First Look: Industry News & Analysis 21822

Milacron plans new line of tiebarless machines

Milacron’s (Cincinnati, OH) injection molding division will “rejuvenate its tiebarless design,” with plans to commercialize a line of smaller-tonnage tiebarless machines in the second half of 2007, targeting an initial clamp-force range of 130 to 400 tonnes. Dubbed the Freedom line, the machines will launch in Asia, targeting India and China at first, but Jay Woerner, VP of global manufacturing and sourcing for Milacron, says Milacron “is open to the idea of exporting to other markets.” Milacron offered a tiebarless design in the late 1990s, but Woerner says the Freedom, which is currently in prototype testing, will offer a toggle clamp with updated and improved controls and hydraulic-mechanical design. The design is intended help processors avoid simply buying larger machines based on platen accessibility and will be especially useful for shops with limited overhead space, which are numerous in Asia.

In Brief

Hosokawa expansion

Extrusion and recycling equipment maker Hosokawa Alpine (Augsburg, Germany) is investing ?9.5 million in the first stage of a 6500m2 plant expansion, expected to be completed in spring next year.

Polyscope re-emerges

Polyscope Polymers (Geleen, Netherlands), a supplier of styrene maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymers, has started production at an overhauled existing polymer plant in Geleen and recently introduced a new range, Xiran, that aims to compete against ABS blends, nylon, long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP), as well as PP/EPDM rubber combinations. SMA’s advantages include reduced cycle times and weight savings, says the company. The company was formerly part of DSM but closed in 2001.

GW’s Mexico investment

GW Plastics (Bethel, VT) expanded its Querétaro, Mexico plant to nearly 60,000 ft2. The facility now can house up to 50 molding machines sized from 40 to 500 tons, with space for a medical cleanroom for additional molding and assembly work. The company’s molding facilities are located in Bethel and Royalton, VT; San Antonio, TX; Tucson, AZ; Querétaro, Mexico, and Dongguan, China.

New moldmaking alliance

A new moldmaking alliance includes injection moldmaker JS Die & Mold Inc. (Byron Center, MI), Wes-Tech Automation Solutions (Buffalo Grove, IL) for production line automation, and Jungwoo USA, offering a lower-cost offshore sourcing option for injection molds and dies via its factory in Shenzhen, China.

O-I unloads remaining plastics to Rexam

Ending a six-month review of the business and totally exiting plastics, packaging supplier Owens-Illinois (O-I; Perrysburg, OH) has sold its remaining resin-based operations to Rexam (London) for $1.825 billion. After unloading its blowmolding unit to Graham Packaging and acquiring South American glass bottle manufacturer BSN Glasspack in 2005, O-I announced it would shift its portfolio to only include a “niche” plastics presence of healthcare packaging and specialty closures. That business, which has approximately 2800 employees and generated 2006 revenues of $760 million, was placed under review in January of this year, before being sold to Rexam. Rexam acquires 19 plants spread among the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, Singapore, and Malaysia. The facilities served the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food and beverage, personal care, household, and automotive industries.

Ending a six-month review of the business and totally exiting plastics, packaging supplier Owens-Illinois (O-I; Perrysburg, OH) has sold its remaining resin-based operations to Rexam (London) for $1.825 billion. After unloading its blowmolding unit to Graham Packaging and acquiring South American glass bottle manufacturer BSN Glasspack in 2005, O-I announced it would shift its portfolio to only include a “niche” plastics presence of healthcare packaging and specialty closures. That business, which has approximately 2800 employees and generated 2006 revenues of $760 million, was placed under review in January of this year, before being sold to Rexam. Rexam acquires 19 plants spread among the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, Singapore, and Malaysia. The facilities served the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food and beverage, personal care, household, and automotive industries.

Toyo plans China production

Japanese injection machine supplier Toyo Machinery & Metal Co. (Akashi) unveiled plans to manufacture all-electric machines in China. Hong Kong-based China Department Manager, Tetsuya Ito, says production of machines with 50-230 tonnes’ clamp force will start in January 2008 in Changshu, northwest of Shanghai. “The machines we build will be of the same specs as those made in Japan,” says Ito. Targeted production is 60 machines per month. Toyo will join Toshiba Machine (Tokyo) as the second Japanese injection machine builder with manufacturing in China. Toshiba’s made-in-China machines feature slightly lower specifications than its Japan-built presses but are said to be selling well in China and even Japan. Production is 80 machines/month.

In China, Netstal opens major closure market

Although the company was relatively late to the party, opening Netstal Ltd. in Guangzhou only two years ago, Swiss injection molding machinery manufacturer Netstal has enjoyed considerable success in China, including recently shipping a 96-cavity 28-mm closure system to Chinese packaging molder Tianjing, according to Andreas Nydegger, general manager Netstal China. The company opened a sales office in Guangzhou to complement an existing presence in Hong Kong.

Nydegger says Netstal has approximately 500 machines installed in China, primarily for molding optical discs, but it is making headway in the packaging market, including the sale of 40 of its PET preform systems. “Price is always an issue in China,” Nydegger said, “but you see Netstal still exists in China. More expensive machines can be justified.”

GLS expands Suzhou production, adds three lines

After opening the elastomers plant last June in Suzhou, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) supplier GLS (McHenry, IL) announced plans to double its capacity by the third quarter of 2007. Speaking to MPW during the Chinaplas event, Walt Ripple, GLS director of marketing and sales, and Tan Meng Cheng, general manager of GLS Thermoplastic Alloys Co. Ltd., said the 80,000-ft2 facility, which achieved ISO 14,000 and OSHA 18,000 certification a week prior to the Guangzhou show, would also add staff in tech support, R&D, and manufacturing. The operation already produces 40 grades of elastomers and has added an extrusion line to increase capacity.

Reifenhäuser expands in China

Extruder manufacturer Reifenhäuser (Troisdorf, Germany), which began manufacturing blown-film lines in China in July 2004 at Suzhou, will add 6000m2 to its operation, bringing it to 10,000m2 in total, according to Jürgen Rehkopf, managing director Reifenhäuser Private Ltd. Singapore. The company produces its Filmtec three-layer line at the plant, delivering its first line in January 2005, and 25 in total since then, selling out its annual capacity since inauguration, according to Rehkopf. The bulk of the machines have been delivered in the ASEAN region, and with this expansion, Reifenhäuser might consider the addition of five-layer lines to supply the heavy-duty sack market.

LFI and inmold graining realized in a single mold

Plastics processing machinery manufacturer Krauss-Maffei (Munich, Germany) has teamed with Galvanoform (Lahr, Germany), a manufacturer of nickel tools, to perfect an inline process that combines long-fiber injection (LFI) with inmold graining (IMG). This new technology makes it possible to produce glass-fiber-reinforced polyurethane (PUR) parts with grained surfaces using just one mold. Typical applications are door trim sections, glovebox covers and instrument panel surrounds for automotive applications.

The two firms developed a system whereby a heated film is positioned in a thermoforming tool and negatively thermoformed, with the downside grained. The fixing frame is retracted and an LFI mixing head sprays a PUR matrix, with its embedded long-glass fibers, onto the shaped and grained skin. The mold is closed while the PUR cures, and then opened for removal of the finished part. This contrasts to the more typical way of making these parts, which involves back coating of a film and embossing, followed in a separate step by thermoforming to realize final part shape. This can lead to stretching of the embossed film’s surface structure.

Combining the two processes in a single mold eliminates concerns about distorted and imperfect graining, says Krauss-Maffei. In addition, combining LFI and IMG saves costs as the embossing stage is no longer a separate process, and different surface graining can be realized with a single type of film. Plus, the glass-fiber roving used in LFI is less expensive than glass mat.

Galvanoform makes its very finely grained tools using a patented galvanizing process that reproduces leather graining in a porous nickel-electro shell a few millimeters thick. This shell is then integrated in a complete mold with temperature control and a vacuum system. The micropores in the technical porous nickel (TPN) used by Galvanoform to make its tools have a diameter of less than 0.15 mm. The number of pores can be matched to the geometry of the part being produced.

Sonoco scoops up Matrix

Global packaging giant Sonoco (Hartsville, SC) will expand its rigid packaging presence with the all-cash purchase of Canadian firm Matrix Packaging Inc. (Mississauga, ON) for $210 million. Matrix operates six facilities between the U.S. and Canada, employing 860, and offering extrusion blowmolding, injection stretch blowmolding, and injection molding. The company is expected to have annualized 2007 sales of $140 million.

At the end of 2006, Sonoco finalized the purchase of extruded and thermoformed packaging manufacturer, Clear Pack Co. (Franklin Park, IL), and said then that it would add blowmolding capabilities in 2007, which it has done by acquiring Matrix.

Erema gets FDA approval for bottle-to-bottle HDPE recycling

Plastics recycling equipment manufacturer Erema (Ansfelden, Austria) has completed a new ?6.5 million addition to its facility, a move Erema managing partner Gerhard Wendelin says was necessary due to growth in demand which is expected to show a 25% jump in turnover this year compared to 2006. Wendelin says he expects the company to break the ?100 million turnover mark this year for the first time. The expansion will increase production space by 40%.

During an open house to dedicate the expansion, Wendelin revealed that the company recently received FDA approval of its bottle-to-bottle recycling method for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) milk and dairy containers. (Erema already has FDA approval for its PET bottle-to-bottle technology.)

Milacron, partners expanding WPC presence in China

Milacron’s (Cincinnati, OH) extrusion unit will accelerate plans to expand its wood-polymer composite (WPC) presence in China, opening a Shanghai demonstration facility in cooperation with partners Conair (Pittsburgh), O.A. Newton (Bridgeville, DE), and Rapid (Rockford, IL), and launching a “plug-and-play” WPC turnkey line, which features upstream bulk material mixing, agglomeration, and drying machinery, as well as downstream haul off, cutting, and packaging.

“In China there’s a lot of interest in building materials,” Herb Hutchison, director international business development for Milacron, explained at his company’s Chinaplas stand. “Lumber is costly here if it’s not bamboo.”

In addition to Milacron, the new plant will have space for size-reduction supplier, Rapid, as well as Conair, which is partnering with Milacron on the plug-and-play for downstream extrusion and material drying, and O.A. Newton, which will bring weighing and mixing equipment. Milacron established a sales/service office in Shanghai in January 2006, managed by Werner Liu. Hutchison said the company plans to add aftermarket screw and barrel sales there, with the possibility for some extruder manufacture and assembly in China in 2008, with the “skeleton” sourced in China and higher-tech items brought in from abroad. Hutchison says Milacron has 300 WPC lines installed globally, with high interest existing in China.

Auxiliary supplier Conair began manufacturing in China in March at the 2500m2 shared plant. The business has 80 employees focused on the company’s four “core” material handling products, emphasizing sales in China, Southeast Asia, Korea, and India, according to Richard Shaffer, Conair’s director of engineering and technology, and Jack Chen, operational manager for Conair Shanghai Manufacturing Co. in the Songjiang Industrial park.

Victrex enters film extrusion market

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) supplier Victrex (Thornton Cleveleys, England) has begun extruding and marketing films using its material as a means to prime the market pump for extruded PEEK films. According to company CEO David Hummel, PEEK now is finding the largest global demand (Victrex exports 98% of its output) in industrial applications (33%), followed by electronics (28%), transportation (26%), and 9% for medical-with most of these injection molded applications. By starting Aptiv monolayer PEEK films processing, “We have opened up a completely new customer base we never had before with the resin,” he says.

Although Solvay and Degussa are entering the PEEK market, Victrex holds a near-monopoly on the material’s supply, with production to 2,800,000 tonnes/yr, and the demand for this high-priced thermoplastic continues to grow, Hummel says. The company plans to open a second plant at its headquarters by November, adding a yearly capacity of 1,450,000 tonnes/yr at the site.

Ownership change for Pomini

The plastics and rubber compounding equipment business unit of Techint, marketing under the Pomini brand, has found a new owner, which Riccardo Curti, former business unit senior VP, says will allow it to better develop and grow. Techint, the Italian multinational, will concentrate on its core steel mill equipment business and has sold the Castellanza, Italy-based rubber and plastics machinery division to the L. Possehl Group (Lübeck, Germany). In 2005 Possehl acquired Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau (H-F), a manufacturer of rubber/elastomer processing equipment which was formerly a part of the Thyssen-Krupp Group (Essen, Germany).

Curti, the new managing director, says the new company, named Pomini Rubber & Plastics Srl, has a long-term agreement to sublet production space in the present Techint plant for its own manufacturing and assembly work. H-F will continue to operate separately under its own name.

[ On the record ]

“Many of our American customers don’t even know we are a European company, and I think that’s great.” Arno Schenk, CEO of Quadrant, a Swiss supplier of semifinished composite parts and an injection molder, on being a global firm with local roots.

“80% of all injection molding applications require injection speeds of 100 mm/sec or less. Sometimes people tend to forget this.” Helmar Franz, executive VP and CSO, Ningbo Haitian Machinery Co. Ltd.

 

“We are very sympathetic to processors because raw materials are a high proportion of their costs. [However], they are becoming much more efficient in the use of our products. They’re recycling what they don’t make into prime product, downgauging, and adapting to the new reality, in other words.” James Harris, Sr. VP, ExxonMobil Chemical Co.

 

“In a world of Goliaths, we are definitely David.” Uwe Wascher, chairman at newly formed Polyscope, supplier of styrene maleic anhydride copolymers.

“We frankly underestimated the pricing levels it would take to sell a machine here.” Jay Woerner, VP of global manufacturing and sourcing for Milacron, on China’s hypercompetitive molding machinery market.