K Day Two: Packed halls, smiling exhibitors

From the show floor (Oct. 28)
battenfeld-cincinnati: Confirming an ecological trend seen by a number of processing machinery manufacturers at the show, the three divisions of recently merged extruder specialist battenfeld-cincinnati (Stand 16B19) is emphasizing its “green-ness” with new equipment designed to reduce energy consumption without loss of output. Read more here.

Gneuß: The industry is on something of a high note at the moment, thank goodness, but few are the firms that can say they went through 2008-2009 without getting dinged hard. One of the few is Gneuß (Stand 9A38), which even in a poor economic environment achieved record turnover levels in the last two years, with another record effort expected for this year. Read more here.

SML: At just 140m2, SML’s (Stand 16B47) latest stretch-film line nearly halves the space requirement of standard stretch film lines. But don’t let the small footprint fool you, says Thomas Rauscher, product manager, cast film extrusion and MDO at the company. “The line has an output of up to 1.2 tonnes per hour,” he told the KSD during a visit to his company’s stand. Read more here.

Sepro: Complex automation tasks such as demolding of auto bumpers followed by flaming can be handled by the latest cartesian robots equipped with free CNC rotation capability from Sepro (Stand 10D59). Read more here.

Parkinson Technologies: Helping oriented film suppliers transition from commodity to more specialized products has helped web-processing machinery supplier Parkinson Technologies (Stand 3D54) boost its own bottom line, with sales on the rise in 2010 and the company adding 30 staff since the start of the year. Read more here.

Borealis, Borouge and Nova Chemicals: Three companies—Borealis, Borouge and Nova Chemicals (Stand 6A43)—have joined forces for the first time here at K 2010 to showcase their slogan: "Creating new horizons—Capability, Commitment, Care." Read more here.

RocTool: Whatever you need from your injection mold, one license from RocTool (Stand 15B17) is designed to help you reach you productivity goals. RocTool is the inventor of the CAGE system for inductive heating of molds as well as its 3iTech technology for heating a mold by electromagnetic induction. Read more here.

Galata Chemicals: Galata took life on April 30, 2010, just six months ago this weekend, but in that short time span it has rapidly introduced new products, hired 30 additional staff and renewed its focus on emerging markets such as Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, according to Eric Wisnefsky, the supplier’s president and CEO. Galata Chemicals is the new name for the former PVC additives business of Chemtura, and in fact here at the K is sharing a stand (6E24) with its former parent. Read more here.

TechnoCompound: Optimizing the production process and maximizing plant capacity has made it possible so far for TechnoCompound to keep up with the demand for TechnoFiber PP LGF L H E, the long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene it produces. Now, however, the company has announced that it will be investing in a second, new production plant. Read more here.

Sabic IP: Sabic Innovative Plastics (stand 6D42), announced plans yesterday to speed up environmental programs, including introduction of new grades that boost use of post-consumer recycled plastics. The U.S.-based company also said it will expand validation of environmental claims with a third-party auditing firm based in New York City called Green Order and explore new bioplastics. Read more here.

Italian K Exhibitors: Light at the end of the tunnel is how some Italian exhibitors at this year’s K show say they are seeing the recovery which has affected their industry. Although interest from customers has picked up lately, Alessandro Feller, export sales manager at Zambello Riduttori (Magnago, Italy), specialist manufacturing high-powered gearboxs, which is showing its know-how at the stand of Swiss screw producer Bernex Bimetall (Stand 11E41), says he is only cautiously optimistic as he looks down the road. Nevertheless Zambello now is fully booked to the end of the year. Read more here.

Braskem: For Braskem (Stand 6D27), the Brazilian company with proprietary technology for converting sugarcane ethanol into useable feedstocks for biopolymers, life just keeps getting sweeter. The company today announced that it was launching a project to build a green propylene plant in order to move into industrial scale production of green polypropylene. The green polypropylene will have the same technical, processability, and performance properties as polypropylene made using traditional production routes. Read more here.