-coating and gravure and flexo printing machines for the flexible packaging market.

The Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) has developed a Roadmap based on inputs provided by plastics industry participants that will act as a guide for plastic processors to meet the aspirations of the government's New Economic Model (NEM).

Two advances that will reportedly have a major impact on future cooling systems for plastics will be unveiled at the K Show by Eurochiller. Energy-saving inverter controlled compressors are employed in the latest water cooling system, while a free-cooling function will be introduced for air cooling.

An improved grade of polyphtalamide overcomes the material's inherent brittleness, giving extrusion processors the ability to use the material to replace metal in automotive engine compartment tubing applications.

Film processors bound this autumn for K 2010, the industry's leading tradeshow, may want to arrive in Düsseldorf a few days early to attend this plastic films conference. Now in its 25th year, the annual Specialty Plastic Films conference will be the showcase for several premiers, according to the event's organizers.
 

A new system for corrugated plastic drainage pipes is said to offer throughput of up to twice as much as conventional systems. PVC, PE, and PP all can be processed on the new systems.

Shown is a mold block with the typical tunnel profile and a tunnel-shaped drainage pipe.

German tenter frame producer Brückner (Siegsdorf) has formed a joint venture with Seebach (Vellmar, Germany) to produce melt filter elements for its and competitors' lines with the creation of Brückner Seebach Filter Solutions India (Pune, India). According to Uwe P. Thönniss, co-managing director at the company's service subsidiary Servtec, production has already started and the first supply of a range of filter products should be available from the company by autumn.