American Maplan is now battenfeld-cincinnati USA, but apart from a name change, the only difference according to VP sales Kurt Waldhauer will be a color-scheme shift in its marketing materials from blue to green. The extruder manufacturer, based in McPherson, KS and specializing in pipe and profile systems, made the announcement as part of a NPE2012 reception for trade press and customers.

The battenfeld-cincinnati group of companies is an amalgamation of battenfeld-cincinnati Germany (formerly Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik), battenfeld-cincinnati Austria (formerly Cincinnati Extrusion), and battenfeld-cincinnati (Foshan) Extrusion Systems Ltd. (formerly B+C Extrusion Systems) formally created on April 9, 2010.

The company has organized itself around three markets: infrastructure, construction and packaging, with the press conference highlighting recent developments in all three areas. Jürgen Arnold, group CEO, addressed the globally depressed market of 2008 and 2009, as well as his company's acquisition by Triton in 2007. 

"When you speak to the banks more than you speak to customers," Arnold noted dryly, "business is no fun."

Proprietary process creates synthetic wood

Eovations eotek

Developed by Dow Chemical Co., the process is being commercialized by Eovations LLC (Bay City, MI), which invested $16 million to set up a manufacturing operation, leasing and renovating a 77,000-sq-ft building, according to the Michigan news web site, MLive.

The company's product can be cut, glued, or machined, just like natural wood. With a density of 0.5g/cu cm, it reportedly has better thermal expansion properties than competitive materials. Also, since there it has no moisture absorption and a 100% inorganic make up, eotek lumber is imperviousness to mildew and rot.

In hurricane impact testing, Kottmeier said the product withstood up to 80 ft/second, with the standard only requiring 50 ft/second, so that the technology reportedly bests any wood-plastic composite currently on the market. Potential applications include operable window lineals, door frames/jambs, decking, railing, deck substructures, shaker roofing and more.