Sabic announced new concrete forms made from LNP Verton long glass fiber-reinforced composite

(Sabic) -- At Plastimagen Mexico 2011, SABIC's Innovative Plastics business unit announced an industry first: new one-piece, reusable concrete forms made from the company's high-performance LNP Verton long glass fiber-reinforced composite. The new corrosion-resistant composite forms were developed by SABIC and Meccano de Mexico, a top Mexican construction supply company, to replace heavy traditional multi-piece steel forms, reducing weight by up to 40 percent, cutting cycle times from three hours to only a few minutes and helping to reduce overall construction costs for more-affordable housing. Today's announcement is a building & construction industry milestone for both Meccano and SABIC that showcases SABIC's commitment to working side-by-side with customers to help them achieve business success.

MRC

(Pallmann) -- Bernd Huber has been appointed CFO of Pallmann Group, effective October 1. Pallmann is the world's largest specialist manufacturer of machines for materials size reduction and processing technology.

Mr Huber is ideally qualified for this position because of his long business management experience in the machine construction sector, as well as working for associated automotive suppliers and also in the consumer goods industry.

His professional career has included 10 years as CFO and later as CEO of a medium-sized automotive supplier company which developed and manufactured automotive powertrain parts and modules for European car manufacturers. His work also embraced the company's other area of expertise, mainly the development, manufacture and international distribution of hydraulic parts for machine construction.

Most recently, Mr Huber has been Head Group Controller for a global automotive supplier company. Here, the focus was on the manufacture at all 13 plants, with responsibility for the distribution/development and joint ventures for market development.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US Celanese's top executive hinted on Tuesday that the company was considering building a new acetic acid plant, although he offered no specifics about where or when it might be built.
In a conference call that focused frequently on acetic acid, Celanese chief executive David Weidman said there had been no new plants built since 2008 or early 2009. ⌠At some point you shouldn't be surprised if we announced a new acetic acid plant that was economically attractive relative to debottlenecking or any other option that we had," Weidman said at the end of the call. He added that acetic acid is the foundation of the company, and Celanese plans to maintain that position.

MRC

(Lukoil) -- An official ceremony of laying down a time capsule symbolizing the launch of construction phase one of a gas processing plant (GPP), part of a gas chemical facility (GCF), took place in Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Territory, today. The GCF will be built on the industrial site of OOO Stavrolen, an OAO LUKOIL subsidiary.

The facility is expected to be built in several phases. In 2015, it is planned to commission phase one of the GPP with a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters per year and a 135 MW unit on the base of a CCGT (combined-cycle gas turbine) and to upgrade the existing ethylene production unit to convert it to the processing of liquefied gases.


In 2017, it is planned to commission phase two of the GPP with a capacity of 4 billion cubic meters per year, an ethylene production unit with a capacity of 225 thousand tons per year and a polyethylene production unit with a capacity of 255 thousand tons per year.


As a result, the GCF will become Russia's largest polymer production center. Moreover, commercial gas from the GCF will be delivered to Gazprom's transportation system. The expected appropriations to all budget levels will exceed RUB 10 billion per year.


MRC

(Plastics Today) -- Thermoplastic elastomer (TPO) nanocomposites developed by Korea's Honam Petrochemical Corp. (Seoul) have delivered a 25% weight saving versus 40% talc-filled polypropylene through thinwalling and lower density in a side sill molding used in a Hyundai vehicle.

Weight was reduced from 4.6 kg to 3.4 kg per car according to Se Hoon Kim, Senior Research Engineer at the company's Daedok Research Institute. Use in B pillar trim, meanwhile, reduced mass by 30%. The nanocomposite compounds employed use Honam's Adpoly maleic anhydride-grafted polyolefin as a coupling agent. For these compounds to make further market penetration, Kim notes that technical issues such as suitability for non-painted exterior parts and the odor of interior parts need to be addressed, while pricing is also currently an issue.

Furthermore, Honam entered the long glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFRT) market three years ago with its Supran product, available in base polymers polypropylene, polyamide and polycarbonate. These products are manufactured using a special melt impregnation process and come in 8-12-mm fiber loadings of 20-50%.

One of the first application successes for Supran was Korea's first integrated plastic door module, molded in a 31-second cycle and achieving a 30% weight saving over its metal predecessor and a 20% reduction in part number.

MRC