British Plastics
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bp&r MARch 2018
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LEADING THE WAY Shared knowledge and best practice for a stronger rotomoulding industry
THE GREAT DEBATE Keith Freegard asks whether landfilling or incineration is best for low-grade waste
SHINING LIGHT Manufacturing hailed as a “bright spot” of UK economy at EEF annual conference
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editor’s letter
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Leading the Way The Guidelines, which will be distributed for free in May this year, signify the hard work, collaboration and dedication of those involved to produce a document that will make the industry safer and stronger the world over.
www.britishplastics.co.uk head of content: Leanne Taylor
T: +44(0)1244 680222 E: leanne@rapidnews.com Assistant Editor: John Carlon
T: +44(0)1244 680222 E: john.carlon@rapidnews.com head of media SALES: Lisa Montgomery
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Senior Sales Executive: MANDY O’BRIEN
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British Plastics & Rubber is available on free subscription to readers qualifying under the publisher’s terms of control. Those outside the criteria may subscribe at the following annual rate: UK, Europe and rest of the world £249 British Plastics & Rubber is published monthly (8 times/year) by Rapid Plastics Media Ltd, Carlton House, Sandpiper Way, Chester Business Park, CH4 9QE T: +44 (0) 1244 680222 F: +44 (0) 1244 671074 © 2018 Rapid Plastics Media Ltd While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information contained within this publication is accurate the publisher accepts no liability for information published in error, or for views expressed. All rights for British Plastics & Rubber are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.
ISSN 0307-6164 Incorporating Polymer Age and Rubber and Plastics Age.
B
ritish Businessman, Harold Green, once said “leadership is practised not so much in words as in attitudes and actions.” This was certainly apparent in central London last month, where the UK plastics industry gathered together stakeholders from across retail, business, waste management and politics to discuss how best to stem the tide of plastics entering the marine environment. The day resulted in many delegates pledging their allegiance to an action plan, which will utilise collective knowledge and experience to formulate and implement best practice and take coordinated action against marine litter. For those suggesting the plastics industry is doing little to help the environmental issues so highly visible at the moment, this is a perfect example that progress is in action. On the theme of progress, this month’s focus on the rotomoulding industry spotlights the huge strides being made by the UK sector. On page 15 we highlight the development of a rotomoulding material produced by Northampton-based Matrix Polymers, which is answering a call from automotive OEMs for materials that can withstand ever higher operating temperatures, while also providing weight reduction at the same time. Such materials do not only afford manufacturers more choice, but are a symbol of the progress being made in meeting ever more stringent regulations for CO2emissions. Also in our feature, we hear from the BPF’s Dr. Sara Cammarano on the commendable progress made on the upcoming publication of a world-first set of Health and Safety Guidelines for the roto industry. The Guidelines, which will be distributed for free in May this year, signify the hard work, collaboration and dedication of those involved to produce a document that will make the industry safer and stronger the world over.
It is this leadership and collaboration that was highlighted in the EEF’s annual conference last month by its new CEO, Stephen Phipson, as a distinct advantage the country’s manufacturing industries have over competitors. In his address, he said that working together for mutual benefit and sharing a sense of community has led to a sector that is strong, that can communicate with stakeholders at all levels and has, ultimately, made it a “bright spot” of the UK economy. You can read the full report on page 12. Enjoy the issue. Leanne Taylor, head of content
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the big story From the Far East to the East End: The changing UK materials market
IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE, LEANNE TAYLOR SPEAKS TO PETE TILLIN AND DUNCAN SCOTT FROM LEICESTERSHIRE-BASED MATERIALS DISTRIBUTOR, PLASTRIBUTION, TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW THE COMPANY HAS PLAYED A PART IN MAKING THE UK PLASTICS MATERIALS MARKET TRULY GLOBAL.
UK plastics processors in 2018 have a vast choice of quality materials available to them from manufacturers around the globe. However, in the not-so-distant past, the polymer landscape looked very different. In 1979, when Plastribution was founded, materials were sourced almost solely from a network of European producers and other traders.
“It took several years for processors to even recognise the name,” said Tillin. It was the same, he added, for materials from Taiwanese-based producer, Chi Mei: “Since its establishment in 1960, Chi Mei has been producing world-class polymers and rubbers. Its ‘Polylac’ ABS is now a very established brand in the UK, but back then it was a very tough sell.”
“After initial success as a trader of polyolefin products, Plastribution as a company decided to safeguard against the volatility of the traded market by adopting a more classical distribution model,” explained Duncan Scott, the company’s Commercial Development Manager (pictured top left).
However, after persuading customers to try the products, the adoption of the new materials grew in the UK, as did the confidence to try other products from the same suppliers. “Thankfully, through the combination of a large UK stock holding, our own technical support and the quality and competitiveness of the materials, processors recognised the benefits of these new brands,” explained Tillin.
“The offer of a wider portfolio of both commodity and engineering polymers was received positively by customers who wanted to combine orders, have consistency of supply and be able to source material from a few preferred suppliers.” However, expanding its portfolio meant establishing new relationships with Western European suppliers of products like Polyamide, Acetal and Acrylic – something of a challenge at the time. It was only when Plastribution was acquired by Itochu Corporation in 1992 that opportunities for relationships with new suppliers from the Far East brought a change not only for the company, but for the UK as a whole. “Suppliers and brands that we now recognise and trust were often seen as very risky alternatives to the well-known and established petrochemical companies in Germany and the rest of Europe,” explained Pete Tillin, Product Manager for Engineering Polymers. “The materials were not trusted, quality was questioned and although they seemed to be competitive, the risk of changing away from established names was often too big a leap,” he added.
“A TOUGH SELL”
Plastribution, with the support of its new parent company, took to promoting manufacturers such as MEP, Idemitsu and Chi Mei to its UK clients. The process was not a smooth one, however. To bring an unknown product, like MEP’s ‘Iupital’ Acetal, into a new market, as well as grow its distribution business in these polymers from scratch, was a challenge for the company. 4
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In the years since, Plastribution’s business has flourished in traditional UK Acetal markets. In addition, the uptake of Chi Mei’s ABS, PMMA, PC, SAN and PC/ABS resins by UK customers has seen the company represent the portfolio for nearly 25 years.
EXPAND AND CONQUER
In 2018, Tillin and Scott say the need to keep expanding an engineering portfolio of products does not pause. Development of materials that continue to challenge the idea of what a polymer is capable of means that materials like PES, LCP, PEEK, conductive polymers and PPS amongst others also need to be available if a distributor is to claim a complete range of products. “Over the last three decades the polymer market has become truly global. Manufacturers that were new and untrusted are now fully integrated in the UK polymer processing sector and their materials are at the forefront of exciting new product developments across multiple industries,” said Tillin. “We are proud of the part Plastribution has played in achieving this. Without the knowledge of the UK market, the technical expertise of its staff and knowledge and ability to manage the complexity of deep sea supply chains, the manufacturers and brands that we now take for granted might not be such a common sight in the warehouses of polymer processors up and down the land,” he concluded. www.plastribution.co.uk
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MARCH 2018
on the cover
FROM THE FAR EAST TO THE EAST END: THE CHANGING UK MATERIALS MARKET Pete Tillin and Duncan Scott from Leicestershire-based materials distributor, Plastribution, speak to Leanne Taylor about how the company has played a part in making the UK plastics materials market truly global. SEE PAGE 4
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Editor’s Letter LEADING THE WAY
12-13 Feature
EEF 2018: UK MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IS AN ECONOMIC “BRIGHT SPOT” Following an unprecedented year of UK political upheaval, the EEF annual conference painted a picture of a sector preparing for change, looking to capitalise on opportunity and facing up the challenges ahead. Leanne Taylor reports from London.
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REGULARS
ROTOMOULDING: SHARED KNOWLEDGE FOR A STRONGER INDUSTRY Dr. Sara Cammarano, Industrial Issues Executive for the Rotational Moulding Group at the British Plastics Federation, writes for BP&R on how its latest Health and Safety guidance will be available to benefit the whole industry when launched, knowledge sharing for a stronger sector and its upcoming seminar.
09 INDUSTRY NEWS 15 ROTOMOULDING 21 RECLaMATION AND RECYCLING 26 TESTING AND INSPECTION 30 MEDICAL PLASTICS 34 materials 39 SOFTWARE 42 MACHINERY 47 BUYERS’ GUIDE 50 NEWS FROM THE FRONTLINE
Feature
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feature
THE GREAT DEBATE: WHAT’S BEST FOR LOW GRADE PLASTICS? With levels of waste plastics rising in the UK as a result of China’s National Sword scrap import policies, the debate is picking up over what to do with them. Landfilling, rather than incineration, might be the better option, suggests Keith Freegard, Director of plastics recycler, Axion Polymers.
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Feature
MATERIAL WORLD: FACING UP TO THE CHALLENGE Dr John Williams of Birmingham-based Aquapak Polymers Ltd writes for BP&R on his suggestions for overcoming the challenges facing the plastics industry, as well as the innovative new materials developments that fit with the vision of a circular economy.
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INDUSTRY | NEWS LyondellBasell to acquire A. Schulman, Inc. for $2.25 billion
British plastics companies are being encouraged to enter the Indian market
LyondellBasell is to acquire A. Schulman, Inc. for a total of $2.25 billion (approx.. £1.6bn GBP). LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies, says the purchase of A. Schulman, a global supplier of high-performance plastic compounds, composites and powders, will allow it to create a new, combined business unit with broad geographic reach. To be named ‘Advanced Polymer Solutions’, the new venture doubles the size of LyondellBasell’s existing compounding business and, it says, establishes a platform for future growth with reach into additional high-growth markets. Bob Patel, Chief Executive Officer of LyondellBasell, said the acquisition is “a natural extension” of its current platform. LyondellBasell will purchase 100 percent of A. Schulman common stock for $42 per share (approx. £30 GBP) and is using cash-on-hand to finance the acquisition, which has been unanimously approved by the respective boards of the two parties. “This transaction, which provides our shareholders with a compelling, immediate cash premium, represents the culmination of a robust assessment of strategic alternatives undertaken by our Board of Directors,” said Joseph M. Gingo, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of A. Schulman, Inc. Gingo said the acquisition would address a “broader range of customer needs” through integration across applications and offering a range of solutions in attractive and growing markets. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2018. www.lyondellbasell.com www.aschulman.com
India is “no longer a long game” says High Commissioner following UK show success Guy Bromley, of the British High Commission in New Delhi, has told the UK plastics industry that exporting to – and doing business in – India is “no longer a long game.” Bromley made the comments following a successful participation by UK exhibitors at Plastindia, one of the world’s largest trade shows. Companies from the UK plastics industry attended the event from 7-14 February as part of a British Pavilion headed up by the BPF and with support from the Department for International Trade (DIT). The event saw over 245,619 visitors attend over the course of the show and the 13 British exhibitors reported a positive interest in the products and services on offer. Andrew Lineker, Managing Director of Ray Ran Test Equipment Ltd, said the show was “a great opportunity not only to meet potential clients, but raise awarness of what Ray Ran can offer business to improve the quality of their products.” John Norris, Director, B&M Longworth(Edgworth) Ltd, said that visitors to its stand “were interested in improving environmental impacts as well as saving process costs.” Some of the participants on the British Pavilion received a DIT Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) grant of £2,500, which helped offset the some of the cost of exhibiting. In addition to the TAP grants, DIT helped exhibitors by
having a joint stand with the BPF, which worked as a networking area for the exhibitors and trade mission delegates. “Indian interest in the products exhibited by UK companies at Plastindia 2018 was palpable; quickly demonstrated by firm orders for products ranging from slitting and rolling machines to anti static devices,” explained Bromley. “No wonder, with Indian industry growing at a faster pace than the already booming Indian economy, Indian companies are upping their game in boosting capacity, efficiency and quality. India is no longer a long game, demand is here now and UK companies should be too.” Bromley said interested UK companies looking to enter the Indian market should talk to an International Trade Advisor to get help exporting. The next edition of Plastindia will be held in 2021 in New Delhi. www.bpfevents.co.uk www.great.gov.uk plastindia2018.plastindia.org
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Visitors at Ray-Ran’s stand at Plastindia 2018
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Solutions 4 Polymers and Blow It All team up for technical qualification
Belgrade’s pail liners
“Brexit may be stalling, but trade isn’t” says Belgrade Polymer Products Following a rise in orders from a long-standing European customer, Belgrade Polymer Products is stepping up production of its plastic pail liners for 2018. The Wellingborough-based thermoforming specialist believes that Brexit and the weaker pound is broadening its sales opportunities, particularly for its added-value concept. “From January, our customer is looking to place orders for 30,000plus liners per month as they look to consolidate their purchases through one source,” said General Manager, Patrick Burke. “As a consequence, we have agreed to support them in their home markets across the continent, so they are now our official distributor in mainland Europe. They
McDonalds aims for worldwide packaging recycling by 2025 Fast-food chain, McDonald’s, has pledged to recycle all its customers’ packaging across the world by 2025.
are very happy with the quality of our products and service and the fact that we are responsive to their needs.” The polypropylene (PP) and LDPE pail liners are used to protect a variety of goods including chemicals, cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical products. To keep up with demand and increase its production flexibility, Belgrade has developed two new bespoke liner variants for their customer and is planning further investment in plant and personnel. Burke added: “We pride ourselves on providing a customised service and maintaining the highest product specifications tailored to our customers’ specific requirements. So far, we’ve had a very busy start to 2018. Brexit may be stalling, but trade isn’t.” www.belgrade-polymer.com
Along with certifying its wood fibre packaging by the Forest Stewardship Council, the hamburger specialist intends to recycle all packs in its restaurants. Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer, saidt packaging waste is the top environmental issue the firm’s customers would like it to address. Our ambition is to make changes our customers want and to use less packaging, sourced responsibly and designed to be taken care of after use, working at and beyond our restaurants to increase recycling and help create cleaner communities,” she said.
Apprenticeship training provider, Solutions 4 Polymers, and blow moulding and training consultancy, Blow It All, have announced a new training qualification partnership. The two UK-based companies are collaborating to offer an extended version of the recently launched Diploma in Polymer Processing qualification, which will cover the blow moulding sector. “Following numerous discussions with major blow moulding employers, it became very apparent that we have a shortage of skills and with an ageing workforce, the problem is only going to get worse,” explained Blow It All Founder and Owner, Nick Thacker. “Many of the technicians with 20+ years’ experience will be walking off the floor for the last time and taking their hard-earned knowledge with them. It is almost impossible to recruit experienced EBM technicians, they simply don’t exist. The fact that we now have this excellent, in-depth qualification is great and we can now start to bring in new blood into this specialist process.” With six processing pathways, the newly developed Level 3 Diploma in Polymer Processing qualification has been specifically created for the polymer sector to meet the everchanging demands of an apprentice in a forward-thinking organisation. The qualification aims to equip individuals with all the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours to perform to the highest level possible in a modern manufacturing environment. www.solutions4polmers.co.uk www.blowitall.co.uk
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Delegates at the 2018 EEF conference
EEF 2018:
UK Manufacturing industry is an economic “bright spot”
F FOLLOWING AN UNPRECEDENTED YEAR OF UK POLITICAL UPHEAVAL, THE EEF ANNUAL CONFERENCE PAINTED A PICTURE OF A SECTOR PREPARING FOR CHANGE, LOOKING TO CAPITALISE ON OPPORTUNITY AND FACING UP THE CHALLENGES AHEAD. LEANNE TAYLOR REPORTS.
The UK labour market needs to “adapt and adjust” and find new ways to find talent to keep businesses going – Thomas
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I
n his first address to the EEF annual conference as its new CEO, Stephen Phipson said in a challenging political environment the sector must work together for mutual benefit. Through sharing knowledge and experience, the UK manufacturers had the opportunity to share a sense of community that would prove invaluable as the “many unprecedented issues” surrounding Brexit take hold. Phipson outlined access to labour, regulation and trade barriers as the undoubted challenges facing the sector in the coming months, however, said he is confident in the manufacturing industry’s ability to “adapt and change.” He said that EEF is in talks with Westminster about how to “make more” out of the Industrial Strategy, which, he added, was “a step in the right direction”, however, must have the manufacturing industry’s priorities at its core. Despite these challenges, Phipson, said that the UK manufacturing industry is a “bright spot”, owing to record demand in 2017 and a booming export market and that the sector is still seen as “an attractive place to invest” to overseas businesses.
GLOBAL UPSWING
Returning keynote speaker, Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, delighted delegates by starting his address saying something “important and cheerful”, as he told the audience the UK economy was in “the middle of a very strong global upswing.” However, his celebration soon gave way to caution, stating that risks including inflation, recent US fiscal decisions and a highly leveraged global economy gave “plenty to be concerned about at the global level.” Where Brexit is concerned, Wolf did not hold back in stating the Government had taken “an extraordinary risk” in triggering Article 50 before future trading agreements were firmly understood. “At the end of all this, whether we like it or not, we’ll end up with a standstill agreement of some sort,” he explained, adding that a “Canada-type” deal, where the UK gets to trade with the RoW at the cost of a more bureaucratic relationship with the EU, the most likely eventual outcome. He added that should this occur, then the UK economy “should still grow”, although warned it “would be costly.” ENHANCING REPUTATIONS In the first of the political keynotes of the day, Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox MP, told the audience there is “few industries doing as much as manufacturing to enhance the UK’s global reputation.” He said the “mills and foundries may
have largely disappeared” but, in their place, is an industry built on expertise and world class R&D, highlighting the composites materials sector as a leading example. Fox told delegates that priorities for the Government were amplifying export and trade opportunities, stating it is committed to “opening the doors to trade” to companies at all levels of manufacturing, through accessible export finance, support and putting new commissioners in place in rapidly developing countries that are keen to benefit from UK products. He accepted that the sector would feel uncertainty in the light of ongoing EU negotiations, however, that maintaining access to markets in Europe and beyond was at the forefront of the Government’s agenda.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
In the afternoon keynote, Jeremy Corbyn MP, leader of the opposition, started by emphasising the key role of skilled women to the manufacturing industries, stating the percentage of women in the STEM sectors was “still too low.” The UK “cannot build a more prosperous economy without utilising the talents of everyone,” he added. Corbyn told delegates that the Government was not “doing enough to support” the UK’s manufacturers in their search for skilled workers, stating that vocational education would be “at the heart” of a Labour Government’s National Education Service. This, he added, would include introducing the relevant skills at primary school age and realigning the apprenticeship levy to give businesses more opportunity to spend the money available. Where Brexit is concerned, the Labour leader said that the party has “taken a practical role” in accepting the outcome of the EU referendum, however, stated that businesses “must not be forced to withdraw from European markets”. He added: “We have to have an effective relationship with Europe,” otherwise manufacturing in the UK “simply won’t happen”. Negotiating with respect and not undercutting the EU is the way forward, he concluded.
AN ATTRACTIVE PROSPECT
In a change to the usual EEF programme, the organisation gave delegates the opportunity to attend breakout sessions where challenges facing the sector were addressed. In one of the most attended, which focused on sustaining a post-Brexit workforce, the challenges relating to filling the void left by EU nationals was discussed, as well as how to make the sector more attractive to the next generation.
Tim Thomas, Director of Employment and Skills at EEF said that the UK labour market needs to “adapt and adjust” and find new ways to find talent to keep businesses going. Commenting, Jason Muller, Global Manufacturing Director of cosmetics brand, Lush, said that, like the UK plastics industry, the cosmetics sector relies heavily on workers from the EU. He said to attract and retain local talent, the business had embarked upon a programme of recruiting locally, attending job fayres, targeting colleges and “telling its stories further and wider” about the career possibilities offered by the UK’s manufacturing sector. Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion Enter Ltd, said the country should “be very proud of UK manufacturing.” However, the fashion industry too, is dominated by workers from the EU for their technical skills. In order to bolster the skills of local employees, the company has invested in establishing a training academy for “hands-on learning.” Holloway said that the impending T-Level qualifications due to start in 2020 were “encouraging”, adding “we do need technical qualifications”. Finally, Cormac Watters of technology and software corporation, Infor, said companies must embrace technology and social media to make a business attractive to the younger people it is trying to recruit. He said research shows employees will value a business that has invested in modern technology and equipment. “We must make manufacturing a destination of choice,” he explained.
MAPPING A FUTURE PATH
Where planning for Brexit is concerned, a workshop outlined the importance of mapping exercises to give businesses clear visibility of the impact on processes, supply chains and staff in the short, medium and long term should the UK no longer have access to the single market. “We have to hope for the best and plan for the worst,” said panellist Mike Hague-Morgan, CoOwner of Autocraft Drivetrain Solutions, however, said that it was important for businesses “not to get completely distracted by Brexit” and to look for “other opportunities.” Arne Mielken of the Institute of Export and International Trade said that key priority for UK manufacturers from his viewpoint is to train staff in business requirements for exporting and importing so that processes and protocols for trading with other countries are clear and understood, regardless of the outcomes of the negotiations. www.eef.org.uk
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ROTOMOULDING | NEWS International rotational moulding event to take place in Hamburg
Matrix develops new roto material for higher temperatures and lighter weight applications
The Association of Rotational Moulders (ARMO) will hold its international conference in Hamburg in 2018. Taking place at the University of Hamburg from 16-18 September, the event’s theme will be “Function Meets Design.”
Matrix Polymers has developed a new material for use in the rotomoulding process that meets the increasingly demanding requirements of OEMs, particularly in the automotive sector. Its new polyamide alloy, called ‘Revolve PA HIU’, can withstand operating temperatures of 140150 °C and, at the same time, can deliver significant potential weight savings. This material has also been designed so that it is easy to rotomould and does not require any complicated procedures, such as needing an inert atmosphere within the mould. Revolve PA HIU can be moulded on conventional rotomoulding equipment, with normal steel or aluminium moulds. This development is part of an on-going programme at Matrix Polymers aimed at inventing new materials for rotomoulders, which will expand the range of products that can be produced by the process and thereby help in the growth and continued success of the rotomoulding industry.
Braskem and A. Schulman partner on plant-based rotomoulding material
www.matrixpolymers.com
Braskem and A. Schulman have embarked a new partnership that sees them produce and market a plant-based polyethylene for use in rotational moulding. After identifying a market demand for more sustainable solutions in rotomoulded products, Braskem says it started to develop a solution to enable the rotational moulding of general-purpose parts, with applications ranging from toys and furniture to agricultural tools, that can contain more than 50 percent of its sugarcane-derived ‘Green Plastic’ in their composition. The new material, introduced late last year, is marketed by A. Schulman using the ‘I’m Green’ label, which is assigned to products produced in Braskem’s ‘Green Plastic’ plant. It is aimed at processors seeking more sustainable solutions owing to its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and recyclability.
This year’s meeting will combine a programme of international and technical presentations with a large exhibition area for industry suppliers. Registration is now open for delegates, with the full speaker line-up to be announced shortly. Some 600 international delegates are expected to attend the conference, which has previously been held in cities across Europe, including Nottingham, UK in 2015. www.armo2018.com
“The partnership with A. Schulman will benefit a market that requires innovative products. The new compound is another step of the petrochemical industry towards reinforcing the commitment of companies to new solutions that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Gustavo Sergi, Director of Renewable Chemicals, Braskem. Gustavo Perez, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Latin America at A. Schulman, the company is “pleased to play a part in helping drive green innovation the speciality chemical industry and specifically for the rotomoulding market.” www.aschulman.com www.braskem.com.br
The new roto material is produced using sugarcane
Its new polyamide alloy, called ‘Revolve PA HIU’, can withstand operating temperatures of 140-150°C and deliver signif icant potential weight savings
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COMMENT Rotomoulding: Shared knowledge for a stronger industry
DR SARA CAMMARANO, INDUSTRIAL ISSUES EXECUTIVE FOR THE ROTATIONAL MOULDING GROUP AT THE BRITISH PLASTICS FEDERATION, WRITES FOR BP&R ON HOW ITS LATEST HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDANCE WILL BE AVAILABLE TO BENEFIT THE WHOLE INDUSTRY WHEN LAUNCHED, KNOWLEDGE SHARING FOR A STRONGER SECTOR AND ITS UPCOMING SEMINAR.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Sara Cammarano is the Industrial Issues Executive for the Rotational Moulding Group at the British Plastics Federation. She is a materials engineer with a PhD in polymer science and a specialisation in rheology. At the BPF, Sara is currently responsible for its health and safety, moulders and specialist processors, rotational moulders and composites groups. To contact, email: scammarano@bpf.co.uk
T
he British Plastics Federation’s (BPF) Rotational Moulding Group represents and promotes the interests of all those involved in the rotational moulding process - moulders, material suppliers, machinery and ancillary equipment manufacturers and service providers. As part of this, it has played a leading role by working on the production of the world’s first Rotational Moulding Health and Safety Guidance; the very first document to tackle health and safety issues in the rotational moulding industry and to provide a list of what to assess and what to look for when a rotational moulder is carrying out a risk assessment. The document gives advice on the safeguarding requirements for foreseeable hazards associated with rotational moulding machines, including whole body entrapment. We are now very pleased to say that the guidance has been approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and it is undergoing the endorsement process; it should be published by the end of May. The BPF strongly believes that good H&S practice should be available to everybody and it has decided to make its H&S Guidance available for free. In addition, the BPF has made available supporting health and safety guidance to its SIMPL (Safety In Manufacturing Plastics) members. These documents can be accessed on the BPF’s health
and safety microsite along with information about SIMPL. KNOWLEDGE SHARING The BPF Rotational Moulding Group believes that knowledge sharing will strengthen the whole industry. It has recently launched its ‘Lunch and Learn Webinars’ designed for Rotational Moulders; the first of which was entitled ”An introduction to rotomoulding through a glass mould: making everything clear” by Dr Gareth McDowell of 493K. Further knowledge sharing will come at the annual Rotational Moulding Seminar on 16 May at Queens University in Belfast; part of the BPF Rotational Moulding Group’s efforts to support the sector. The theme of the seminar will be innovation, in every form, whether it is design, tooling, machines, material or additives, with a special focus on Industry 4.0.
This year’s seminar will have a slightly different format as, after the morning section, delegates will be split in groups to attend workshops in the university laboratories or PhD student presentations to gain an understanding of the direction in which the industry is going, as well as potential future applications for the rotational moulding process. There will also be table top opportunities for suppliers to exhibit their latest achievements and to engage in productive discussions with the attendees. The full programme for the event will be available by the beginning of March. Following the success of the previous BPF rotational moulding events, we expect this seminar to be very popular and to attract an audience of over 100 attendees. www.bpf.co.uk
The BPF strongly believes that good H&S practice should be available to everybody and it has decided to make its H&S Guidance available for free.
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A Shoo-In:
Rotationally moulded iPad device supplied to Clarks’ stores
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he award-winning Clarks’ iPad foot gauge was designed and developed for the precise measurement of children’s feet by UK-based design company, Designworks Windsor Ltd. It initially challenged Tecni-Form to produce the device’s main body in white, in STAFFORDSHIRE- medium density BASED PLASTICS polyethylene SPECIALIST, (MDPE), and TECNI-FORM LTD, specified an RE-IMAGINED exceptional THE SCOPE OF surface finish to ROTATIONAL complement the appearance and MOULDING TO feel of the iPad PRODUCE AN IPADcase. ENABLED MEASURING Although DEVICE, WHICH HAS rotational NOW ROLLED OUT moulding, using TO EACH OF CLARKS’ relatively low cost SHOE STORES IN THE tooling, makes UK. BRITISH PLASTICS good sense for a AND RUBBER LOOKS large component AT THE PROJECT IN produced in MORE DETAIL. sub-five-figure quantities, the technique is not conventionally prescribed to achieve a flawless, gloss finish and very high dimensional accuracy. The TecniForm team, however, was keen to demonstrate its advances in the process, such that surface finish limitations are now a perception from the past.
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Clarks have rolled out the device in UK stores
The new shoe device is rotationally moulded
Expert in rotomoulding and reaction injection moulding (RIM) for clients including Bentley, Aston Martin, Volvo, JCB and Caterpillar, TecniForm mobilised its experience in mould tool design, precision process control and machining techniques to meet the specification in full. The company also drew on knowledge it gained in a previous project for Designworks, a Gunnebo security safe with a style and finish to appeal to high-street consumers. Material suppliers worked with TecniForm to formulate a specific, high brightness, white MDPE rotomoulding powder. The tailor-made formula assisted with the complexity of the moulding shape and the final gloss of the product.
TIGHT TOLERANCES
With the surface finish achieved, Tecni-Form also had to be able to manufacture to a ±0.5mm machining tolerance to ensure a clearance fit between the main body and a steel footplate insert. This eliminated a potential dirt trap on the upper face of the assembled device. In production, the component is moulded fractionally oversize and a CNC 3D machining station is used to create the correct recess profile to accept the steel plate. A combination of uniform wall thickness and very low residual stress promote high strength in rotational mouldings. When Designworks tested production samples, the strength of the mouldings reached the 350kg load limit of the test rig - more than twice the specified minimum failure load for the component. Tecni-Form estimated the cost of the rotational mould tools for the main body was between one tenth and one twentieth of that estimated for a pair of imported injection moulding tools for the same product. WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE Charged with the complete assembly and distribution of the Clarks foot gauge, Tecni-Form convinced Designworks it was right in its choice of both moulding technique and manufacturer. The company says it is well advanced in terms of manufacturing automation and supply chain management, having developed a bespoke Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that encompasses the entire operation, from RFQs to SOPs. Tecni-Form has now completed the delivery of 2,500 units for Clarks’ domestic stores and has already begun fulfilling orders to equip Clarks’ branded outlets across Europe and beyond. www.tecni-form.com www.designworksgroup.net www.clarks.co.uk
About the Clarks’ Foot Measuring Device Winning numerous design awards for its creators, Designworks Ltd, the Clarks iPad foot gauge is an interactive device, which uses a removable iPad to obtain and record accurate size data in Clarks’ stores around the world. Animation software helps to engage children during the fitting process, while the iPad’s touch screen is utilised to register the foot measurement. The data is uploaded via in-store WiFi and used to generate a worldwide database guiding the size distribution of around 50 million pairs of shoes per year.
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RECLAMATION AND RECYCLING | NEWS Luxus starts recycling analytics tool service for NIR compatability Technical compounder, Luxus, has launched a rapid colouredpolymer analysis service that tests for ‘end-of-life’ recyclability. It enables producers to discover for the first time if the plastic packaging or products they make can be detected via near-infrared (NIR) sorting. The service is part of the company’s drive to increase the amount of black and coloured plastics that can be recycled, by making them visible to sorting technology. “Design for recyclability is an urgent priority for producers right now. This unique service offers the ability to quickly assess if any coloured plastic item produced can be detected and if not, we will offer a colour-matched infrared detectable alternative,” explained Peter Atterby, Luxus’ Managing Director. From this month, brand owners, retailers and packaging producers will be able to ensure that anything from black shampoo bottles to yellow yogurt pots and brown coffee pods can be analysed to find out if they are ‘visible’ via optical sorting methods. Supporting this innovative service is a new spectrophotometer capable of reading solar reflectance in the NIR spectrum. It enables therefore, the measurement of solar reflectance levels of colourants to ensure that specified polymers do not inhibit near-infrared sorting.
Luxus says its new analysis tool could be a game changer for the plastics recycling industry
Atterby continued: “Our service represents a real ‘game changer’ for brand owners and product designers. Since this is the first time that a spectrophotometer is being used to identify near-infrared reflectance levels to achieve the very best NIR sorting wavelengths for plastics that previously would have remained undetected. “We are able to clearly identify pigment mixes given a nearinfrared footprint and then expertly assess every possible colourant combination to meet the challenge of finding the closest and most economically viable colour match for designers, satisfying both aesthetic and plastics pollution concerns.” The spectrophotometer is also pivotal to NIRSort, a new £1.29m (€1.47m) two year project, cofunded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme that aims to tackle our wider plastics waste problem. With partners Polykemi and One51 it will bring to market a new range of infra-red reflecting (IRR) colourants to be adopted beyond packaging itself. It will address a much broader range of applications including the plastics found in household electrical appliances to automotive components for the very first time. www.luxus.co.uk
MacRebur recycled asphalt mix makes first inroads to London
A section of Green Dragon Lane, on a busy bus route, was relayed with the asphalt/ plastic regrind mix.
Plastic road surface firm, MacRebur, has used its innovative tarmac substitute to top a major thoroughfare in the London Borough of Enfield. A section of Green Dragon Lane, on a busy bus route, was relayed with the asphalt/ plastic regrind mix. This successful resurfacing trial has led Enfield Council to secure additional funding from Transport for London for further trials in the borough, using the same product. Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Daniel Anderson, said: “We all know that plastics can have a devastating impact on the environment, particularly when the product reaches our seas and oceans. We all have a responsibility to step up our efforts to help the environment by recycling more, upcycling and responsibly sourcing materials. “Enfield Council is delighted with this road trial and hope we can use more of the product across the borough to help divert plastics from landfill and reduce the carbon footprint for road construction.” www.macrebur.com
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
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PLASgran makes Metal Separation and Classification investment to improve material quality
Multiple stakeholders support proposed industry pledge on marine litter
PLASgran, based in Wimblington, Cambridgeshire, has installed a new Cimbria DELTA cleaning, classification and separation system and an operation-wide investment in metal detection and separation. The bespoke cleaning line, which includes electrostatic and magnetic metal detection, in addition to removal of non-target fine particles, allows the production of high quality cleaned regrinds, suitable for direct-use applications, as well as significantly improving the quality of infeed materials to the compounding lines. Mark Roberts, Managing Director, said: “The purpose of this investment is twofold, firstly to improve the quality of the product we supply to our regrind customers, removing dirt, grit and all metal contaminants, as well as allowing better control over the particle size, and secondly to improve the efficiency, throughput and quality of our compounding processes. We have already seen a significant improvement in throughputs using materials that have been through this process, and screening and wear have reduced as a result of the cleaner inputs.” The cleaning line compliments additional investments in electromagnetic metal detection and separation that have been installed throughout the granulation, separation and compounding processes. The business has fitted Mesutronic detection systems at several key points through the operation, including outfeed of all three compounding lines.
Stakeholders from across industry, retail and waste management showed strong support for a proposed industry pledge on tackling marine litter. The pledge, initiated by the British Plastics Federation (BPF) was introduced to delegates at an event focusing on marine litter in London last month, as a way of the leading the way in preventing plastics entering the ocean. It highlighted the benefits of collaborative action to reduce waste and litter through reform of the PRN system; developing effective best practice measures;
www.plasgranltd.co.uk
PLASgran has made further investment in its Cambridgeshire plant
ensuring products are designed to ensure resource efficiency and end-of-life options are fully considered; openly sharing and developing best practice to improve waste management systems in the developing world. “We were blown away with the response from the invited audience and the British Plastics Federation looks forward to working with all partners over the coming months and years,” commented Barry Turner, BPF Plastic and Flexible Packaging Group Director. “This is a first step toward making a real difference and helping to stop the flow of litter into our oceans.” www.bpf.co.uk
Panda recycling lorries
Panda Recycling to build £13m PCR plant in UK In a move to enhance its growing recycling business and deal with the increase in plastic waste since China’s scrap ban, Beauparc Utilities, Irish owner of Panda and Greenstar, announced that it will invest €15 million (£13 million) to build a new plastics recycling facility in the UK. Eamon Waters, CEO of Beauparc, said: “We are delighted to be making this investment as a move to offer our customers a more sustainable recycling solution for plastic waste. Previously, as a company, we had to heavily rely on China as the only destination for plastics recycling. The new facility, which will slot in with Beauparc’s growing UK presence, will employ approximately 40 people and will process waste plastic films from both Ireland and the UK into new plastic products.”
Waters said he was “disappointed” not to be locating the new facility in Ireland. However, said following China’s pace in closing its border to plastics from Europe the business had to react quickly to continue to collect its customers’ recycling bins. “Unfortunately, the regulations governing waste management in Ireland mean that we could take more than two years to obtain the necessary approvals to establish a recycling facility here, whereas the UK regulator has ready-to-go protocols in place to allow us to start development on an approved site immediately. Operations are expected to commence in August,” he explained. Beauparc started in County Meath in 1990, and now has 1600 employees at 33 facilities across Britain and Ireland. Its companies include Panda, Greenstar, Panda Power, WSR, A1 skips and Bioverda the renewable gas company. www.panda.ie
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
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WWW.ULTRAPOLYMERS.COM | YOUR PARTNER FROM DESIGN TO PRODUCTION
OPINION
The great debate: what’s best for low grade plastics?
W WITH LEVELS OF WASTE PLASTICS RISING IN THE UK AS A RESULT OF CHINA’S NATIONAL SWORD SCRAP IMPORT POLICIES, THE DEBATE IS PICKING UP OVER WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. LANDFILLING, RATHER THAN INCINERATION, MIGHT BE THE BETTER OPTION, SUGGESTS KEITH FREEGARD, DIRECTOR OF PLASTICS RECYCLER, AXION POLYMERS. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Keith Freegard is a Director and Founder of Axion Group Ltd, which develops and operates resource recovery and processing solutions for recycling waste materials. He is Vice Chairman of the BPF’s Recycling Group and a non-Executive Director of OPRL.
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hina’s crackdown on imports of contaminated recyclables is leading to an ever-increasing stockpile of waste plastics materials worldwide. Tackling this problem waste stream will probably lead to increased incineration of waste to produce energy as the ‘best’ solution. An attractive option, perhaps, but when the carbon produced by that process is taken into account, is it really the best environmental answer? Creating energy from waste also produces between 25 – 30 per cent residual incinerator bottom ash (IBA), which still requires waste disposal or long-term storage. Although generating heat and power from waste sounds appealing, it is inefficient when compared to burning gas in a modern generator system. Burning natural gas also produces fewer emissions and there is nil solid ash waste to dispose of. The carbon release from waste incineration needs to be considered and compared to the alternative methods of generating an equivalent amount of electrical power. Typical Energy from Waste (EfW) plants have efficiencies of up to 30 per cent for converting feed material into electricity; in contrast, a modern Combined Cycle Gas Turbine’s (CCGT) efficiency is typically about 50 per cent. This disparity in efficiencies means that producing 1 MWh of electricity from a CCGT produces just 40 per cent of the CO2 emissions for the same amount of energy made from plastic incinerated at an EfW plant. SKY-FILL? It is true that a best-in-class EfW plant with integrated heat recovery (i.e. CHP plant) can recover a further 35 per cent of the available energy from the waste fuel; however, this heat could instead be generated by a natural gas boiler that has an efficiency of at least 90 per
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cent. Even taking this additional heat-efficiency into account, a combination of CCGT and boiler still only emits about 65 per cent of the CO2 of the leading EfW plants. Using the CO2 metric alone suggests that it makes more sense to bury large amounts of plastic in a long-term ‘carbon sink’ in the ground and efficiently combust natural gas to satisfy our immediate power needs. However, until world leaders are prepared to transform the taxation on fossilbased fuels in a way that truly reflects the high environmental cost of ‘free carbon release’, then this numeric analysis remains an esoteric academic study. Perhaps we should start by calling end-of-life waste incineration technology ‘skyfill’ to compare it with the alternative ‘land-fill’ disposal route for plastic-rich carbon mass? Increasing incineration capacity also stifles innovation in alternative resource recovery technologies because investment is diverted away from developing new processes towards building huge plants for burning materials to inefficiently create power. Having first raised the ‘landfill or incineration’ question more than 12 months ago, I still believe that the best environmental option may well be to store the waste plastics in a controlled landfill facility and then to ‘mine’ them back at a later date when new reprocessing capacity becomes available. Effectively acting as a long-term ‘carbon-sink’, these plastic materials could be extracted for recycling in the future if a new-process made this both technically and economically viable at that time. CARBON TAX Climate change concerns us all and efforts to control rising global temperatures have included a focus on the uncontrolled burning of
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
fossil fuels in many parts of the world. The huge shift in corporate and national energyhabits required to leave fossil fuels in the ground will only happen with a Carbon Tax placed on the generation of electrical power that is directly linked to the tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere per unit of power created. If that happens, it might then be the time to return to that ‘mine’ of carefully stowed thousands of tonnes of good plastic and look again at the economics of turning it into new polymer. With a huge carbon tax slapped on burning it, then the economics would probably work. So, these plastics may not have to stay in the ground for too long. Looking at the bigger picture, we should all be concerned about the wholesale damage to our planet caused by the completely uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels. That’s what we’re doing when we’re burning plastic that’s encapsulated amongst the mixed MSW we put in our black bin bags. The short-term political and economic viewpoint is that “we’re getting some electrical power from it so it must be a good thing to do”. But this I think reflects the market failure created by our currently very high landfill taxes that are not balanced by an equivalent taxation method to discourage free ‘sky-fill’. It’s a complex and challenging issue that reaches out over the next 20 years; a critical period in our history. Until we get a carbon tax that puts some seriously big pound notes on the cost of throwing carbon into the atmosphere, I don’t see there being any real change. After all, the Earth doesn’t have a bank account – it’s only us humans who operate under that monetary metric. www.axiongroup.co.uk
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TESTING AND INSPECTION | NEWS R-Tech and Zwick Roell team up for composites testing day in Port Talbot
the shape and size they are and how to optimise a test setup to get consistent practical results. Alan Thomas of Zwick Roell UK, who first approached R-TECH Materials to run the course last year explained: “We offer many introductory testing courses to industry and when it came to a knowledgeable and professional composite testing provider we could have done no better than R-TECH. Its laboratory facilities and high quality technical knowledge provide the perfect foundations for composite training and the quality of the course surpassed our expectations.” Andrew Williams, Lecturer at University of Salford Manchester who attended last year’s course said: “I attended the R-Tech Composites Testing Training Course in November 2017 and found it to be extremely useful. In particular I found the practical aspects very helpful, with well-
R-TECH Materials has teamed up with Zwick Roell to run an introductory training course on mechanical testing of composites. The one-day course at its labs in Port Talbot, in April, is designed for people with a limited experience in the principles and practices of testing composite materials. Combining classroom-based theory with practical demonstration for the most common mechanical tests, ranging from simple flexural testing to the more complex compression testing, the course will cover defining what a composite material is; the common terms used in mechanical testing; and why mechanical testing is carried out. It also looks at the theory of why the specimens used for testing are
R-Tech and Zwick are running a composites testing day for the second year
planned testing demonstrations. I came away with numerous useful tips on practical composite test specimen preparation. The course was very well delivered and I do not hesitate to recommend it.” Interested delegates should email the address below for further information. info@r-techmaterials.com
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Waters and Malvern Panalytical are working to advance the analysis of polymers
Waters and Malvern Panalytical collaborate to improve polymer characterisation Worcestershire-based Malvern Panalytical has entered into a comarketing agreement with Waters Corporation, a global speciality measurement company, to advance the analysis of polymers. By pairing Waters’ Acquity Advanced Polymer Chromatography (APC) System with Malvern Panalytical’s Omnisec Reveal, the companies say R&D scientists can access higher sensitivity, higher resolution data than ever before, giving them better insight into their samples without the need for column calibration. The driving force in the development of advanced analytical and separation technologies for polymer characterisation, says the partners, is the emergence of new and increasingly complex polymers with a broad range of structural and compositional diversity. The partnership is designed to help analysts access innovative techniques that allow them to better characterise and understand their highly complex samples. “Waters takes great pride in collaborating with innovative companies like Malvern Panalytical to solve complex molecular characterisation challenges,” said Jeff Mazzeo, Vice President of Marketing, Waters Corporation. “This is an example of two leaders in our respective fields working together to optimise the combination of our technologies in order to help scientists achieve their analytical goals.”
COUPLING OF TECHNOLOGIES
By combining high efficiency columns with the low overall system dispersion of Waters’ APC, resolution is said to be “significantly improved”, especially for low molecular weight oligomers. In addition, run times can reportedly be up to 5X faster than with traditional Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC), enabling higher sample throughput and more rapid method development. Use of this high speed, high resolution separation technique has historically seen limited pairing with advanced online detectors, such as light scattering, due to limitations in the dispersion characteristics WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
of these detectors. However, as the advantages of the APC become clearer, both in research and industry, manufacturers have been working to reduce dispersion within their advanced detector options, whilst maintaining the high resolution of the APC separation. Malvern Panalytical says it has achieved this with its Omnisec Reveal multidetector module. It says coupling the APC System to the Omnisec Reveal offers the ability to calculate absolute molecular weight, intrinsic viscosity and hydrodynamic radius. These parameters can be used to predict polymer behaviours in solutions/ product matrices and to give a more comprehensive understanding of polymer structure. This speed of analysis and easy access to more detailed information provides a quicker pathway to the development of more successful and efficient products. “Malvern Panalytical is proud to work with Waters to leverage
the high sensitivity and low dispersion characteristics of the Omnisec Reveal advanced detector module, which is ideally suited to the APC system’s high resolution and high efficiency separation characteristics,” commented Steven Horder, Vice President, Advanced Materials, Malvern Panalytical. “We believe that researchers will be delighted with the analytical abilities of the combined system, which offers extraordinary performance for the analysis of both natural and synthetic polymers and provides visibility of details that would otherwise be missed. The combination of Waters’ APC and Malvern Panalytical’s Omnisec Reveal opens new doors in polymer research and development which will translate directly to better product performance.” www.waters.com www.malvern.com
METTLER TOLEDO publishes drying methods for plastics Manufacturer of precision instruments, Mettler Toledo, has published a collection of halogen moisture analysis methods for the plastics industry. The information is designed to help define a drying method that fits the ASTM’s D6980-12 standard for determination of moisture in plastics by loss-in-weight in designation using a halogen moisture analyser. Mettler Toledo says the collection will help plastics manufacturers get started with fast, accurate halogen moisture analysis and deliver results in less time to keep up with customer demand. Accurate moisture analysis can help provide trouble-free compounding and injection moulding, the
company added, which enhances surface smoothness and helps to provide ideal mechanical properties. www.mt.com
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New process analyses damage to raw materials under load with radiographic examination The Fraunhofer Institute has developed a new method that it says combines the mechanical testing of a component under realistic loads with radiographic examination for the first time. Especially useful for carbon fibre-reinforced plastics, the method is used to characterise materials, and makes it easier to assess inclusions or damage to raw material regarding their influence on durability and service life. In so doing, Fraunhofer says it provides materials designers and manufacturers, as well as scientists, with information for better understanding of material behaviour and material characterisation. “Understanding how damage occurs to the material of a component while it is placed under realistic mechanical loads is one of the key questions in materials science, and was previously not possible,” explained Oliver Schwarzhaupt, scientific employee in Function-Integrated Lightweight Construction at the Fraunhofer Institute. With the new test method, the tested component remains in the x-ray equipment during the mechanical load. As a result, the exact location in the material can be observed and analysed throughout the entire load duration. Previous concepts were never able to achieve the necessary precision of just a few micrometers with the alternating insertion and removal of the sample with intermittent radiological examination.
Crack growth in the groove of a f iber-reinforced plastic sample. Photo: Fraunhofer LBF
The Fraunhofer Institute is the f irst to combine mechanical testing of a component under realistic loads with a radiographic examination. Photo: Raapke/Fraunhofer LBF
“The new process represents a huge advance in regards to detail resolution and precision, as well as the retrievability of possible causes of damage,” continued Schwarzhaupt. While scientists at Fraunhofer are subjecting the component to a mechanically dynamic service life load, they can use the radiological exambination in the cycle to observe and illustrate the occurrence and progress of the damage. With forces in the test machine of up to 250 kilonewtons, even high-strength components made of carbon fibre can be examined. “There is still a great need for examination to understand
the failure mechanisms in carbon fiber-reinforced plastics,” added Schwarzhaupt. With the use of a microfusion pipe, the x-ray equipment at the Fraunhofer Institute has a high resolution capacity of just a few micrometers. This means it is possible to detect the smallest signs of damage even as it begins to occur, or determine that the slightest irregularities in the material are the point of origin for the damage. In the area of fibrereinforced plastics in particular, the occurrence of damage on the fibre level can be studied. With this knowledge about the cause of the error and the error sequence, developers, designers and manufacturers can now improve their materials, components and manufacturing processes even before a crack is macroscopically visible. “Our new concept makes a great contribution on the topic of material understanding and is clearly better able to meet customer-specific requirements in the area of material failures at an early stage,” concluded Schwarzhaupt. www.lbf.fraunhofer.de/en
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MEDICAL | NEWS Solvay releases new polymer for implantable medical devices
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Solvay has unveiled a new polymer suitable for implantable devices as part of its specialities portfolio. New Zeniva ZA-600 CF30 PEEK, is a 30 percent carbon fibre-reinforced, radiolucent polymer. It offers modulus very similar to cortical bone, meaning unlike implantable metals, it can help implants minimise reduction in bone density by maintaining normal stress on surrounding bone tissue. The new polymer offers strength twice that of unmodified PEEK, which Solvay says makes it an excellent candidate for structural, loadbearing, implantable devices used in spine, hip and knee replacements. This allows designers to reduce the size and scale of their implanted devices to make them less intrusive. In the same way as unmodified PEEK, Zeniva ZA-600 CF30 polymer is also said to offer exceptional creep resistance and the ability to withstand prolonged fatigue strain. It also shares unmodified PEEK’s inherent radiolucency, giving it an advantage over metallic solutions that prohibit visualisation of implants and fusions using x-ray, CT scan, MRI and other medical imaging methods. “Zeniva ZA-600 PEEK CF30 offers the orthopedic industry an innovative new structural material with the potential to dramatically reduce the manufacturing costs of implantable devices used for sports medicine, trauma and joint reconstruction,” said Jeff Hrivnak, Business Manager for Healthcare at Solvay’s Speciality Polymers global business unit. “Optimised for injection moulding, this material opens the door to cost-effective, large-scale production of implants, offering OEMs the economic advantage they need to compete and succeed in this fast-growing market.” www.solvay.com
26 – 28 March 2019
MOC Munich, Germany Raw materials and auxiliaries +++ PU systems +++ Products and materials +++ Services +++ Processing machinery, systems and equipment
www.pse-europe.com Organisers: Mack Brooks Exhibitions Ltd
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Solvay has unveiled a new polymer suitable for implantable devices as part of its specialities portfolio.
Ultrapolymers expands medical polymer portfolio Ultrapolymers has extended its distribution agreement for INEOS Styrolution styrenic specialities to cover Europe, as it expands its existing range of material solutions for healthcare applications. In its aim to continuously provide pharma, medical device and combination device manufacturers with a wide choice of medical polymer solutions, the materials distributor says its portfolio now includes INEOS’ Terlux HD, Styrolux, NAS, Zylar, K-Resin and Styroflex brands, as well as Novodur HD and Luran HD. In this new expansion to its medical range, Ultrapolymers’ has also added Lyondellbasell’s newest Purell polyolefin resins, Purell EP370S, a nucleated polypropylene copolymer and Purell RP375R, a polypropylene random copolymer.
Purell EP370S combines stiffness and low temperature impact resistance with good flow properties, a new option for thinwalled medical equipment, labware and dental applications. Purell RP375R offers excellent transparency and a tailored additive package for gamma/x-ray irradiation and sterilisation, developed in response to increasing gamma sterilisation dosages applied, typically in applications such as labware, medical devices, syringes and injection pen components, medical and pharmaceutical packaging and diagnostics. www.ultrapolymers.com
University spinout partners specialist moulder to manufacture innovative medical device A spin-out company from the University of East Anglia (UEA) has partnered with a specialist injection moulder to produce an innovative new plastic medical device. Intelligent Fingerprinting, based in Cambridge, is working with contract medical manufacturer, Europlaz, on the production of a tamper-proof single use cartridge for fingerprint collections and drug screening. The new fingerprint drug test works by analysing fingerprint sweat in just a few seconds to screen for the four main drug groups – cocaine, opiates, cannabis and amphetamines – simultaneously. The device’s performance is highly dependent on two specialised features, its anti-tamper sliding cover, which protects the fingerprint from contamination after collection and a sealed reagent release mechanism. Southminster-based Europlaz has worked closely with Intelligent Fingerprinting on the manufacturing development of the small, ergonomically-designed and tamper-proof single use cartridge for drug screening. Key elements addressed by Europlaz in the process include precision moulding to create a ‘living hinge’ that supports the cartridge’s buffer clip, as well as a number of high quality features for the cartridge’s secure sliding cover. “Our ground-breaking technology
Europlaz has worked closely with Intelligent Fingerprinting on the manufacturing development of the small, ergonomically-designed and tamper-proof single use cartridge. Image: Intelligent Fingerprinting
depends on the highest standards of quality and accuracy, and Europlaz has already proved to be an essential partner in the design and development of our innovative, tamper-proof fingerprint collection cartridge,” commented Dr Jerry Walker, Intelligent Fingerprinting’s CEO. “Europlaz brings proven injection moulding skills and impressive clean room facilities to our partnership, and we now look forward to extending our relationship as we scale up our manufacturing following the full validation and commercial introduction of our fingerprint-based drug screening system.” The fingerprint drugs test has great potential, with applications across a variety of screening scenarios, including drug rehabilitation programmes, workplace applications, criminal justice and for use by coroners. Eddie O’Keefe, CEO at Europlaz, commented: “Now that the Intelligent Fingerprinting system is available commercially, we’re moving on to the next stage of the project as we collectively scale up cartridge manufacturing to ensure we meet the price points needed for what will quickly become a globalised product.” www.europlaz.co.uk www.intelligentfingerprinting.com
HIGH THROUGHPUT. WE DRIVE THE DIAMEETS QUALITY. CIRCULAR ECONOMY.
VISIT US: CHINAPLAS 2018 China / Shanghai 24 – 27 April 2018 Hall 2 / Booth 2B59
Whether it is inhouse, postconsumer or bottle recycling: you can only close loops in a precise and profitable way if machines are perfectly tuned for the respective application. Count on the number 1 technology from EREMA when doing so: over 5000 of our machines and systems produce around 14 million tonnes of high-quality pellets like this every year – in a highly efficient and energy-saving way. That’s Careformance!
CAREFORMANCE We care about your performance.
1801029ERE_Ins_British Plastics & Rubber.indd 1
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Just £195 Large stocks of Ancillaries available for next day delivery Call our sales team on 01536 403886 / 206653 to discuss your requirements
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Plazology invests in medical moulding growth Plazology, a plastics consultancy firm based in Leeds and Liverpool, is investing in its medical moulding expertise, as more engineers join its team and it moves to larger offices. The company, which offers services including plastics part design optimisation, injection moulding simulation, moulding and process validation and mould management and trouble shooting, says global and growing interest in its capabilities has given it confidence that growth will continue in 2018. “We have seen substantial growth in major clients from the field of medical moulding in the past 12 months,” explained Plazology’s Shaun Molloy. “There are increasing developments in the demands put on medical component moulders to provide lighter products in better performing polymers and get these to market even faster than before. We have had an increase in these clients requesting not only simulation, but verification of simulations at the moulding machine. This gives greater confidence for future part designs that the actual moulded components will be as the simulation predicted. “A great deal of the work we do with manufacturers and designers across the world is highly confidential and is associated with new developments which can be two-to-three years away from market. We are proud to have gained a reputation for respecting that.” www.plazology.co.uK
Plazology, a plastics consultancy f irm based in Leeds and Liverpool, is investing in its medical moulding expertise
a new s launched Covestro ha ate to on rb ca ly e po medical grad ncer ca of delivery enable safer . ts en ti pa drugs to
Covestro launches new medical polycarbonate for safer drug administration Covestro has launched a new medical grade polycarbonate to enable safer delivery of cancer drugs to patients. When used for medical apparatus including luers and other IV connectors, Makrolon Rx3440 polycarbonate is said to offer superior durability and chemical resistance to help prevent cracking to critical components. Covestro says compared with other transparent resins used for IV access components, comprehensive lab testing has shown that the polycarbonate provides best-in-class chemical and oncology drug resistance. This material also demonstrates the best retention of stress to provide more reliable IV connections. Makrolon Rx3440 polycarbonate also claims to offer several other advantages for medical manufacturers, including biocompatibility to ISO 10993-1 and USP Class IV standards; structural integrity to allow for thin-walled
Addmaster makes clean sweep with Hillbrush brooms A UK-based manufacturer of cleaning tools for healthcare environments has teamed up with Addmaster to create a new range of antimicrobial plastic products. Hillbrush’s new ‘Anti-Microbial Hygienic Tools’ are designed to prevent the spread of harmful bacteria, fungi and moulds. All plastics in the products, including the resin and brush
designs; resistance to mishandling; dimensional stability in shipping and storage. “We’ve leveraged our knowledge of this highly regulated market to formulate a material that serves an important need, yet requires minimal validation and requalification by OEMs,” said George Paleos, Marketing Manager for polycarbonate applications in medical and consumer products at Covestro LLC. “Importantly, we’re also able to provide customer support every step of the way from design and material selection to final approval.” www.MakrolonRx3440.com
filaments, contain Addmaster’s Biomaster antimicrobial technology. Also part of the range is ultrahygienic shadow boards, which are designed to store products clearly and safely and reduce the risk of cross-contamination. The anti-microbial shadow boards are manufactured from a recycled u-PVC core, bonded with a solid PVC outer skin which makes the board very durable, waterproof and chemically resistant. www.addmaster.co.uk
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WWW.ULTRAPOLYMERS.COM | YOUR PARTNER FROM DESIGN TO PRODUCTION
MATERIALS | NEWS BPF: Plastics containing BPA pose no health risk for any age group at current levels The British Plastics Federation (BPF) has responded to a study by Exeter University by outlining its position on the safety and use of Bisphenol-A (BPA). The findings of the study of 94 teenagers aged between 17-19 indicated that 80 percent of participants had traces of BPA in their blood and urine. Tamara Galloway, Professor of Ecotoxicology, who co-led the study at Exeter University, said: “There is growing evidence that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be associated with adverse health outcomes. Measurable levels of BPA were present in the vast majority of our participants.” However, the BPF has repeated its previous support of the European Food Standards Agency’s conclusions in a 2016 study, stating that “at current exposure levels, plastics containing BPA pose no consumer health risks for any age group.” The BPF added that the UK plastics industry “considers issues of chemical safety to be of paramount importance, and adheres to strict safety migration limits.” It also highlighted that BPA is not present in every plastic and it is also found in other materials. www.bpf.co.uk
AT CURRENT exposure levels, plastics coNtaining bpa expose no consumer health risks for any age group. 34
emical FDCA is a ch k the new oc bl g in ild bu Image: polymer PEF. a vin Syn
Synvina to extend PEF pilot phase as more development work needed Synvina, the joint venture of Avantium N.V. and BASF, has announced plans to extend the pilot phase of FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) by up to 36 months to prepare for commercial-scale production. The company has completed a feasibility assessment for commercial-scale production of FDCA, the main building block for the new polymer PEF, in its Reference Plant intended to be built in Antwerp. The assessment looked at product performance, market appetite and technical process. The assessment confirmed that product performance and customer demand are strong, however, in the technical process evaluation, Synvina identified some steps that require improvement. The findings, it says, will require undertaking additional development work to ensure the most efficient process and best product for current and future customers. As a result, Synvina intends to extend the pilot phase, which will in turn extend the timeline to start up the Reference Plant by 24 to 36 months. “The confidence of Avantium, BASF and Synvina in the product performance and its market potential has only increased since
CJP secures exclusive UK distributorship for Franplast UK polymer distributor, CJP Sales, has recently been awarded the UK distributorship for Franplast. With over 50 years of experience, the Italian supplier of TPE compounds specialises in SEBS, SEPS, SBS, bio-based and TPO compounds, either coloured to specification, natural, translucent or crystal-clear. Available in a wide choice of softnesses the range includes overmoulding and fully certified medical grades as well as grades suitable for injection moulding, extrusion,
Synvina was founded. Encountering technical challenges is not uncommon in innovative, groundbreaking technologies of this kind,” explained Avantium CEO, Tom van Aken. “Synvina is working closely with BASF and Avantium to resolve these challenges. We are all confident that this will result in a production process that runs smoothly and reliably, and a product that is as pure as the market demands. We believe the Reference Plant will be operational in the 2023-2024 timeframe.” Synvina was established in October 2016 with the intent to build and operate the Reference Plant. This will be the first commercial-scale plant to produce FDCA, the breakthrough building block for the polyester PEF with superior performance, which is suitable for food and beverage packaging, automotive applications and carpet and textile fibres. www.synvina.com
blown moulding sheet and film extrusion Nikki Benyon, CJP Managing Director, is excited to be partnered with Franplast and says both companies have a synergy that leads them to work well together. “CJP will be able to deliver the excellent products offered by Franplast to new and existing customers, with the added technical service we have become known for in our market. The comprehensive range of products will undoubtedly open up new markets for us, particularly medical applications, and add value to our range.” www.cjpsales.co.uk
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OPINION
Material World: Facing up to the challenge www.aquapakpolymers.com
DR JOHN WILLIAMS OF BIRMINGHAMBASED AQUAPAK POLYMERS LTD WRITES FOR BP&R ON HIS SUGGESTIONS FOR OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES FACING THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY, AS WELL AS THE INNOVATIVE NEW MATERIALS DEVELOPMENTS THAT FIT WITH THE VISION OF A CIRCULAR ECONOMY. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr John Williams is a chartered chemist and an experienced industrial technical director, having worked extensively in product and process development for both multinational and SME organisations in the adhesives and polymer coatings industries. He has spent over 20 years in technical and marketing roles in the polymer industry and now works for Birmingham-based Aquapak Polymers.
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he plastics industry is currently faced with one of the biggest challenges it has ever faced. Major players in politics, the media and retail are pledging to go plastic-free in one shape or another. The big question everyone seems to be asking is what can we do? While consumers are making an effort to avoid products with unnecessary plastic packaging, campaigners are pushing for plastic-free aisles and Members of Parliament are at pains to demonstrate their outrage, the plastics industry has not raised its voice sufficiently to be heard above the cacophony. There is in fact a lot that the industry is doing and can do, and now would be the time to act. We need to be showing leadership and communicating balanced arguments that inform rather than alarm. If we fail at this juncture, we risk having the baby thrown out with the bathwater. I propose we show this leadership in three ways: promote our strengths, be honest about our weaknesses, and stay balanced about the route ahead.
COMMUNICATE THE BENEFITS OF PLASTIC
There are very few voices in Parliament sticking up for the plastic packaging sector right now. Yet if plastic were to be banned tomorrow and disappear from our lives we would find an even greater crisis on our hands. Plastic has facilitated global development through the movement of food and medicines around the world. It has enabled lightweight packaging and reduced transport emissions to be the norm. It has brought us dissolvable surgical stitches, electrical safety and food safety. Decades of gradual
societal development have taken place specifically through developments in plastics.
RECOGNISE THAT MANY OF PLASTICS ON THE MARKET TODAY WERE NOT DESIGNED FOR A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
It’s a sorry fact, but until recently there simply wasn’t this spotlight on end-oflife plastics. The common polymers we use every day were never designed to be recyclable. Consequently, we now have a tapestry of polymers with varying degrees of recyclability, including multimaterial laminates that offer no hope of circularity whatsoever. Trying to fit a circular economy model onto materials that simply weren’t designed for it is, at times, like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. That leads neatly to my next point: there is very little demand globally for recycled plastic. This is in part because different materials are attached to one another, collection systems don’t favour source separation (and are frankly confusing to citizens), and sorting processes cannot overcome contamination. Unless we fix this, the demand side of the “circular” economy will continue to be the weakest link; there will be no market for the poor quality materials collected; and we will have to continue with our linear models of make – use – dispose. It’s all very well encouraging supply chain managers to demand recycled content, but if the quality is poor, consumers will not want it... and consumers are king. Finally, the leakage of vast quantities of plastic into the environment – through litter, and a complete lack of waste collection in most lowincome countries – needs to
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be tackled head on. Large scale investment in antilitter campaigns and waste management as part of global development is needed urgently.
CELEBRATE OUR SUCCESSES FOR A NEW PLASTICS ECONOMY
Too often over the past few months I have heard people claiming: “This plastics issue is terrible, and no-one is doing anything about it.” Hog wash. As readers of this publication will be well aware, vast sums of money and effort in R&D are being invested in bringing sustainable packaging solutions to market. Hydropol from Aquapak Polymers Ltd is one example – a flexible polymer designed for both functionality and a circular economy. Crucially, Hydropol doesn’t contain BPA and doesn’t attract it in the environment. Being hydrophilic, it dissolves in water and doesn’t adsorb oily contaminants. Via recovery from solution, Hydropol can be supplied as 100 percent uncontaminated recycled pellet, compatible with standard plastic manufacturing equipment. Meanwhile, other exciting developments are taking place in the world of bioplastics, with Futamura’s Natureflex and Novamont’s Mater Bi emerging as market disrupters. These companies are standing out from the crowd, pioneering sustainable alternatives that are both functional and sustainable – the crucial foundations for a new plastics economy. It is steps forward such as these that we ought to be celebrating, to shift the argument from a drive to go plastic-free to a recognition that the right plastics, when designed for a circular economy, are in fact a good thing. 35
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WWW.ULTRAPOLYMERS.COM | YOUR PARTNER FROM DESIGN TO PRODUCTION
IN IN HIS COLUMN THIS MONTH, MIKE BOSWELL LOOKS SPECIFICALLY AT ENGINEERING POLYMERS, INCLUDING WHERE PRICES ARE HEADING AND WHAT IS DRIVING PRICE INFLATION.
ENGINEERING
POLYMERS FOCUS
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hilst the price of standard polymers such as PE, PP, PS, PVC and PET generally tend to follow variations in feedstock prices and, in particular, the price of crude oil, the drivers for engineering and high-performance polymers appear to be quite different. This ‘independence’ is demonstrated in the top right graph.
ECONOMIC TRENDS
In fact, prices would appear to follow more general economic trends, except when supply becomes restricted and at this point availability becomes the key price driver. In the bottom right graph, events such as the 2008 economic crisis are clearly evidenced in the price action, with a clear dip in prices due to the significant drop in demand for core consumable durables including cars, followed by price recovery and then a more stable period in which the prices of key materials such as POM, PA6, PA66 and PBT gradually decayed. It is notable that in this period of price erosion costs such as energy, labour and in some cases feedstocks were actually increasing, which resulted in significant margin erosion for the polymer producers.
A CHANGING SITUATION
Who is ‘Polymerman’?
Mike Boswell is Managing Director of UK materials distributor, Plastribution, as well as the Chairman of the British Plastic Federation’s Polymer Compounders and Distributors Group and its ‘BREXIT Committee’. ‘Polymerman’ is the title used for announcements made via his Twitter account. This column is compiled using data from PIE (Plastics Information Europe) www.plastribution. co.uk | www.pieweb.com
However, starting in the second half of 2016, the market situation has started to change due to restrictions in availability and the prices of all engineering polymers are now increasing and, in some cases, actually obtaining adequate supply is becoming a serious concern. Most recently with PA 6.6, the supply situation has deteriorated as unexpected plant failures have further restricted supply. No doubt this will fuel demand as buyers of these materials compete to secure sufficient volumes at the best possible prices resulting in a virtuous circle of increasing prices based upon restricted availability. No doubt many buyers, including those affected by the 2015 polyolefin supply crisis, will soon start to question the underlying cause of the current situation and in many cases will readily accuse the polymer producers of inadequate maintenance regimes and a lack of investment in new capacity. In here, of course, lies the problem that if the margins are poor then polymer producers will have to control expenditure, which will almost certainly impede decisions to invest in new capacity, upgrade existing capacity or possibly invest heavily in maintenance regimes. So, what next? The probability is that supply will get worse before the situation improves and some will refer back to the supply situation affecting engineering
The probability is that supply will get worse before the situation improves and some will refer back to the supply situation affecting engineering polymers in the mid 1990’s in which supply became desperately tight.
polymers in the mid 1990’s in which supply became desperately tight. For now, it looks like at least the first half of 2018 is going to be a challenge with the likelihood of issues throughout the remainder of the year. Polymer processors will face the inevitable challenge of trying to pass higher input costs up through the supply chain in order to maintain profitability.
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Tel: (852) 2811 8897 (Hong Kong)
Email: Chinaplas.PR@adsale.com.hk
Adsale Plastics Website: www.AdsaleCPRJ.com
Adsale Group: www.adsale.com.hk
SOFTWARE | NEWS The platform is designed to enable SMEs to adjust to sudden increases in requests for simulation in the development of plastic products
Moldex3D receives “great interest” from plastics industry in simulation software extension Moldex3D has reported “great interest and positive feedback” from the plastics industry in response to an extension to its simulation software launched last year. The ‘Cloud Extension’ platform is designed to enable small and medium size businesses to adjust to sudden increases in requests for simulation in the development of plastic products without having to invest in additional expensive software or hardware. Based on Amazon Web Services (AWS) which provides better scalability, stability and safety, Moldex3D Cloud Extension users can migrate heavy simulation workloads to the cloud and run multiple analyses
simultaneously without purchasing additional licenses and hardware. In addition, the Cloud Extension provides support for more than 90 per cent of special moulding processes, including foam injection moulding, viscoelasticity (VE), gas-assisted injection moulding (GAIM) and water-assisted injection moulding (WAIM), which enables businesses of all sizes to rapidly expand their simulation capabilities
at a lower cost. The calculation specifications on the Cloud Extension are continuously updated. Moldex3D says Cloud Extension can help customers reduce product development time and effectively manage quality control and production scheduling with limited resources, time and budget. www.moldex3d.com
Davis Standard releases touchscreen control for affordable monitoring Davis-Standard has updated its controller range with its next generation of the DS-eTPC touchscreen. Introduced in August as the DSeTPC II, the updated controller is engineered with added flexibility to support a broader range of processes and applications. Processors will enjoy a larger 15inch (380mm) viewing screen with multi-touch capabilities to enable zoom-in and out, as well as extruder control for up to three extruders and real-time and historical data trending. Other enhancements include an increase of heat-only zones from four to eight, with an option up to 20; two auxiliary drives; a remote set-point; and speed trim via discrete inputs from gauging equipment. John Clemens, Davis-Standard’s Director of Extrusion Controls, said: “The DS-eTPC II has a modular design to improve control capabilities and application
DavisStandard has updated its controller range with its next generation of the DSeTPC touchscreen
flexibility while maintaining an excellent price point. Customers will benefit from being able to control up to three extruders from one main HMI. They will also have the option for local control of coextruders while maintaining line control from the primary HMI. For wire and cable processes, there are optional modes for auto on/off and manual control along with an option for capstan control. This controller goes way beyond basic touchscreen operations, which is much needed in the marketplace.” Standard features on the DSeTPC II include historical data
collection, real-time and historical data trending, web interface, thin client, alarm log and an auxiliary local operator station. The new control is also equipped to handle melt pumps for each extruder, and auxiliary functions such as vacuum pumps. On-screen diagnostics and Davis-Standard’s ReACT (remote access support) make this system the most capable touchscreen control in its class. As with its predecessor, the DS-eTPC II supports typical extrusion and line control functions. www.davis-standard.com
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HOW PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY
EQUALS PROFITABLE MANUFACTURING www.intouchmonitoring.com
IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CHRISTINA LARSEN, MARKETING MANAGER AT INTOUCH MONITORING LIMITED, EXPLAINS HOW USING A MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEM (MES) IS A SIMPLE WAY FOR PLASTICS MANUFACTURING FIRMS TO INCREASE MANUFACTURING EFFICIENCIES AND MAKE BUSINESS MORE PROFITABLE.
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n manufacturing, profit is reliant on how efficient the shop floor is. Squeezing everything from your resources without compromising on quality is a challenge increasingly faced by manufacturers. So how can manufacturers stay competitive whilst maintaining or increasing profit? Continuous improvement is key. Looking at existing processes and finding ways of making these more efficient and cost effective ultimately leads to a more profitable business. Without a mechanism that collects accurate data and standardises current systems, continuous improvement is often reactionary, where problems are only dealt with after they have become costly and problematic. Making sure that you make optimum use of your resources by installing a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a quick, easy and cost effective way. Using Intouch Monitoring as an example, real-time scheduling, monitoring and reporting systems gives manufacturers the visibility to easily make continuous improvement decisions that can contribute to improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE); improving productivity; reducing lead time and production errors; and raising quality.
Case Study: OnePlastics Group One Plastics Group, a leading manufacturer of plastics components, implemented an Intouch Monitoring seven years ago on over 30 production machines in its manufacturing plant in Tamworth. As a direct result, it says it has “without question increased profitability”. Commenting, Dave Sheridan, Operations Manager, OnePlastics Tamworth, said: “At high level, Intouch has provided the information needed on OEE for us to make
MONITORING
Being able to monitor production in real-time and having live and up-to-date information in any part of your factory removes the costs and errors of collecting production data manually. This enables your personnel to use their time more efficiently and the high visibility also motivates production staff to keep machines operational.
SCHEDULING/PLANNING
By using a live scheduling module that shows the progress of every job in the plan operators can get a graphical visualisation of machine loading and capacity utilisation. Jobs can be highlighted for many reasons, such as tool changes, late jobs or resource clashes and takes shift pattern, planned maintenance, overtime and shutdowns into account. Better planning significantly reduces changeover time and the job schedule view gives details of each job enabling operators to prepare for up-coming tool changes.
REPORTING
By storing collected data, businesses are able to better track actual materials used and have increased accountability of material use to individual operators, which generally reduces waste. The data enables informed decisions to be made to streamline operations and monitor key processes to better control final product quality and achieve a “zero defect” policy.
decisions on where Capex should be prioritised to increase ‘up time’ and quality of product.” Sheridan said the Intouch system has given the company information on scrap, downtime and trends that has significantly contributed to its continuous improvement programmes. “We have reduced scrap by 1.4 across the sites by pinpointing the ‘actual’ scrap reasons and then working to resolve the cause of it. We use the scheduling Gantt Chart not only to schedule jobs, but equally important to plan equipment servicing,” he continued. In addition, Sheridan says use of the MES system has given the company visibility of problemactic areas such
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as equipment, labour shortage or down time related to running out of bought-out materials. Uptime has improved across the site by a reported 10 per cent. By using the Gantt Chart, the team is able to prepare for the next change. “We have improved change over times in some cells by 30 per cent,” Sheridan added. “This is really important as we have over 170 changes across the site per week. All of this without question increased our profitability of the business.” In addition, the OnePlastics Group says it has won new business by implementing the Intouch MES and has received endorsements from its customers.
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celebrating 180 years
MACHINERY | NEWS MOTAN COLORTRONIC TO OPEN SIX-FIGURE UK TECH CENTRE Motan Colortronic is to open a new Tech Centre at its UK facility in Chesterfield. The new centre, which covers a two-acre site, is the product of a sixfigure investment and is dedicated to showcasing products from across the company’s range of ancillary equipment. “Our Tech Centre exhibits samples of almost all of our products and is dedicated to injection, blow moulding, extrusion and compounding based applications,” explained Karl Miller, Managing Director. “Together with the range of metal detectors, oil and water temperature controllers, chillers, recycling equipment and high performance continuous melt filters, we believe this facility is second to none in the UK and Ireland.” The new Tech Centre will be unveiled to customers during an Open House event from 13-15th March. www.motan-colortronic. co.uk
cility At its new UK fa will nic tro lor Co Motan of e ng ra showcase a products
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Thysis Technical Mouldings invests in new loading and drying system Thysis Technical Mouldings, based in Stamford Bridge, near York, has installed a new, centralised system for materials handling and drying. The company, which manufactures using a range of thermoplastics on machines ranging from 22 to 820 tons, says the new machinery is part of an overall investment plan that has already led to increase in performance. The new modular centralised system for handling and drying material includes a central loading system and bank of dehumidifier driers provided and installed by Intelicare Limited, the UK agents for the Italian manufacturer, New Omap srl. Intelicare says the system can control up to 40 material receivers and four vacuum blowers. Material is conveyed to the receivers using dehumidified air. Vacuum blowers may be side channel, multi-stage or lobed and are sized according to the required airflow, distances and material throughput. At Thysis, suitably-sized cyclone filters have also been installed in addition to the large centralised filter to both protect the blowers and prevent the circulation of dust in the workplace. These also dramatically reduce the cleaning intervals of the bag filter. The equipment installed at Thysis comprises a centralised feeding system to the injection moulding machines, a 5.5kW vacuum blower with cyclone and large cloth filter, insulated hoppers and line clearance valves to each material line. In addition, two dehumidifier dryers are installed; a WDM 270 Honeycomb rotating drum dryer feeding two 300 litre hoppers,
each with receiver and a MDM 500 Desiccant dryer feeding two 600 litre hoppers, each with receiver. “The Intelicare central loading and drying has been an excellent investment. Material throughput per hour has increased, rejects have reduced, the finished product quality and appearance has improved significantly, and the workplace is permanently clean and tidy; fit for customer visits at any time,” commented Terry Goodwin, Thysis’ Technical Director. www.intelicare.co.uk
Thysis’ new, centralised system for materials handling and drying
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The installation includes insulated hoppers
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celebrating 180 years
Extruder installed at Trinity College Dublin to advance Irish materials research AMBER, a materials science centre based at Trinity College Dublin, has added a Brabender 20mm twin screw compounding extruder to its growing capability in polymer and composite materials development. Supplied via Engelmann & Buckham, the Brabender 20/40D segmented twin extruder is equipped with two Brabender gravimetric feeders and a side feeder. Precise control over the primary polymer and additives will ensure that speciality compounds can be produced in pellet form or thin film and reproduced with precision and repeatability. Mark Galliver of Engelmann & Buckham, said: “This Brabender extruder enhances AMBER’s existing capability allowing them to reliably produce high-end polymer composites on the kilogram scale.” The extruder will help AMBER translate polymer composite research from lab to pilot scale, which is essential for the medical device sector, that requires new materials in sufficient quantities for early stage product development and testing. Prof Michael Morris, Director of AMBER, said the investment also complement the centre’s investment in 3D printing and
, Lead Researcher bu Ba sh me Dr. Ra
additive manufacturing. “With the Brabender extruder, our lead researcher, Dr. Ramesh Babu, will have the capability to produce custom made filaments for a polymer-based 3D printing technique known as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). This will open up the technique to a range of new materials enabling 3D printed objects with properties such as enhanced mechanical strength and electrical and sensing functionality. Our vision is to become a research leader in the development of the materials roadmap enabling 3D printing for future manufacturing technologies.” www.buckham.co.uk
DB Automation levels up to deal for Xbox cases Sales of DB-Automation’s unique hot foil printing (stamping) equipment have grown after it shipped two machines to a US multinational packaging company. DB-Automation is a Leicestershire-based company, specialising in the design and manufacture of bespoke high-speed injection moulding automation and equipment. The company says the recent growth can be directly attributed to what it says are “major technological advances,” developed as part of the its policy of achieving ‘automation excellence’. The latest shipments, which are two-colour units, will be used for the decoration of Xbox One game cases, with the application of both white lettering and a real metallic logo. In this instance, the foil is applied to raised lettering produced during the moulding process, but it can also be applied directly to a flat substrate. DB says that with a hot foil process, colour density is consistent and no curing process is needed. It also offers greater wear resistance over paints and inks. In terms of productivity, the company says the highly automated design of its systems mean an increase in productivity, as well as minimal wastage. www.db-automation.co.uk
Moulder says continuous investment is ‘Formula’ for success Injection moulder, Formula Plastics, says that continuous investment in machinery and people is the key to its success. The Newton Aycliffe-based company, which specialises in twin-shot moulding for the automotive sector, has achieved steady growth over the last two decades, bringing current annual turnover to £4million. Since 2016 it has spent over £600,000 on new Engel injection moulding machines, with tonnage on site now ranging from 50 to 650T. The firm’s moulding capabilities include under body, instrument
panel and HVAC components and assemblies, parts that it says are now supplied to “most UK OEMs”. Additional business is also coming from non-automotive sources, it says, resulting in significant investment in new equipment to meet this growing demand. Recent purchases include ancillaries such as material dryers, loaders, dosing units and mould heaters supplied by Renmar Plastics Machinery. “We believe continuous investment in our machinery and people are key to ensuring plans for future growth are successful,” commented Formula’s Production Director, Geoff Hodgson.
ase Xbox One C
www.engel.at WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
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DTL Machinery UK deals in used plastic injection moulding machinery and related ancillary equipment since 2003. We buy all makes, age and sizes of machines for our stock and also redundant / very old machines (1980 onwards) for our overseas customers for refurbishment.
We can buy from a single machine to a complete factory / plant.
Also, we offer the following services:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Machinery valuations Brokerage services Factory relocation / machinery removal Factory clearance (Dismantling and removal of obsolete plant and machinery)
Tel: 01925 596170 • Mobile: 07838138342 • WhatsApp: 07838138342 • Email: dtlmachineryuk@gmail.com / info@dtlmachinery.co.uk • Web: www.dtlmachinery.co.uk Douglas Trading UK Ltd., T/A DTL Machinery UK, Unit 1 C, Causeway Park, Central Avenue, Warrington WA4 6RF, UK.
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celebrating 180 years
Milacron Kortec Connect series offers a gateway to co-injection
Simar to supply AB Systems in UK exclusive deal for handling equipment
Kortec Connect
Milacron has added a retrofit coinjection option to its portfolio that it says offers customers a fast and cost effective entry into this area of the market. Alongside its current turnkey offering, Kortec Complete, the company has developed a solution for customers with existing moulding machines that can be retrofitted. New Kortec Connect incorporates a moulder’s existing injection moulding machine using a MoldMasters E-Multi secondary injection unit in combination with a Kortec co-injection hot runner. “We have perfected the plastic industry’s first and only co-injection retrofit offering; the Kortec Connect System from Milacron,” explained Steve Morris, President Milacron Systems. “Kortec Connect can be used on any qualified brand of injection moulding machine, it’s totally machine agnostic, provided it has the required performance specifics to mould the parts. The Kortec Connect offering has been used successfully in moulding coffee cups, caps, closures, personal care items, thinwall and medical parts and it can also be added to a PET monolayer system introducing the ability to mould barrier performs at a fraction of the cost while avoiding an investment in a dedicated PET co-injection press.” Kortec Connect gives co-injection at a lower capital cost with flexibility to move co-injection technology throughout a facility, eliminating the need for a dedicated co-injection work cell.
AB Systems has secured an exclusive UK distribution agreement with German materials handling OEM, Simar. Simar materials handling equipment includes FDA-approved and ATEX-rated solutions. ATEX is a safety standard designed to protect employees from explosion risk, and only equipment with this rating is allowed to be used in environments with potentially hazardous atmospheres, such as those found in some manufacturing facilities handling dust-containing materials and powders. Consequently, the availability of FDA-approved and ATEX-rated equipment has been limited to a relatively small number of suppliers. With the Simar range, AB Systems aims to give manufacturers more choice when sourcing products. Milton Shelley, Technical Sales Director at AB Systems, said: “Part of AB Systems’ strategy for giving manufacturers access to more efficient, better performing and competitive ancillaries solutions is to bring an increasing, but highly selective, number of OEM brands to the UK market. Simar helps us to achieve this goal. The company’s
range of material handling equipment is exceptional in terms of build quality and performance, and carries FDA and ATEX approval. Having worked in plastic, food and pharmaceuticals manufacturing for years, I know that clients will be delighted to have a wider pool of niche products available to them.” Simar’s range has central conveying systems, dehumidifying and hot air dryers, hopper loaders (and weighing/mixing), crystallisers, and special clean room systems. AB Systems says build quality and performance are exemplary, and all products are characterised with Simar’s pioneering innovation. For example, Simar’s eDry desiccant dryer uses newly developed ECO technology to drastically reduce regeneration frequency from up to seven times per working day to just once, thereby dramatically increasing energy efficiency while minimising wear and tear. The e-Dry PLC control allows for complete, realtime traceability of the entire drying process, including dew point, material usage, energy consumption, recipe database and management, ethernet interface, and scheduled maintenance. The eDry is Industry 4.0 ready and ideally suited for users in the automotive industry. www.ab-ltd.co.uk
Simar’s owner, Gunter Owerfeldt, with Milton Shelley from AB Systems
www.milacron.com WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
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celebrating 180 years
Stadler delivers improved ballistic separation for UK MRFs
city A new range of high-capa been has s tor ara sep cs isti ball launched by Stadler UK
A new range of high-capacity ballistics separators has been launched by Stadler UK, designed to achieve a higher throughput to meet market demands. The company has updated it’s STT2000_8 range and made its STT6000 model available to the UK market for the first time, in direct response to growing customer demand for units that offer higher capacity, simple maintenance and flexibility when processing a wide range of material. Manufactured at its factory in Altshausen, Germany, the separators are suitable for a range of applications including municipal solid waste, commercial and industrial waste, co-mingled and single stream material. Stadler’s STT6000 is a heavy duty ballistic separator which can be used as a pre-sorting unit in recycling facilities separating the waste stream in three different fractions. The infeed material requires no pre-sorting or shredding, making the STT6000 suitable for landfill mining and construction and demolition waste.
UPM’s successful installation at Lindal Group leads to UK projects Berkshire-based UPM Conveyors has recently designed, installed and commissioned a fully automated product handling system for Lindal Group in Mexico.
Complementing the STT6000 is Stadler’s updated STT2000_8 model which has eight paddles and is 3m wide for higher capacity processing. The angles of the paddles can be adjusted on site providing flexibility to process different types of material without ever changing the machine. Benjamin Eule, Director of Stadler UK, said: “Our two new models provide customers with a next-
generation ballistic separation solution, delivering exceptional flexibility, high capacity and easy accessibility for maintenance. “We specialise in the design of tailored products that enable MRF operators to reduce downtime and save valuable plant space with complete sorting solutions.”
Lindal Group designs over two billion aerosols per year, with products ranging from clean room-produced asthma inhalers to silicone dispensing systems and premium deodorant actuators. The new product handling system was designed to enable Lindal Group to transfer injection moulded components to assembly hoppers located on its GIMA packaging machines to produce aerosols primarily for Unilever-branded products. The product handling system saw each of Lindal Group’s injection moulding machines equipped with an under press reversing reject belt conveyor, which operates via the machine’s SPC control. Should a reject be detected, the under-press conveyor takes the product to a holding bin.
Good product is transported via swan neck belt conveyors to high level conveyors, to minimise floor area, then through a fire wall to assembly and filling lines. The system has an over-capacity storage facility which is subject to use if needed by high level detectors. All products from the injection moulding machines are transferred to the fully automatic assembly and packaging machines without any manual involvement. This is achieved by the incorporation of multi-way diverters, which are based on the unique conveyor design developed by UPM. Following the success of the installation in Mexico, UPM have now been awarded preferred supplier status to Plastek UK and Nypro Ireland for similar applications for Unilever.
UPM has successfully installed product handling system at Lindal Group 46
www.w-stadler.de/en
www.upmconveyors.co.uk
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
BUYER’S GUIDE MATERIALS
MOULD RELEASE
HOT RUNNER SYSTEMS
ultrasonic welding
hot runner controllers
bp&r
MASTERBATCH
BLACK & WHITE MASTERBATCH Compounding
Recycling
Moulding
Film
Pipe
Conduit
Whitelands Mill, Whitelands Road Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 6UG, UK Tel: +44 (0)161 308 2550 Fax: +44 (0)161 343 2026 E-mail: aml@abbeymb.com Eclipse Guide_Layout Web: Buyers www.abbeymb.com
1 07
Ultrasonic Plastic Welders
colour masterbatch
New & Used
For Sale &
Wanted
Units 3E + 3F, Hillam Road Industrial Estate, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD2 1QN T: 01274 731552 F: 01274 738118 E: sales@eclipsecolours.com W: www.eclipsecolours.com
Branson - Mecasonic - Telsonic
Polymer Specific and Universal Colour and Additive Masterbatches. Fastmatch colour matching service. 1 mm Easysperse MicroPellets to 4 mm MaxiPellets. Standards second to none.
als.ultrasonics@gmail.com www.als-ultrasonics.co.uk
Sonotrodes (Horns) all Frequencies Fixtures, Repairs, Service, Parts Sub-Contract Welding, Hire & Consultancy
Tel; 01258 459257
MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT hot plate welding Branson Ultrasonics
158 Edinburgh Avenue, Slough, Berkshire SL1 4UE T: 01753 756675 F: 01753 551270 E: bucuk.sales@emerson.com W: www.bransoneurope.eu
infrared welding
Infrared Welding Ultrasonic Welding Hot Plate Welding Heat Staking
JOINING
HIGH TECH AND HIGH PASSION.
Find your perfect joining method.
Purging Compounds Release Agents Mould Maintenance www.ChemTrend.com www.UltraPurge.com POLYMERS
DRYERS Motan Colortronic Ltd
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
Tel; 07730 413197
ASSEMBLY
cleaning materials
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
www.frimo.com pulse staking
InControl Ultrasonics Ltd (FFR Ultrasonics Ltd)
PO Box 10380, Sileby, LE12 7ZX T: 01509 621992 E: enquiries@ffr-ultrasonics. co.uk W: www.ffr-ultrasonics.co.uk W: www.incontrolultrasonics.co.uk
MATERIALS HANDLING AND STORAGE
Telsonic UK Ltd
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
Unit 3 Vitrage Technical Park 27 Witney Road , Nuffield Industrial Estate, Poole, Dorset BH17 0GL T: 01202 697340 F: 01202 693674 W: www.telsonic.com Blog: telsoniccuk.wordpress.com
vibration welding Branson Ultrasonics
158 Edinburgh Avenue, Slough, Berkshire SL1 4UE T: 01753 756675 F: 01753 551270 E: bucuk.sales@emerson.com W: www.bransoneurope.eu
TO ADVERTISE in this space CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
gravimetric/ volumetric blending
Motan Colortronic Ltd
DEHUMIDIFIERS Motan Colortronic Ltd
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
HEATING EQUIPMENT
Technologies:
-Pulse Staking -Pulse Fusion -Ultrasonic Welding and Metal Insertion -High Frequency Induction Heating -Hot Air Staking
CHILLERS/ TEMPERATURE CONTROLLERS
quality monitoring control
Tel UK: +44 7467 959240 Tel IRL: +353 1 8013261
Kistler Instruments Ltd
Email: info@hte.ie
www.hte.ie
TO ADVERTISE in this space CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
MATERIALS HANDLING AND STORAGE
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
CONTROL SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT T: 01256 741550 F: 01256 741551 E: sales.uk@kistler.com W: www.kistler.com Pressure transducers and associated monitoring/control equipment for new and existing injection moulding applications.
Suction Blowers pipework cyclones New and Used recycling Equipment Kongskilde Spares, Parts and Pipework Suppliers industrial BLOWERS FLAKE/REGRIND Friendly Expert advice Les 01568 611338 Hereford W: WWW.GRAINBLOWERS.CO.UK
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
Motan Colortronic Ltd Specialists in supplying Plastic Joining, Bonding and Assembly Solutions
AM&LT PUGH KONGSKILDE MAIN DEALER
hopper loaders
induction heating for platens and tools MF Induction Heating
Unit 5, Martindale, Hawks Green, Cannock, Staffs, WS11 7XN Replacement Coils New platens T: 01543 570642 F: 01543 574460 E: sales@mfinduction.com W: www.mfinduction.com
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
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BUYER’S GUIDE
MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT
FOR SALE
MIXING, FEEDING AND DOSING Motan Colortronic Ltd
SCREWS & BARRELS
www.magog.co.uk We buy/sell
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
Prime, reprocessed, regranulated flexible PVC compositions, scrap PVC, PVC resins and associated raw materials.
METAL DETECTION AND SEPARATION EQUIPMENT
T: M: E: W:
Design, Manufacture, and Refurbishment of Screws & Barrels for the Plastics and Rubber Industries.
We can offer prime and reprocessed flexible PVC compounding facilities to cover your specific requirements, bespoke compounds, breakdowns, holiday cover etc.
• Screw design • New manufactured Screws, Barrels, Feed Sections & Liners • Proven wear resistant specifications for screws • Nitrided and Bimetallic barrels • Refurbishment and repairs • Condition monitoring and wear checks
Please send us your enquiries/offers
Contact us to find out how we can help you Magog Industries Ltd, 10 Crane Mead, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 9PY T: +44(0)1920 465201 E: enquiries@magog.co.uk
01625 500912 07860 371294 vinyl_ltd@mail.com www.vinyl-ltd.com
Motan Colortronic Ltd
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373 Magnetics Separators Metal Detectors Eddy Current Separators
Bunting Magnetics Europe Ltd European Design & Manufacturing Facility
Northbridge Road Berkhamsted Hertfordshire HP4 1EH, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1442 875081 Email: sales@buntingeurope.com www.buntingeurope.com www.magneticseparation.co
/magnetic_separation_and_metal_detection/
TESTING EQUIPMENT hardness - IRHD and shore MAPRA Technik Co — BAREISS For Bareiss of Germany IRHD & SHORE hardness testers, Abrasion & Rebound testers. T: 020 8508 4207 F: 020 8502 5107 E: info@mapra.co.uk W: www.mapra.co.uk
inspection & measurement
TransXL International Ltd
Plastics Processing Machinery Bought & Sold, Thornhill, South Marston, Wiltshire SN3 4TA T: 01793 827666 F: 01793 823826 E: sales@transxl.co.uk W: www.transxl.co.uk
Refurbished machines with fault and leak free guarantee. We buy & sell all manner of plasscs equipment.
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
I’VE GOT A BUMPER LOAD OF RECYCLED PLASTIC IN ME, THANKS TO VANDEN
50mm high and 35mm
MOULD CHANGE
We buy and sell high quality plastics
028 9266 8009
www.vandenrecycling.com supply@vandenrecycling.com
Visit our workshop in Wellingborough, Northants. 01933 272747
sales@stvmachinery.co.uk www.stvmachinery.co.uk
Engineers to the Plastics & Rubber industries, specialising in the following: Screw & Barrel Manufacture Screw & Barrel Refurbishment Tie Bar Repair & Manufacture Screw Tip Assemblies Feed Liners, Plain & Grooved 100 Tonne Screw & Barrel Press Bimetallic Barrel Blanks up to 50 mm In Stock Please e-mail or phone Karl for more info. E. info@tws-mail.co.uk T. 01706 655402 W. www.tws-ltd.com Technical Welding Services (Rochdale) Ltd
SECONDHAND AND RECONDITIONED ANGLO PLASTICS LTD
Buy/Sell Used Plastics Machinery Rutland Road, Scunthorpe, DN16 1HX T: +44 (0) 1276 470910 T: +44 (0) 7740 632907 E: information@ angloplastics.com W: www.angloplastics.com
Tel: 01952 671918 Fax: 01952 608579 Email: connectors.uk@staubli.com
www.quick-mould-change.com
HOPPER LOADERS Motan Colortronic Ltd
Matilda House, Carrwood Road, Chesterfield Trading Estate, Chesterfield S41 9QB T: 01246 260222 F: 01246 455420 E: sales@motan-colortronic.co.uk W: www.motan-colortronic.co.uk
MAPRA Technik Co – DOSS – MARCEL AUBERT – KAFER
For DOSS visual solution of Italy – Inspection & sorting machines for O’rings, Seals, Gaskets. T: 020 8508 4207 F: 020 8502 5107 E: info@mapra.co.uk W: www.mapra.co.uk
THERMOCOUPLES
BUSINESS FOR SALE
Selling the Business? Kingswood Business Sales are your industry experts with a proven track record of successfully selling companies like yours. Avoid the pitfalls - contact Paul Holohan in complete confidence on 07798 530684
TRAINING
kingswoodbusinesssales.com
COMPOUNDS
QUALITY PVC PELLETS FOR EXTRUSION vekacompounds.com +44(0)1322 387 219
SCREEN CHANGERS Industrial Plastics Ltd
Unit 13 Canterbury Industrial Park, 297 Ilderton Road, London, SE15 1NP T: 020 7252 9600 F: 020 7252 9601 E: sales@ipl-london.co.uk W: www.ipl-london.co.uk
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- We buy / sell all makes / age / sizes of Plastic Injection Moulding Machinery & Ancillaries equipment. - We also buy redundant, nonrunners & faulty machinery. - Machinery repair and maintenance services available. T: 01925 596170 M: 07838138342 E: info@dtlmachinery.co.uk E: douglastrading@gmail.com
bp&r
Contact: Carlton Hicks
NOZZLES AND NOZZLE TIPS
DTL Machinery UK
Cooper Plastics Machinery
8 Lyall Court, Flitwick, Bedfordshire MK45 1UX T: 01525 719850 E: Cooperplastics@gmail.com W: www.cooperplastics.co.uk Extruders, water baths, haul-offs, fly knife cutters, conveyors/tip tables, in-line punches, coilers etc. New and used. Repairs, servicing or rebuilds. UK agent for Lyons Electronics.
DM Machinery Ltd
Used Injection Moulding Machine Stockists 40 Thorne Lane, Wakefield West Yorkshire, WF1 5RR T: 01924 290206 E: sales@dmmachinery.co.uk W: www.dmmachinery.co.uk
FOR SALE
• We buy/sell all makes/age/sizes of Plastic Injection Moulding Machinery & related ancillaries equipment. • We also buy redundant, non-runners & faulty machines for refurbishment. T: 01925 596170 M: 07838138342 E: douglastrading@gmail.com E: info@dtlmachinery.co.uk
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
BUYER’S GUIDE 3D PRINTING
3D Printing
in Plastic & Rubber
PRINTERS
printers of plastic mouldings Total Print Ltd
Specialist Pad Printers Station Road, Gedney Hill, Lincolnshire PE12 0NP T: 01406 330122 F: 01406 330123 E: info@totalprintltd.com W: www.totalprintltd.com Sub-Contract Pad Printers to the Plastics Industry
COMPONENT PRINTERS Tel: 01420 88645 www.cdg.uk.com
TESTING/ CONSULTANCY
TAMPO.SCREEN.FOIL
Contour Marking Co Ltd Albert house, Gledrid Industrial Park, Chirk ,Wrexham, LL14 5DG T: 01691 770093 F: 01691 770023 Sub Contract Tampo, Screen & Foil Printing to the plastic moulding industry E: sales@contourmarking.com W: www.contourmarking.com
Gammadot Rheology Testing & Consultancy Services
Unit 5C, Leaton Industrial Estate, Bomere Heath, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 3AP T: 01939 291677 E: enquiries@gammadot.com W: www.gammadot.com Providing independant testing solutions to all your quality control, failure analysis & flow simulation data needs
SOFTWARE
SERVICES
Cimatron 3D
Mold Tool Design CAD CAM software
MOULDFLOW ANALYSIS
Tel: 01420 88645 www.cdg.uk.com
SOFTWARE DIRECTORY A listing in the Software Directory costs £160 per programme per year. Call Lisa on 01244 680222 for details. REAL TIME PRODUCTION MONITORING, SCHEDULING AND PROCESS MONITORING Epicor Mattec Real-time MES (Microsoft Windows™ PC Servers & “Web Based”) Epicor Software (UK) Ltd T: +44 (0)1344 468 468 E: info.uk@epicor.com
Modules: Production Monitoring, Process Monitoring, “Drag and Drop” Scheduling/Planning, “Family Moulding”, Preventative Maintenance, Bar Coding/Parts’ Trace-ability, Operator Visual Aids, Process Parameter Profiling, E-mail/ Public Address System Alerts, Standalone “Drag and Drop” Scheduler, Stand-alone SPC “Machine Analyzer”, Machine Energy Monitoring, KPI Dashboards, Visual Manufacturing (Large LED Displays), Automatic Data Import/Export Functions (For Integration with Epicor ERP & Other Manufacturing Systems/Software Packages). PlantMaster BMS Vision Ltd T: 01254 662244, E: sales.bla@visionbms.com Website: www.visionbms.com/ plastics. Affordable and flexible MES system for the plastics/rubber industry. Realtime production monitoring features wireless data units and OPC Ethernet machine connections. “Drag & drop” job scheduling supports frame/insert level family tooling plus KAN BAN. ERP system integration, SPC/SQC, Touch Screen Data Units, Machine Maintenance, Operator Tracking, Traceability, DNC, Energy Monitoring, Bar Coding, Pager Alerts. Easy to use systems from a €600m company with over 30 years experience. intouch T: 01604 537100 E: enquiries@ intouchmonitoring.com Website: www.intouchmonitoring.com
MOULDFLOW ANALYSIS
Real-time production monitoring systems. Designed to be easy to use and providing affordable solutions to all sizes of businesses. Production monitoring, scheduling, reporting, data import/export, databases for parts, tools and operators, integration with other software packages.
TO ADVERTISE IN THis SPACE CONTACT MANDY O’BRIEN 01244 952373
ProHelp EPM (for Microsoft Windows™ PC Servers) Mattec Ltd T: 01909 561544 F: 01909 560675 E: a.jewell@mattec.com Real-time Modules: Production Monitoring, ‘Drag and Drop’
WWW.BRITISHPLASTICS.CO.UK
Scheduling/Planning, Preventative Maintenance, Bar Coding/Parts Traceability, Operator Visual Aids, Process Parameter Profiling, Pager/ Tannoy Alerts, Stand-alone ‘Drag and Drop’ Scheduler, Stand-alone SPC Machine Analyzer, Automatic Data Import/Export Functions (for integration to Manufacturing Systems and other software packages).
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
Epicor ERP Manufacturing Software (For Plastics’/Rubber Processors) Epicor Software (UK) Ltd T: +44 (0)1344 468 468 E: info.uk@epicor.com Epicor ERP software for the polymer converting industry covers the full range of back office operations from on-line and off-line sales and quotations to production planning, inventory management and finance through to logistics, warehousing and distribution. Available on-site, hosted & SaaS it seamlessly integrates with Epicor Mattec Real-time MES to provide a single system that offers a complete quote-to-cash solution for the plastics’/rubber industries.
PROCESS OPTIMISATION SOFTWARE RJG Technologies Ltd Moulding Technology T: +44 (0)1733 232211 E info@rjginc.co.uk
Zero Defect Moulding – What’s your target? • Cycle time reduction • Reduced scrap rates • Improved process capability • Higher yield and OEE PRO-OP™ software provides a stepby-step procedure for optimising the injection moulding process to deliver optimum quality products at the most favourable cycle time. PRO-OP™ is a server based application which, by setting an optimum moulding process, highlights weaknesses and problems in relation to part design, mould design, mould construction, moulding equipment efficiency, moulding equipment specification and material selection. The moulding process is documented with explanations for each key process parameter setting demonstrating the processing conditions and equipment contributions to the final result. PRO-OP™ is aimed at companies whose focus is quality and consistent part manufacture. PRO-OP™ supports companies by providing a documented and structured validation protocol which is recognised in the in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors. 49
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NEWS FROM THE FRONTLINE
IN
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BPF members have access to the BPF’s Political Toolbox, which contains basic advice on how to do this. The event featured a range of speakers who offered insights into proven initiatives to prevent leakage of plastics into the sea. Professor Richard Thompson OBE of the University of Plymouth stressed the importance of design to facilitate recycling. Gavin Ellis of Hubbub and Tracy Phipps of Brighton & Hove Council co- presented the ‘Streets Ahead’ campaign launched to clean up litter in the region. Lee WrayDavies of Keep Britain Tidy introduced the world’s largest education initiative, ‘Eco Schools’, in which children develop creative local approaches to tackle waste. David Katz of The Plastic Bank and Zoe Lenkiewicz of Waste Aid, spoke separately about their work with local communities to help re-purpose plastic litter in the developing world. One memorable conclusion was drawn by Richard Thompson who said “It’s not the materials that are the problem, but how we chose to use them.” It was heartening to see so many representatives of brands and retailers there and their willingness to spring to their feet and support a pledge based on the event. The collaborative action agreed included pressing for reform of the PRN system to increase circularity of material flows within the UK; developing best practice measures to curb litter and to stop it spreading into the wider environment, including support for behavioural change projects; wider adoption of design methodologies to ensure that resource efficiency and end of life considerations are taken fully into account; and sharing knowledge with the developing world on best practice in waste management. Watch this space. www.bpf.co.uk
ASSOCIATED ORGANISATIONS
IN HIS EXCLUSIVE COLUMN, PHILIP LAW, DIRECTORGENERAL OF THE BRITISH PLASTICS FEDERATION, UPDATES READERS ON THE INDUSTRY’S PROGRESS ON A NEW INITIATIVE TO ADDRESS WASTE PLASTICS AS WELL AS WHY A FIGHTING SPIRIT WILL BE NEEDED IN THE MONTHS AHEAD.
W
hilst there is still an uncomfortable focus on plastics in the media, we are making progress with our industry’s response and our intent to convert the current situation into an opportunity to have securer markets and a better waste management system for plastics. But like the recovery of the British army after Dunkirk, it takes time and effort. After approximately 30 television and radio appearances over the last three months, we are beginning to see some progress at least in recognising that replacing plastics is not as easy as first thought, that the problems with the UK’s waste management system are not necessarily the fault of the plastics materials and products, and nor is the solution the simple transference of a deposit system from somewhere like Norway into the UK. There is a dawning realisation that the world is a much more complex place. It was heartening that Theresa Coffey, Minister for Waste, said as much when interviewed on BBC’s The One Show, screened February 28th. An important building block in our response was our BPF Marine Litter event held in Westminster on 7th February. Jointly chaired by our President, Bruce Margetts, and Lord Lindsay, this gathered together leading retailers, brands, industry, NGOs and the government itself. All pledged to work together to find solutions to the marine litter problem. It is our intention that it will lead to a coordinated plan to drastically reduce land based litter finding its way into the marine environment, as well as a reduction in waste. One of the speakers was Mark Pawsey, MP for Rugby and a former supplier of single service packaging. He said that the message about the efficacy of plastics packaging is being drowned out by those who want to see restrictions. He emphasised the importance of companies in the industry expressing their views to their local MPs.
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