Blow molders win top Plastics for Life awards

MOSCOW (MRC) — The blow molding process netted three awards during the Society of Plastics Engineers' annual Plastics for Life competition, held at the Antec conference in Anaheim, said Plasticsnews.

A panel of judges picked the winners of five awards, from parts that had already won in competitions at previous SPE conferences throughout the past year. The Grand Prize Award winner went to the extrusion blow molded PET PleurX drainage bottle, used by patients at home to drain fluid from the lungs and for malignant ascites.

Another part, a big underfloor duct for a John Deere backhoe, won two awards: Improving Life and the People's Choice. FGH Systems Inc., a maker of blow molded tooling in Denville, N.J., won the Grand Prize for the thick-wall bottle. The bottle is being molded with a FGH mold, on a Uniloy shuttle blow molding machine, with a W. Muller accumulator head. An even wall thickness was important because the bottle is hooked up to a vacuum system to remove liquids.

The Improving Life and attendee-voted People's Choice awards went to Deere & Co. for an extrusion blow molded duct that moves heating, ventilating and air conditioning to the cab in a backhoe.

A foam additive is used to create a large bubble structure, making an insulation barrier. "This sits above the transmission, so there is a lot of heat," said Ken Carter, a staff materials engineer at Deere's technology and innovation center in Moline, Ill.

In an interview on the parts competition floor at Antec, Carter said Deere developed the foaming process and the molds. Adopting blow molding brought the duct from 43 pieces — four rotomolded parts and a lot of assembly components — down to two pieces.

Carter said Regency Plastics Inc. of Ubly, Mich., extrusion blow molds two pieces and them infrared welds them together. Deere worked with Agri-Industrial Plastics Co., a blow molder in Fairfield, Iowa, to develop the foaming process, Carter said.

"We made the process so we can take it to any molder," Carter said. "It's not something where they have to buy special equipment. All they have to do is buy a vacuum pump."

John Ratzlaff, who coordinates the Plastics for Life parts competition, announced the winners at the Antec news conference on May 9. Other award winners are: Santa Fabio for General Motors General Motors Co.'s Global Manager of Waste Reduction John Bradburn demonstrates the Chevrolet Equinox engine insulation made from used water bottles from several GM facilities.

The Sustaining Life Award went to General Motors Co. for the engine cover insulator used on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Sierra pickup truck. The part used 2 million PET water bottles from Flint, Mich., which faced a drinking water crisis, and another 1.2 million water bottles from GM's plants in Michigan.

The recycled PET was processed into fleece used in the engine covers. Other uses for the material included air filters for GM factories and insulation as coats that double as sleeping bags for homeless people.

The Protecting Life Award went to Profile Plastics Inc. of Lake Bluff, Ill., for a thermoformed housing for a surgical waste management system used in hospital operating rooms.

Profile Plastics used negative pressure forming tools, which resulted in a good cosmetic appearance, with many molded-in features that reduced assembly time. The front cover has seven vacuum-formed and three pressure formed parts, with a total of seven pneumatic slides. The top cover has seven pneumatic slides. The top and front covers are formed from Kydex-T acrylic/PVC sheet. The clear windows are polycarbonate.

The Quality of Life Award went to Plastic Technologies Inc. and Yumix LLC for the Holland, Ohio-based PTI's Clasper bottle, a two-component PET package with a shrink label, that lets the user make his or her own mixed drink. The smaller bottom container holds alcohol, and the larger one holds juice. To make a drink, the consumer separates the shrink sleeve at the seam between the top and bottom containers via a perforation, unsnaps the bottom container from the base of the primary bottle opens both and pours the alcohol into the juice.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaneka Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. (KAH) (Texas, USA, President: Kazuhiko Fujii) and Applied Poleramic Inc. (API) (California, USA, President: Brian S. Hayes), a formulated advanced resin supplier in the aerospace area have agreed to KAH’s acquisition of all of API’s shares and have entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement on June 19, 2017, said the company on its website.

KAH shall acquire all of API’s stocks for approximately USD 15 Million and API will become a consolidated subsidiary of KAH. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States and satisfaction of other customary conditions.

In the area of aerospace, there is a rapid growth for high performance composites in demanding applications such as engines, hot areas of the aircrafts, rockets and launch vehicles. Due to its superior properties over metal and metal alloys of: weight to strength ratio, heat-resistance and durability, Kaneka sees greater growth potential of this sub-segment than the general structural composites market. We anticipate this sub-segment to grow more than 10% annually within the next 10 years or exceed USD 2 billion in market value.

Established in 1992, API possesses formulated advanced resin technology used in high performance composites. API has been a strategic supplier of high performance composites to OEM’s and their subcontractors. Kaneka currently also supplies high performance materials such as Polyimide films (Apical®) and resin modifiers (Kane Ace® MX) to the same key end customers. Kaneka sees the acquisition of API as a way of achieving an accelerated synergistic growth through the integration of advanced core technologies from both companies.

After the acquisition of API, Kaneka will continue to seek M&A and partnership opportunities to further strengthen growth, sales and market position of high performance composites in the area of aerospace. By 2025, Kaneka aims to achieve more than USD 200 Million in sales. Growth will be achieved by fully utilizing and uniting Kaneka global resources in corporate research, product research, and product development; located in institutes and research centers throughout Japan and North America.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lloyd’s Register (LR), the leading provider of engineering and technology-centric professional services, is awarded a new contract from S-Oil Corporation (S-Oil) covering the implementation of a fully integrated risk-based inspection (RBI) system, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Based at S-OIL’s largest investment project - a new USD4.2 B residue upgrading and Olefin downstream complex (RUC/ODC) plant in Ulsan, Korea - the new contract will commence this month.

"We are delighted that S-OIL has decided to adopt our AxximTM software package to make its management of failure probability more systematic and efficient. In extending our RBI services to S-OIL’s strategic RUC/ODC project, we eagerly anticipate helping S-Oil successfully realize its goal to modernize and expand its integrated refining and petrochemical operations," said Mr. Pyeong-Sik Shin, Asset Integrity and Development Solutions Manager of LR for Korea.

The new contract will see LR deliver additional RBI consultancy services across areas such as systems, software training, and inspection management modules. LR’s team of experts will also assist in the selection of thickness measurement locations for equipment and pipes.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2017, South Korea's S-Oil, the country's third-largest refiner, signed a deal to sell a combined USD1 billion of diesel, naphtha and jet fuel this year to Saudi Aramco, its biggest shareholder. In a filing to the Seoul stock exchange, S-Oil said it would sell a total of 38 million barrels of refined products to Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company, Aramco's trading arm.

S-Oil Corporation is a petroleum and refinery company, headquartered in Seoul, Korea. It was established in 1976 by old name SsangYong Refinery. It produces petroleum, petrochemical, and lubricant products, as well as polysilicon products through its investment in Hankook Silicon. The company is one of the most profitable energy companies in Korea.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA on Monday said its board has approved a settlement to end an United States-based lawsuit opened by some affiliates of The Vanguard Group, one of its largest shareholders, reported Reuters.

Petrobras, as the company is known, did not give details of the settlement, but said it raised provisions for legal cases underway in the United States to USD445 MM from USD372 MM. Several investors petitioned US courts for compensation for damages suffered in recent years, when the company was engulfed in a massive corruption scandal.

As MRC wrote before, in late December 2016m, Petrobras said its board had approved the sale of two petrochemical companies, Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, to Mexico's Alpek SAB de CV for USD385 million.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic packaging maker Alpla Inc. is investing more than USD5 million to acquire an existing bottle manufacturing plant in West Bend, Wis., said Plasticsnews.

The Austria-based company, with 160 locations in 43 countries, purchased the former Gehl Foods bottle manufacturing plant from private equity firm Wind Point Partners of Chicago.

Wind Point acquired Gehl Foods, known for making shelf-stable dairy-based products, about two years ago. Gehl makes a variety of products, including pudding, yogurt and dairy-based beverages, but might be best known for its cheese sauces.

In buying the food company, Wind Point ultimately decided to divest Gehl's high density polyethylene bottle-making site.

The blow molding facility has the capability to make bottles ranging in size from 4 to 16 ounces, according to Gehl's website.

Gehl also distributes its products in pouches as well as dispenser-ready bags with fitments that are often used in convenience stores for its nachos and cheese line of products.

Tom Jablonsky, vice president of manufacturing for Alpla in North America, could not be reached for comment. But he said in a local news report that the company is looking to grow the bottle-making business both locally and regionally.

The sale price was $5.43 million, according to a special warranty deal filed with the state of Wisconsin.

Wind Point has other investments in the plastics industry. In early June, it acquired Reinier Plastics of Marieville, Quebec, a move that increases its PVC compounding business through its Aurora Plastics business.

The private investment firm also owns stretch film maker Paragon Films Inc. and sold off its majority interest in plastic bag maker Novolex last year.
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