Perlos shutting Ft. Worth facility

Perlos, the Finnish injection molder and contract manufacturer serving, primarily, the mobile telecommunications industry, says it will close its longstanding manufacturing facility near Ft. Worth, TX and transfer the production to its Reynosa plant in Mexico by the end of the second quarter. The Texas plant, which Perlos says is unprofitable, employs approximately 1250 persons including temporary workers. Perlos hopes the closure will save it about ?15 million/yr.

Perlos last year shuttered a manufacturing facility in Finland and it said early last month more layoffs in Finland would occur. The firm says it is the "world''s largest supplier of mobile phone mechanics." It soon will open new facilities in Beijing and Guangzhou, China and, next year, in Chennai, India.

In Brief

Austria office for Arburg

German injection molding machine manufacturer Arburg (Lossburg) now has its own fully owned office just south of Vienna, Austria. Rene Müller, who has been responsible for sales in this area for many years, will run the office.

K-M''s Thailand subsidiary

Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik GmbH (Munich, Germany) has set up a subsidiary in Thailand for its customers there, most in the automotive and packaging industries.

Arkema opens nanotube pilot plant

Plastics and chemicals supplier Arkema has opened a carbon nanotube pilot plant at Pyrenees-Atlantique, France to produce 10 tonnes/yr of material for customer trials.

On the move

Engel (Schwertberg, Austria) announced that Gerd Liebig, former chief strategic marketing officer at Demag Plastics Group, since Jan. 1 is employed by Engel as head of group marketing, a new position.

New business director-aftermarket for extrusion equipment maker Davis-Standard (Pawcatuck, CT) is Jerry Warren. He previously held posts at equipment maker John Brown/Cumberland and New Harbour.

Demag Plastics Group (Schwaig, Germany) appointed Ansgar Jaeger as marketing director. Jaeger is also DPG''s manager for application engineering and process development.

Jane Austin, global business director for DuPont''s chloroelastomers business, was elected chair of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) for 2006.

Tetra Pak makes materials change for liquids'' packaging

Food and beverage packaging processor Tetra Pak (Lund, Sweden) is changing the materials it uses for its composite paperboard/plastics/aluminum foil containers in a global move it says will reduce reliance on plastics by selecting a tougher, stronger material.

The new standard packaging material, brand-named Wide, for roll-fed chilled liquid beverages, consists of an inner extrusion-coated layer of metallocene-based linear low-density polyethylene (mLLDPE) that Tetra Pak''s Jörgen Haglind says is 30% thinner than the previous low-density polyethylene coating and requires less plastic for the same effect. He says Tetra Pak will be able to reduce its global consumption of plastics, primarily polyethylene, by 50,000 tonnes/yr. At the same time the company is increasing the use of recycled paperboard in the packaging by 3.5%, according to Günther Lanzinger, project director. By this month, the new packaging material will be the de facto standard for carton packages from Tetra Pak.

A current Tetra Brik aseptic carton is typically made of 77% paperboard for strength, 18% LDPE to provide moisture barrier and sealability, and 5% aluminum foil, generally 6.35 µm thick, for odor, UV light, and gas barrier. Such packaging can consist of up to seven layers with a LDPE outer layer for moisture and dirt protection that covers the printing ink layer applied onto the paperboard. This is followed by a tie layer on each side of the aluminum foil and finally another extrusion-coated LDPE layer for sealing. It is this last layer in the Wide concept, which is being replaced with the mLLDPE.

Haglind says the mLLDPE requires 17% less energy to process. It also makes the overall package lighter. "We achieve even better sealing properties leading to an improved package integrity," he says. "[The cartons] become generally more robust to cope with outer stress such as stackability or mistreatment in distribution." Tetra Pak has not revealed its plastics supplier.

GW Plastics makes buy in China

Injection molder and moldmaker GW Plastics (Bethel, VT) has purchased a controlling interest in WCH, a mold builder and injection molder headquartered in Guangdong, China. WCH was founded in 1997 and has been a key GW Plastics'' supplier for injection molds.

WCH will be renamed GW Plastics Guangdong. The firm employs more than 100 workers and has a 40,000-ft2 molding facility with cleanroom capability.

GW Plastics also recently opened a new facility in Querétaro, Mexico.

Geon name back in business

PolyOne Corp. (Avon Lake, OH), a global plastics compounder and distributor in North America, has broken out its specialty PVC business as a separate group, Geon Specialty Resins, led by François Côté, vice president and general manager. PolyOne put the business on the sell block last year but decided to keep it after suitable offers were lacking.

Geon Specialty Resins includes manufacturing facilities in Henry, IL and Pedricktown, NJ. The Geon product line includes dispersion, blending, powder-coating, and specialized suspension PVC.

PolyOne was formed in 2000 after the merger of compounder M.A. Hanna with PVC supplier and compounder Geon.

Jones leaves Nypro

After nearly 20 years with the company, Brian Jones has resigned as president and CEO global contract manufacturer/ molder/moldmaker Nypro, leaving a legacy of lean initiatives and explosive growth, as Nypro expanded from 21 plants and $166 million in revenue in 1995 to 67 plants in 18 countries with more than $1 billion in revenue in 2005. Ted Lapres, a 17-yr Nypro veteran and board member, was promoted from corporate VP and chief financial officer to acting president.

New plasma system shaves coating costs

A plasma coating system for improving plastics'' oxygen and carbon dioxide impermeability, developed by Nano Coating Systems of Fremont, CA, will be marketed by Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON), the world''s leading manufacturer of PET preform molding systems and molds.

Barrier performance of PET preforms is a key ingredient in their use in applications such as carbonated soft drinks, chemicals, and beer packaging, among others. Plasma coating is an increasingly popular means to add gas barrier performance to blowmolded packaging (for more on blowmolding, please see article on p. 20 in this issue).

According to Nano Coating Systems, its process is significantly less expensive than other plasma coating systems because it uses radio frequency energy to generate plasma rather than microwaves. Nano Coating''s President Bill Liggett says the process is expected to cost less than $6/1000 bottles, which is about half the cost of some other plasma coating systems in use.

Husky will handle distribution, commercial matters, start-up, service and spare parts of Nano Coating''s plasma coating units.

Battenfeld Gloucester building a 17-layer cast film line

Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. (Gloucester, MA), part of the SMS group of plastics processing machinery manufacturers, says it is designing and building a 9-extruder, 17-layer cast barrier film line, eventually expandable to 34(!)-layers, for an as-yet unidentified customer.

Battenfeld says it will be in operation in the first half of 2006.

Former Crane exec climbs aboard Milacron

Plastics processing machinery manufacturer Milacron (Cincinnati, OH) has hired Herb Hutchison as director of international business development for Cincinnati Milacron extrusion technologies. He comes to Milacron after a 33-year career with profile extrusion processor Crane Plastics where he rose to president.

Cincinnati Milacron manufactures single-and twin-screw extrusion equipment. Cincinnati Milacron''s extrusion business re-entered global markets last year after a non-compete agreement with former Milacron subsidiary Cincinnati Extrusion (Vienna, Austria) ended.

PW Eagle consolidates

Processor PW Eagle (Eugene, OR) is combining its Oklahoma-based operations into existing space at subsidiary USPoly''s Tulsa location. This will involve relocating production equipment and more from its Shawnee facility.

PW Eagle extrudes PVC pipe while subsidiary USPoly Company extrudes PE pipe and molds pipe fittings. Together they operate fourteen U.S. manufacturing facilities.

Entek makes personnel moves

At twin-screw extruder manufacturer Entek Manufacturing Inc. (Lebanon, OR), Kirk Hanawalt has been named VP/COO and will manage daily operations. He had been Entek''s VP-global sales. John Burke has assumed the role of operations manager. John Effmann, hired by Entek in 2005 as corporate marketing manager, has been promoted to director of sales & marketing.

Schröder departs Battenfeld

"Wilhelm Schröder left the management of SMS GmbH on January 31, 2006." That was the extent of the release from SMS (Düsseldorf, Germany) on the departure of Schröder, who joined the firm from competing plastics processing machinery maker Krauss-Maffei Kunststofftechnik in early 2004 with the mission to improve its Battenfeld injection molding machinery operations.

But last November SMS announced it will close its German injection molding machine site in Meinerzhagen, where it made large machines, and concentrate its injection molding machine manufacturing on machines with less than 1000-tonnes clamp force, in its Kottingbrunn, Austria manufacturing facility.

SMS derives most of its sales from machinery for metallurgy and rolling mills for metal processing; within its plastics machinery business, extrusion equipment accounts for the bulk of sales. Battenfeld plastics machinery includes the Battenfeld Gloucester brand of blown- and cast-film lines, and the Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik, Battenfeld Chen and Cincinnati Extrusion sheet and profile extrusion lines.

Polyurethanes'' supply increasing in China

Global polyurethane suppliers Huntsman and BASF are partnering with a trio of Chinese companies to build a 400,000-tonnes/yr MDI plant in China by 2010, targeting that country''s expanding consumption of PUR. Shanghai Hua Yi, Sinopec Shanghai Gao Qiao Petrochemical Corp., and Shanghai Chloro-Alkali Chemical Co. Ltd. are the Chinese members of the venture, which already has an integrated isocyanate complex under construction at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Caojing.

Scheduled to be online by the middle of this year, the $1 billion complex initially will have a 240,000-tonne/yr crude MDI capacity. MDI or diphenylmethane diisocyanate is a precursor in the manufacture of urethanes. On a regional basis, Bayer MaterialScience (Leverkusen, Germany) plans to open a polyurethane system house in Bangkok by the beginning of next year to serve customers in ASEAN countries.

According to IAL Consultants (London), Chinese production of PUR has exploded from humble beginnings, leaping from 7000 tonnes in 1982 to 2.68 million tonnes in 2004, which represents 25% of global production. IAL predicts production there will reach almost 4 million tonnes by 2009. Fully 32% of PUR production in China goes towards elastomers, followed by coatings (24%), and flexible foam (22%).

IQMS''s growth reveals ERP''s growing popularity

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software supplier IQMS (Paso Robles, CA), which sells software especially to plastics processors and other repeat manufacturing companies, capped off a three-year sales increase tear in 2005, posting a 25% revenue gain last year after boosting revenue by 20% in 2004 and 15% in 2003. Revenues from licenses increased 30% in 2005. Fully a quarter of the 2005 growth came from processors overseas.

IQMS has achieved double-digit growth for the last eight years, says Randy Flamm, president and founder of IQMS. He formed the company in 1989.

Pharma packaging venture formed

Süd-Chemie Performance Packaging, a business unit of specialty chemicals supplier Süd-Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) has formed Süd-Chemie Schweiz SA, a joint venture with Swiss holding company PQH Holding (Fribourg).

PQH transfers to the venture the pharmaceutical and medical business segments of Plaspaq SA (Broc, Switzerland) an injection molder owned by PQH.

Süd-Chemie Schweiz SA, registered in Broc is 51% owned by Süd-Chemie and 49% by PQH Holding. Plaspaq will maintain and continue to develop independently its molding business for the food and technical parts markets.

P.A. Gapany, general manager at Plaspaq, will direct operations of the new venture, too.

Balda buys out Malaysian partner

Injection molder Balda (Bad Oeynhausen, Germany) has acquired the 50% stake formerly held by Thong Fook Electronics in the two firm''s Balda-Thong Fook Solutions joint venture in Ipoh, Malaysia. Balda is one of the world''s leading suppliers to the cellular phone industry and also serves the automotive and medical markets.

Financial terms of the Thong Fook buyout were not revealed. In Malaysia Balda produces cell phone parts plus headsets and chat boards. Balda concluded the purchase via Balda Investments Singapore, in which its Taiwanese JV partner Everskill owns 25%. Balda-Thong Fook Solutions had sales of about ?33.6 million last year.

BASF expands compounding operations

Supplier BASF''s Engineering Plastics business will expand its North American presence with the installation of compounding capacity at the company''s Altamira, Mexico site in the second quarter. BASF already has a styrenics plant in Altamira.

BASF intends to market nylon 6, nylon 6,6 and PBT-based compounds to processors in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexican border from the new facility. BASF has two other North American engineering thermoplastics compounding facilities, in Wyandotte, MI and Sparta, TN.

In December 2005 BASF acquired Italian supplier Lati''s North American engineering plastics business, its third acquisition in engineering thermoplastics in the last three years; it also acquired Honeywell''s engineering plastics business in a huge deal that gave BASF North American leadership in nylon 6, as well as Ticona''s nylon 6,6 business.

CPM acquires Century''s extrusion business

CPM Holding Inc. (CPM; Waterloo, IA) has acquired the extrusion equipment division of Century Inc. Century''s twin-screw extruders see use in the plastics, chemicals and food industries.

CPM acquired the business as a going concern and intends to keep management, operations, engineering and sales/service personnel plus Century''s Traverse City, MI location.

Nelipak to Sealed Air

Flexible packaging processor Sealed Air (Saddle Brook, NJ) acquired Dutch thermoformer Nelipak (Venroy). Nelipak''s net sales in 2004 were approximately $50 million, supplying packaging for medical, consumer and industrial applications from three facilities, one each in England, Ireland and The Netherlands.

Royal takes on flooring

North America''s largest PVC profile extruder, Royal Group (Woodbridge, ON), has signed an exclusive agreement to process and supply Conforce Intl. (Mississauga, ON) with Conforce''s new Eko-Flor composite floors for shipping containers. Conforce is a shipping container handling and storage firm.

Conforce CEO Marino Kulas (photo above) spoke with MPW before the agreement. He offered few details but says the composite flooring he developed "has some plastic in it" and is designed to replace the prevalent birch plywood flooring. "Others have tried [plastic composite flooring for containers] but never achieved the necessary strength," he says; 20-ft shipping containers can carry up to 60,000 lb of cargo.

He says that Eko-Flor can be steam cleaned easily, rendering every shipping container safe for shipping food or other sensitive products.

"Every container in circulation now needs to have a treated (wood) floor. Our product completely gets around that-there''s no need to treat Eko-Flor."

The floors require just four screws to install, a huge issue, Kulas says: "One of our customers spent more than $180 million last year on repairs to (wood) container flooring."

Kneader wins kudos

Manfred Eiden, CEO of Coperion Holding, owner of compounding equipment maker Coperion Buss (Pratteln, Switzerland), as well as Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer (Stuttgart, Germany) and Coperion Waeschle (Weingarten, Germany), says he expects to see a 10% growth in business this year. Buss''s Quantec kneader, recently awarded this year''s top Innovation Prize by the Swiss cantons of Basel city and Basel county, now makes up 20-25% of the company''s annual business.

[ On the record ]

"(Our companies) have been able to buy blown film in China at less cost than we can buy the granulate in North America from the North American supplier who supplied the processor in China!" Leland Lewis, managing partner at Key Principal Partners, an equity investor in a number of plastics processors.

"There''s just a lot of overcapacity." Robert Isen of Viapack, on the midmarket film-extrusion industry in North America.

"Processors are not so much pinching pennies as they are putting their money where it can do them the most good." Chuck Thiele, senior consultant at Conair.

"Having exceptional or leading operational excellence is not enough to ensure success in our industry."

Werner Breuers, president of Basell Polyolefins Europe.

"Successful companies have better intellectual capital-understanding what matters to your customers and providing that is key. Know your customers intimately." Craig Fitzgerald, consultant with Plante & Moran LLP.