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VOL 19 NR 6

• Lumps / purgings / thick parts • High torque direct-drive • Robust design

DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022

• Small footprint • Low energy consumption

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PULVERISERS

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ICS CONV A ST ER PL TE HE S INSTI STIC TU LA CA (PIS RI

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Supercart trolley crowned Recycled Product of the Year

Roto supplier Fenix Rising opens plants in Cameroon, DRC

OF TE A)

SLOW-SPEED GRANULATORS

Moulds must be ‘fully operational from first shot’ says Wizard

Big expansion projects for Mpact Plastic Containers

• Tangential infeed means no pusher

GSL

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VOL 19 NR 6 DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022

Nylopack installs another big 5-layer line SA’S first polystyrene recycling hub opens in Atlantis

Injection Technik opens mould assist centre in Rosslyn 24

PRASA rail doors – innovative industrial design 46

FOOD GRADE NSF H1 & H2 certified with zinc free environmental friendly products as specified and approved FOOD GRADE NSF H1 & by H2 OEM's certified with zinc free environmental friendly products as specified and approved by OEM's

Contact: Ernst Fourie Contact: Manager Lubricants Business Ernst Fourie Email: Ernst.Fourie@Brenntag.co.za Business Manager Lubricants Email: Ernst.Fourie@Brenntag.co.za Brenntag South Africa (Pty) Ltd HEAD OFFICE Brenntag SouthRandjespark. Africa (Pty) Ltd 247 15th Road HEAD OFFICE Midrand, 1685 247 15th Road Randjespark. Midrand, 1685

Visit our stand at ProPlas 2022, Stand D3 in Hall 5 Visit our stand at ProPlas 2022, Stand D3 in Hall 5

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2021/11/17 11:22

This is no joke – order your new Haitian today and be in production in days. Ample stock 60 to 470 ton. Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria Web : www.cabletech.co.za

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2021/11/15 11:24

BY THE WAY Publisher & Managing Editor: Martin Wells (martin@summitpub.co.za) Editor: Tessa O’Hara (tessa@summitpub.co.za) Publishers Assistant: Heather Peplow (heather@summitpub.co.za) Bookkeeper: Gloria van Heerden (gloriavanheerden@gmail.com) Designers: Jeanette Erasmus Graphic Design (jeanette.erasmus@lateraldynamics.co.za) Bronwen Moys Blinc Design (bronwen.clarke@gmail.com) Summit Publishing cc t: +27 (21) 712 1408 f: 086 519 6089 c: +27 (82) 822 8115 e: tessa@summitpub.co.za Postnet Suite 42, Private Bag X16, Constantia 7848, Cape Town, South Africa Unit 8, Bergvliet Village Centre, Cnr Hiddingh & Children’s Way Roads, Bergvliet 7945

www.sapt.co.za GAUTENG Lowrie Sharp t: (011) 793 4691 f: (011) 791 0544 c: 082 344 7870 e: lowrieplasticsmedia@absamail.co.za KZN Lynne Askew c: 082 904 9433 e: lynne@summitpub.co.za Printed by: Novus Print, Paarl Southern African Polymer Technology is published six times a year and focuses on these industries in South and Southern Africa. We welcome news, articles, technical reports, information in general and photographs about events and developments related to the plastics industry. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Plastics Converters Association, Institute of Materials or Association of Rotational Moulders either. Copyright: All rights reserved. ISSN number: 1684-2855 (ISDS Centre, Paris) Summit Publishing: CK 9863581/23 VAT reg: 4600187902

Plastics Institute

Association of Rotational

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of Southern Africa

Moulders of South Africa

Association

PET Plastic Recycling South Africa

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Fenix Rising, a Cape roto moulding business, has in 2021 opened water tank manufacturing plants in Cameroon and the DRC, and here is the core of the group involved, looking very positive at the outset. Not many from the industry in SA have ventured to these places, where conducting business can be challenging, not least due to unexpected changes in regulations at short notice, but the reality is that there is a massive need for water tanks across Africa and, from what we hear; there was no roto production of tanks in either country. The machines are simple and can be repaired with “a hammer and a spanner,” so Fenix is being cautious about its exposure there. See page 22.

More and more bags required CLEAN-UPS and especially beach clean-ups are wonderful opportunities to improve the image of plastics and there is popular support across the country and even around the world for these events (so long as you don’t have back issues), but it’s bothering PlasticsSA sustainability manager Douw Steyn that numbers of bags used on these days in September keeps on increasing each year. “The number of bags required should be going down,” said Steyn, but exactly the opposite is happening. In SA, the bags are sponsored by local manufacturers.

Ex-Astrapak CEO rediscovers his mojo After some years in the packaging wilderness after 2012, ex-Astrapak CEO Marco Baglione succeeded in restarting two years later when Verigreen Packaging emerged in KZN, in partnership with his long-time counterpart and production fundi Gareth Elcox. In July this year, Verigreen Packaging was purchased by Alpla of Austria, a group with 178 facilities in 45 countries and turnover of €3,69-billion … and Baglione has been invited to join the Alpla board. That’s some recognition for the man. … IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY Look at the bright side: if you have some gem of wisdom to impart, please write to us at tessa@summitpub.co.za

2021/11/16 13:34

VOLUME 19 NR 6

DECEMBER 2021 / JANUARY 2022

CONTENTS Find out more at www.sapt.co.za

INDUSTRY NEWS

Big expansion projects for Mpact Plastic Containers

10 12 14

Nylopack installs another big 5-layer line

16 18

S&N buys Rubbertek’s sponge pressing plant

Safrique celebrates 25yrs of intra-Africa trade Continental buys assets of Highveld Recyclers Performance pioneers ‘micro-granule’ technology for consistent tints Moulds must be ‘fully operational from first shot’ says Wizard

Roto supplier Fenix Rising opens plants in Cameroon, DRC

Injection Technik opens mould assist centre in Rosslyn

SA’s first polystyrene recycling hub opens in Atlantis

28 34 38 46 48

DESIGN

Supercart trolley crowned SA’s Recycled Product of the Year

18 34 56 60

Effective design for recycling Auto Innovation Awards showcase several firsts

COMPOSITES

PRASA rail doors – innovative industrial design Next generation of composite planes

72 ON THE COVER: BASF’s Infinergy, the first expanded thermoplastic polyurethane for flooring systems, has an excellent environmental profile. In the outdoor sector, the material can be used as an elastic layer for unsealed, sustainable and environmentally friendly sports facilities, running tracks and playgrounds. Read more on page 72

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COMMENT Wizard Tool & Die of Johannesburg recently completed work on one of the biggest moulds it has built to date, for an automotive front-end module. Complex moulding is involved in this application, with numerous recessed sections and couplings required for the moulding manufactured to snap-ﬁt attach into the vehicle chassis structure along with other under-the-hood components. See page 20

Congrats on doing what you’ve done in 2021 Ability to continue supply of moulded goods was a massive achievement

THIS ISSUE

resilience. It’s as if nothing surprises them anymore, and that is a good space to be in. Visiting a manufacturing business where there is good energy is impressive. Achieving a situation where staff at your company are improving themselves and those of their families and dependents is difficult, so to succeed in this In 2021, due to Covid-19, the interruption area is a massive achievement, and I for one think that to supply chains and extended transport not nearly enough credit is accorded to employers times saw shortages of materials and and managers in this country. Visiting a related goods. This made life difficult What more can you do than look after your for manufacturers but, astoundingly, manufacturing customers and staff? Success in the face this does not appear to have affected of adversity has got to be one of the most business where delivery of moulded goods to impressive things in life and I’d say that most there is good customers to a great extent. If they of the manufacturers in our industry are living could get material, most convertors energy is evidence of this on a daily basis. have excelled at supplying their Many analysts remain uncertain whether the impressive customers. They have been assisted global economy will return to ‘normal’, or when that along the way by SA’s road freight haulers may be, so the many challenges are unlikely to go (they have got to rate as one of the most away soon. efficient in their sector globally). Congrats on doing what you’ve done Virtually no one anticipated the effects that the in 2021. Give yourself a pat on the back pandemic would have on supply chains and it was (nobody else is likely to) and prepare basically impossible for manufacturers to plan with yourself for more unexpected market any confidence, so yes, it’s varied from being tough to dynamics in 2022 and beyond. extremely tough. But on going out and visiting convertors and suppliers around the country I’ve noticed a peculiar Martin Wells, Publisher

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

OR most of us, end-of-year summaries over the past few years have mainly been along the lines of, ‘Shew, that must have been one of my toughest years yet and can it get any more challenging?’ ... and it has.

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Mpact Plastic Containers (MPC) forms part of Mpact Limited, and is the leading supplier of Plastic Containers in the Southern African market. Supplying a range of industries within Europe and Africa, MPC’s primary competency is the manufacture of Plastic Crates and Containers, ® Jumbo Bins , Pallets and Wheelie Bins using the injection moulding process. Designed for the circular economy, all products manufactured at MPC are recyclable and contribute to environmental sustainability. The company operates 15 injection moulders ranging from 850 to 5,500 tons. The goal to strive for continuous improvement is a contributing factor to the expansion of the company across South Africa, which includes onsite recycling facilities. MPC encourages customers to return old products that have reached the end of their lifecycle back to MPC in exchange for new crates or products. Since MPC products have a long life span, customers can expect to return their crates after 10 to 15 years following their initial purchase. Old crates and products are recycled at MPC and the plastic material is used to manufacture new products.

+27 21 573 9400

BRITS, NORTH WEST PROVINCE

+27 12 250 9100

CASTLEVIEW, GAUTENG

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salesforce@mpcsa.co.za

SHOP ONLINE mpcsa.co.za

2021/11/12 09:53

NEWS

JUST BRIEFLY

Cibapac buys PS plant of Pearl Star CIBAPAC of Johannesburg has purchased the polystyrene processing plant of Pearl Star of KZN. Under new ownership since late 2021, Cibapac has been involved in a significant turnaround process since Jaco du Plessis and Phillip Brand took over the management of the business. It appears that, prior to that intervention, the plant of the Alrode-based company was beginning to stall and complete shutdown was narrowly avoided when – at the 11th hour – the new owners’ offer to purchase was accepted. Earlier this year, following Pearl Star’s decision to sell its PS processing plant, Cibapac purchased the entire line – including extrusion and thermoforming equipment together with ancillary plant such as unwinders and stackers – and moved it from Verulam to its plant in Dan Jacobs Street, where commissioning and integration of the line with its existing systems is nearly complete. “Part of our turnaround strategy at Ciba when we took over ownership was to restore capacity by maintaining equipment, increase capacity by acquiring additional capacity and to look at what might be next on the innovation side. For the maintenance we had to invest more capital in critical spare parts and change the way things were done in the past, but at the same time we also learned that Pearl Star wanted to exit the polystyrene market. New equipment can take up to a year from date of order until it is in production. The Pearl Star equipment was available almost immediately, making it quite an easy decision for us,” said Du Plessis. “By doing the above it allowed us to start restoring confidence among our customers and to grow our business with their businesses again. We are not yet where we want to be, but we are definitely heading in the right direction. Ciba was very close to closing its doors, but with the vast experience when the new team (myself, Kobus and Philip) stepped in we managed to avoid this from happening. “Regarding our innovation capabilities and new product offerings, you will just have to wait and see,” added Du Plessis. Besides PS trays, Cibapac also manufactures cling film, absorption tray liners and multi-layer films. www.cibapac.co.za 6

Big expansion projects Buys Mpact Polymers out of business rescue, switches operation to injection moulding FRESH from the ﬁasco of its venture into PET recycling, Mpact Group is involved in further major expansion of its plastics business with a sizeable chunk of that going into recycling, now for polyoleﬁns. In this case the vehicle for the expansion is Mpact Plastic Containers (MPC), which is a separate business within the Mpact Group, with its own board of directors and of which Mpact Group is the majority shareholder. In the two current projects, Mpact Plastic Containers is taking over the site in Castleview, Wadeville, from which Mpact Polymers, the failed rPET venture, operated from, and is also developing a 10 000m² recycling plant alongside its Brits operation. The Brits project, with 2 500m² undercover, is an estimated R30-million capex venture. Taking over the Wadeville site is a big call for Mpact group and MPC. Figures for the loss from the rPET venture that was Mpact Polymers could be as high as R650-million. The business, of which Mpact was a 69% stakeholder, was discontinued in November 2019 (it had been established only four years prior, in 2015), with the chief reason given at the time being that the price of virgin PET was lower than what it could produce its rPET at. Swings in virgin prices always impact prices for recycled grades, particularly in South Africa where recycled prices were understood to track at levels of about R5/kg below virgin prices. It has been different with food-grade rPET. However, in other regions of the world, where demand for rPET resulted in prices exceeding those of virgin, this situation did not materliase in South Africa. But the set-up costs for the Mpact Polymers rPET business may have made the project unsustainable.

Mpact Plastic Containers hosts It’s time to get smarter WITH Covid having badly restricted everybody’s ability to get together and chat a bit, it was refreshing that Mpact Plastics Containers pressed ahead and hosted a conference at the Hilton in Sandton in October. Headlining its ‘Smarter Sustainable Solutions for the Future’ event, the conference was intended for its customers – and thankfully a considerable number of them attended, from ﬁelds far and wide. Besides the usual pleasantaries, the economist/ forecaster Dr Roelf Botha again provided a compelling analysis of the SA economic situation (there is hope, but you need to have a sense of humour), the programme included future scenario presentations on ‘Supply Chains of Tomorrow’ (Hermann Haupt); the ‘Role of Data on Supply Chain Management’ (Rajat Ratra); and ‘BI, Business Intelligence’ (Peter Gardner). It was fascinating. Much of this stuff appears to be beyond us here at the southern tip of Africa, but – as they say in the classics – being forewarned is forearmed.

Economist Dr Roelf Botha was at his best again. He has an uncanny nack of analysing stats in an entertaining way, which is necessary as a lot of the stats these days are not encouraging

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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for Mpact Plastic Containers Strong has full backing of Mpact shareholders Mpact Group CEO Bruce Strong has fronted up to the failure of the venture and appears to have the full backing of the Mpact shareholders. A qualiﬁed engineer and CEO of Mpact Group since 2009, Strong has been involved in both paper and plastics recycling even prior to that (Mpact is one of SA’s largest paper recyclers). Addressing an MPC customer conference in Joburg in October, Strong said it was necessary for the business to shed the “emotional baggage of the failed project” (something that virtually every manufacturing business has to confront at one or other time) and move ahead. The failure of the business has had a big impact on Mpact staff too, in terms of earnings. “Situations like ‘Day Zero’ allows one to put these bad decisions behind us,” added Strong. About the only plus coming out of the Mpact Polymers demise was that discussions are in the ﬁnal stages to sell the Krones recycling line to an international buyer. Mpact-MPC partners buy Mpact Polymers out of business rescue Earlier this year the Mpact-MPC partners decided to buy Mpact Polymers out of business rescue, with the big plus being that the

Mpact Plastic Containers is developing a 10 000m² recycling plant alongside its Brits operation. The Brits project, with 2 500m² undercover, is an estimated R30-million capex venture

purchase included that of the property in Atom Street, Wadeville, one of SA’s top industrial areas. MPC will at ﬁrst continue to operate the venture as Mpact Polymers, but the strategy is to develop the site as MPC’s third injection moulding plant, as which it will later be rebranded. It is to install a number of high-tonnageEuropean sourced injection moulding systems there. MPC has used Italian technology – for machinery, >>

sustainability conference

Mpact Plastics Containers’ MD Loutjie de Jongh and Mpact group CEO Bruce Strong

Kammy Govender, marketing manager of Mpact PC Brits, was the coordinator of the event and new business development manager Siphelele Zungu was MC of the ﬁrst day’s proceedings DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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2021/11/16 13:47

NEWS

JUST BRIEFLY

Film and bags from Namibia being dumped in SA? IN WHAT must be one of the more unexpected developments in the local market of late, we hear that film and bags from neighbouring state Namibia is being dumped in South Africa. Up till now very few film convertors in Southern Africa have been able to compete in the SA market, for the simple reason that there are already a substantial group of high-efficiency and highly competitive convertors already active. The company referred to, Namibia Plastics, has built up from a standing start in 2011 to the point where it commissioned a large Reifenhäuser line in 2018 and, who knows, may have outgrown its local market by now. But, just as the SA film convertors supply to neighbouring states and compete in those markets, manufacturers from those countries can do the same and compete in SA. There may also be some advantages to operating in Namibia, Windhoek can be supplied relatively easily from the Walvis Bay port and, as things stand, a lot of freight trucks are moving from SA into the country – and there’s no point in these vehicles returning unloaded.

<< moulds and robotics – throughout. Headed by Loutjie de Jongh, MPC is a leader in South Africa in the production of bulk bins, wheelie bins and a wide range of other container solutions, including that of collapsible crates for agriculture, retail and general industry. It operates two large converting operations, in Atlantis (Western Cape) and Brits (NorthWest). The latter plant, unseen by journalists or any but the Mpact close circle, is said to be one of the most highly automated and streamlined injection moulding plants in Southern Africa with major use of robotics. A leader in a number of container market segments It is the maverick de Jongh who has been one of the main catalysts for the current venture. The man has put considerable energy into the ongoing expansion of MPC’s two current injection plants and in the process developed an empowered management team that has seen the business become the leader in a number of container market segments, especially bulk and wheelie bins. Its ‘Jumbo’ 0.8m³ bulk bin, introduced in a major capex venture in 2005, has

become the SA leader in this category. De Jongh has for long advocated that investment is the future of the industry and has over the past near-two decades to do so. MPC’s continued investment in plant has put some distance between it and its rivals. MPC plans to considerably expand its injection moulding capacity at the 20 000m² Wadeville site. One of the main advantages is that the site is closer to SA’s industrial hub. The only reason the MPC plant is based in Brits, some distance to the northwest of Pretoria, is that the Plastics Omnium business it bought in 2010 was situated there. Other large injection moulding businesses operate in the area too, but these are virtually exclusively to supply the automotive OEMs based in Rosslyn. The plan for the development of the adjacent recycling plant in Brits is to collect and reprocess PP and HDPE as well as other materials for use in the mouldings it produces, to achieve the full-circle goal. MPC is making increased use of recycled materials, with one of its most recent successes being the moulding of the wheels for its wheelie bins in recyclate. www.mpcsa.co.za

Nicky van Hille of Moss Group and Michelle Penlington of Polyoak gave presentations on sustainability solutions; Nicky spoke about recycling and EPR legislation and Michelle about Polyoak’s ‘Continuing Road of Innovation’, both of which were enlightening

Chat session – Annabé Pretorius of Plastix 911 has become one of most entertaining public speakers on all matters related to plastics, recycling, the environment and sustainability. She was joined on stage for a chat session by Eddie Hanekom of the Environmental Department of the Western Cape government and hosted by Lance Kallis – Rentals and Service Manager of Mpact

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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New initiative will celebrate all things Cape Town to bolster economic recovery TO support local businesses across the board, from oneperson SMMEs to corporates, a number of key public, private and NPO stakeholders are joining forces to initiate a “Made in Cape Town” movement that will surface and celebrate products and services of a Cape Town origin. The “Made in Cape Town” movement is managed by the Craft and Design Institute (CDI) in partnership with the City of Cape Town’s Enterprise and Investment Department. It aims to demonstrate the strength of what can be achieved when public and private entities come together to support the reopening of the economy. “The primary goal at this stage,” says Erica Elk, Group CEO of the CDI, “is to unearth and showcase what Cape Town has created, and to encourage locals to support local. “The ‘Made in Cape Town’ movement provides the CDI with an additional channel to connect local businesses with economic opportunities that will help them recover. It speaks to the objectives of several of our other projects, one being the RE:SOLVE Challenge which enables innovative entrepreneurs to take their first steps in prototyping new local products and services.” Elk elaborates: “Through ‘Made in Cape Town’ we are calling on the public and local businesses to tell us what excites them about Cape Town: is it a locally made product? A food or beverage they associate with the Mother City, or an

invention or company that was born here? A unique service, event or adventure? The list of possibilities is endless!” • For more info on the “Made in Cape Town” movement contact Carola Koblitz, Campaign Lead, “Made in Cape Town, Email: carola@madeincapetown.org

Celebrating all things Made In Cape Town are (from L-R), Group CEO, Craft and Design Institute, Erica Elk; Mayco Member for Economic Opportunities, James Vos; Programme Specialist-Social Impact at the V&A Waterfront, Marco Morgan; Participant in the Retail Readiness Living programme participants, Mpilo Headman and Luvuyo Mpoza and founder of Our Workshop in Langa, Heath Nash.PIC: SUPPLIED

And delegates had opportunity to try their luck at the evening gambling session, where the currency was the aptly name ‘Mpact’ note

Ruben Brandt, GM Operations for Mpact Plastic Containers, which has sites at Atlantis, Brits, Castleview and Recycling (separate site which is also in Brits), and Happy Magayisa, new business development manager at Mpact Brits, who was MC on the second day DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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2021/11/16 13:48

NEWS

East London recycler Afri Waste closes doors AFRI Waste Group, which set up for recycling at Fort Jackson in 2016, which had considerable potential to both reenergise the plastic recycling sector and for job creation in the Eastern Cape region, has closed. With what appeared to be a solid business plan, Ikusasa inspired hope and the plant in the Fort Jackson industrial area near East London was opened by President Ramaphosa. It’s anybody’s guess what conspired after that. Some customers felt Afri Waste wanted to sell its materials at higher rates than has been standard in the recycled market in SA (which tend to be a percentage below the price of virgin). Most of the equipment, which included a heavy-duty Enma recycling extruder ex-China (a brand not seen in SA before), has been auctioned off. The wash plant (the only one in the region up till now) has yet to find a buyer, however.

Big turnaround for USA energy giants IN A clear sign of the recovery from the Covid slowdown, the American oil supermajors ExxonMobil and Chevron reported their best quarterly profits in years, powered by surging energy demand and a commodity-price boom. ExxonMobil’s net income in the three months to September was $6,8-billion, up $2,1-bn from the second quarter; Chevron’s was $6,1-bn, an increase of $3-bn. In March 2020 the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, hovered around the $20 a barrel mark, in early November 2021 it was running at levels just above $80 a barrel.

10 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Nampak takes R1bn loan YOU have to ask what is happening over at Nampak. The group recently secured a trade finance facility with an SA bank for up to R1-billion. This will apparently allow Nampak to sell a portion of its accounts receivable balances to the bank. The facility will be used to repay debt, it said, as Nampak needs to reduce interest-bearing debt by at least R1-billion by June 2022. This goes a long way towards reducing the risk of being forced to sell productive assets in a desperate sale. The latter was the case up till quite recently with a number of the Nampak plastics businesses in SA sold off. We hear that R206-million of the facility was utilised in October alone.

The fact that the roof at the Nylopack plant in Roodekop, Johannesburg, had been lifted in 2018 to accommodate the line installed then made it a lot easier to install the latest 5-layer line, right alongside

Nylopack installs another

big 5-layer line Sticks with proven Rajoo technology LEADING coex films manufacturer Nylopack has, in the quiet times that Covid induced, installed yet another big 5-layer Rajoo extrusion line. Continuing with its plant buildup since entering the multi-layer films sector in 2010, when the Nylopack partners bought the films business of Huhtamaki, the company has made successive investments in plant including the purchase of a number of Rajoo lines. The Nylopack team realized shortly after purchasing the Huhtamaki plant that the machines were not going to be competitive and decided then to invest in high-output, high-efficiency equipment. It has been purchasing lines from Rajoo, built in India but making extensive use of European ancillaries, since 2014 after viewing its technology at the K show. Nylopack MD Pieter Rossouw liked the Rajoo technology and was impressed with ease-ofoperation achieved. One of the main attractions was the ‘Navigator’ control system, used to coordinate the various parameters presented by simultaneous use of the five extruders. The control allows for steady and consistent film throughputs as well as faster start-up. The latter feature is indeed particularly important as

Navigator control – Efficient control of all the variables on the five extruders is achieved by the line’s ‘Navigator’ control system

relatively short production runs and formulation alterations are standard in this sector in SA. As a result of the success to date, the most recent acquisition – Nylopack’s fourth Rajoo line to date – is a step further in the same direction. The system was installed and commissioned earlier this year, enabling Nylopack to further guarantee its ability to supply. The latest two lines are designed for the production of specialised industrial films and not for barrier films, as the first lines were. Barring a few minor differences, the new line is identical to the line installed in 2018. The system can produce 5-layer films, up to 1550mm wide and up to 250 microns thick.

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18.10.2021 08:02:03

NEWS

Safrique celebrates

Grown from supply of single material to complete range of goods

worked well. People in Africa, especially business people, like INTRA-AFRICA trade specialist to meet guests from elsewhere in Africa. They in turn referred Safrique of Johannesburg is me to others and, what can I say, we just kept on going. celebrating its 25th year of doing business across the continent. Was it tough in the beginning? Cross-border trade is difficult on Mervyn Moodley’s Yes, of course it was. But to be honest I’ve found it more most continents, and in Africa the company Safrique enjoyable than inconvenient, all along actually. There have celebrates 25 years of challenges are possibly even greater, been moments when there was serious competition from trading across Africa but Safrique has survived and thrived China and other sources. And my scariest moment was being in 2021, With him during this period, with Mervyn here is Sven Ortner of forced to remain in Mauritania after a coup d’état. My hotel Moodley and Safrique’s team of NGR (Next Generation was on lockdown for two days and the airport was closed, but Recylingmaschinen) traders having literally crisscrossed then I managed to get out. Besides that it’s been fine. of Austria. Safrique the continent to supply a variety of represents NGR in Did the momentum built up encourage you to try to materials, products and more recently, Sub-Saharan Africa supply other materials? even machinery to manufacturers. There was good interest in the textile fabrics, used in mattress It is Mervyn particularly who has refined the skills required and furniture manufacture, all along. But then in 2009 SANS to do business in Africa, which few other South Africans have announced the closure of their PET plant, so we were facing marshalled. Originally from Durban, Mervyn qualified as an a potentially very difficult situation. I then had a bit of industrial engineer and first worked in the automotive sector a ‘light bulb moment’ (while walking one of my before joining SA Nylon Spinners in Cape Town. A favourite mountain tracks) to offer a wide manufacturer of PET material and nylon fibre, SANS It is range of polymers to our customers in (no longer in operation) gave Moodley his first Mervyn Africa and thus we started to supply opportunity to travel in Africa … and the man particularly, who Safripol’s materials into Africa. has literally not looked back. Then it became apparent that has refi ned the skills Mervyn, you were originally involved in PET Safripol could at times not supply its required to do business manufacture here in South Africa, what polyolefins on a continuous basis, prompted you to start selling into Africa? in Africa, which f so we started looking at supplying My first trips into Africa were actually prior to ew other South recycled materials. And that too became the establishment of Safrique. My employer at very popular. With recycled material it’s Africans have the time in 1991, SANS, gave me the opportunity very important to have a good quality and marshalled – possibly because no-one else seemed interested consistency, and at Safrique we put a lot of – to try to market both the PET materials and textile focus into getting the best quality we can from yarns SANS was making to customers in Africa. recylers in South Africa. Soon thereafter, demand outgrew My first trip was to the Ivory Coast, and involved a two-andsupply and today we continue to source whatever we can from a-half hour drive to see just one customer. The interesting South Africa as well as Europe, Middle East, SEA, as well as thing was that I met three or four other manufacturers in North and South America. the vicinity, just by referrals. From that first trip and meeting Safrique got involved in cross trading and participation in people, I just loved the experience. exhibitions both in Africa and Europe? Safrique got going in 1996, just after the first democratic We were originally very focussed on material supply, virgin elections in SA, were you welcomed when first visiting or recycled, but we have spread out from there. Our main manufacturers in other African states? market focus, however, remains in the plastics industry. The main problem was, because of South Africa’s political dispensation, there were only two countries trading openly with South Africa – Zaire (now DRC) and Ivory Coast – so I didn’t have a lot to work with. But the sanctions began to drop after 1994 and the situation opened up a bit. I started Safrique, based in Johannesburg, in 1996 and at the time SANS (ex-employer) was still our main supplier. The SA Foreign Trade Organisation office was helpful and supplied some business contact details, but I found it difficult to do business over the phone. I preferred a ‘knock on the door’ method. That

We at Safrique have used trade shows as one of our main platforms to ﬁnd both customers and suppliers. Of the shows, the K in Germany has probably been the best for us. We also participate in several regional shows in South Africa, East Africa and West Africa A lot of our business is cross trading, where we arrange the sale from a manufacturer in one country to a customer in another country. At our ofﬁce in Johannesburg we have people who are extremely good and experienced at handling and managing these transactions. And although our market

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25yrs of intra-Africa trade is Africa, it has developed to the point where we supply goods from virtually anywhere to anywhere. For example, a shipment could go from Bangkok to Cameroon, with all the paperwork and logistics managed from our office in Jo’burg. And then you got involved in equipment and machine supply; wasn’t that a completely different and more difficult challenge? Well, that was virtually a natural step for us. Our raw materials were the conduit to customers who have expansion plans for machinery such as blown film lines, flexo and roto printing press and lamination. We partnered with W&H and Nordmecanicca for selected countries in Africa. On the sustainability side we partnered with NGR & Herbold. Thus five years’ partnership has yielded success in West and Southern Africa and IOI. What are the biggest challenges to doing business in Africa? Look, there are countries in Africa where it is dangerous to operate, like Somalia, but I don’t really see that many challenges besides. Yes, the roads aren’t that good, but I get there to meet people. For French and Portuguese customers, we have personnel who are fluent and that obviously makes it far easier to conduct business. How do manufacturers across the continent compare with manufacturers in SA? Originally most of our customers in Africa were of Indian or Lebanese and Chinese descent, and it has been a bit disappointing that the local populations in most African countries have been under-represented in the manufacturing sector. But it’s been improving in the last few years, and I have especially noticed the emergence of more female entrepreneurs. We offer our full support to small, medium and large-scale manufacturers.

It’s obvious that manufacturing can grow in virtually all African countries, SA included, how do you see the future? After what will this year be my 30th year travelling in Africa, I would say the manufacturing sector in Africa has matured quite a bit. Many of the businesses started small, but the appearance is that they are now investing in better equipment and becoming more efficient and professional. The Covid pandemic has presented one of the most difficult challenges for businesses in Africa, and as a result our projections were very conservative. But we have found that some sectors have done better than expected, especially that of food packaging. My impression is that that sector is building well now. How is Safrique coping during the pandemic? When the pandemic first started and the lockdown was implemented in March 2020, we had travellers in the various markets who literally made it back a day or two before the lockdown started on 26 March 2020. Over the years we have experienced different forms of crises in our business, for example, the exchange rate crisis previously, but never did we and other businesses experience a pandemic in our life time. So, when the pandemic started we really had no clue about the implications it would have on our business. However, the team worked the hardest that we have ever done in our work history, pursuing every single opportunity. We are pleased to report that instead of having linear growth, which we normally do year on year, during the pandemic we have experienced exponential growth. Mervyn as you’re most likely to see him, on a trade show stand with members of the Safrique team, a multi-skilled group with the requisite language skills and fortitude to manage well anywhere in Africa

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NEWS

Continental’s premises in KZN

Continental buys assets of

Highveld Recyclers

Continental Compounders has bought the assets of Highveld Recyclers, including three compounding lines SINCE the Highveld site is in Alrode near the N3, to the south of Johannesburg, the move also gives Durban-based Continental a foothold in the market there from which to better supply its Gauteng customers. Continental CEO George Dimond said his company had purchased only the Highveld assets, not the company itself.

“We have been running at flatout capacity for some time now and needed extra machinery and space from which to supply our Gauteng and near African customers,” he added. Two of the compounders are to be used for virgin processing and one for the recycling of customer production scrap, achieving a complete supply chain PVC loop in waste management

and service to customers. “The strategic investment creates employment for more than 30 fulltime employees and adds value to our core and ever-growing customer base. It adds 9000 tons of virgin and 2000 tons of recycled material capacity per annum to our arsenal and is right on the doorstep of our customers there,” said Dimond.

PVC supply constraints in SA and globally SASOL’s PVC plant commenced its statutory maintenance shutdown in midOctober until mid-November, with PVC supply to the market only on allocation through to the end of the year. Dr Brian Sole, senior manager, polymers marketing at Sasol said that inventory levels would deplete further during the plant’s offline period, and that delivery delays on November and December orders could be expected until grade and pack-size stock levels stabilise. The good news is that Sasol expects

that production and supply levels should improve from the first quarter of 2022 once the plant maintenance period has been completed. Internationally, PVC supply availability remains extremely tight in most regions. While new capacity is expected to come online in the USA until the end of the year, providing some relief to this market, downstream global demand has remained relatively robust. In Europe, tight supply due to production challenges, combined with strong residential demand has supported all time high prices for PVC. This has been further exacerbated by high energy costs prevailing in recent weeks. In Asia, further supply tightness in export availability of PVC could become prevalent as China implements their “dual control of 14 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

energy consumption” philosophy and enforces energy cuts on certain industries. This has already impacted on the PVC producing industry with many production units either forced to shut down or to idle production at lower rates. While this international supply tightness remains in force, PVC prices continue to stretch upwards. Over the last quarter (July-September) international prices have once again been driven upwards by lack of supply, with a regime of all-time record high prices in most markets. “While supply-side factors are prevailing now, it should also be noted that the current constraints on shipping container availability and increasing sea freight rates have also contributed strongly to the regional pricing levels,” Dr Sole added.

C:Gran-Cutter-Compacter-Extruder Combination The cutting specialist for wet materials

Visit us at Propak 8 – 11 March 2022 Hall 5 Stand C3

P:React (LSP: Liquid State Polycondensation PET in - Future out

Granulator

Wash Plant

Suppliers of: Generic Prime (USA) - LD/LLDPE, HDPE, PVC, PP • Reprocessed/Recycled Polymers • Saﬂene Filler Masterbatch for: Film, Blow, Injection, Woven Bags & Pipe Extrusion • Other Additives 50 Wessel Road, Rivonia, 2128, JHB, RSA • TEL: +27 11 803 0333 • CELL: +27 82 604 5926 Email: safrique@safrique.com

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NEWS

Technology boost for SA’s recycling sector INNOVATIVE technology to track, trace and record the trading in recyclable materials is being rolled out across South Africa. The move is set to empower recycling SMMEs, strengthen the value chain and promote the economic inclusion of the informal sector. An innovative digital platform called BanQu will help buy-back centres accurately record and track their recycling transactions with waste pickers – as well as trace the origins of the recycling – while providing a real-time business management tool enabling them to better understand and manage their businesses. South Africa’s PET plastic producer responsibility organisation (PRO), PETCO, is driving the rollout of the BanQu technology in a project called Up, which commenced in 2021 and is funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation. Over the next year, the system will be rolled out to 100 buy-back centres identified by PETCO across the country, with 10 centres in Gauteng, Limpopo and the Western and Eastern Cape who are live and transacting on the system so far. Once registered on the BanQu system, the buy-back centres can capture the quantity of recyclable material bought from waste pickers, as well as the price paid for it and where it was collected. This allows buy-back centres to know the quantity of all materials within their centres at any given time. The waste pickers, in turn, receive an SMS receipt for each transaction and can keep track digitally of their income earned through sales to various buy-back centres. To date the 10 live centres have registered over 1 400 waste pickers on the BanQu system, and more than 2 350 tons of recyclable material worth more than R5.7 million have been recorded. Another advantage of the system is that if, for example, there is a sudden decline in the number of boxes that are

16 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

HIGH-TECH TRACKING: Mpetha Mushoeshoe, a waste picker in Johannesburg, shows off an SMS he received from the BanQu recycling track and trace platform formally recording the volume and value of the recyclate he collected and was paid for. Among other benefits, the BanQu platform helps waste pickers keep a digital track of their income earned through sales to various buy-back centres. (IMAGE: SUPPLIED)

usually brought in, the buy-back centre can compare the numbers at a glance and try to establish what might have changed. PETCO CEO Cheri Scholtz said that because informal waste collection was based largely on cash transactions, the majority of the estimated 52 000 waste pickers in South Africa typically had no record of their earnings and so remained largely unbanked and unable to access the kinds of services available to those who were self-employed or had a record of employment in the formal sector. The benefit of the technology was that both waste pickers and buy-back centres were able to build up permanent digital financial records, which could be used to access credit to grow their businesses. BanQu founder and CEO Ashish Gadnis said BanQu used secure blockchain technology to track and trace recycled material across the recycling value chain, ensuring price transparency for both buyers and sellers. BUY-BACK BLISS: Melody Nyamakura, who works at the Main Buy-Back Centre in the Johannesburg CBD, shows how the centre uses the innovative recycling tracking platform, BanQu, allowing centres like hers to formally track and trace recycling they buy from waste pickers, as well as how much was paid for it – information which is also sent to the waste pickers in the form of an SMS, for their record-keeping. (IMAGE: SUPPLIED)

www.petco.co.za/section-18-everything-you-need-to-know

The production of sponge rubber and lathe-cut components and seals is an attractive new option for S&N Rubber; here Stuart Browning of S&N shows a seal moulded with the technology. The main advantage is that sponge parts produced are lighter and have a different compression sealing use, which is a massive plus. The purchase of the pressed component sponge and lathe-cut seal plant from Rubbertek of Durban included a number of specially adapted machines to manufacture sponge and other products

S&N buys Rubbertek’s sponge pressing plant S & N RUBBER of Port Elizabeth has purchased the sponge moulding and component production assets of Rubbertek of Durban. Established by the late Reg Connelly in the late ‘80s, Rubbertek was involved in both rubber compounding and the production of rubber technical components, mainly by injection and compression moulding and sponge extrusion. It had most recently been operating under business rescue terms. S&N, already a leading supplier of rubber and silicone compounds, calendered sheeting and injection moulded items, had a particular interest in one of the systems

operated by Rubbertek, that being their sponge rubber compression moulding plant and has now purchased all the relevant plant – lock, stock and barrel – and shifted all the equipment to its plant in Deal Party – Port Elizabeth. Rubbertek had presumably encountered problems trading itself out of business rescue and decided to halt further operations. S&N, under Stuart Browning and his team, has expanded its plant and product offering, improved efficiencies and has been able to offer continued supply of the relevant Rubbertek components to their past customers. S&N Rubber is an IATF 16949 and

ISO 9001 rated company. S&N strives to continue to expanded its plant, introduce new technology and improve efficiencies to remain locally and internationally competitive.

www.snrubber.co.za

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 17

CUSTOM COMPOUNDING & CALENDERING; and COMPONENT MANUFACTURING S&N Rubber has been in existence since 1991. We manufacture compounds and components for a wide range of industries, including automotive, tyre (as well as retreading), mining, general & heavy engineering, foundry, footwear, agriculture, electrical, leisure and wine. We manufacture parts in NR (natural rubber), NBR (nitrile rubber), CR (chloroprene), EPDM, SBR (styrene butadiene rubber), silicone as well as other specialist grade materials.

Certified by the International Automotive Task Force for the production of automotive and related parts IATF 16949 & ISO 9001

S & N Rubber (Pty) Ltd • 98 Burman Road, Deal Party, Port Elizabeth 041 486 1505 • orders@snrubber.co.za • www.snrubber.co.za

NEWS www.coloursystems.co.za

Performance pioneers

‘micro-granule’

technology for consistent tints Development driven by PCS’s combined experience PERFORMANCE Colour Systems is pioneering micro-granule technology for use in colouring applications where only light colour tints are required. A main feature of this market is that, although addition levels are relatively low, many of the applications are in popular consumer products where on-going colour tint consistency is extremely necessary. Brand suppliers desire extremely minimal colour variation, preferably zero, which is a difficult objective to achieve. The main use for the technology is light tint applications such as PET containers and SAN mouldings where consistency of tint strength is necessary – in other words to disperse consistently and readily and to achieve colour consistency in moulded products over

extended periods. In both the PET and SAN applications (styrene acrylonitrile is often used in cosmetic containers) the Performance micro-granule masterbatches are beginning to prove popular, said PCS sales manager Jared Khoury. “The Micro Granule technology is a new and exciting addition to our business,” added Khoury. Developed at the Performance lab in Meadowdale, Johannesburg, and produced using proprietary technology at the plant there with the input of its experienced colour specialists around the country, the micro granule technology knowhow remains classified. Few colour masterbatch manufacturers, even internationally,

have up till now focussed on tint applications, possibly because achieving good dispersion levels is so difficult and addition rates are so low. These two challenges attracted the PCS team, who started developing the production technology and running trials over the past year. The PCS micro-granules are supplied as micro pellets and dosed primarily into virgin PET and SAN, although recycled grades of these materials are becoming available. Other polymers could be used too. PCS is now a division of Ferro South Africa, which is a Bud Group Company. The black and white masterbatch production facilities formerly run by Ferro at its plant in Brakpan now fall under the Performance management.

SAVA takes steps to protect SA’s cling ﬁlm market from cheap imports REPRESENTATIVES of SAVA, Plastics SA, SARS, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) have started discussions to increase tariff duties on imports to protect the local PVC cling film market from cheap imports. The PVC cling film producers and members of SAVA made the compelling case that their capital investments in the country are substantial. In addition to creating employment and supporting local industries, their products are also independently audited to ensure they are safe for food contact and compliant with SAVA’s Product Stewardship 18 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Commitment (PSC) and are awarded SAVA’s Vinyl. product label to give endusers peace of mind. However, local manufacturers have seen their markets being eroded by cheap imports from abroad, which in turn has a negative impact on locally produced volumes. “The local production capacity currently exceeds the requirements and demands of the local market. If this continues we will be forced to reduce our manufacturing hours, a move that will eventually lead to retrenchments and permanent job losses,” one manufacturer warned. To prevent this, SAVA has begun

applying for an increase in the rate of customs duties and requested that a separate tariff code for cling film be created in order to get a clear picture of what is being imported to South Africa. All stakeholders involved in the PVC cling film industry are encourated to participate in this process. For more information, email CEO@savinyls.co.za

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NEWS

Moulds must be

Fully operational from ﬁrst shot

10mm diameter refractive lenses

Honeydew toolroom builds biggest mould yet THERE are few experiences for mould makers to top that of having a mould accepted at the initial mould trial. In most cases, minor adjustments need to be undertaken to meet the end user’s brief. The more complex the job is - the more satisfying this can be. For Wizard Tool & Die of Johannesburg, this is the benchmark it strives to attain on all of the moulds it manufactures. The Honeydew-based toolroom recently completed work on one of the biggest moulds it has built to date, for an automotive front-end module. Complex moulding is involved in this application, with numerous recessed sections and couplings required for the moulding manufactured to snap-fit attach into the vehicle chassis structure along with other under-the-hood components. In this case, 29 shut-offs are used, meaning that that number of points need to open to allow melt to fill sections

Local recyclers testing PVC cling ﬁlm TWO of South Africa’s leading plastics recyclers have begun to conduct tests on recycling PVC cling film. Around the world, cling film is generally not collected, nor widely recycled owing to the low volumes, difficulties in collection and challenges with contamination. Mark Gibson of My Waste products, in conjunction with Infinite Industries, have developed PVC sheets made from recycled PVC cling film, that can be used as sub-floor for laminates and other flooring options. Amongst other things, the subfloor helps to absorb sound and acoustics, adds warmth

and then shut seconds later in order to allow the mould to re-open. To the customers amazement, Wizard MD Grant Brackenridge’s assurance that the mould would function first-time, in trials, was achieved. “Customers are sometimes surprised when I say our moulds will be fully operational from the first shot, but that is what we aim for and have been achieving,” said Brackenridge. The resultant moulding is close to 1m wide and includes both coloured (black) and clear polymer sections. Other chromed parts are attached later and the final assembled module achieves both exceptional surface quality finish and substantial weight reduction (one of the main requirements of automotive OEMs). Tolerances of no more than three

microns are required, and were achieved, according to Brackenridge. It is extremely difficult to achieve such fine tolerances over such a wide moulding, and the result is that zero flashing results. The same extreme tolerances are applied to all the surfaces, so the final mouldings will meet all the automotive manufacturer’s standards. Brackenridge has been building moulds for over 30 years, formerly at the Johannesburg injection moulding businesses Kopp Plastics and Newton & Taylor as well as the painting/surface coating business Plastichrome. He was also a co-founder of PC Specialised Spraying, which provided considerable

and helps to even out imperfections. To assist with more tests and market development, Mpact Versapak has donated 150kg of clingfilm to My Waste in Alberton.

Company, Fibre Circle and MetPac-SA. Under the new mandatory EPR, VinylLoop (SAVA’s EPR division set up to deal with PVC packaging waste) has amalgamated with Polyco from 1f September 2021. This merger between Polyco and VinylLoop does not mean that SAVA will cease to exist. As the focus of the new legislation is on packaging waste (of which PVC forms less than 2%) SAVA will continue with its activities and focus on product stewardship, promoting the use of vinyl products and protecting the local markets – the majority of which are in long-term applications such as building, construction, medical applications, footwear and clothing etc.

Local PROs join forces to demonstrate EPR In SA’s previous voluntary extended producer responsibility (EPR) landscape, there were seven individual Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) who managed the EPR schemes for the various different packaging streams – PETCO, Polyco, the Polystyrene Association, Southern African Vinyls Association, The Glass Recycling

20 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Clas

Grant Brackenridge of Wizard Tool & Die with the automotive front-end module mould. Numerous shut-offs are used in the mould (he is demonstrating how the shut-offs work) and, with tolerances of just 3 microns across the approximately metre-wide mould, this is a complex job

www.wizard-plastics.com

Not many tulip-shaped wine glasses are made in plastic, for the reason that a large collapsible core is required. In this case the client was able to accept the additional cost

Moulds like this are multi-million projects and only a few toolrooms in SA have the capability and experience to compete at this level

experience of the high surface finish thresholds required for parts to be painted (rejects are very expensive losses). He sold PC in 1997 and started BRS Manufacturing that year and then, along with his sons, Wizard Tool & Die in 2008. The company is one of SA’s few standalone toolrooms. Wizard Plastics, a moulding business, has since been spun off and is now run by the sons, Robert and Bradley, in Chamdor, Krugersdorp. Wizard Tool & Die has built a wide range of moulds, with some of the more interesting including that for a large plastic wine glass where a very large

collapsible core was used (the client in this case had poolside beverage consumption in mind) and another for the manufacture of 10mm diameter refractive lenses, where a 4-cavity mould was built. In each case, Brackenridge’s assurance that the “mould will be fully operational from the first shot” has been proven. “Our advantage is that we are a small team but a highly skilled team,” says Brackenrigde. Wizard employs a number of tool makers who in the process complete a virtual apprenticeship under the MD’s tutelage. DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 21

1 Boon Leat Terrace, #08-03, Harbourside Building 1, Singapore 119843 TEL : 65-6778-4633 FAX : 65-6778-9440 E-Mail : sales@nisseiasb.com.sg

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Unit 2 The Shields, 33 Victoria Link, Route 21 Corporate Park, Nelmapius Drive, Irene Ext.30, 0062, 0157, South Africa TEL : 27(12) 345 4924 E-Mail : sales@nisseiasb.co.za

2020/06/15 11:11

NEWS Fenix Rising started manufacturing roto machines for tanks in February, since then six have been built (as at November 2021). Fenix has already started tank manufacturing operations in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Kinshasa (DRC)

Fenix was started in 2014 by Werner du Toit, son of the late Pieter du Toit of Lomold fame

Roto supplier Fenix Rising opens plants in Cameroon, DRC Simple tank manufacturing solution put to the test THERE may be some confusion about the origins of the name of the company Fenix Rising, but there’s no doubt about its intentions, it literally is rising from the ashes of a failed business venture. Fenix is a Cape Town-based multichannel roto supply business which, besides manufacturing roto powders as well as its own roto machines, has in 2021 ventured into Africa and opened tank-manufacturing plants in Cameroon and DRC, with plans for many more. Fenix (apparently the old English spelling for Phoenix, which rises from the ashes of its dead predecessor) was started in 2014 by Werner du Toit, son of the late Pieter du Toit of Lomold fame. Lomold was a visionary venture to introduce a long glassﬁbre strand technology to produce pallets by a proprietary injection moulding technique that had the potential to grab a share of the vast global pallet market, but which ultimately collapsed. So Werner was obligated to go back to ‘start’ and the platform for that was to begin with the manufacture of roto moulding powders, which had also been the model for one of the subsidiary businesses of Lomold, but which too had shut. At the time he thought he would be able to resolve 22

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at least some of the issues resulting from the Lomold implosion, thinking he understood about 80% of his father’s business model. But he soon established that he knew far less (“only about 20%”) of the entangled venture’s activities, with several contracts and agreements of which he was unfamiliar. There was no alternative but to wipe the slate clean in order to restart. With the support of key staff Wiseman Nakalebe and William Makupe, who he had been working with since 2003, Du Toit set out on the Fenix journey. More trouble lay in store, however, when one of the company’s ﬁrst main customers too went belly-up, nearly dragging the venture into oblivion yet again. Build plastic water tanks ANYWHERE Resilience is necessary in the setback situation and Fenix has ventured into areas where few others would tread. It ﬁrst began with the milling of roto powders, using a Powder King pulverizing system, and then progressed to manufacturing water tanks using its own powders. In the next step, it began building roto machines for tanks in February, since then six have been built (as at

November 2021). The machines are simple, “can be ﬁxed with a hammer and spanner” and can operate off a generator. The latter is necessary in Africa (and increasingly in South Africa too) and Fenix has already started tank manufacturing operations in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Kinshasa (DRC). As far as Fenix is aware, no or very little plastic water tank manufacturing was taking place in either country. According to Du Toit, “A water tank is not an expense, it’s an investment”. Fenix’s marketing strategy is ‘Build Plastic Water Tanks Anywhere’. Its solutions include the supply of machines and material, and training personnel – essentially a whole “Business-in-a-Box”. The plants in Cameroon and DRC are operated by individuals with who Fenix is familiar, but the goal is to offer the solution to entrepreneurs who wish to manufacture across the continent in partnership with Fenix. Few from the SA roto moulding community have been prepared to venture into Africa, possibly because the local market is still relatively open, but the problems of unpredictable municipal water supply are making solutions such as that offered by Fenix increasingly attractive. www.fenixrising.co.za

2021/11/16 13:50

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NEWS

Plastic overtakes cigarette butts as worst polluters on uShaka Beach IN 2021, plastic pollution found on uShaka Beach has surpassed the concerning levels of cigarette butts that made the top of the same list in 2019, says the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr). In 2019, the item with the highest count during the KZN International Beach Cleanup was cigarette butts. This year, cigarette butts only came in fifth position – after food wrappers, plastic pieces, plastic bottles and plastic bottle caps. While glass pieces and other items had the highest count in Kosi Bay, plastic pieces were the clear ‘winners’ on uShaka Beach. According to Saambr, the total count of bottle caps was higher than a combination of all of the other items in the first five categories.

Two SA companies for Afri-Plastics Challenge semi-final TWO South African companies have been selected from 13 African countries as part of 30 companies nominated for the semifinals of the Afri-Plastics Challenge, a UK innovation and challenge funded by the Government of Canada. The Afri-Plastics Challenge recognises the most innovative ideas in the plastic recycling space across Sub-Saharan Africa and aims to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing and scaling innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement. South Africa is represented by SCRAB Tech, and Rantsilo. The 30 semi-finalists will be supported with grants and capacity building expertise to develop and prove the effectiveness of their solution in pursuit of the three final prizes of, £1 000 000, £750 000 and £500 000 in March 2023. The remaining 28 companies are from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, Nigeria, DR Congo, and Ethiopia. At the end of January 2022, 15 finalists will be selected to move forward in the Challenge and continue their journey to win one of the three final prizes.

Injection Technik opens mould assist centre in Rosslyn Allows better support customers in the automotive supply sector INJECTION Technik of Uitenhage has opened its third toolroom, this time in Rosslyn in Gauteng, in a move which will allow the company to better support its customers in the automotive supply sector in the area, one of the biggest auto OEM centres in South Africa. Injection Technik is a specialist mould repair and maintenance business, for injection moulds, established by Stephan Aucamp and Renier Hechter in 2014. Its success in the mould maintenance area has resulted in Injection Technik attracting attention from some international mould makers, for which it now handles the specific activity of final checks on moulds prior to installation and then the commissioning thereof. It represents mould makers in China, Japan, Portugal, Germany, Spain and most recently Malaysia, which is a feather in the cap for the company. Besides Uitenhage and Rosslyn, Injection Technik operates a tool support operation/depot in East London, where the focus is likewise mainly on automotive moulds. In Rosslyn it has taken up a 400m2

site where it has 5 and 8-ton gantries and CNC and EDM machinery. The plant is run by Henry Lesley (ex-MCG) and can do work on all moulds used by the automotive suppliers in the area. Users of moulds sometimes blame the the mould maker when they have problems, and when the mould is from a foreign toolroom, this can be complicated. Technicians would then have to be sent out, and with Covid that situation began to be even more problematic. Enter the picture Injection Technik, whose service is designed specifically for such situations. “Sometimes users blame the tool, and we’ve been able to sort out the problem within a day or two,” said Aucamp. Injection Technik is also the local licensee for Synventive (hot runners), Airtect (systems for preventative maintenance), and SST Micro Welding. Micro welding is an important aspect of mould repair and design change work, and to this end Clyde Erasmus of Laser Mould & Die is now based at the Injection Technik plant in Uitenhage, handling this work.

Injection Technik is a specialist mould repair and maintenance business, for injection moulds

www.injectiontechnik.co.za

24 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Mera Clas

NEWS NEWS

Trade. Trade. Create. Create. Elevate. Elevate.

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Meraxis Meraxis South South Africa Africa (Pty) (Pty) LtdLtd 11 455 2889 Johannesburg Johannesburg +27+27 11 455 2889 11 455 2889 21 556 7787 Cape Cape Town Town +27+27 21 556 7787 21 556 7787 Durban +27+27 31 816 9381 Durban 31 816 9381 31 816 9381

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2021/11/12 2021/02/01 11:42 11:06

NEWS Celebrating! Cindy Orange (CEO of the Khaya Khanya Atlantis Lightweight Factory), Adri Spangenberg (Polystyrene Executive of Polyco), Hilton Cowie (CEO of Envirolite Concrete), Tim Scholtz (COO of the Caban Group), Dr Michael Adams (Project Manager of Khaya Khanya Atlantis Lightweight Factory) and Dave Romero (Group CEO of the Caban Capital)

SA’s ﬁrst polystyrene recycling hub opens in Atlantis Khaya Khanya lightweight concrete factories bring hope to communities in SA SOUTH Africa’s first community polystyrene brick making factory using recycled polystyrene opened its doors in Atlantis outside of Cape Town in November 2021. The Khaya Khanya Atlantis Lightweight Concrete Factory is the first franchise of many that will be established in municipalities around South Africa over the next five years. The factory is expected to process and recycle a minimum of 25 tons’ polystyrene a month and hopes to grow its recycling rate by at least 5% within the first year. According to Adri Spangenberg, the polystyrene executive at Polyco, this has been a dream come true for the polystyrene industry after seven years of planning, discussions with key role-players and efforts to get the necessary funding approved. Concrete bricks and screeds manufactured with recycled polystyrene and special cement aggregate Developed and patented by Hilton Cowie, the Envirolite concrete bricks and 26 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

screeds are manufactured using a combination of recycled polystyrene and special cement aggregate. These bricks are being used to build everything ranging from RDP houses, clinics and shopping malls to commercial buildings and designer homes. An 80m2 RDP house, for example, contains a minimum of 550kg of polystyrene. The Envirolite bricks are waterproof, fireproof and offer excellent insulation against cold, heat and sound. The building process is easier, faster and cheaper, plus it uses the waste removed from the community in a positive way that offers long-term benefits. “The tremendous growth experienced in the demand for these bricks made us realise that we could roll out factories on a large scale by establishing polystyrene recycling hubs in impoverished communities where the waste crisis, housing backlogs and unemployment figures are at their worst,” Adri explained

Caban Investment assisted with raising, identified local entrepreneurs to drive the project The Polystyrene Association of SA appointed Caban Investments Limited as their corporate advisors and implementers. Tasked with the responsibility of developing a detailed business plan and sales strategy, Caban also assisted with raising the capital required for the first factory and helped to identify the local entrepreneurs who will be driving this project. Caban came up with a business model that’s sees each factory being a franchise modelled on sound business principles. The structure sees the entrepreneur, the community, investors and the franchisors as stakeholders in the project. Cindy Orange (neé Adams) has been appointed as CEO of Khaya Khanya Atlantis, supported by her father and local pastor, Dr Michael Adams (project manager), brother John Adams (chief operating officer) and sister Liesle Humbles (office administrator). Envirolite and Caban are the franchisors and

remain involved in mentoring the entrepreneurs in all aspects of business development and technical support. “We love the passion of the community. We want them to take ownership of their own waste by keeping their area clean with organised collections, actively being involved in the recycling process, creating jobs for their own people and benefitting from a world-class product that will improve their lives for generations to come. We are very privileged to have found the ideal partners in the Adams family – much loved and respected members of the local community who will be running and managing the Khaya Khanya Atlantis Lightweight Concrete Factory,” says Adri. Bringing light and hope to the community Speaking at the official launch of Khaya Khanya Atlantis, Cindy said that

unemployment and gangsterism are two of the biggest problems facing Atlantis. The situation has been significantly exasperated by the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people lost their jobs and resorted to crime to survive. Children are being forced to quit school and go to work just so that their families can survive. “Never in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine that we would be involved with such an amazing product and opportunity. Directly translated, Khaya Khanya means ‘light house’ in Xhosa. Not only is it a play on words in that we are going to be building homes made from special lightweight bricks, but we believe we are also bringing light and hope to our community. We are more than ready to move forward with this exciting new project that will not only create employment, but also help to educate and equip those who will

become a part of this business venture”, Cindy said. “Polystyrene is an awesome product and we are incredibly proud to have been part of this journey. I want to thank and acknowledge the members of the polystyrene industry who have stepped up to the plate and taken responsibility for the end-of-life of the products they manufacture. Thanks to their support and funding throughout the years, we have been able to develop and grow the recycling infrastructure in our country, bringing us to this point where we finally have our first community recycling hub,” Adri concluded.

For more information, visit www.khayakhanya.co.za, or email Liesle. Humbles@khayakhanya.co.za. Tel: (021) 285 0301/2 or (082) 563 4334 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 27

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DESIGN AWARDS

Supercart trolley crowned Pick n Pay trolley winner of SAPRO competition for best recycled product A HUMBLE supermarket trolley has been crowned the Best Recycled Product of the Year at the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation’s biennial competition, which took place on 14 October 2021. Manufactured by Supercart SA for Pick n Pay and entered for the Consumer & Leisure category, the trolley is moulded in HDPE and comprises of 50% post-consumer recyclate, provided by recycler MyPlas. Commenting on this year’s competition, SAPRO general manager Phil Sereme said despite being virtual, the event once again attracted entries from around the country, representing a wide range of different industries and end-uses. “Large, everyday articles that are well-made promote recycling in the best possible manner. Plastics need all the help they can get to remove the

discomfort consumers associate with recycled products and the trolley goes a long way in achieving that. PE-HD is fully recycled in South Africa and large mouldings are particularly popular for recycling. It opens up the way for retailers to demonstrate circularity in an everyday product,” Sereme said. ‘Only limit to the use of recycled plastic is imagination’ “The judges were very impressed with the wide range of different products from around the country. Ranging from skirting boards, dado rails and air conditioner ducts to water tanks, household cleaning bottles, school desks, rat traps and owl houses, this year’s products showed that the only limit to the use of recycled plastic is imagination,” he added. “I don’t think people will ever look at their supermarket trolley in the same way again. Once you understand the large amount of effort that MyPlas has put into collecting and recycling the material used to produce the trolley, combined with the innovation and manufacturing expertise of the Supercart team, you start to appreciate the rich tapestry of hard work that makes each trolley a work of art!” The 2021 SAPRO awards had various new categories in which entries could be submitted. Products were judged on a number of criteria, including life expectancy and sustainability of product, measures taken to ensure product consistency and customer satisfaction despite recycled material content, tonnages (or potential tonnages) of plastic waste that have and will be converted (and hence diverted from landﬁll) in the product roll-out, as well as the technical achievements in manufacturing to overcome production challenges presented by the use of recycled material. “The judges were looking for products that created new end-markets for recyclate and that would continue to be in demand ﬁve years from now. We can honestly say that all the products entered for this year’s competition had a ‘Wow factor’ that will cause people to start thinking differently about recycled material,” explained Sereme.

Rich tapestry of hard work that makes each trolley a work of art

The PnP trolley manufactured by Supercart SA was crowned the Recycled Product of the Year at SAPRO’s awards ceremony in October

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2021/11/16 13:51

Recycled Product of the Year GOLD AWARD

GOLD AWARD Coca Cola Beverages SA (Pty) Ltd, Bonaqua PET bottle

Mpact Plastics (FMCG Pinetown), rHDPE household cleaner bottle

Extrupet supplied the recycled material for this product which won in the Packaging for Food & Beverages category.

This bottle is produced for Unilever with recycled material from MyPlas, and won in the Packaging for non-food products category.

Adventure Automotive Products (Pty) Ltd, Air Conditioning Duct This air-conditioning duct product is made from recycled material supplied by MyPlas and won in the Technical & Engineering category.

GOLD AWARD

SILVER AWARD USABCO/Addis Roughtote 110L A large injection moulded product that is strong and offers superior ﬁnish. Addis have over the years showed their commitment to recycled content and the label on the tote makes it clear to the consumer. Recycled material was supplied by MyPlas.

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2021/11/16 13:51

DESIGN AWARDS

Supercart trolley crowned Recycled Product of the Year SILVER AWARD

SILVER AWARD

Fenix Rising, Water Tank The judges were impressed by the manufacturer’s ability to rotomould PE-HD successfully into a final product with a couple of years life expectancy. The Water Tank offers a solution to a relatively difficult waste stream and is a clear sign of good cooperation between recycler and converter to find suitable solution. Recycled material was supplied by MyPlas.

Mpact Versapak, PETZorb Range

This entry won for packing of fresh meat, chicken or ﬁsh in such a way that it stays attractive and does not show liquids. A brilliant design that captures the liquid and eliminates the need for an absorption pad in each tray which comes at an additional cost and cannot be recycled. Recycled material was supplied by Extrupet.

BRONZE AWAR

Tufﬂex Plastics Products Pty Ltd, Plastic Pallet

The application of polywood profiles manufactured from mixed waste is well known. The most common application is into park benches and picnic furniture. The durability of polywood profiles makes it an ideal product for re-usable inhouse pallets. It is splinter-free, hygienic, can be steam-cleaned and incredibly robust and will withstand forklift abuse. Recycled material was supplied by Tufflex.

Danone SA, School Desk

L JUDGES SPECIA MENTION

It is partly thanks to this initiative by the brand owner (Danone SA) that schools have begun to see the value of recycling ﬁrst-hand. Pupils were encouraged to bring their clean yogurt tubs and other domestic packaging waste to school which would be used to produce these desks for under privileged schools. The smooth and glossy top adds value to their strong and stunning looking desk. Recycled material was supplied by Extruwood & Inﬁnite Industries. “We would like to thank all the plastic recyclers, innovators, convertors, product designers and developers who demonstrated their commitment to the environment and saving resources by entering the Recycled Plastic Product of the Year Awards. This is an opportunity like none other to highlight the phenomenal work being done by recyclers in South Africa and to bring the innovative, exciting new products being developed to the attention of market leaders, brand owners and the media as we strive to improve market acceptance for products made from recycled plastics by bringing them into the mainstream,” said Sereme. 30

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“Special thanks also are due to our gold sponsors Erema and Polyco as well as the support shown by PETCO, the South African Plastics Pact (facilitated by GreenCape), Packaging SA and PlasticsSA. “This was a very successful event showcasing work being done by recyclers in South Africa, and we could not have done it without them,” added Sereme.

www.plasticrecyclingsa.co.za

2021/11/16 13:52

Hubron International, leading the way in black masterbatch for pipe manufacture ESSENTIAL industries such as water and gas rely upon pipelines made from polymeric materials and Hubron’s pipe masterbatches contain well dispersed carbon black which provides enhanced UV protection throughout the life of the product. With the reliance on water and gas increasing each year, it is now more important than ever to partner with the right supplier. Hubron International, a world leader in the manufacture of carbon black masterbatch, is offering a wide range of grades for various pipe applications, including sewage and culvert pipes, pressure pipes, XLPE hot water pipes, thick and thin wall irrigation pipes and PVC, ABS and PP pipes. Hubron is renowned in the industry for the highest quality products which ensure customers do not suffer from batch to batch variation and with excellent dispersion and dilution, even with higher loaded grades, it means customers are able to reduce addition rates resulting in cost savings.

Supplying many of the world’s leading polymer companies and compounders, our specially tailored black masterbatch grades meet the PE100 pressure pipe speciﬁcations and exacting standards, supported by local stock and excellent service. These new products with their outstanding physical properties are improving product reliability and waste reduction through resin and additive innovations. Hubron now also offers irrigation pipe grades which contain process aid thereby eliminating die build up, reduce extrusion pressure and temperature and offer increased throughput rates. These grades also contain thermal stabilisation to protect against polymer degradation during processing and service life. • For more information contact South African distributors, Banbury Colour & Dosing Solutions – ursula@banbury.co.za or info@hubron.com. www.hubron.com

www.banbury.co.za DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

SAPRO DESIGN AWARDS-.indd 31

2021/11/16 13:52

v t N o A i n ioN DESIGN

Old wind turbine blades re-used as bridges IRELAND is leading the pack with solutions for end-of-life wind turbine blades that could be the material of choice for the bridges of tomorrow. The project is headed by civil engineers from the University of Cork. Last December, three 12-metre blades from the

www.re-wind.info

Belfast wind farm were trucked to their R&D centre for a series of tests. Their aim is to use these old blades to build a pedestrian bridge, instead of the traditional steel beams, the main horizontal supports for this type of structure. With 11 000 tons of blades expected to be retired in Ireland over the next four years, there should be enough material available to be given a second life in this way. Although wind turbines made from fibre-reinforced plastic are extremely durable and designed to last for around 20 years, the blades are often removed earlier to be replaced with longer blades capable of producing more energy. Although the County Cork footbridge will be the first infrastructure to use these used blades, it should be closely followed by the ‘Blade pole’, a project aiming to reuse wind turbines as large electrical transmission towers. To test the idea, three dismantled blades will be installed as power towers at a Kansas wind farm next summer. Meanwhile, back in 2019, a Master’s student at Delft University of Technology, engineer Stijn Speksnijder, wrote his thesis about using decommissioned wind turbine blades in a slow traffic bridge.

Electrolux unveils vacuum cleaner made from 100% recycled materials Since 2010 Electrolux has been producing range of ‘green’ vacuum cleaners SWEDISH appliance manufacturer Electrolux has unveiled the prototype of a vacuum cleaner made from 100% re-used components and recycled plastic. Developed with Swedish recycler, Stena Recycling, as part of the Circular Initiative collaboration, it consists of plastics and components made from post-consumer electronics, including hairdryers, computers and other used vacuums from Nordic households. No virgin materials were used to manufacture this visionary vacuum cleaner. This is not the ﬁrst time Electrolux has tried its hand at the sustainable production of household appliances: in 2010, it produced a few vacuums made from plastic waste collected from the seas and oceans. Since 2010 the group has been producing a range of ‘green’ vacuum cleaners made from 55-70% recycled plastic. The development of knowledge about recycling and the integration of recycled materials, as well as the study of 32 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

DESIGN-.indd 32

the life span of recycled products and components, are key elements for future innovations. This knowledge will be used to study how household appliances should be designed, manufactured and recycled according to the principles of the circular economy and to ensure that the market for recycled plastics is as successful as the market for virgin plastics.

www.electroluxgroup.com

www.stenarecycling.com

2021/11/16 13:53

Artic

Iconic Aeron office chair a symbol of sustainable design Made using discarded plastic bottles and fishing nets CRAFTED as an ergonomic solution for restless tech workers in the 1990s, Herman Miller’s distinctive Aeron office chair became an instant design classic and a status symbol for the innovation-minded set. Now Herman Miller is hoping to address an environmental problem and curb the worldwide furniture industry’s significant carbon impact. The next generation of Aeron chairs will be manufactured using discarded plastic bottles and fishing nets culled from coastal cities in India and Indonesia. Using ocean-bound plastic waste in the supply chain will prevent about 150 tons of plastic – approximately 400 000 milk jugs or 23 million water bottles – from further polluting the world’s waterways. By using the Aeron as a test case, Herman Miller hopes to demonstrate that tricky waste material can be engineered to create products of high design. The chair, a Museum of Modern Art-approved design icon,

has won several awards including “design of the decade” from the Industrial Designers Society of America.

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

DESIGN-.indd 33 Article - Jan 2017 - SA Plastics Mag_FA.indd 1

2021/11/16 13:53 2017/01/23 11:33:07

DESIGN

Eﬀective design for WINNERS of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2021 Together they have made conspicuous progress in effective design for recycling, which in turn is defining the path towards more recyclable plastic products and the truly circular use of plastics.

AUTOMOTIVE, ELECTRICAL OR ELECTRONIC PRODUCT

Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG The Speed Home WLAN by Deutsche Telekom AG is made with almost 100% recycled content that comes from the WEEE (Waste Electrical & Environmental Equipment) stream. The judges praised this appliance for being an excellent example of the circular use of plastics into the same class of everyday objects, while maintaining the visual appeal of the exterior design.

34 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION PRODUCT

Circular Green Rope by Plastix A/S Plastix’s Circular Green Rope shows that it is possible to successfully recycle fishing gear, an application that has proved challenging up until now. This genuinely innovative and holistic cross-industry solution is both a key enabler of the transition to the circular new plastics economy and a real business opportunity.

HOUSEHOLD & LEISURE

HÅG Capisco Puls by Flokk The auburn-coloured HÅG Capisco Puls from Flokk is made from recycled snow plough markers. The jury praised Flokk for its relentless commitment towards sustainable and durable furniture. The new chair features a seat and back shell made of 100% recycled post-consumer polypropylene, showing how plastic waste can be recycled into a desirable design without compromising its quality or functionality. The desk chair also scored very highly for aesthetics, ergonomics and design. It allows different sitting positions, for example to engage the legs, which are not possible with conventionally designed chairs.

recycling PLASTIC PACKAGING

Label-less bottle, 100% recycled plastic by SAEME for Danone Eaux France Recyclability of packaging is the first step to ensure it will be recycled back into a high quality, closed-loop application. The Evian label-less bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic by SAEME for Danone Eaux France. Removing the label from the bottle minimises packaging use and helps the recycling process.

PRODUCT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION

Recyclable PP trigger sprayer by Reckitt The mono-material PP Trigger Sprayer is a significant advance in design to improve the recyclability of this popular product. Trigger sprays often contain multiple materials that can include metal or glass, making them difficult to recycle. The judges commended Reckitt for reducing the weight of this component and by committing to moving from 22 variants of trigger sprayers to three and reducing the number of colour variations from 42 to six. This excellent example of design for recycling sends an important signal for other companies to follow.

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 35

DESIGN RECYCLING MACHINERY INNOVATION (JOINT WINNERS)

BritAS ABMF-PET-C & Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro® + ReFresher by Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen Two entries in the Recycling Machinery Innovation category scored equal highest points from the jury, clearly ahead of all other finalists, and the judges therefore decided to make the award to both jointly. Launched to the market in October this year, Britas’s ABMF-PET-C (Automatic Belt Melt Filter) provides fully automated filtration of contaminants from plastic waste. For the first time it allows the continuous processing of post-consumer waste without stopping production, making it ideal for continuous processing and consistent pellet quality. Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro + ReFresher by Erema applies the company’s existing and very successful ReFresher technology for recycling food contact HDPE containers. The judges recognised this innovation as a step change in eliminating unwanted odour from waste plastics, allowing recyclate to replace virgin palstics in high end applications. This type of innovation is essential for meeting EU targets for recycled content of food contact plastics.

ExxonMobil to build its ﬁrst large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility EXXONMOBIL plans to build its first, large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, and is expected to start operations by year-end 2022. The new facility follows validation of ExxonMobil’s initial trial of its proprietary process for converting plastic waste into raw materials. To date, the trial has successfully recycled more than 1 000 metric tons of plastic waste, the equivalent of 200 million grocery bags, and has demonstrated the capability of processing 50 tons per day. Upon completion of the large-scale facility, the operation in Baytown will be among North America’s

largest plastic waste recycling facilities and will have an initial planned capacity to recycle 30 000 metric tons of plastic waste per year. ExxonMobil is developing plans to build approximately 500 000 metric tons of advanced recycling capacity globally over the next five years. In Europe, the company is collaborating with Plastic Energy on an advanced recycling plant in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, which is expected to process 25 000 metric tons of plastic waste per year when it starts up in 2023, with the potential for further expansion to 33 000 metric tons of annual capacity. www.exxonmobil.com

36 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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2019/09/12 2019/04/11 12:50 12:21

DESIGN

SPE Auto Innovation Awards THE 47th annual Automotive Innovation Awards Competition hosted by SPE’s Automotive Division is the oldest and largest recognition event in the automotive and plastics industries. Of the nine winners, all but one category entailed the use of thermoplastics.

showcase

2021 GRAND AWARD WINNER ALSO THE WINNER OF THE BODY EXTERIOR CATEGORY

PP LFT STRUCTURAL ACTIVE GRILLE SHUTTER The part, which appears in the 2018 Ford Expedition luxury SUV, is said to be the largest two-shot structural active grille shutter (AGS) in production today. It was designed with an integrated locating and attaching system for consistent fit between the grill and headlamps, which eliminates the need for FEM (finite element analysis) assembly, dunnage and shipping. The material used by injection moulder is Celstran 40% long-glass PP. The use of LFRT (long-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic) to develop a structure with PP, offset an estimated 1.4kg of weight over alternative metal and nylon hybrid designs considered. An equivalent steel structure would weigh 8kg more that the LFRT design, which delivers the required durability. Improved parts consolidation also phased out the need for four separate fasteners and associated labour.

BODY INTERIOR

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LGF PP INSTRUMENT PANEL CARRIER The instrument panel (IP) carrier in the 2017 BMW Mini Countryman uses Stamax 60YK270E, a high-flow long-glass fibre (LGF) PP copolymer from SABIC. The LGF PP injection moulding via structural chemical foaming with core-back process enabled the production of this part with very low VOC emissions. With use of the LGF PP copolymer, a 1.9mm thin-wall stock was achieved, increasing stiffness at lower weight. Extensive CAE work predicting warpage of the foamed part provided valuable insights, allowing for the modifications of tooling in advance. Use of foaming resulted in a 15% weight-out versus comparable solid application, fewer emissions and fuel consumption savings.

INNOVATIVE, TRANSFERABLE, AND INTELLIGENT USE OF PLASTICS SHINE IN NINE CATEGORIES

several ﬁrsts CHASSIS/HARDWARE POWERTRAIN MOUNTING CLEVIS BRACKET Appearing on the 2017 GM Cadillac XT5 crossover SUV, this engine clevis bracket is reportedly the first composite mount designed for a 6-cylinder engine, passing peak loads of 25 kilo-newtons of force. Injection moulded, the part is made from Ultramid A3WG10 CR BK00564, a 50% glass-reinforced nylon 66 from BASF. It replaces metallic solutions (stamping, welding and die-casting) used previously, resulting in a 45% weight reduction.

Noise, vibration and harshness were was also improved due to the damping characteristics of the nylon compared to aluminum. Corrosion resistance is improved, and the part can be recycled at end of life.

POWERTRAIN MATERIALS LOW-FRICTION POLYMER FOR CHAIN TENSIONER ARMS

Featured on the 2018 Hyundai Genesis G80 and Kia Stinger sedans, this part is injection moulded with Zytel XT, a new 35% glass fibre reinforced, heat-stabilized nylon 66 which was developed for good retention properties over time at temperatures up to 220C by DuPont. This plastic turbo charger outlet T-joint achieves a 42% weight savings and a 35% cost reduction, along with improved airflow, reducing the pressure drop (-8kPa) to increase fuel economy and improve NVH performance compared to the previous aluminum die cast part. Airflow noise is also reduced and long-term durability increased via the rib pattern design. Special three-gate positioning tooling was designed to minimize stress in weld-line area for strength and durability and for processing optimisation.

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The use of Stanyl HGR2, a nylon 46 from DSM Engineered Plastics modified with PTFE for enhanced stiffness is featured on the 2017 Ford F-150 pickup and Ford Mustang sports car. The material was a drop-in replacement for nylon 66 in vehicles powered by a 5.0L V8 engine for enhanced wear and friction performance. The resultant fuel economy savings (0.4%) from rotational torque reduction in the cam-shaft (0.5Nm) was equivalent to a 18kg weight reduction, and at one-tenth of the cost.

TURBO CHARGER OUTLET T-JOINT

DESIGN

PROCESS/ASSEMBLY/ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES TWO-SHOT INTERIOR DECORATION BEZEL This unique 3-D decorative effect, which appears in the 2018 Ford Fiesta subcompact, is achieved with rotary two-shot ‘reverse’ injection moulding (first shot is Infinol LT1220 tinted PC) with overmoulding of textured/grained surface with second shot (self-coloured effect pigmented ABS) from Lotte Advanced Materials. The grain is lasered into the mould. Tier supplier Faurecia Interior Systems moulded the part which represents the first time this process was used to achieve the 3-D visual effect (colour and texture) for a part of this size and geometry. A 30% cost savings was achieved versus IMD/IML/highgloss painting and there was a 20% scrap reduction versus conventional two-layer high gloss piano black appearance.

AFTERMARKET INTEGRATED FLOOR BEDLINER DIVIDER Designed for GM’s 2017 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, this ‘first time’ twin-sheet thermoformed bedliner divider is integrated into the bedliner as one piece by not having to manufacture a separate floor divider part. Made of TPP 1026EU TPO, it incorporates a moulded-in locking feature to secure the divider into the truck wall when it is raised. The divider eliminates the need for a cargo net or separate divider, allowing the user to put smaller items in the bed without having them move and slide around when the vehicle is in motion. The key innovation is that the grain appearance – made in the tool – is achieved throughout the thermoforming process with lower capital investment and improved timing over injection moulded bedliners.

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SAFETY THIRD GENERATION 4-WAY HEAD RESTRAINT This low-cost, low-mass head restraint featured on the 2018 Ford F-150 pickup is made from Hylon N1000STHL nylon 66 from Ravago Manufacturing Americas. It provides exceptional rigidity for whiplash protection. Its flexible design allows the front surface of the head restraint to be translated closer to or further from the occupant by 60mm with incurred costs (allowing for the precise balancing of comfort and safety). Replacing steel with plastic as the primary load bearing component is new to front-row head restraints. The part design eliminates manufacturing complexity making use of intelligent geometries so that readily available materials could be used.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEXT-GENERATION BIO PUR FOAM FOR INSTRUMENT PANELS Featured in the 2018 Ford Fusion sedan, this IP application provides a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum based foams – at lower weight, cost, and with more design flexibility. This next-generation castor oil-based polyurethane (PUR) foam made from Elastoflex 3496/102 PUR from BASF, provides for lower moulded density, the ability to be foamed in as little as 4mm cross sections, and superior bond strength to mating materials. Foam-in-place tooling – where a cast PVC, TPE, or TPU skin is placed in the mould with a hard plastic retainer and the foam is injected between these two components – is used for processing by International Automotive Components (IAC). A weight savings of 20-40% (depending on foam thickness) is achieved.

Faster than you might expect. Long delivery times and short-term requests are troublesome: With ENGEL you have the necessary agility and flexibility. We offer you professional and especially quick help. Whether it is our all-electric e-mac or our tie-bar-less victory series, our stock injection moulding machines are there for you in no time.

engelglobal.com/stockmachines www.greentechmachinery.co.za

PEOPLE

On the move

Fighting the malnutrition pandemic in SA kids Donated over 10 000 buckets to breakfast cereal processing plant that will serve 200 000 meals daily IN HONOUR of World Food Day, Koogan Plastics in conjunction with partners, Freightplast and Safripol has donated over 10 000 buckets to Inani StartWell Foundation. Inani launched a not-for profit breakfast cereal processing plant that will serve 200 000 meals daily. The first of its kind cereal processing plant aims to contribute towards ending chronic malnutrition or silent hunger which causes child stunting. According to UNICEF more than 27% of South Africa’s children under 5-years-old are considered stunted. Stunting is the impaired physical growth and delayed cognitive development that occurs when children fail to reach their height-for-age growth, predominantly due to a poor nutritional diet during the first 2000 days of their life. The buckets are a “game changer” to transporting and serving daily nutritious meals to kids at early childhood development centres in hard-to-reach areas, according to Org van der Wath, Executive Director of Inani StartWell Foundation. “Food safe buckets enable greater reach, less contamination and minimal wastage in feeding povertystricken toddlers across South Africa a nutrient-dense morning meal. These buckets will also be used for

water in these areas,” adds Volenté Morais, Executive Manager at Koogan Plastics. The StartWellTM nutrient-dense cereal will deliver around 85% of a toddler’s daily protein needs. The meal also carries the precise vitamin and minerals required to support child growth. Government and many private feeding schemes provide energy-rich but nutrient-poor food to about nine million children daily. These efforts are more focussed towards feed hungry children in poor communities. To address stunted growth, a country also needs to ensure that the impoverished growing children are nourished. Van de Wath concludes, “These partnerships are imperative because we face a social and humanitarian disaster if we don’t act now. A total of 34.4% of the country’s work force is unemployed, food insecurity impacts 11.8 million South Africans daily and 300 000 more SA children become stunted every year.” Congratulations and thanks all around! Org van der Wath, executive director of Inani StartWell Foundation and Volenté Morais, executive manager at Koogan Plastics

New face at Omya Idwala Ali Bagherkalantari (Ali Kalantari) has been appointed as business development manager for Omya Idwala in Johannesburg. He and his family lived in Iran, Switzerland and Turkey before moving to South Africa in March 2021 through an expat contract for three years. In his current position, Ali has taken the lead on several of Omya Idwala’s market development and innovation projects in SA in different applications, and has introduced specialty minerals and complementary chemicals and additives. “I am very pleased to accompany Omya Idwala SA during its growth phase. South Africa is certainly one of the main emerging countries and its growing industries deserve a sustainable supply. Omya Idwala SA provides a wealth of innovative product solutions that contribute to its customers’ competitiveness and productivity in multiple industries such as construction, paper & board, polymers, personal and home care. It also provides environmental solutions targeting the agriculture, water and energy markets,” he says. 42

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Ali has been actively serving in the mining industry since 2007 when he joined Omya, a leading global producer of industrial minerals – mainly derived from calcium carbonate, dolomite and perlite – and a worldwide distributor of specialty chemicals. Although his main focus area is development projects using minerals in rubber and plastic applications, he was also involved in projects in construction, paper and other industries. He graduated from a top engineering university in Iran, AUT, with a Bachelor of Science in Polymer Engineering in 2004. After nine years’ work experience, Ali extended his business knowledge by completing an MBA course in Switzerland, St Galen University, from 2013 to 2015. Projects such as breathable film and nonwoven in Turkey, Greece and Egypt, uPVC window profiles in Iran, Russia and Ukraine, and flame retardant projects in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and UAE are some examples of the successes he has led several teams to achieve.

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

2021/11/16 13:54

OBITUARIES

Gianni Ambrosi of Plastinternational had a passion for development Italian geologist was developer of Aquanaut pool cleaning system GIANNI Ambrosi (affectionately known as Gianni/Johnny) came to Africa from Venice in the 1960s as a qualiﬁed geologist with the aim of working in mineral prospecting … and ended up starting two injection moulding businesses which both became leaders in the sector. Ambrosi passed away on 11th July, just three weeks shy of his 85th birthday, due to Covid complications. He will be best known as the co-founder of the Plasmould Injector and later Plastinternational businesses. The latter company, operating from Meadowdale in Johannesburg, remains a leader in its market sector as a specialist manufacturer of valves and plumbing components and systems, along with other technical parts. Ambrosi had partially retired in recent years but remained involved in the business by offering his much valued technical expertise.

A tall and gregarious man, Ambrosi had a doctorate in geology. He became interested in the injection moulding process through a friendship with Martin Datnow (Daffodil Plastics) and then MD of DPI. Gianni moved into the DPI premises with his own injection moulding machines and carried on independently (prior to that he operated out of a basement of a building in Doornfontein, owned by the Sacks/ Datnow families). The business took off, and among its successes was the development of the Aquanaut automated pool cleaner, which was a global precedent, later being sold off to the USA. After seeking new challenges, Gianni started Plastinternational in 1986. The company continued along the same direction as the previous venture. “My Dad had a very scientiﬁc mind and was continuously involved in development,” said his son Luca, who now runs Plastinternational. Plastinternational commenced production of valves and water management devices, which remains its core focus today, in the late 1990s. His long standing ex-business partner, Mrs. Margaret Du Plessis added, “Gianni was an amazing man. He had a brilliant brain and a unique sense of humour that could make you laugh until you cried. A true gentleman and a pioneer of the industry in South Africa”. Ambrosi had, just prior to his death, been in good health and was still playing golf twice a week. Even more sadly, his wife of many years, Gillian, passed away just weeks later.

Malcolm Buchanan – legend in the plastics industry Malcolm Buchanan of CAD Tool & Die passed away on 9 October after a long illness. Born in Pietermaritzburg on 11 February 1974, after completing school and national service he started his apprenticeship in tool and die making with Les Roney in 1993 where he worked for two years before leaving to complete his apprenticeship at Geometric Tool & Die in Pinetown. After qualifying as a toolmaker, Malcolm began leasing machines from a neighbouring business and opened Executive Tool & Die. With the love and support of his wife Tracey and dear friend, the late Brian Bonandrini, he was able to get his business up and running and eventually started purchasing his own machines. In 1995, he launched CAD Tool & Die

and expanded his business and formed a new love for plastic injection moulding. His first machine purchased was a 20 ton Boy that ran sinker caps as his first mould. CAD Plastics was formed as the injection moulding side of the business and the range of machines increased. In 2008, CAD Metallising was started to produce vacuum metallised handles for the coffin manufacturing industry. Space was becoming an issue, so Malcolm bought a factory of his own in 2010 where the business continues to operate to date – now containing a fully equipped toolroom, numerous injection moulding machines ranging from a 50 tons to a 420 tons, and a vacuum metallising plant. Malcolm was a loving and caring man and would help anyone in need without expecting anything in return. He had

a huge love for fishing and owned numerous boats over the years for both deep-sea and local fresh water fishing. He was never a man to sit still for long and was often on the go. When he fell ill four years ago, he handed the running of the business over to his current management team. He sacrificed many hours to make the business as successful as it is today and his team will continue to do the same to keep his legacy alive. Malcolm is survived by his wife Tracey, son Cameron and daughter Chloe, as well as his father Brian and sister Hayley. DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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2021/11/16 13:54

NEWS Cleaning beaches and feeding people A restaurant owner in Bali is gaining attention for his work to both clean up plastic waste and feed people. Made Janur Yasa, who runs a vegan restaurant in the town of Ubud, said that when Covid-19 hit the Indonesian island, people who depended on their income from tourists were struggling. At the same time, plastic waste continued to accumulate on beaches. So Yasa began providing rice in exchange for plastics collected by local residents. The “plastic-for-rice” programme began in his hometown. In May 2020, the ofﬁcial Plastic Exchange began and spread to other communities in Bali. “Villagers will receive the rice according to the type of plastic they bring and the amount that they bring,” he told CNN when it proﬁled him as its weekly CNN Hero. “Each category has a different value. We work with a company that collects this plastic and sends it to Java for proper recycling, because we don’t have a recycling plant yet in Bali. We buy rice from the farmers. So, we’re really creating this circular economy, supporting the farmers and then we also clean the environment and feed people in that community.” Yasa notes the programme is now active in 200 villages, helped feed thousands of families and has collected nearly 500 tons of plastic for recycling.

Rusty Tucker learned over a long period, and put the lessons to good effect Rusty Tucker of RD Plastics/Tabtainer passed away recently. He was 68. Rusty was virtually an icon in the SA plastics industry, respected by all who knew him. A man who gained this respect not by force but by his nature of being a true gentleman, Rusty was always ready to help, and always protecting those around him. He started out as a tool & die maker in the late 1960s, going on to injection moulding production management in the 70s and 80s at Barja and Champlas. This experience earned him a top job at Nu-World Industries where he learned the in’s and out’s of running a large ﬁrm. Always seeking to improve on his abilities, he started RD Plastics in 1992 in Krugersdorp, a custom moulding enterprise. Five years on he moved to Robertville, Roodepoort, and started TabTainer in premises, with the purpose of supplying the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Both companies have been very successful over the years, growing well alongside their customers. Rusty will be sorely missed, for his intellectualness and moreover his kindness. He leaves behind his wife Denise, daughter Lucille, and son Bruce, who will continue to run the two companies with the same selﬂessness and pride as his Dad did.

Farewell Colin Peters – Mpact family mourns Colin Peters, a much loved and long standing member of the Mpact Plastics family in KZN, passed away on 2 October due to Covid-19 complications. Born on 3 November 1964, Colin’s life was a testimony to all who knew him in both a personal and professional capacity. His departure leaves an empty space in the hearts of those who knew him, however, all that he contributed and accomplished within his family, community and career should be celebrated. Colin was a devoted husband and father of three. As he joins his daughter, Amelia, in heaven, he leaves behind his loving wife, Priscilla and two sons Tyren and Edward. He was a pillar in his community, serving in a pastoral capacity to everyone in need and never hesitating to lift a helping hand. The Mpact family had the privilege of working alongside him at its Pinetown FMCG plant for 37 years. During this time, Colin was known for his unsurpassed commitment toward his colleagues and customers. He never hesitated going the extra mile for any challenge placed in his path. “His expertise and professional contribution will be missed but his positive attitude and continuous encouragement for both work and personal matters enriched our lives and can never be forgotten. Colin was a selﬂess mentor, a father and a friend to many of his colleagues and it is with thankful hearts that we look back on the wonderful years that we got to spend with him here at Mpact,” said his colleagues. 44

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2021/01/21 08:50

COMPOSITES

PRASA rail doors – innovative AMT Composites enable manufacture of 13 300 doors in three years THE composites technology used to manufacture the rail doors of the new PRASA trains is a noteworthy example of cutting-edge, innovative industrial design and manufacturing processes, resulting in a robust and light-weight door set. The joint technology venture between IFE Austria (Knorr Bremse) and local company AMT Composites brought-about a real-world advantage, enabling 13 300 doors to be manufactured in three years. A radical approach was needed, as the volumes required in the given timeframe could not be realised in a conventional hot press. The new process developed by a team from IFE and AMT merging technologies, resulted in an innovative way rail doors can be manufactured in a simple, yet very effective manufacturing process. In layman’s terms, a single sided tool was manufactured to represent the door shape. Metal skins and a plastic core were then applied with a special adhesive system to take the shape of the tool. The door assembly was then placed in a curing oven to cure. The result is super-fast production, dimensionally accurate and very smooth aesthetically pleasing rail doors. The new process also required a lower investment as opposed to expensive and high energy consuming hot presses.

Second door leaf is inserted

Door placed into the mould ready to be vacuumed

Vacuumed bagged door and mould (under vacuum) placed in the oven

Silicone bag placed onto door and mould to precisely take the shape of the mould

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

NEWS COMPO - AMT-.indd 46

Bonded door extracted from mould

2021/11/17 16:17

industrial design

The result is super-fast production, dimensionally accurate and very smooth aesthetically pleasing rail doors DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS Baltic 130 My Song

LEADERS IN ADVANCED COMPOSITES & REPRODUCTION MATERIALS SINCE 1989. AMT Composites offers the South African aerospace, marine and manufacturing sectors a specialised composites material supplier and technology partner.

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Shop Online at ww www.amtcomposites.co.za JHB: 011-392-4232

Capetown: 021-511-2669

Durban: 031-705-2034

2021/11/17 16:18

COMPOSITES

The project aims to demonstrate and validate how the use of composites, namely thermoplastics, can help realise a next-gen fleet of aircraft capable of offering the same strength and durability of steel and aluminum

Next generation of composite planes

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Clean Sky 2 Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) gives a glimpse of what next-generation aircraft could be AS PART of the EU’s Clean Sky 2 initiative, the aerospace industry is looking for a flight path to sustainability. The Clean Sky 2 Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) with its 8.5 metre long compositemade fuselage section with 4 metre diameter gives a glimpse of what a next-generation aircraft could be. Now, Royal NLR’s ‘STUNNING’ project is set to turn heads as the MFFD’s largest component, the 8.5 metre long lower fuselage skin, has been laid. For the aerospace industry, the Clean Sky 2 initiative with its multifunctional fuselage demonstrator (MFFD), aims to go straight to the source and challenge the very construction of aircraft – looking to see how a transition from traditional aluminum to next-gen carbon-fibre reinforced composites can not only improve the structure, but also greatly

reduce emissions. Looking to take a leading role within the MFFD framework and share their expert knowledge of composite materials, Royal NLR, together with collaborators GKN Fokker (lead), TU Delft, and Germany’s Diehl, have taken on their own project called STUNNING. It is to demonstrate and validate how the use of composites, namely thermoplastics, can help realize a nextgen fleet of aircraft capable of offering the same strength and durability of steel and aluminum, while drastically reducing the total time of production and maintenance activities, as well as the overall weight of aircraft and the subsequent emissions. In the Stunning project, the experts at GKN Fokker and NLR were tasked with the design for manufacturing enabling high production rates of large

and structural parts for planes. One of the real improvements offered by the use of thermoplastics is that during the manufacturing and assembly process, unlike thermosets, this material can be heated and reheated multiple times to ensure uniformity and bonding. In Stunning, one of our objectives was to show how the different processes could be combined to build both structural and non-structural components for complete integration. With the help of its in-house, stateof-the-art automated fibre placement machine, NLR hit its target, building the bottom half of fuselage skin – a single piece, measuring in at 8.5 metres long by 4 metres in diameter – the largest known single thermoplastic piece ever made in the world. www.nlr.org

Salewa Alpine Mountaineering Boot Wins 2021 ISPO Gold Award THE SALEWA crampon-compatible Ortles Couloir mountaineering boot, weighing 725 grams per pair, has won ISPO Gold. The boot combines traditional bootmaking with advanced technical materials. The 27-member ISPO Award panel evaluated the “ultralight, high-end mountain boot for mountaineering and ice climbing”, giving it ISPO’s GOLD Award for 2021 in the category of Outdoor Equipment/ Mountaineering Boots. The boot’s compact and agile construction with a narrow toe box offers climbing precision on rock and ice. The lightweight but strong carbon fibre frame at the heart of its structure is connected to the boot by a hinged joint and gives flexibility for walking and stability for climbing. The Ortles Couloir is manufactured in Europe. Its proprietary midsole system offers warmth for cold, winter approaches and long days climbing in crampons.

www.salewa.com

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2020/09/29 10:02

COMPOSITES

Largest bio-epoxy hull to date Sicomin’s InfuGreen 810 was used to vacuum infuse the 26-metre, 52 tons superyacht’s hull, deck and superstructure SICOMIN’s InfuGreen 810 bio-based epoxy infusion resin has been used for the infusion of the new Couach Fly 86/2600 Motor Yacht – one of the largest structures to be infused with bio-resins to date, and by far the largest yacht hull. Sicomin’s InfuGreen 810 was used to

vacuum infuse the 26-metre, 52 tons superyacht’s hull, deck and superstructure producing a lighter, faster, more durable yacht, and reducing overall fuel consumption significantly. With a long history of building in composites, Couach has developed

highly efficient vacuum infusion processes to build hull, deck, superstructure, and other components for their vessels. Whilst Couach traditionally used polyester resin systems, Sicomin – a key supplier of composite materials to the shipyard

Pultruded composites with shape memory RESEARCHERS from Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, based in Russia, have been investigating pultruded composite materials in terms of their shape memory behaviour. The scientists have been examining pultruded glass fibre-reinforced epoxybased flat laminates to see how they resume their original shape following deformation if exposed to the right temperature or other conditions. This research has potential for manufacturing composites with shape memory for electronics and biomedicine, they say. Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are materials that can recover their initial shape under external stimuli such as temperature, light, moisture, acidity, electricity, or electromagnetic fields. They are used in the aerospace, biomedical, and automotive industries, as well as in 4D printing, temperature sensors, and electronic devices. SMPs are often reinforced with carbon, basalt, or glass fibres, the researchers say. While SMP manufacturing have been studied in the past, until now there have been no studies on the shape memory

50 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

effect in composites produced by pultrusion, according to the Institute. Pultrustion could however potentially yield new types of shape memory structural components with unique combinations of geometries and mechanical properties. “In this study, we investigated the shape memory behaviour and mechanical characteristics of epoxy-based pultruded flat laminates reinforced with unidirectional glass fibres,” said principal investigator, Alexander Safonov, at the Institute’s centre for design, manufacturing and materials. ‘The analysis also encompassed the resin cure kinetics and the thermomechanical and thermophysical properties of

the cured resin.’ Findings may be used for further numerical simulations and the optimization of the pultrusion process. Besides, the results demonstrate that pultruded SMPCs show significant promise for structural applications. (a) Deformed specimen of cured resin in the test fixture after heating; (b) cured resin specimens after shape fixing; (c) cured res-in specimens after shape recovery; (d) deformed specimen of pultruded composite in the test fixture after heating; (e) geometry of pultruded composite specimen after shape fixing as compared to geometry of the test fixture; and (f) pultruded composite specimen after shape recovery. PHOTO COURTESY. ROMAN KOROTKOV ET AL.

Far left: InfuGreen 810 GreenPoxy Left: Couach Fly 86/2600 Motor Yacht

www.sicomin.com www.aerontec.co.za

Aerontec are agents for Sicomin in SA

for more than 15 years – has worked with the Couach R&D team for the past four years on a test program to explore the benefits of epoxy resin systems, culminating in the successful implementation of Infugreen 810 and other GreenPoxy bio-based epoxies in

the latest Couach model. With 38% of its carbon content from plant based sources, InfuGreen 810, is formulated to provide a more sustainable vacuum infusion resin with uncompromising performance. Sicomin also supplied release

agents compatible with its epoxies and vacuum consumables that had been well proven in Couach production before this first major epoxy resin application.

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 51

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SUSTAINABILITY

Proactively ﬁnding sustainable solutions 52 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Infection Protection Products ensuring a circular economy for used wipes PRE-SATURATED wipes proved themselves invaluable in the fight against infections even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in a multitude of settings. At the onset of the pandemic demand for presaturated wipes exceeded the available supply until manufacturers were able to ramp up their production capacity. However, with increased use of pre-saturated wipes, it is incumbent on manufacturers to ensure their used wipes are recycled and repurposed. For Infection Protection Products, manufacturers of the Sani-touch range of pre-saturated wipes, including the popular trolley wipes introduced to the

Sanitouch pack

South African market in 2006, ensuring a circular economy for their used wipes has become a priority. Made of locally sourced polypropylene, their wipes have the benefit of being 100% recyclable. “Plastics have proved themselves to be an ideal material for modern society:

Prof Peter Ryan (UCT), John Kieser (Plastics SA), Annette Devenish (Sani-touch) and Sanjeev Raghubir (Shoprite Group)

lightweight, strong, durable, costeffective, versatile, and arguably most important, recyclable,” points out Sani-touch marketing director Annette Devenish. “For a while now plastic has been getting a bad rap. However, it’s a very different picture when plastic products are recycled and repurposed, effectively becoming part of a closed loop in a circular economy.”

Swedish recycling plant will be largest worldwide A consortium of Sweden-based trade groups and companies is investing to build what they call the largest and most modern plastic recycling plant in the world. Known as Site Zero and operated by Swedish Plastic Recycling (Svensk Plaståtervinning), the facility is being built to recycle up to 200 000 tons of plastic per year, according to its backers. $120 million is being invested in the facility upgrade, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also is contributing $20.8 million in financing through a climate investment aid programme.

Swedish Plastic Recycling is owned by “a large part of the Swedish business community,” according to a press release issued by the consortium. The investors say Site Zero, in Motala, Sweden, will be able to recycle “all plastic packaging from Swedish households, and makes plastics circular – completely without any CO2 emissions.” The investors are not new to plastic recycling, as Motala already hosts a recycling facility they call “the most efficient in Europe, that is now being developed with next-generation technology.” After the expansion, Site Zero will be 60 000m2 and employ up to 200 people.

The automated equipment array will include 60 near infrared (NIR) sensors and approximately 5km of conveyor length. Swedish Plastic Recycling credits “cutting-edge technology” for its future ability to sort and prepare PP, HDPE, LDPE, PET trays and bottles, PP film, EPS, PS, PVC, two grades of polyolefin mixes, plus metal and other non-plastic scrap. “Any small parts of plastic that remain after the sorting process are separated to be sent to chemical recycling, or to become new composite products,” states Swedish Plastic Recycling, adding, “At Site Zero, zero packaging goes to incineration.”

Earlier this year South Africa introduced amended Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for paper, packaging, e-waste and lighting. The amendments aim to ensure that producers take responsibility for the life cycle of the products they put into the market to the point of post-consumer waste disposal. Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) within the various industries have been tasked with ensuring that their respective sectors meet the new legislative requirements. While the regulations are far from perfect and their implementation challenged by some legacy issues, they are a major step towards the introduction of a circular economy. Although the amended EPR regulations don’t currently apply to Infection Protection Products, the company has made a strategic decision to voluntarily and proactively implement its own EPR solution in order to ensure a circular economy for its used products. “We believe that no business can afford to pay only lip service to the concept of recycling,” says Devenish. “If we care about the world we live in we all need to step up and play our part. Our solution is a simple, but a sustainable one, which is premised on creating a closed loop for used wipes as we recycle and repurpose them to make plastic pallets to replace wooden pallets in factories. In collaboration with Shoprite Checkers

Infection Protection Products has piloted its green 100% recyclable pre-saturated wipes, trialling a system which will see the retailer use its back-haulers to send all used wipes sent for recycling. “Checkers is a visionary retailer that understands the need for sustainability and for the creation of a circular economy,” says Devenish. “They have worked closely with us to develop the system and will be monitoring the number of wipe buckets going into stores to ensure that the same number of buckets are sent for recycling. We have agreed to target a goal of 80% for recycling.” “We plan to play our part in ensuring that the amount of waste recycled and converted back into raw materials is grown,” says Devenish. “Checkers alone consumes 20 tons of polypropylene a month. By recycling the bulk of the used wipes we will be creating jobs and encouraging more investment into recycling facilities.” She urges all manufacturers to implement their own solution. “Nobody should be waiting for legislation to apply to them. All producers should be looking for ways to amend their products so that are recyclable and then putting a sustainable system in place to ensure that their used products are actually recycled and repurposed. Together we can make a difference.” www.sanitouch.co.za

After the expansion, Site Zero’s automated equipment array will include 60 near infrared (NIR) sensors and approximately 5km of conveyor length

Ceres invests in sustainable future CERES Fruit Juices have introduced an initiative aimed at reducing plastic waste and has invited Craig Foster, award winning producer of the documentary: My Octopus Teacher, to participate in a roundtable highlighting the impact of plastic waste on the marine environment. Effective September 2021, all Ceres 200ml packs will migrate from plastic straws to paper straws.

Certiﬁed compostable bags in Spain & Portugal AS part of its growth strategy for its biopolymers business, BASF will cooperate with WPO Polymers to further advance on the fast developing Spanish and Portuguese markets: The plastics solutions provider will act as distributor of BASF‘s ecovio® film product range for certified compostable shopping bags, organic waste bags as well as fruit and vegetable bags in Spain and Portugal. Building on their respective strengths, BASF and its new partner will be better positioned to accelerate business on this important market and to support food companies and retailers to comply with the Spanish Royal decree 293/2018 on the reduction of plastic bags including the mandatory usage of compostable bags (<50 µm thickness) certified according to EN 13432. www.ecovio.basf.com

Dow unveils plans for ‘zero-carbon’ plastics plant in Canada DOW to build the world’s first zero-carbon ethylene and polyethylene complex at its Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, facility. The project will convert emitted gas into clean hydrogen fuel and capture and store CO2 emissions, while tripling production at the site. The ambitious project will be a big step toward reaching Dow’s goal of reducing emissions from its operations 30% by 2030, on the road to carbon neutrality in 2050. It’s another sign that companies are moving from promise to action on the climate change front. DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 53

SUSTAINABILITY

Wastewater treatment in plastics recycling

The Krones group’s MetaPure technology recovers materials such as PET bottles and polyolefin packages in a quality enabling the recyclate obtained to be used in equivalent applications

54 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

Sustainable product, sustainable process RECYCLING lines for plastics are the circular economy’s lynchpins and make a vital contribution towards protecting our natural environment and economising on valuable resources. On the other hand, they also consume resources, chief among them water. Which goes to show: A recycling technology’s sustainability must not be assessed by the quality of its end-product alone. The processes used to make this product play an equally important role. As a manufacturer of recycling lines, Krones of Germany sees itself as bearing a particular responsibility for meeting both these sustainability criteria. Krones’ MetaPure technology recovers materials such as PET bottles and polyolefin packages in a quality that enables the recyclate obtained to be used in equivalent applications. In

their work aimed at continuous system optimisation, the development people at Krones have now also been proactively examining the washing module’s water consumption. Product manager Astrid Kadlubski explains the background involved: “In the recycling process, the plastics are ground into flakes in wet mills and then washed. This produces wastewater containing various dissolved substances, depending on the input material concerned.” In addition to common soiling, these include organic residues of the packages’ content, for example, or cleaning agents from the washing process and printing ink particles removed from bottles and labels. “In many recycling lines, the water is recirculated and treated in a bypass,” says Kadlubski. “With the result that the

process water’s dirt load keeps on rising and ultimately impairs the end-product’s quality.” To counter this, Krones has, in conjunction with a prestigious associate, developed an intelligent solution for complete treatment of the washing and mill water. That entails several advantages for recycling-line operation: “Firstly, this reduces both fresh water consumption and wastewater incidence. Secondly, the recycling process is kept at a consistently high level of quality,” adds Kadlubski. “And last but not least, such treatment makes sure that the wastewater discharged into the municipal system complies with the relevant specifications. Needless to say, this also applies for the ultra-stringent regulations in Germany.” www.krones.com

Dow partners to deliver PE pouchto-pouch mechanical recycling DOW Packaging has launched the first of its kind pouch-to-pouch mechanical recycling concept, enabled by a unique value chain effort. Starting with a PE-based barrier food pouch designed for recyclability, the process uses mechanical recycling and deinking to create a high-quality dishwasher MDO-PE pouch containing 30% recycled content, which is itself suitable for recycling. As a further evolution of the project, the same collaboration is working on a digital product passport pilot to allow for recycling-relevant packaging properties to be recorded. www.dowpackaging.com

To create the new pouch, the recyclable MDO-PE film was reverseprinted on the dishwasher pouch artwork to have it ready for lamination to the film using recycled resins. The first PE-rich pouch was designed for recyclability with up to 5% EVOH in the total structure for barrier functionality, and Dow’s innovative resins provided a remarkable stiffness-toughness balance, low-temperature sealability, adhesion to extruded barrier layers and excellent bubble stability. For the second PE-based pouch, a high-performing solventless adhesive was used to enable the lamination of the MDO-PE film to www.karlville.com

www.cadeldeinking.com

the PE-film containing recycled resins from the first pouch. To produce the recycled PE resins for the second pouch, de-inking technology was used to achieve the best outcome. The de-inking process is key because it effectively removes ink from the plastic surface to obtain a plastic with similar characteristics to the raw virgin material which helps to provide high-quality pouch-to-pouch recycling. www.reifenhauser.com

A GLOBAL LEADER IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF PVC STABILISERS AND METALLIC SOAPS

From pack to product creating the perfect PVC pipe and cabling

WE ALSO SUPPLY QUALITY MINING CHEMICALS XANTHATES | FROTHERS | COLLECTORS FLOTATION REAGENTS | NASH Suppliers of xanthates, frothers and collectors to the mining industry, including copper, gold, zinc, lead and other sulphide metallic ores. www.sunace.co.za/mining-chemicals

SUN ACE South Africa (Pty) Ltd | +27(11) 552 6200 | www.sunace.co.za

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2021/02/16 09:05

WORLD NEWS ALPLA acquires German PET recycler

THE ALPLA Group, the global packaging solutions and recycling specialist, is acquiring BTB PET-Recycling based in Bad Salzuﬂen. The company turns PET bottles into recycled material which is then predominantly used for the production of new beverage bottles. Its bottle-to-bottle packaging cycle is a closed loop. In acquiring BTB PET-Recycling GmbH & Co. KG based in Bad Salzuﬂen in the German state of North RhineWestphalia, ALPLA is investing in further developing the region’s recycling loop. The company processes used PET beverage bottles sourced from Germany’s reverse vending system and turns them into food-grade rPET (recycled PET) pellets which are then primarily used for the manufacture of new preforms for PET bottles, including beverage bottles. www.alpla.com

Unique handle 5-gallon bottles with the unique integrated handles can be produced on three different CYPET models

Cosmo Films announces BOPP expansion and 1st interim dividend

COSMO Films Limited, a global leader in films for packaging, labelling, lamination and synthetic paper and an emerging player in specialty chemicals, polymers & pet care are setting up the world’s largest BOPP film production line at Aurangabad with annual rated capacity of 67 000 tons. With current capacity expected to produce primarily speciality films (80%+) in the next two years and projected BOPP film demand growth in India, the company’s planned capacity expansion will be world’s largest production line.

CYPET, the Cyprus-based ISBM machine maker, has solved the problem of moulding a secure handle for PET 5-gallon containers

Compact cube machine Pioneering pipette tip expo extended

INNOVATIVE cube technology is signiﬁcantly reducing cycle time. Previously, Arburg’s hybrid cube series had been primarily intended for efﬁcient high-volume production in the packaging industry. The area of application of cube moulds has since expanded to take in the production of technical parts. The new Allrounder Cube 1800 with a clamping force of 1800 kN is providing the ideal response to this trend.

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for 5-gallon PET bottles from CYPET

5-gallon bottles with the unique integrated handles can be produced on three different CYPET models

Main challenge for PET was lack of handle

CYPET Technologies, European manufacturer of single-stage injection stretch blow moulding machines, has unveiled its unique solution for a 5-gallon water cooler PET bottle with an integrated handle, solving the problem of having secure as well as ergonomic handles for PET bottles for this application. Health concerns over BPA (Bisphenol A) found in polycarbonate have resulted in a tendency to shift from polycarbonate to PET for 5-gallon returnable water cooler bottles. The main challenge for PET in this application has been the lack of secure and ergonomic handles to lift and carry the heavy bottles. Polycarbonate bottles can be extrusion blow moulded with a secure handle on the side. Although convenient for carrying the bottles, such extrusion blow moulded handles are hollow inside and are therefore difficult to clean properly, which may lead to contamination and unhygienic water. Additionally, such handles make it difficult to lift bottles from the floor, because one has to bend low to catch the handles, putting strain on the back. PET bottles are produced by stretch blow moulding, a process that cannot produce bottles with integrated handles. To solve this problem, a separately moulded handle needs to be assembled on the bottle, adding costs and recycling difficulties, as such a handle is usually moulded from a different material. CYPET’s innovative design and development team has

successfully developed the unique handles, meeting all the set criteria: • Hygienic – does not interfere with the cleaning of the bottle inside. • Ergonomic – a slight bending of the knees is enough to reach the handle and lift the bottle, without straining the back. • Sustainable – very easy to recycle, as the whole bottle with handle is made from PET that can be recycled back to food contact suitable material, for multiple re-use in a fully circular economy. • No risk of detaching – fully integrated and mechanically very strong. CYPET’s single-stage patented ISBM machines are the only ones currently capable of producing the specially designed handles. The 5-gallon bottles with the unique integrated handles can be produced on three different CYPET machine models, depending on the output required. Machines with 1, 2 or 4 cavity production capabilities are offered, with the 4-cavity system being the most productive on the market for this application. The following table summarizes the characteristics of the different types of 5-gallon bottles with handles, illustrating the superiority of CYPET’s solution. www.cypet.eu

completes the Arburg portfolio Despite high mould investment costs, the innovative cube technology quickly pays for itself. This is because it can signiﬁcantly improve productivity – and it can do this in many different industries. The compact Allrounder Cube 1800 is particularly suitable for the cost-effective production of technical and medical products, for example, as well as for personal care products. The hybrid Allrounder Cube 1800 has a clamping force of 1800 kN and a distance between tie-bars of 570 x 570mm. It can

be equipped with horizontal injection units in sizes from 400 to 1300 and moving injection units in sizes from 70 to 800. At its heart is a compact cube from partner company Foboha, which is easily accessible from above. The rotation of the cube is powered servo-electrically and the horizontal movement relies on rack and pinion mechanisms. The Allrounder Cube hybrid series combines speed and precision with reliability and energy efﬁciency. The machines are available with clamping

forces of 1800, 2900 and 4600kN. Injection moulding in two sequential mould parting lines takes place at the same time as cooling and removal. Just using the passive sides of the cube as a cooling station can reduce cooling time by 30%. • Hestico represents Arburg in SA www.arburg.com www.hestico.co.za DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 57

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WORLD NEWS

Plasmatreat invests in new research & testing equipment for highly technical surface treatment

PLASMATREAT GmbH constantly faces shifting demands as a result of new ideas, regulations, and standards. Consequently, the capacities of the technology and research centre that opened in 2019, which comprises 14 laboratories and various testing facilities, will now be expanded to include a class-6 cleanroom. For its international customers, Plasmatreat has now also acquired UL certification for many of its products. This will make it even simpler for customers to quickly and easily implement new systems anywhere in the world. A qualified, accredited testing laboratory has certified that these Plasmatreat products conform to US safety standards. This certification lets customers know that the systems have met all criteria for safe operation and that they will be easy to integrate into manufacturing processes. www.plasmatreat.com

ALPLA takes over Spanish bottle manufacturer Plastisax

THE ALPLA Group, the global packaging solutions and recycling specialist, is taking over Plastisax SL. The Spanish company produces plastic bottles for the cosmetics, home and personal care segments. The takeover will enable an increased use of recycled material in production operations and a strengthening of the circular economy in the region. ALPLA is consolidating its market position in eastern Spain and expanding its production capacities mainly for packaging solutions made from HDPE. A smaller product area also includes bottles made of PET. www.alpla.com

Pipette tip production turnkey Each Männer mould cavity cluster comprises eight removable and replaceable cavities, a hot runner nozzle head with eight individual heat controlled nozzle tips and eight ﬂoating core pilot bushings

The Arc de Triomphe packed

THE Arc de Triomphe, the emblematic monument of Paris, is all wrapped up! The work, called L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021, was created on 18 September 2021 and was visible and visitable for 16 days. It took the team two months to install the 25 000m2 of recyclable blue-silver polypropylene fabric and the 3 000 metres of recyclable red polypropylene rope that envelop the monument. These materials were not chosen at random, but by the artist, Christo, two years before during several life-size tests. During these tests, Christo conﬁrmed the colour and type of fabric and ropes, the amount of extra fabric to create the voluminous folds and the installation methods. In February 2020, Setex Textil in Germany started producing the fabric. 12 000 kilometres of yarn was woven into 25 000 square metres of fabric.

Once the fabric was woven, it was sprayed with one kilogram of pulverized aluminium to give it its silvery blue colour. It was then sewn to form large panels, ready to be rolled onto tubes. The largest panels are 8 metres wide weighing one ton each. The fabric will be recycled after the work has been dismantled.

www.christojeanneclaude.net

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cell can produce 320 million IVD components a year Each mould cavity cluster comprises eight removable and replaceable cavities, a hot runner nozzle head with eight individual heat controlled nozzle tips and eight floating core pilot bushings. The unique hot runner temperature control delivers a flat temperature profile, and uniform balancing. Shot-by-shot, HB-Therm’s 16 flow meters instantly alerts production managers to any deviation in flow values or variation in the inlet and return flow temperature. Coupled with the integration of the Gammaflux temperature controller – which automatically logs values 20 times every second – as well as the Priamus process controls, best practice and ISO 13485 compliance can be accomplished and efficiently documented and reported through a single interface. To help enhance dosing and injection performance, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s IntElect S130 delivers the repeatability and precision required for an IVD application of this scale. Equipped with its highly dynamic drive motors, the ready-to-go cleanroom moulding cell is one of the few compact all-electric machines on the market with the mould space to accommodate the 64 cavity cluster tool and demoulding robotics. The IntElect’s direct drive technology is designed purely for injection moulding, and therefore delivers the accelerated

www.demaplastech.co.za

POOLING their engineering expertise and technological resources, Männer in collaboration with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag and MA micro automation recently embarked on one of their most ambitious and progressive partnership projects to-date. Each market leaders in their respective space, earlier this year they set about designing a stable pipette tip production turnkey cell capable of mass producing 320 million individual IVD components per annum. Forecast to be valued at US$118.44 billion by 2028 with revenue CAGR of 4.4% advances in the molecular diagnostics and the development of new IVD consumables to address global demographic shifts is rising exponentially. The cleanroom pipette tip production cell features a 64 cavity mould with eight quick-change core and cavity clusters to reduce production downtime, individual heat-controlled hot runner nozzle tips, optimised cooling for dimensional accuracy, high injection moulding dynamics for a 5-6 second cycle time and a fully automated linear demoulding robot and vision system. All contained in a compact 25m2 footprint. Männer has engineered an innovative mass-production cluster tool concept and a unique hot runner system. Until recently, there was quite often a trade-off between technical feasibility, process reliability and efﬁciency.

www.sumitomo-shi-demag.eu/

Pioneering pipette tip expo extended

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MIDDLEEAST EAST MIDDLE

North African polymer industry can almost double polymer capacity over next 5 years s Plans for a new $10.6 billion petrochemical complex in Egypt consisting of 11 plant BY NIALL MARSHALL

60 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

HISTORICALLY and culturally the Middle East includes both the oilrich Gulf countries as well as the generally poorer Arabic-speaking North African countries (Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) some of which also have oil and gas reserves. As might be expected, the petrochemical industry is far more advanced in the GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) than North Africa. More than 25 million tons of polymer are produced annually in the GCC, in comparison the North African capacity is approximately 2.1 million tons. North African converters consume about 4.1 million tons per year, which is roughly the same size as the GCC converting industry. More than half of this is in Egypt, with the balance being split between Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The converting market is growing at around 5.5% pa, even faster than the population, which is, together with the population of the GCC, expected to be larger than the population of the EU within 10 years. With a population of around 90 million people and the second largest economy (after Saudi Arabia) in the Middle East, Egypt has a large market for locally produced polymer and products. In the late 1980’s the Egyptian Petrochemicals Company started producing PVC in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. The availability of locally produced PVC also benefited local pipe manufacturers producing pipe for the important agriculture industry. Historically all agriculture took place in the flood plains of the Nile or in the Nile Delta but a number of projects to increase the amount of cultivated land rely on distributing water further from the river as well as by pumping artesian water from aquifers deep under the Western desert. Today there are several pipe manufacturers using both PVC and polyolefins. Pipes, cables and waterproofing membranes are also

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produced in Egypt for the many construction projects, including a new $45 billion capital city 50km south-east of Cairo. At the beginning of the 21st Century, a new HDPE plant in Alexandria and new polypropylene and PET plants in Suez were commissioned. Significant volumes of the polyolefins produced are used in agricultural applications. There are large producers of mulch film, silage and greenhouse films in Egypt, as well as in Morocco, for the local and regional agricultural markets. There are also a number of large BOPP plants in Egypt, all of which have been expanding their capacities, producing film for the packaging of products destined for export. Film is used for packaging table grapes, fruit, vegetables and increasingly, flowers exported to Europe. Another large industry in Egypt is the manufacture of carpets. More than 60% of the polypropylene woven and tufted carpets produced in Egypt are exported to Europe, Asia and the USA. With approximately 2.5 million tons of polymer being processed by an estimated 2 000 converters in Egypt, employing more than 600 000 people, it is unsurprising that new polypropylene and polyethylene plants were commissioned as well as a new polystyrene plant. Unfortunately, the first of these plants came online during the turmoil of the “Arab Spring” and the political and economic disruptions had a negative effect on production. The civil war in Libya resulted in feedstock being cut-off and both the PP plant and the PET plant were shut down. Both have subsequently restarted but as most of the new plants focus on export markets there is still a shortfall in polymers. With North Africa being a net importer of polymer, it is not surprising that there are plans for a new $10.6 billion petrochemical complex in Egypt consisting of 11 plants, including a naphtha cracker as well as polypropylene and polyethylene plants. The North African polymer industry will remain overshadowed by the larger Middle East industry, but if all the new polymer plants planned are built it will almost double the North African polymer capacity over the next five years – potentially 4.5 million tons of polymer capacity is something that will make it an important polymer producing region too.

2021/11/17 09:48

RE-INVENTING

Business as an agent of world beneﬁt

Five lessons that will become the deﬁning principles of our future story BY KIRTIDA BHANA

THE plastics industry has a bright future ahead of it with new and improved materials as a result of ongoing improvements in material science, additive manufacturing advances and advantages and so many more high tech opportunities in the automotive, e-mobility, medical and other sectors. All of this centres around one theme…innovation. In the plastics industry in South Africa, to be on the growth curve if not ahead of it, ﬁrst and foremost we need to innovate. The next 10 to 20 years are going to be exciting and we have to wake up to our capacity to be able to spray solar cells onto windows and surfaces, and every single building becoming a power source of clean and renewable and abundant energy, to contributing back to society. The new leaders in the making will bring their whole selves to the enterprise and build remarkable relationship value with stakeholders, including customers, societies and communities. Whether we like to acknowledge this fact or not, we are witnessing a shift that is rapid and irreversible and extending to the farthest corners of the planet, involving practically every aspect of business life. We need to decide whether we are part of the problem or whether we are leading the ‘solution revolution’ in this era of massive mobilisation. We are witnessing the birth of a comprehensive new enterprise logic; business as an agent of world beneﬁt. Ideas are born from challenges and entrepreneurship and innovation bring ideas to life. Business is the most powerful force on the planet and if harnessed appropriately it could be a force for good. Business needs to create a more inclusive, more equitable and more regenerative economy and companies need to be accountable for something other than just creating value for shareholders.

Learn about the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Tool from ‘Managing for Impact’ The starting point of Appreciative Inquiry is discovering what is positive and what is already working in relationship with the mission and the objectives that are relevant for a given company or team. This “success core” is energizing and inspiring and can be leveraged to build cooperative capacity for new projects. Instead of audits, critical analyses and negative viewpoints, AI is co-evolutionary and focuses on where energy comes from and on what gives an organization life, encouraging people to look for everything that works, everything that is positive, that generates energy, exploring as many avenues as possible. In AI the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiralling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities and visions of valued and possible futures. AI deliberately seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core” – and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.

• •

Download the tool from: www.managingforimpact.org/ sites/default/ﬁles/tool/appreciative_inquiry.pdf To learn more about Strategy In Innovation contact Kirtida Bhana email: Kirtida.bhana@plasticssa.co.za or 082 322 0117. DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 61

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PIPE MATTERS

Wisdom of the elders “If you want to know what the road ahead is like, ask somebody coming back.” BY MIKE SMART, PR. ENG., B.SC. (HONS) CIV. ENG., MSAICE

ABORIGINAL people value, indeed, revere their ancestors full-time and/or part-time teachers for their children; and elders, a trait that has become devalued, or lost with • Lack of space, with bedrooms or shared common rooms increasing “civilisation”. The passing of the history, traditions becoming offices; and values of a people preserves all that is good, positive • Loss of in-person collaboration, necessary for creativity and valuable in a culture, whilst providing the foundation and innovation; upon which future innovation and development is built. In • Loss of personal choice, leaving people feeling isolated, the meSETA report on the plastics industry, we discussed lonely and depressed. in July’s “Pipe Matters”, the necessity of mentoring new As we are aware, in South Africa many people live in entrants into the thermoplastic pipe industry was listed as crowded spaces and lack the privacy required for optimal a salient requirement for the prosperity of the industry. The delivery. following is reproduced by kind permission of Auguste (Gusti) Working from home also loses the benefits of an Coetzer, CEO | People Power Placements SA (Pty) Ltd. intergenerational mix. Large numbers of younger people “Few dispute the massive impact that Covid-19 has had need the input of an older generation to provide practical on every aspect of our lives, including our work. Thousands work experience, especially for those undergoing of employees have switched to working from home, rather learnerships. South Africa is a social nation; than spread the virus through shared workspaces in the ubuntu value that underpins our society office buildings. depends on socialisation in many contexts, Working Whether this work-from-home trend will including at work. Working from home continue, and what its long-term impact on from home loses disconnects people in a way that online productivity will be, is, however, far from clear. meetings cannot compensate for. the benefits of an One of the most interesting aspects to consider Corporate culture is also impacted, and is the potential loss of a multi-generational intergenerational will no longer be shaped by our personal workforce as a result of the work-from-home experiences at work; instead it could just mix. imperative. Today’s workforce can include up become the paper statements common in to four generations working side by side; even many corporates! a young 5th generation could be added. While this There is no handbook to guide us in the has its challenges, it also brings unique opportunities for Covid-19 era. We are learning as we go. Companies and symbiotic relationships from which all can benefit. organisations should bear in mind the cultural, social and Age diversity in the workplace is seen in a positive light professional aspects when planning for a future that may for both the organisation and the individual, according to yet continue to be dominated by extremely taxing times due a rather dated, but still relevant 2015 report by the UK’s to uncertainty defining how the future will look.” Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Its Knowledge transfer by association research found that there is “widespread appreciation that a Mentoring is either a formal structured programme, or workplace with only one generation is less effective and is informal with progress indicated by progressive transfer of not as enjoyable to work in”. Key benefits identified were: responsibility. Whichever of the two foregoing methods of • The apartheid generation – born 1938 to 1964; skills transfer is employed, both rely on informal, almost • The struggle generation – born 1965 to 1980; accidental, mentoring that occurs in the workplace between • The transition generation – born 1981 to 1994; and generations – transfer by association. • The born free generation – born 1995 to 2000. In the workplace, experience, knowledge, skills, How has Covid-19 changed this? Nicolas Bloom, a senior procedures and “tricks of the trade” are transferred to fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, younger members of staff. This does not imply “old ways” has previously supported working from home, saying that it are better or sacrosanct, but they do inform innovation, leads to increased productivity and reduces resignations. change and improvement making it more appropriate. Business is realising this lack of vicarious staff development But now, four factors – children, space, privacy and is detrimental to the business and are implementing various choice – have changed this in Covid-19. The new strategies to correct this situation, including a compulsory challenges, he argues, are: minimum period to be spent at the business’s place of work. • Managing children, with many working parents becoming 62 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

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DIARY Thousands of visitors expected to attend Propak Africa and co-located shows

Pack smart at the Propak Africa live event in 2022 8-11 March 2022, at the Expo Centre, Nasrec in Johannesburg WHEN it comes to invigorating the South African economy following the effects of the global pandemic, the return of live event trade shows and exhibitions will provide a much needed platform for buyers and sellers to connect face-toface, business partnerships to develop, industries to come together and new products and services launched. After almost two years of restrictions, the exhibitions industry is successfully re-opening globally and it’s good news to hear that Africa’s most progressive packaging, food processing, plastics, printing and labelling trade exhibition,

Propak Africa, will be taking place as a live event from 8-11 March 2022, at the Expo Centre, Nasrec in Johannesburg. A must for all contenders in the packaging and related industries, Propak Africa will be showcasing the very best that these industries offer, including a comprehensive array of cutting-edge innovations, sustainable packaging initiatives, and state-of-the art machinery and equipment. Propak Africa will have packaging materials and supplies, packaging and ancillary machinery, converting equipment and materials handling on

display. Co-located shows FoodPro, Pro-Plas Expo, Print Expo and ProLabel Africa will showcase all aspects of food and consumable processing, including pharmaceutical and personal care products; plastics machinery and materials with a focus on innovative solutions and emerging technologies that are set to change the plastics world; advanced equipment and new approaches to print; and next level labelling solutions. www.propakafrica.co.za

Propak West Africa returns after two years PROPAK West Africa returned in September after a year’s gap because of the pandemic. With 2 412 industry stakeholders attending the exhibition to visit the 52 exhibitors showcasing their equipment, the sentiment was of excitement and positivity that the opportunity was back for the industry. Over the three days the packaging, printing, plastics and processing industries reunited for the first time in

two years and were able to discover the products they had been missing from their supply chain in that time. And while some restrictions remained in place, the organisers were pleased to see a good number of international companies who continue to support the event and travel to Lagos including Blue Air Systems, Erema Recycling, Galdi, HTG Industry, Miele, Neofyton and Windmoeller and Holscher. With it being the first time for many internationals returning to Nigeria the chance to meet with so many local buyers and clients was an opportunity not to be missed and 87% of those surveyed said they achieved their goals of exhibiting. Running alongside the busy exhibitor stands, Propak once again saw the return of a high level conference programme that focused it’s attention on how the 64 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

packaging, plastics and printing industries will rebound from the pandemic and how it can be done sustainably. Speakers included representatives of many of the leading brands in the region including TetraPak West Africa, Guinness Nigeria, Grand Cereals, Neofyton and PwC Nigeria, to name just a handful. The sessions were made up of panel discussions, keynote presentations and technical seminars and many have been uploaded to the website to be viewed back for those that could not attend. While this years exhibition was smaller than in previous editions, with a very strong rebooking of 74%, the organisers have said that hall one is already almost sold out for 2022. With this they hope for a swift return for next edition to the largest exhibition size seen 2019, with 5 000 visitors and 200 exhibitors.

2022 interplastica 2022: 25-28 January Moscow, Russia: www.interplastica.de

Milliken’s polymer additive & colorant solutions at ArabPlast 2021

World Pultrusion Conference 2022: 3-4 March Paris, France: www.compositesworld.com Propak Africa 2022: 3-11 March Johannesburg Expo Centre: www.propakafrica.co.za

and injection moulders to produce stronger, lighter parts. In addition to increasing stiffness significantly when compared to conventionally nucleated resin, they also aid processing productivity and offer balanced, tuneable properties. DeltaMax 5000a is the latest addition to Milliken’s DeltaMax portfolio of performance modifiers for PP. They maximize the physical properties and processability of impact copolymer (ICP) polypropylene by compatibilizing the rubber matrix interface. This latest addition is designed to expand the use of Milliken’s DeltaMax additive into all market segments, including food packaging. DeltaMax 5000a will allow resin producers to expand the performances of their resin portfolios and to boost their productivity by increasing the throughput of their reactors. www.milliken.com

Int’l Morocco Food & Siema Expo 15-17 March: Casablanca, Morocco www.siemamaroc.com Injection Molding & Design Expo 16-17 March: Detroit, Michigan, USA www.ami.ltd/Injection-Molding-Expo Chinaplas 2022: 25-28 April Shanghai, China: www.chinaplasonline.com Saudi Plastics & Petrochemical Exhib: 6-9 June Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia www.saudi-pppp.com Trenchless Asia 2022: 27-28 July Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: www.trenchlessasia.com Feiplar Composites & Feipur: 16-18 August São Paulo, Brazil: www.feiplar.com K 2022: 19-26 October Düsseldorf, Germany: www.messe-duesseldorf.de

• Official Distributor in Southern Africa for BASF

on TPU Elastollan® Thermoplastic Polyurethane

• Official Distributor in Southern Africa for Elastron on TPE, TPV Elastron® SEBS and EPDM/PP

• Official Distributor in Southern Africa for CGFSE on FSE® Fluoroelastomers and Perfluoroelastomers

• Distributor for Weifang on Weipren CPE • Suppliers of EPS, Various Grades • Engineering Polymers • Polyolefins • Reworked and Repaletised Materials • Official distributor for Politem on PA6, PA66 ®

unfilled and filled compounds

Millad NX 8000 ECO sustainable clarifying agent for NX UltraClear polypropylene. KeyPlast colourants for PET are used to create distinctive shades in both transparent and opaque applications. DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 65

EVENTS

bio!PAC conference: 15-16 March Düsseldorf, Germany: www.bio-pac.info

The new standard in PP transparency MILLIKEN showcased a broad portfolio of polymer additives and colorant solutions at this year’s ArabPlast from 15-18 November at the UAE’s Dubai World Trade Centre. Millad NX 8000 ECO delivers crystal clear, glass like clarity, while extending sustainability, making clarified polypropylene a viable alternative to glass, PC, PET, PVC and PS in applications such as housewares, food packaging, and various other end uses. The additive further offers the added benefit of even faster production rates, contributing to average energy savings of 10% for the production of clarified injection moulded PP parts. Several grades in Milliken’s energy-saving Hyperform HPN range of performance additives were on display. These nucleating agents for PP are easy to use and reliable while also improving the performance of recycled polypropylene (rPP). They enable thermoformers

KZN Industrial Technology Exhibition 16-18 February: Durban Exhibition Centre, Durban www.kznindustrial.co.za

diary

FAKUMA 2021

Arburg ‘live’ and on a grand scale at Fakuma 2021

Clear statement: Largest stand, innovative exhibits, strong team USING the motto “The best of both worlds“, Arburg combined major topics of the future at Fakuma this year – digitalisation as well as sustainability and resource conservation in 2021 – with its declared aim of increasing customers’ production efficiency and making them future-proof in the long term. As is well known, the “arburgGREENworld” programme brings together all aspects of resource conservation and the circular economy. At its stand, Arburg used several applications to demonstrate how resources can be conserved and materials recycled in a sensible way. Examples included the processing of transparent, bio-based PA 12, a bio-plastic consisting of 39% renewable raw materials based on castor oil. This material was used to create the well-known Uvex sunglasses on a turnkey system based on an Allrounder 520 A.

Arburg’s programme at Fakuma also reflected the rapid growth of “arburgXworld”. The company’s entire range of assistants was on show, including aXw Control FillAssist for 3D filling simulation and aXw Control MeltAssist for process evaluation. Both of the new assistants were making their debut at the show – aXw Control CycleAssist for cycle time optimisation and aXw Control EnergyAssist for energysaving switch-on. There were also new features for the customer portal. The new AnalyticsCenter app enables mould sampling, trials and injection moulding processes to be documented and analysed. And a “Customer Upload” feature, allowing customers to add their own equipment, has been incorporated into the “MachineCenter” app. Arburg’s new Allrounder More machine

World Pultrusion Conference 2022

The World Pultrusion Conference takes place from 3-4 March in Paris, France. The WPC 2022 will have a high-calibre programme. Spread out over two days, there will be more than 20 speeches covering innovative applications in the transport sector and in building and infrastructure, raw material developments, machine and process innovations and an overview of market developments in Europe, North America, Asia and India. www.compositesworld.com/events

bio!PAC 2022

Due to the pandemic, the bio!PAC conference on bioplastics in the packaging sector has been postponed to take place from 15-16 March in Dusseldorf, Germany. www.bioplasticsmagazine.com

66 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

series was also unveiled to the world. The series covers the two sizes 1600 and 2000 and satisfies the most stringent requirements for production-efficient multi-component injection moulding. Its flexible design offers significantly more space for larger moulds and ejectors, more modularity in its assembly, and impressive ease of use via the Gestica control system. An Allrounder More 1600 produced a complex lab-on-a-chip for medical technology at the trade fair.

Arburg represented in South Africa by Hestico (Pty) Ltd

www.arburg.com www.hestico.co.za

Feiplar Composites & Feipur 2022

The eleventh edition of Feiplar Composites & Feipur – International Exhibition and Conference on Composites, Polyurethane and Thermoplastics Composites takes place from 16-18 August in Sao Paulo, Brazil. More than 15 500 visitors from about 30 countries are expected. In 2018, last edition of the show, 14 900 professionals from all over Latin America visited the event, registering an increase of 17% in the number of visitors in relation to 2016. To present new technologies to all these visitors, more than 300 exhibitors companies are expected, from several countries such as China, the United States, Germany, Italy, England, Turkey, France, Japan and others. During the years of 2019, 2020 and 2021 our seminar (onsite and online) gathered more than 6 200 attendees. www.feiplar.com

Motan-colortronic presents new dosing and mixing units, new dry air dryer

offer an ideal price-performance ratio for standard applications in the drying of plastic granulate. The LUXOR SG 50 dry air generator will come with a dry air capacity of 50m³/h and is connected to a single drying bin with 150 litres. The dryer is designed for energy-efficient drying and has additional functions such as dew point display and the ecoPROTECT material protection function. With the help of the Moisture Minder™ system, the humidity level of plastic granules can be measured continuously, efficiently and accurately. The sensor, which can be mounted directly under the drying bin, indicates the current moisture concentration of the plastic granulate. This makes any faults that might occur in the drying process immediately visible. GreenTech Machinery (Pty) Ltd represents motan in South Africa

www.motan-colortronic.com

Co-located with:

EXPO 2022

PRO-PLAS EXPO 2022

GRAVICOLOR 110 – Gravimetric batch dosing and mixing unit for granules with METRO G hopper loaders

www.greentechmachinery.co.za

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 67

WITH the Minicolor SG V, motan introduces a new variant of the volumetric dosing and mixing unit series. The unit covers all the important requirements for the dosing of additives to the highest level. The Minicolor SG V guarantees excellent mixing quality with the highest dosing and repeat accuracy. The dosing and mixing unit is mounted directly on the feed opening of the processing machine and is therefore extremely space-saving. The user-friendly microprocessor control can either be used for injection moulding applications or extrusion operation. The modern 7” graphic display visualizes the dosing rates and supports calibration. Dosing speed is calculated automatically according to the calibrated weight and recipe. The new gravimetric batch dosing and mixing unit for granules Gravicolor 110 is specially designed for injection moulding, blow moulding and extrusion processes. With the Gravicolor 110, up to four different components can be mixed precisely and with the highest recipe accuracy. The Luxor SG 50 is the first mobile and compact dry air dryer of the new Luxor SG series. These dryers

MOISTURE MINDER™ – Measuring the remaining moisture of plastic granulate

DIARY

Engel: Fakuma 2021 inspires injection moulding industry Leveraging the full potential of the machines Engel’s stand at Fakuma this year saw visitors expressing great interest in innovative solutions for more sustainability in injection moulding and further digitalisation of production processes. The machine exhibits also demonstrated the new opportunities for the circular economy. Engel presented a closed process chain for polypropylene involving the production of monomaterial food packaging using IML thin-wall technology and the production of protective covers from label offcuts. At the same time, the Engel e-speed 420 injection moulding machine celebrated

The Engel stand at Fakuma attracted a constant stream of visitors throughout. In particular, innovative solutions for more sustainability and further digitalisation of production processes met with great interest.

its world premiere. Hybrid and all-electric injection moulding machines are seeing deployment in an increasing number of applications. Demanding precision applications gave insights into the performance of the various hybrid and all-electric machine series by Engel during the five days of the trade fair. Two machine exhibits that Engel presented – the production of pipette tips on an all-electric e-mac and the manufacture of microcomponents from LSR on an all-electric and tie-bar-less e-motion TL – will also be available in Engel’s virtual showroom after Fakuma.

The virtual platform offers more than 20 machine exhibits in total, as well as technical presentations, business talks and plant tours – unaffected by travel restrictions and time zones. Engel is represented by Greentech Machinery in SA

www.engelglobal.com www.greentechmachinery.co.za

Reifenhäuser’s innovative stretching process enables all-PE composite for ﬂexible packaging Reifenhäuser Cast Sheet Coating. The divisions exhibited their broad portfolio of plasticising components for injection moulding and extrusion together with complete lines for blown film and flat film production. Reifenhäuser Blown Film focussed on its capability of producing recyclable end products. EVO Ultra Stretch, Reifenhäuser’s highly advanced stretching unit for sustainable blown films, allows customers to produce monomaterial composites Sustainable solution (all-PE film) for flexible for flexible packaging.

THE Reifenhäuser Group was represented on a joint exhibition booth by its three business units, Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems, including the screws and barrels specialist Reifenhäuser Reiloy, along with its film divisions Reifenhäuser Blown Film and

packagings: Reifenhäuser All-PE Pouch.

68 DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

The regular PET layer is replaced by stretched PE. With up to 10 times the stretch rate, the Ultra Stretch unit gives PE film completely new mechanical properties. This is a simple substitute for PET and there is no need to adapt other processing steps. The unique and patented position of the stretching unit directly in the haul-off of the blown film line makes the process particularly stable and efficient.

www.extrusion-world.com

FAKUMA 2021

Sepro have 11 robots on display SEPRO Group brought a total of 11 robots to Fakuma 2021. Seven of the robots were displayed on Sepro’s own stand and two of them were shown on injection-moulding machines operating in the booth. A further four units were demonstrated on machines being displayed by IMM manufacturers in partnership with Sepro. The exhibit presented 3-, 5- and 6-axis robots that are part of the most extensive portfolio in the industry, which also includes comprehensive range of

peripheral equipment. Sumitomo-Demag, Sepro’s longest standing OEM partner, had a 130-ton press moulding an automobile gearstick baseplate that was removed from the mould by an SDR 11 robot, the Sumitomo-Demag equivalent of the Sepro Success 11. Elsewhere on the stand, a Haitian Zeres 60-ton electric IMM was equipped with Sepro’s smallest Success robot, the Success 5, which was producing a ‘cleankY’ hygienic door opening tool.

One of the new Sepro MED robots was seen at Fakuma 2021 manipulating a medical component from the Swiss moulder Fischer Soehne AG. A Success 22X robot like this one, part of the redesigned 5-axis version of Sepro’s best-selling robot range, was on display at Fakuma 2021.

www.sepro-group.com

Digital solutions to facilitate the work of PU casting resin processors Digital tools for material and machine in response to various challenges

The Easy Casting app on a smartphone

problems through remote monitoring by Covestro experts • Baulé® Easy Parts: online identification and ordering of spare parts • Baulé® Easy Data: production monitoring with all relevant process data To help its customers, Covestro has also developed an app that supports every operator on the customer’s shop floor when working with hot cast polyurethane moulded parts. The Easy Casting app is available via the Android platform. It guides each operator through the entire manual casting process. To gain new insights for R&D, technical

service and customer experience, Covestro has developed a set of digital tools that create digital recipe maps by leveraging the power of the design of experiments method. This method has been used to gain insight into the polyurethane casting process and recipe optimization, and was first applied to a Desmodur® MTX6076-based polyurethane cast elastomer system. By simply dragging a cursor, the Easy System Tool allows users to change processing and formulation factors and view the effects on the resulting properties of the polyurethane cast elastomer.

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022 69

COVESTRO unveiled a range of digital tools for the polyurethane elastomer industry at UTECH Europe 2021, which was held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, from 16-18 November. Covestro has taken the next step in digitizing customer support. Digital solutions make life easier for injection moulders today in many ways. These Baulé® Easy Services have been developed around the company´s Baulé® machines to ensure that its customers’ production lines work perfectly and that any potential delay factor can be solved in a simple and effective way: • Baulé® Easy Assist: solving process

www.covestro.com

BOOKS

INEOS Styrolution publishes sustainability report Report highlights progress towards circular and low-carbon economy

INEOS Styrolution’s sixth sustainability report provides a comprehensive review of the company’s established environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, with a focus on the scale up of its recycling activities and measures to reduce its carbon footprint. This year’s report includes an overview of the company’s contribution to the ﬁght against Covid-19. Since the publication of the company’s ﬁrst qualitative report on sustainability back in 2015, INEOS Styrolution has demonstrated consistent improvements, resulting in a platinum rating by EcoVadis in 2020. This places INEOS Styrolution in the top 1% category of plastics manufacturers. A refreshed materiality assessment undertaken in 2021 will enable the company to stay on track by mapping sustainability topics, which provide the

most meaningful impact for its stakeholders. “Despite the unforeseen challenges of the past year, we continue to maintain our commitment to operating sustainably and drive the shift to a circular, low-carbon economy for styrenics”, says Steve Harrington, CEO INEOS Styrolution. This report has been prepared in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Standards, the most widely recognised reporting framework for sustainability and has been assured externally. • For more information about sustainability at INEOS Styrolution and to view the full 2020 Sustainability Report visit: http://ineos-styrolution.com/sustainability. www.ami.international

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

EV liftgates to lift LFT PP demand ACCORDING to a new report published in September by industry experts AMI Consulting, market penetration for Long Fibre Polypropylene (LFT PP) is rising. The new report quantiﬁes the use of both granule LFT PP (LFT-G) and direct in-line compounding LFT PP (LFT-D) tracking its use around the world. The result is a comprehensive analysis of LFT PP by application, OEM, producer and geographical region. The key metric in the report is kg/vehicle which allows the disaggregation of volatile car production numbers from underlying usage trends.

LFT PP is used widely in automotive front-end carriers, instrumentpanel carriers, door-panels, consoles, pedals, under-body shields and many other applications. A feature of many of these applications is that LFT PP replaces steel and thereby reduces weight or replaces more expensive engineering plastics.

AMI Consulting is forecasting strong growth of LFT PP through to 2025. Some applications are growing much faster than others and some OEMs are adopting LFT PP more rapidly than others. The report is intended to support the strategic decisions that are required of participants to ensure they keep abreast of developments within this fastchanging industry. It aims to assist industry participants in anticipating change, formulating strategies, directing R&D investment, and proactively managing threats and opportunities.

www.ami.international/cons/prod.aspx?catalog=Consulting&product=M300

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To place a classiﬁed advert please Fax: 086 519 6089 or Tel: 021 712 1408 or Email: heather@summitpub.co.za

www.sapt.co.za

THERMOFORMING, SHEET EXTRUSION, AND MATERIALS

Advertisers: – December 2021 / January 2022 Banbury Colour & Dosing Solutions 31 Brenntag SA IFC Cabletech Marketing 01 & insert Carst & Walker 37 DemaPlasTech 51 DH Polymers 65 ENGEL 41 GreenTech Machinery 03 Hestico 11 Inkulu Plastic Pipes 63 Masterbatch SA 45 Meraxis SA 25 MGMW Trading 23

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SAVE 90% of your electricity use with GN! • GN (Canada): machines for reduced waste and reduced energy • Thermoforming Moulds for GN and other thermoformers • ToolVu technology for productivity and quality improvement on thermoforming machines • Complete lines for EPS foam trays and EPS cup moulding

EXTRUSION TECHNOLOGY FROM AGRIPAK OF ITALY Mono & multi-layer extrusion lines for the production of: • ‘Cartonplast’ (twinwall/hollow profile sheet) • Multilayer sheet for packaging • Semi-foamed sheet for thermoforming

MATERIALS FOR THERMOFORMED PACKAGING

Heat seal lidding ﬁlmsand fortop trays and for FFS machines films for trays web fortop FFSweb machines • Sealing • OPS, PP, PET sheet for general packaging • PP/EVOH/PP for high barrier containers

BRE INNOVATIONS Contact: Tim Forshaw (083 381 5253) or Phil Hopkinson (083 408 5253) or 021 671 5253 or mail to tim@bre.co.za

Decorative marbling for injection-moulded parts BASF’s polyarylethersulfone offers unlimited colour possibilities

3 layer cast ﬁlm plant OMV / Bandera

up to 1100 micron x 600 mm width In working condition. R390 000.00 excl. VAT ex Austria new types of nozzle inserts and a special dosing technique. subject to prior sale

With its lightly honey-coloured tint, Ultrason granules are Contact: suitable for light shades and tints as well as abstract patterns grafl @durofl ex-austria.com o by solid coloring that look like natural materials such as wood Relloy in JHB or marble. www.ultrason.basf.com 71

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Relloy classiﬁed

DEC 2021 / JAN 2022

WITH a patent pending, BASF technology is now possible to produce marbled serial components made of Ultrason® using a standard injection moulding process. The colouring technique opens up virtually unlimited possibilities for designers to use BASF’s polyarylethersulfone to colour household appliances, catering bowls and containers as well as visible components. For the ﬁrst time, surface effects such as colour shades, colour streaks and patterns can be reproduced: Injectionmoulded parts of one series look alike but are not completely identical. The technique has proven to be successful with the two injection-moulding grades Ultrason E (PESU: polyethersulfone) and Ultrason P (PPSU: polyphenylsulfone) for the production of one-of-a-kind parts, which at the same time beneﬁt from the outstanding properties of Ultrason in terms of mechanical, thermal and chemical resistance as well as approval for food contact. The new process, which was developed at BASF’s pilot plant for injection moulding and extrusion in Ludwigshafen, makes it possible to produce marbled moulded parts on conventional injection moulding machines more easily and with a greater degree of process reliability than before, using

2021/11/17 09:47

SPORTS

Global cooperation in sports and outdoor flooring systems Infinergy® from BASF for sustainable, elastic outdoor flooring systems

BASF and Sport Group, Burgheim, are cooperating for the distribution and installation of a new, sustainable flooring system with Infinergy®. BASF’s Infinergy, the first expanded thermoplastic polyurethane (E-TPU) for flooring systems, has an excellent environmental profile. Function, stability and environmental compatibility have been extensively tested and make Infinergy a forward-looking alternative to previously used materials. In addition, the product ensures a production cycle without residual waste, because it can be fully recovered and reused without harmful residues. In the outdoor sector, the material can be used as an elastic layer for unsealed, sustainable and environmentally friendly sports facilities, running tracks and playgrounds. In Sport Group, BASF has found a partner who will distribute and install the new system worldwide. The

strategic cooperation will enrich sports facility construction with a new, sustainable solution. Sport Group is the world’s largest sports surfaces company. The Group offers artificial turf sports fields, athletics tracks, playing fields and landscaping products in over 70 countries and uniquely covers the entire value chain, including research and development, manufacturing and installation, and recycling. Thanks to its particularly cushioning properties, Infinergy is ideally suited for fall protection flooring, which protects children in particular from injury in the event of falls on playgrounds. With its subsidiaries Polytan GmbH and Melos GmbH, Sport Group, as a strategic distributor, covers the distribution and installation of fall protection flooring with Infinergy®. www.basf.com

Inﬁnergy®: The elastic, ecofriendly layer for outdoor ﬂooring systems

Carbon fibre bike with improved stiffness THE Vekta aero-road bike is made using a specific lay-up process and 80% ultra-high modulus unidirectional carbon fibre. Reap Bikes, a UK-based manufacturer of carbon fibre bikes, has launched a new vehicle with a full monocoque frame and improved aerodynamics and stiffness. The Vekta aero-road bike is made using a specific lay-up process and 80% ultra-high modulus Toray M40J unidirectional carbon fibre which the company says is a higher percentage and grade than most manufacturers use. Reap says that the bike made using carbon composite moulds rather than machined alloy moulds, avoiding the differential in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). ‘An alloy mould expands with temperature at a greater rate than the carbon fibre product inside it, losing some fidelity, a press release said. ‘Our carbon composite tools have a lifecycle of around 300 frames, versus 3 000 for the 72

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alloy tools used in mass production, but we know that the difference in outcome easily justiﬁes the cost and effort.’

www.reapbikes.com

2021/11/16 14:07

WE CAN LIVE WITH IT. It’s not waste if you’re not wasting it. Re-purpose your plastic. Let’s plastic responsibly safripol.com

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IT DOES WHAT YOUR GRANULATOR CANNOT ZBS

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GSE

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2021/11/10 12:47

SA POLYMER TECHNOLOGY

Articles inside

Injection Technik opens mould assist centre in Rosslyn