SA POLYMER TECHNOLOGY

S O U T H E R N A F R I C A N P O LY M E R T E C H N O L O G Y

POLYMER technology

www.sapt.co.za

VOL 18 NR 5 OctObeR / NOVembeR 2020

 VOL 18 NR 5

composites cluster winding down

OCTOb ER / NOvEMbER 2020

Sasol’s $2-bn JV with LyondellBasell redeems USA venture

Polyco impasse with flexibles, multilayer sector

Ótima brand proves very popular

Polyoak innovates through pandemic

2020/10/07 11:32

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OF TE A)

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A SS O CI A S OU T

www.sapt.co.za

The Home of Size Reduction The Home of Size Reduction The Home of Size Reduction

LICATION PUB OF T C P A ( ) N & P TIO RN AF HE

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

C

L IA

Plans for Utshongo PET at Coega progress

22

Celebrating design excellence for four decades

28

Multi material jetting system

48

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2019/09/11 2019/02/04 12:31 10:48

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) Financial manager: Lisa Mulligan (lisa@summitpub.co.za) 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 of Southern Africa

1 300+ litter items a day on Cape beaches during hard lockdown THE scourge of plastic and cigarette butts continues to plague Cape Town’s beaches, even in the absence of people during the toughest levels of the Covid-19 lockdown.

A study was conducted along 250m of beach at Milnerton in Table Bay, and at two 400m stretches of beach on the northern False Bay coast, one at Muizenberg and one east of Sunrise Beach, by city officials, the national government’s Working for Coast programme and University of Cape Town researchers.

Plastic items, including foamed plastics and cigarette butts, accounted for 92% to 99% of litter items by number, and 85% to 94% by mass.

Straws were outnumbered by lollipop sticks and earbud sticks at all three beaches. Soft drink bottle lids were 15 times more abundant than PET drink bottles. The oldest item that the team found was a soft drink lid manufactured in 1993.

During the 10 days of the Level 5 lockdown alone, the teams collected 13 665 litter items with a total weight of 78.7kg from the three beaches.

This amounts to an average of 1 367 new litter items per day along 1,050m of Cape Town’s coastline.

Spoof website tries to defraud WAG WE have been alerted to the existence of a spoof website (www. wagchemicals.com) which is purporting to represent WAG Chemicals and West African International and in particular is marketing the sale of the WAG Chemical Products. Wag’s Grant Rosettenstein says the website does NOT have any relationship to and is NOT connected with WAG Chemicals, West African International or West African Group in anyway.

And the plot thickens …. fraudulent e-mails have also been sent to various companies by a ‘Robert Lody’ from the address ‘inquiries@ wagchemicals.com’ requesting quotes and trying to fraudulently buy materials in the name of WAG Chemicals. These emails are not from WAG, ignore them!

Grant has asked that should you be contacted by anyone from WAG Chemicals, please ensure that you verify them directly with him at grant@westafricangroup.co.za before taking any action.

All WAG company information, products and services offered by the West African Group (including WAG Chemicals) is contained on the official website which is www.westafricangroup.co.za.

Association of Rotational Moulders of South Africa

Plastics Converters Association

PET Plastic Recycling South Africa

Masked warriors such as this little group did their bit for the environment on global Beach Clean-up day in September. Besides actually cleaning up along the coast, the event motivated communities to get involved. Clean-ups are frustrating and challenging, but our observation is that a litter-free environment has a calming effect on people, even if subconscious, that could ultimately lead to greater appreciation of the role of plastics

Institute of Materials

… 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

BADAMID PA™ Volume 18 No 5

october – november 2020

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

INDUSTRY NEWS 6 8

Ótima brand proves very popular rPET challenge as Zibo begins recycling of Pet trays, punnets

10

Transpaco specialised Films installs 57-Nanolayer stretch film line

14 16 18

Taigan, t-nano stretch film

20 22

Plans for Utshongo Pet plant progress

24

Advance 150+ from safripol sets new level for clarity, and gloss

39

Composites cluster winding down

30 50

Celebrating design excellence for four decades

SUSTAINABILITY 36

Fraunhofer sets out to clean seabed of plastic

38

Winners of the 2020 Innovation in Bioplastics Award

40

Vitrimers will make plastics of the future sustainable

58

COMPOSITES 44

Solving the sA energy crisis

50

Lanxess extends use of composite material to extrusion blow moulding

WORLD NEWS 58

BASF launch first safety shoe for south America

60

Recycling plant for world’s largest offshore industrial park

composite plastics ad.indd 94

polythalamide for metal replacement

BADATRON PPS™

polyphenylene sulphine for high-temperature applications

BADADUR™ PBT

polybutylene terephthalate compounds

BADA™

TAILOR-MADE COMPOUNDS

• Innovatively compounded engineering polymer solutions to achieve versatile properties • To include colour, UV, flame retardant and any other required stabilizers/additives • Most compounds are exclusive to customers • We offer polymer selection and mould trials on a proprietary and inclusive basis

Polyoak innovates through pandemic

Banbury introduces Purga-UltraPlast

BADAMID PPA™

Whatever formulation you require we supply, irrespective of volume or complexity … including

DESIGN 30

6

polyamide (co-polyamide and partly aromatic)

We also supply • Polis SRL (Italy): PTFE, virgin and compounds • Kopla (Korea): Long glass fibre polypropylene for cost-effective, high strength applications • Hyosung Chemical (Korea): Poketone™ abrasion-resistant resins with enhanced impact strength, chemical and hydrolysis resistance

Composite Plastics cc Allan Paterson, 082 886 6058 allan@compositeplastics.co.za

ON THE COVER: The Ótima brand encompasses a range of quality houseware products that all households in South Africa can afford. So successful has the brand become that Darsim Tool & Die is now widely referred to simply as Ótima too.

The on-going progress also necessitated successive moves to larger premises. Read more on page 6 & 7.

Craig Paterson, 083 680 9793 craig@compositeplastics.co.za www.compositeplastics.co.za

2020/10/13 10:26

comment 57-NanoLayer™ stretch film line Commissioned by WhatsApp – The new 57-layer Colines cast film line at Transpaco Specialised Films in Elandsfontein was, due to the Covid restrictions on international travel, commissioned via WhatsApp, with videos from the engineers in Italy assisting the local team. The die here, built in the USA, is a $560,000 item that allows – via multipliers – for the production of the multi-layer film structures we now see being achieved. It is the main item in the R40-million project. The multipliers fitted to each of the line’s extruders then multiply the number of layers, usually into 5, 7 or 9 layers, and combinations of these are what give the cast films their additional strength, even when down-gauging – See page 10

Some good news in that

packaging is up, a bit

THIS ISSUE

Challenging market creates tough dynamics

t

HE recovery from Covid-19 continues and it’s anybody’s game at this stage, literally, but we need market conditions to improve just to stay in the game.

4 OCT / NOV 2020

In this regard, there have thankfully been some signs of improvement. Demand for packaging is relatively strong, which is a result of people both eating at home more and receiving home deliveries.

And demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), much of which uses plastic mouldings, is running sky high.

The current pressured conditions are creating interesting market dynamics besides and here we report about one of those, in the cast stretch film market, where – like everywhere else – there is heightened competition between local manufacturers and importers.

Stretch films are used in load stabilisation and, being rarely printed, tend to draw attention ONLY when loads come unstuck. Previously the trend was to use thicker films, but with the advent of co-ex technology it’s become possible to down-gauge and yet achieve stronger films.

As you will also know, brand and logistics suppliers tend to buy on price, or at least what they believe to be a better (lower) price, so the fact that a product is locally made does not automatically conclude a sale. What’s required above all else is that price-toperformance is good and that supply is guaranteed.

Pitted in this contest currently are a local manufacturer, Transpaco Specialised Films, and an importer, Taigan M-Stretch, both based in Johannesburg.

Transpaco group has just made a major investment (capex estimated at R40-million) and in a new Colines (Italy) 57-layer film line with the aim of gaining more market share, and regaining some it had lost.

Taigan represents a cast film manufacturer based in Malaysia which is reputed to be one of the biggest and most efficient suppliers of these films globally – in other words, not an easy one to compete against.

The companies set out their ‘stalls’ in this issue (pages 10-12 and 14-15).

Is the playing field level? Not mentioned in the articles is the factor of BBBEE, which few other manufacturers in the world have to deal with. Although the big majority of employees in the converting sector are black (offering a grand opportunity for any individual to see and learn how a business runs), ownership is the criteria which applies. Local manufacturers may thus face among the most diabolical operating conditions imaginable.

Local manufacturers may face most diabolical operating conditions imaginable

Martin Wells, Publisher

Book early s before Christma shutdown

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news

Ótima brand proves to be

The Darsim Tool & Die/ Ótima plant in Gosforth Park, where the company has consolidated from three premises used previously, has more injection machines than all but a very few convertors in SA

very popular Ótima built on foundation of ‘Big Ó Promise’

6 OCT / NOV 2020

DARSIM Tool & Die, founded in 1992 by Jorge Simoes, began to really surge ahead after its Ótima housewares brand was brought to life by Jorge and his son Dario in 2012, as the need for quality and affordable houseware products emerged in South Africa, and later in southern Africa.

By the time of the Ótima (‘excellent’ in Portuguese) introduction, founder Jorge Simoes had built up exceptional skills in thinwall injection moulding, not least based on his toolmaking prowess, allowing the business to split responsibilities with Jorge running the toolroom and Dario taking care of production. This arrangement has proved very successful for the business, with the high quality moulds built on site enabling it to convincingly expand production.

The Ótima introduction was opportune and timeous for the partners: the goal was to produce a range of quality houseware products that all households in South Africa can afford. So successful has the brand become that Darsim Tool & Die is now widely referred to simply as Ótima too.

The on-going progress also necessitated successive moves to larger premises.

The Ótima products include a wide range of versatile, BPA-free plastic containers and lids that are proudly manufactured in South Africa. All 76 of Ótima’s products are designed with functional and innovative aspects in mind, so they can be used extensively across households, schools and offices.

Built on the foundation of the ‘Big Ó Promise’, Ótima offers superior quality products at an affordable price with an exceptional passion for the brand in all business practices. This gives the consumer a brand package deal. Ótima products are offered in an array of colours to carry the fun and exciting element of the brand through to everyone’s household.

During product development, Ótima is always mindful of the environment and has therefore focused its efforts on creating plasticware that offers a lifetime of use. The Ótima ‘Fishbowl’ container, for example, has a biodegradable straw inserted to eliminate single-use plastic products entering the market from its factory. Once this straw has decomposed, the user can replace it with a metal straw to continue using the product. Ótima also enforces an in-house recycling programme, ensuring that defect and by-products are sent to regrind, in the process reducing production scrap levels to a fractional percent. Ótima currently has distributors across South Africa, including some of the largest retailers in the region. Ótima has grown exponentially in the SADC region, including countries such as Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia and has recently expanded into Mauritius and the Indian Ocean Islands region. Ótima is currently expanding to a global audience and plans to launch another nine products in 2021.

www.otima.co.za

Cibapac bought out of business rescue by original founder Kobus du Plessis

The Ótima range currently consists of 76 products ranging across various household categories such as kitchenware, lunchboxes, laundry and bins The team driving Ótima includes Dario (left) and father Jorge Simoes, here with his daughter Nicole and head of sales Alexa Duarte

CIBAPAC has been bought out of business rescue by the original founder of the business, Kobus du Plessis, who had started what was Atlantic Forming in Cape Town in 1993.

The EPS tray, co-ex pouch, sausage casing and cling film manufacturer had gone through a number of name, ownership and management changes in the ensuing period, becoming Linpac Materials Handling (with international ownership) and then Cibapac, expansion to Gauteng and more recently the sale and closure of the plant in Montague Gardens, Cape Town. The recent purchase, for an undisclosed sum, by the team of father-and-son Kobus and Jaco du Plessis and Philip Brand, is of the Cibapac plant in Alrode, Johannesburg, along with assets, at least part of which included equipment from the Cape plant.

Cibapac had been operating under business rescue from the first quarter of this year. The sale to the Du Plessis team was a ‘vital part of the business rescue plan’ which business rescue practioner Harry Spain proposed to the company’s creditors.

The purchase of Cibapac, which represents one of the few successful business rescue results in recent times, thus marks the return of Du Plessis snr to a leading position in this specific sector which he has occupied very entertainingly since the mid-‘80s.

OCT / NOV 2020 7

news

Massive rPET challenge as Zibo begins recycling of PET trays, punnets Zibo Containers of Cape Town has taken a bold step with the installation of a Vacurema line that will enable it to recycle post-consumer PET material for the production of FDA/EFSA approved foodgrade trays and punnets.

Up to now, PET trays - which although highly popular, constitute only about 10% of SA’s estimated 260 000 tpa demand for the material – have not been recycled in South Africa.

Zibo Containers’ MD Andre Smit firmly believes the trays can be recycled: Zibo has been reprocessing its factory scrap for some time, without problem.

“Many challenges have prevented the recycling of thermoformed PET containers,” said Smit, including excessive labeling of products when packed, incompatible adhesives and laminated containers. Each of these areas of concern is as a consequence being

addressed in the venture, which involves a major Capex outlay by Zibo.

A first in South Africa, the project is as a result taking on added interest as a test to ascertain whether the production of food grade rPET from thermoformed scrap material is viable.

The Vacurema 1716T line, built by Erema in Austria and supplied by Dean Toi of Johannesburg, can process 1400kgs/hr which translates to 33 tons

Polyco committed to proposed new ePR

8 OCT / NOV 2020

Compilation of the three separate EPR schemes THE Polyolefin Responsibility Organisation (Polyco) is committed to growing the collection and recycling of polyolefin plastic packaging in South Africa and to promote the responsible use and reuse of this plastic packaging.

After a special resolution vote at Polyco’s recent AGM about the proposed new extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation, as contemplated under section 18(1) of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008, Polyco has once again proven its dedication to reduce the amount of plastics going to landfill and to end plastic waste in the environment.

Polyco has committed to represent all three

areas of polyolefin packaging: namely rigid polyolefin packaging, flexible polyolefin packaging and multilayer packaging under the proposed new EPR scheme.

Polyco represents the largest polymer group in South Africa, with approximately 196,000 tons of polyolefin packaging being mechanically recycled annually (outputbased). The organisation is funded by its members, who are passionate about the environment and are committed to realizing a clean South Africa. Current members pay a voluntary levy for every ton of virgin polymer purchased from either local or overseas raw material suppliers, and in turn Polyco ensures that its extended producer

responsibilities are performed.

Under the pending EPR legislation, planned for implementation in 2021 by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE), producers, through their producer responsibility organisations, will be mandated to manage their products at end-of-life to grow the downstream reuse and recycling of their materials to achieve agreed legislated targets.

Within this pending legislation, the provision is made for separate EPR schemes for rigid polyolefin packaging, flexible polyolefin packaging and multilayer packaging. As Polyco’s current membership base comprises 95% rigid

Bowler surpasses Nampak in JSE market cap stats

rPET reprocessing challenge – The new Vacurema 1716T line at Zibo Containers in Somerset West is awaiting commissioning and (inset) Zibo CEO André Smit, who has put years of experience into planning of the project

per day and, at an estimated 26 days operation a month, about 870 tons per month.

The line is installed at the Zibo site at Saxenburg Park, Kuils River, but commissioning had been delayed (as at early October) as engineers from Austria were, due to Covid, not been able to sign off.

Additional peripheral equipment is also due to be installed.

The intention from the outset is to run rPET flake, which will most likely result in the line achieving nameplate throughput from the start. Flake is being bought in from recyclers and even imported, which in itself is a challenge as some PET recyclers have exited the thermoformed container sector in recent times. www.zibo.co.za

have had their say. It is a packaging converters and good thing for Polyco and only 5% flexible packaging for the industry – we will converters, the Polyco be stronger together,” said Board raised the option of Polyco’s chairman, Jeremy Polyco representing only Macintosh. rigid polyolefin packaging “We are encouraged producers and submitting a by the amount of industry rigid EPR scheme only. feedback received by certain To decide on the best way Mandy Naude, sectors of the flexible industry forward, a special resolution Polyco’s CEO and large flexible packaging vote was taken at the Polyco producers in South Africa. They have AGM. Paying members cast their vote expressed a willingness to join Polyco as to whether Polyco should represent and be part of the way forward,” added a rigid packaging plan only; rigid and Mandy Naude, Polyco’s CEO. flexible plans; or for the rigid, flexible and “We encourage packaging producers multilayer EPR schemes to fall under from these sectors to join Polyco now, Polyco. The vote resulted in the decision and not to wait. It’s important that you for Polyco to submit EPR schemes that have a voice in the compilation of the will represent all three of the packaging three separate EPR schemes which options.

Polyco will be preparing,” concluded “I am glad that this was a fair Naude. democratic process where the members www.polyco.co.za

INVESTORS on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange were left surprised in mid-September when Bowler Metcalf surpassed the far larger Nampak group in terms of market capitalization rankings. Bowler had a market value of R626-million as opposed to that of R621-million for Nampak on 10 September. Nampak had turnover of R6,6-billion in the interim period to endMarch and Bowler of R559-million, but the latter for the full year to end-June.

To make the contrast – as investors see the share prices of the respective businesses – even more stark, Nampak has total assets estimated to value R21-bn and Bowler of ‘just’ R767-m.

A report in Business Day referred to Bowler’s spartan offices (not referring to the business’s plant in Spartan in Joburg) and observed that Bowler’s operations were ‘genuinely lean and mean’ and also that Nampak’s chairman earned three to five more than the Bowler chair, even though investors have steadily reduced holdings of Nampak’s shares, leading to their value declining.

New PRO for compostable plastics THE Compostable Plastics Council (COPCO) is in the process of being registered as the extended producer responsibility organisation (PRO) responsible for addressing the current recycling and waste management challenges surrounding compostable plastics.

Chairman, John Fox, explains that COPCO is advocating for responsible import, manufacturing, use, management and post-consumer waste management of compostable plastics.

This includes promoting, and monitoring compliance with the legislative regime and ensuring that suitable international standards are met and complied with.

• Email info@copco.co.za for more information OCT / NOV 2020 9

NEWS Transpaco Specialised Films has reached an important milestone as the first stretch film manufacturer in South Africa capable of producing 57- NanoLayer™

machine and hand rolls for the African market.

Fig 1. Steven Madeley unpacking 57 –NanoLayer™ feedblock assembly

Transpaco Specialised Films installs a 57-Nanolayer ™ stretch film line Transpaco Specialised Films (Pty) Ltd, a division of Transpaco Limited (a leading manufacturer and distributor of paper and plastic packaging products in South Africa) has enhanced its production capacity by investing in the latest, cutting edge, ALLROLLEX® cast stretch film line from COLINES® (Italy).

Transpaco Specialised Films established in 2004, is a world-class professionally managed company and a level 2 BBBEE contributor. It is the leading cast stretch film manufacturer in South Africa offering superior quality Jiffy - saveTwrap stretch films available in all sizes and microns for machine and hand rolls.

This highly automated equipment provides maximum flexibility and consistency enabling Transpaco to satisfy any machine roll size required by the South African market.

Transpaco is committed to consistently manufacturing high quality products with reliable batch traceability in compliance with our ISO 22000 accreditation system.

Further, the new extrusion line is equipped with all the latest technological solutions to minimize energy consumption and increase production efficiency.

All products have a Quality Guarantee return policy with local technical and service delivery support.

The Covid19 international travel restrictions did present a challenge for both the Transpaco and Colines teams. With the current technology available this machine was assembled and commissioned at 180 Barbara Road in Johannesburg without the benefit of the supplier technicians on site.

Fig 2. An illustration of the NDC digital profile display of the 57 –NanoLayer™ film

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All new ALLROLLEX® stretch film line, producing an extremely high performance stretch wrap film which has the added benefit of competitive local pricing and formulation.

Fig 3. The 57- NanoLayer stretch film range

The NanoLayer™coextrusion technology continues to add value to the stretch film market on a global scale.

properties as well as measurable direct film performance, such as increased load retention.

This will improve the yield and cost saving without compromising the The new 57- NanoLayer™ offers safety of the primary load which will ultimate containment forces with higher stretch ratios and has superior arrive at the required destination undamaged. puncture and tear resistance specifically for high speed wrapping When wrapping by hand you need a solutions. stretch film that is cost effective, user When compared with the traditional friendly and suited to your pallet coextrusion structures, NanoLayer™ load. Our comprehensive range of films exhibit greater mechanical

film ensure you will be covered no matter the task (or pallet) at hand.

Our qualified technical sales teams can expertly evaluate your current pallet stabilisation needs in order to optimise your specific machine and hand roll requirements.

Fig 4. Jiffy safeTwrap machine roll range now available in boxes

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NANO57 NANO57MACHINE MACHINEROLLS ROLLS

ECONOWRAP HANDROLLS ECONOWRAP HANDROLLS

HIGH PERFORMANCE HIGH PERFORMANCE MACHINE ROLLS MACHINE ROLLS

The The most mostadvanced advancedstretch stretchfilm film available for high available for highspeed speed automated automatedwrapping wrappingsystems systems

Our hand wrapping A sustainable pallet stabilisation Ourmost mostpopular popular hand wrapping A sustainable pallet stabilisation solution available in extended offering consistent high performance solution available in extended offering consistent high performance with excellent stretch memory core only with excellent stretch memory core only

UTILITY WRAP MACHINE ROLLS UTILITY WRAP MACHINE ROLLS

ECONOWRAP MACHINE ROLLS ECONOWRAP MACHINE ROLLS

A value for money wrapping Asolution value for wrapping formoney heavier loads solution for heavier loads

UTILITY WRAP HANDROLLS UTILITY WRAP An extensive rangeHANDROLLS of widths and

micron providing customised An extensive rangea of widths and wrapping solution micron providing a customised wrapping solution

Cost effective pallet stabilisation for Cost effective pallet stabilisation for lighter loads lighter loads

+ THIRTY MACHINE ROLLS THIRTY MACHINE An+environmentally friendlyROLLS roll An environmentally roll developed specifically for friendly customers developed specifically for customers to include 30% post to include 30% post consumer recycled plastic consumer recycled plastic

HIGH PERFORMANCE HANDWRAP HIGH PERFORMANCE HANDWRAP For demanding pallet stabilisation

For demanding stabilisation standards ablepallet to withstand standards able toloads withstand asymmetrical asymmetrical loads

Listed below are Transpaco’s dedicated professional Account and Branch Managers, active in our national distribution network throughout South Africa.

Listed belowand areservice Transpaco’s dedicated professional Account and Branch Managers, active in our national distribution and service network throughout South Africa.

For more information visit www.transpaco.co.za or send your enquiry to sales@transpaco.co.za For more information visit www.transpaco.co.za or send your enquiry to sales@transpaco.co.za As a registered EXPORTER, we have a dedicated team catering for SADC exports.

As a registered EXPORTER, we have a dedicated team catering for SADC exports.

Gauteng & Mpumalanga, Wesley Endley/Johan Marais, (011) 822-6470 KwaZulu Natal, Jana Venter/Vignesh Ar um ugan, (031) 705 -5220 Gauteng & Mpumalanga, Wesley Endley/Johan Marais, (011) 822-6470 Eastern Cape, Pier r e Coetzee, (041) 486-3156 KwaZuluMichael Natal, Jana Venter/Vignesh ArRoo um ugan, (031)292 705 -5220 Limpopo, Veldh uysen/Mar io van yen, (015) -1479 Eastern Cape, Pier r e Coetzee, (041) 486-3156 Western Cape, Vero nica Rees–Gibbs, (021) 982-5624 Limpopo, Michael Veldh uysen/Mar io van Roo(051)432 yen, (015) 292 -1479 Free State & Northern Cape, Fer die K r uger -0079 Western Cape, Vero nica Rees–Gibbs, (021) 982-5624 Free State & Northern Cape, Fer die K r uger (051)432 -0079

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NEWS

Sasol’s

$2-bn JV with LyondellBasell redeems USA venture

Sasol’s petrochemicals plant at Lake Charles in Louisianna, USA

LyondellBasell to operate US Base Chemicals assets SASOL has entered into a joint venture with global polyolefins group LyondellBasell to form a 50/50 joint venture. LyondellBasell will acquire a 50% stake of Sasol’s petrochemicals plant at Lake Charles in Louisianna, USA, in a deal valued at $2-billion. The plant has a 1.5 millionton ethane cracker, 900 000-ton low and linear-low density polyethylene plants and associated infrastructure.

The agreement includes customary rights for each partner regarding the potential future sale of its ownership interest. The JV will operate under the name Louisiana Integrated PolyEthylene JV LLC. “This investment represents a unique opportunity to bring together the best of both companies and create deep, longterm value while immediately realizing the many benefits of new, strategically-located, world-scale assets,” said Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell. “This approach is consistent with our strategy of investing in high quality assets that meet our threshold for value creation, while also maintaining our investment grade rating and commitment to our dividend. The transaction is expected to be accretive to both cash flow and EPS within one year with significant upside as market conditions continue to improve.”

“LyondellBasell is the ideal partner to ensure the success of these world-class assets with its deep expertise in commodity chemicals,” said Fleetwood Grobler, president and CEO of Sasol. “This milestone coincides with our 70-year anniversary and represents a significant step in creating Future Sasol, which will be a more sustainable and resilient business for the long-term.”

Strategic and financial benefits The JV’s newly constructed assets are strategically located on the US Gulf Coast, with access to low-cost feedstock, storage and logistics infrastructure.

LyondellBasell’s investment in the JV allows the company to expand in a core area of its business and leverages the company’s operational and commercial

strengths. Additionally, by investing in these assets, the company will realize immediate returns and eliminate customary construction risks associated with new project execution.

This transaction represents a significant step for Sasol in achieving its financial and strategic objectives by reducing net debt and rapidly shifting the company’s portfolio towards specialty chemicals. Sasol undertook a process to determine the optimal partnership construct for its US Base Chemicals Business. The LyondellBasell proposal offered the best combination of upfront and long-term value, consistent with Sasol’s long-term strategic priorities.

Transaction terms Under the terms of the transaction agreements, each JV partner will provide pro-rata shares of ethane feedstocks and will offtake pro-rata shares of cracker and polyethylene products at cost. LyondellBasell will operate the US Base Chemicals assets on behalf of the JV. Upon close of the transaction, some Sasol US employees will become employees of LyondellBasell.

Sasol will retain full ownership and operational control of its Lake Charles Research and Development complex, Lake Charles East Plant ethane cracker and US Performance Chemicals Business assets in Lake Charles, which produce Ziegler alcohols and alumina, ethoxylates, Guerbet alcohols, paraffins, comonomers, linear alkyl benzene, ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol. The US Performance Chemicals Business is a key part of Future Sasol, consistent with the strategy to increase focus on specialty chemicals where Sasol enjoys differentiated capabilities and strong market positions. Sasol will also retain access to competitively priced onsite ethylene to ensure value chain integration.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and approval by Sasol shareholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2020.

OCT / NOV 2020

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MORE

WITH LESS SAFER, THINNER, TOUGHER & ENVIRO FRIENDLY

A partnership with Taigan M-STRETCH is an investment in the future. Taigan believes in providing a stretch film packaging solution that adds sustainable value. Our t.nano makes a difference by adding load benefits while saving costs.

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The Taigan group provides innovative product solutions through the convergence of experience knowledge and innovation.

Taigan M-stretch partnered with a worldleading plastic packaging manufacturer in Asia Pacific that has a proud history of more than 70 years and has been a trusted supplier since 2005.

Our team has established itself as a trusted partner bringing quality plastic packaging and value-added services to our customers. Through our manufacturing partners we continuously employ industrial best practices and strict quality control processes to guarantee consistency and quality.

Our product is manufactured in fully accredited facilities with ISO 9002, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 certifications.

Our values are reliability, quality and service, a personal and direct relationship is a non-negotiable and our business is focused on:

Thinking green. Our approach to customer partnerships is to provide a sustainable supply chain solution.

Our t.nano’s unique formula is not only enviro friendly, but benefits the whole supply chain by saving on indirect resources. By using t.nano our customers use less material resulting in less waste to landfill at the product’s end of life, but it is also 100% recyclable.

Delivering more with less. We do not just sell stretch film, we add value by providing a cost effective packaging solution. We work with customers, do scope analysis and on-site training to find and implement the best solution for their specific needs. By using our product customers will increase load while using less film, saving them substantial costs per pallet.

12 kg at R14

10 kg at R8

On average using t.nano equates to a MASS:COST reduction of at least 25% CONTINUOUS INNOVATION

PRODUCT TRAINING

SUSTAINABLE THINKING

VALUE FOCUS

Leading the future. Taigan is future focused, technology based and have been leading the market with innovation for 15 years. Our t.nano stretch film has a 33 and 55 layer option, making it thinner and tougher ensuring load integrity. We use cast line nanotechnology which produces super “thin” gauge film, achieving better load safety and higher yields for our customers.

Over and over the business case has proven that our product and our approach delivers on the three most critical decision factors – increasing efficiencies, saving money and being environmentally responsible.

CREATING MORE WITH LESS

www.taigan.co.za | +27 11 974 1811 | +27 21 948 8215

PH40030.TAIGAN - T• Nano - SA Polymer - 210x275.v5.indd 2

2020/10/13 09:50

NEWS

IN BRIEF

Kamboo supplies bagmakers from XL of India KAMBOO Marketing has been appointed as the Southern African representative for XL Plastics of India, a manufacturer of bag and pouch making machinery.

Founded in 1985, XL has steadily grown to become a leading name in the field of plastics printing and converting machinery and over the years has completed more than 4500 installations in 25 countries.

It’s facility in Vadodora, Gujarat, boasts a dedicated team of 100 skilled and qualified employees, including engineers, specialists and technicians. All critical machine components are manufactured and assembled in-house.

“There is already quite an installed base of XL machines in SA,” said Hannes Kritzinger of Kamboo.

• The development rounds off Kamboo’s range of pre and postprint equipment supply. Kamboo has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. www.xlplastics.com www.kamboo.co.za

Polyoak innovates through pandemic COVID-19 has presented some unexpected opportunities

South African crowned BRICS young innovator

POLYOAK Packaging embraced the important role it plays in ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential packaging for food, beverages and products throughout the COVID lockdown during which it took proactive steps early on to ensure the safety of its people and bolster its operations.

Before the official lockdown commenced, the country-wide group had already placed preventative measures and internal communications in place with hand washing stations, spatial distancing and wearing of masks. Employees were provided with personal hand sanitisers and taxi fares were subsidised to enable spatial distancing whilst commuting from home to workplace. Special COVID-19 educational material was developed in English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu and Sesotho to enable employees to share safety guidelines within their communities.

“COVID has changed the way we work,” said Polyoak group managing director, Jeremy Mackintosh.

“Polyoak embraces this chance for continued improvement. Our business is robust, and we have succeeded through some tough conditions. We salute our customers and suppliers who continue to support us through the lockdown, as well as our dedicated employees working under difficult conditions to ensure that we don’t let our customers and the nation down.

“The remarkable thing about the lockdown for Polyoak has been the response of our staff in upholding safety protocols, but also in the way they have donated portions of their personal earnings to support those in need,” added Mackintosh.

Polyoak continues to operate under strict safety protocols as it emerges from a period of significant demand for drums and bottles used for sanitisers, cleaning detergents and chemicals, as the packaging industry starts to normalise.

SOUTH African innovator Gift Lubele has scooped the top prize at this year’s BRICS Young Innovator Prize competition, walking away with $25 000 in prize money, for his waste management digital platform, Kudoti. Kudoti, which is Zulu for ‘in the trash’, aims to help waste management and recycling companies optimise their operations through the use of data collection tools.

Lubele says that waste companies of all sizes can improve their operations by using the cloudbased platform, which digitises and automates waste management operations from start to finish through SMS interactions and Webbased interfaces. One of Kudoti’s clients is Distell.

PET medical spacer COVID-19 has presented some unexpected opportunities.

“We relished the chance to innovate outside of our usual field of expertise,” said Polyoak technical director, Karl Lambrecht. “We partnered with the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town to bridge the gap between expensive commercial asthma spacers and the need in low-income communities by creating a custom blow-mould base with an indentation in the shape of an asthma pump nozzle.”

During production, when the bottle is blown and the plastic is still soft, air is blasted into the bottle base which creates the inhaler size entrance. After that, the only small manual task is to slice off the end of the indentation, leaving a perfect-fit attachment hole for the inhaler.

Now known as the ‘PET medical spacer,’ the device is recognised by the Western Cape Government’s Social Development Department and has also been taken on by major government hospitals and clinics in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KZN. The plus is that the container is fully recyclable.

The design has also been recognised as a Gold Pack Finalist, as an example of innovative thinking to help meet the demand for practical and cost-effective health care solutions for struggling communities.

Polyoak also recently launched a new range of 28mm neck bell bottles with trigger sprays to facilitate the dispersion of liquids such as cleaning detergents,

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The  1200mm  solid  wall  pipe  extrusion  line  from  Zhangjiagang  City  Yili  Machinery  of  China  will  be  used  by  Inkulu  to  produce  HDPE  pipe  from  500  to  1  200mm

By creating a custom blow mould base with an indentation in the shape of an asthma pump nozzle, it was able to make asthma pump spacers more readily available in in low-income communities. Since Covid-19 primarily attacks the lungs, this solution is an accessible alternative to expensive commercial asthma pumps

Polyoak also introduced a new range of sanitisers and pesticides. The As an urgent intervention, Polyoak 28mm neck Bell Bottles with trigger sprays to donated nearly one million rand to the recyclable bottles are embossed on facilitate the dispersion of sanitising liquids Waste Pickers organisation to provide the side with measurement markings electronic food vouchers for around to assist with mixing concentrates to extremely important at this difďŹ cult 5 000 registered collectors across the required ratio and can be screen Key to the of to the African office istime. thatThis thispartnership is not another link in has helped to the KZNregistration and Free State help feed their printed for impactful branding or usage supply chain but has been put in place to facilitate better service to customers in feed nearly 40,000 needy residents families. instructions.

Africa, quicker turnaround time for spares. from the Shivabazali informal The lockdown also destroyed Supporting recycling and settlement near Howick,� said Derek income earning opportunities for communities through COVID Ridgard, Polyoak regional director for those living hand-to-mouth on what As manufacturers of fully recyclable KZN. they earn each day as car guards and packaging that is widely recycled, Polyoak and its people have informal traders. To assist in KZN, Polyoak is extremely concerned about donated 6 million rand to community Polyoak partnered with the Umgeni the almost 90,000 informal waste initiatives to provide much-needed Relief Network to help distribute reclaimers who were unable to earn support across South Africa through 10 000 food parcels consisting of a living during the lockdown and who the Solidarity Fund, Waste Pickers and maize, samp, beans, toilet paper, are still struggling as recycling is slow Gift of the Givers, with some regional sugar, salt and cooking oil. to get going again. projects too. “Local community support is OCT / NOV 2020

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2020/10/13 12:58

NEWS

Composites cluster Need and business case for growth of composites industry in SA remain

Andy Radford is a passionate champion for the country’s composites sector and has been central in promoting the benefits of composites in manufacturing to South Africa’s economy.

He says that he will remain connected to the sector nationally and globally

However, he was adamant that AFTER four years of operation, the the need and business case for the Mandela Bay Composites Cluster has development of composites and the had to close due to funding difficulties. growth of the industry, and The Cluster was initially South Africa’s economy established by funding Radford through it, remain. from the DTI as part of will continue He maintains the national Cluster that the general Development to host the acceptance of Programme and African Advanced composites as was co-funded by Manufacturing and ‘the material of industry partners.

Composites Show which the future’ is now “As a result of will include, as in the coming of age in funding shortfalls, South Africa. that are expected past, seminars and Radford is to persist, and the Innovation a passionate which preclude the Awards. champion for the Cluster from achieving country’s composites its mandate, the Board at a sector and has been central in meeting on 12 August, has decided promoting the benefits of composites to wind down the cluster,” said Cluster in manufacturing to South Africa’s MD, Andy Radford.

Aerontec expands foam processing capabilities AERONTEC, supplier and distributor of composite materials and related technologies, will be expanding their structural foam processing capability with the acquisition of a new, state-of-the-art, foam cutting saw.

The new machine will be installed in November and joins the foam driller and the existing foam saw, which has seen constant and ever-increasing use for the past decade.

The new saw will slice foam to thickness faster and with greater accuracy than Aerontec has been able to do before. The drilling machine allows the foam sheets to be drilled with 2mm diameter holes on 20mm or 40mm centres.

In composite processing, such as vacuum bagging and resin infusion, the perforations are vital to allow resin and air bleed through the core.

“We estimate that we’ve drilled far in excess of 70 million holes in foam since the drill was commissioned in late 2018. Apart from the unique capability of slicing foam to our customers’ requirements, the foam can be supplied as plain sheet without perorations, PH40 for vacuum bagging and PH20 for one shot skin/core/skin infusion,” says Aerontec MD, Graham Blyth. www.aerontec.co.za 18

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winding down economy. He says that he will remain connected to the sector nationally and globally.

Radford is currently working with the Coega Development Corporation to develop a natural fibre hub for the Eastern Cape.

Having noted that the Composites Cluster highlighted the gaps in education and skills development, he is currently continuing his work in the composites space but is also working on online skills development.

Working with Inkanyezi, Radford will continue to host the African Advanced Manufacturing and Composites Show which will include, as in the past, seminars and the Innovation Awards.

The cluster was started in 2016 from foundational work by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and critical input from Delft University of

Technology advanced manufacturing hub head, Dr Kjelt van Rijswijk. The cluster represented and advanced the interests of and commercial opportunities in the composites sector in South Africa. It proved a very useful resource to industry, new entrants, innovators and researchers as it collectively sought to do business with improved cost, quality and delivery, according to global best practice.

Particular benefits, and clusteroriented learning accrued to members of the cluster.

The cluster coordinated two trips to the JEC World expo in Paris and a fact finding tour to the UK’s Sheffield, Coventry and Bristol composites and technology innovation centres.

During its years of operation, the Composites Cluster also hosted two very successful Advanced

Manufacturing and Composites Shows in Port Elizabeth, aiming to support the development and use of composites as part of advanced manufacturing in South Africa.

The show proved to be an important trade and networking platform for roleplayers in the 4IR realm, including composites, automation, IOT, VR/AR, AI, Computing, 3D printing, lasers and robotics. The highly prestigious National Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Awards, backed by the DTI, was a key element of the initiative, which also included an exhibition, seminars, factory tours and stadium drone racing.

• Going forward Andy can be contacted at email: andy@thecompositesgroup.co.za

OCT / NOV 2020

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Insimbi Plastics is an innovative company specializing in plastic molding process that involves the blow molding and Roto molding of high quality and durable plastic products. Our products are UN compliant and are manufactured using food grade material.

NEWS-COMPOSITES CLUSTER Classifieds Oct/Nov'2020.indd 96.indd 19

2020/10/13 14:38 13:00 2020/10/07

NEWS

Visiting the site in Coega where the Utshongo PET plant is being developed were KS Narayan of Chemtex USA (technology supplier to the project) along with Luzuko Mbidlana (ALO Polymers), Mphumezi Penny (Utshongo Polytech) and Mukesh Akoobhai (ALO Polymers)

Plans for Utshongo PET plant progress

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OCT / NOV 2020

EIA currently underway

PLANS for the construction of a PET plant at the Coega IDZ near Port Elizabeth by Utshongo Polytech have progressed, even during the lockdown, and the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) study now being conducted is the next step for the ambitious, estimated R1,3-billion project.

The Utshongo project was introduced to the local market in November 2019.

“The project is progressing well, although there won’t be much feedback at this stage until the EIA is concluded,” said Mphumezi Penny of Utshongo Polytech.

“The nature of PET production (condensation reaction) has no negative impact to the environment and, as you may know, there is no PET plant that’s ever been stopped because of environmental issues. We have had to undertake the EIA process purely because the regulations require that the use of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) raw material be studied to satisfy that there are no negative impacts to the environment.

“By law, construction can only take place once the EIA is concluded and this will still be in 2021,” added Penny.

“Parallel to the EIA process, there is a lot of engineering design that’s taking place. The good news is that South Africa has enough engineering capability and, as a result, most engineering services will be sourced locally – except for the critical aspects of the plant, mainly the reactors and some specialised polymer melt pumps.”

Siting the plant at the Coega IDZ (Industrial Development Zone) is seen as an advantage as incoming materials (MEG and purified terephthalic acid) will be transported by a 3km pipeline from the deep-water port.

NEWS-UTSHONGO-.indd 20

The process of selecting local service providers is expected to begin in December.

“The design of our plant has taken into consideration the importance of protecting the environment, and for this reason it will be the most energy-efficient plant. It will have minimal water effluent as the bulk of the process water will be recycled for in-house use,” said Penny.

Tech provider Chemtex Global Corporation (USA), nominated as the technology provider, has been contracted to supply a turnkey plant to produce 240,000 tpa of PET. The plant will produce all grades of PET required by the sub-Saharan market, including CSD grade; fast-reheat grade, that is now widely used in SA; low IV grade for the still water bottling industry; bio-PET grade using bio-MEG (modified ethylene glycol) originated from renewable plant sources.

The latter grade of PET is a way of reducing the carbon footprint, said Penny.

“Our plant will be equipped with the state-of-the-art technology that will make it possible for us do polymer chemical recycling, a first in Africa. This reveals how serious we are about protecting and preserving the environment.

“In terms of our energy mix, Port Elizabeth is known to have a network of wind energy farms. We are exploring the possibility of making use of this clean energy in our mix, together with solar.

“From a marketing point of view, we are excited that there are firm offtakes for the EU and US markets.

Unfortunately, the international travel ban has brought our Africa-wide marketing campaigns to a halt. We expect this to begin in quarter one 2021,” added Penny.

2020/10/13 13:02

Book e tenanc n i a m r you ment require fore , be EARLY ber Decem n w shut do

DEAN TOI Classifieds Oct/Nov'2020.indd 96

Den Toiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core business is the manufacture and refurbishment of wearing parts for plastics conversion machinery and technical assistance.

We have diversiďŹ ed to offer a fully comprehensive range of plant, machinery and associated equipment for the reduction and recycling of plastic waste as well as traditional extrusion machinery.

PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 27 Mopedi Road Sebenza Edenvale Johannesburg Republic of South Africa E-mail: candice@deantoi.co.za

POSTAL ADDRESS: P.O Box 8190 Edenglen 1613 Johannesburg Republic of South Africa Tel: (011) 452-3724 Fax: (011) 452-4722

www.deantoi.co.za

2020/10/09 11:22

NEWS

Environment minister issues

new plastic bag directives Bid to address plastic bag litter problem MOVES to phase out certain types of plastic bags are • Plastic carrier bags and plastic flat bags must be made underway after SA Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy, from a minimum of 75% post-consumer recyclate by gazetted draft amendments to the National Environmental 1 January 2025 Management Act. • Plastic carrier bags and plastic flat bags Among the most important changes is the ban must be made from a minimum of 100% In on the manufacture, trade, and distribution of post-consumer recyclate by 1 January terms of the domestically produced and imported plastic 2027. carrier bags and plastic flat bags that do directive, plastic Creecy said the amendments not conform to specifications for use in flowed from the review of all policies carrier bags and South Africa. plastic flat bags must be affecting plastic bags in the country, The Department of Environment, Forestry, and whether the intended objectives and Fisheries said the emphasis is on ‘postmade from 100% postof addressing the plastic bag litter consumer recyclate’ material generated by consumer recyclate problem and the promotion of the rehouseholds and other end users. use and recycling of plastic carrier bags from January In terms of the directive, which was have been achieved. published on 7 August, plastic carrier bags and 2027 Anyone found to be contravening these plastic flat bags must be made from a minimum of new directives shall be guilty of an offence and 50% post-consumer recyclate from 1 January 2023. liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding R5 million or In this instance, ‘post-consumer recyclate’ is defined as imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years. material generated by households or by commercial, industrial In the case of a second or subsequent conviction, liable and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the for a fine not exceeding R10 million or imprisonment for a product which can no longer be used for its intended purpose. period not exceeding 10 years, and in both instances, to The proposed amendment outlines the following ‘phaseboth a fine and imprisonment. out’ schedule: To date, 35 countries across Africa have either passed a • Plastic carrier bags and plastic flat bags must be made law banning plastics and implemented it or have passed a from a minimum of 50% post-consumer recyclate by 1 January 2023 law with the intention of implementation.

Banbury introduces Purga-UltraPlast At the forefront of purging methods BANBURY Colour & Dosing Solutions have introduced a new product that promises to simplify and speed up the purging process.

Purga–UltraPlast® is not abrasive, works with a chemical reaction, and due to its composition, it eliminates colour, incrustations, black spots and oxidation.

Rory Webber, business development manager at Banbury, says the formula consists of various additives, such as expanding agents and binding agents that make it more efficient.

“The Purga-UltraPlast additive is ready to use and saves time.

There is no need for a pre-mix or any other preparation. Just 22

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2020/10/13 13:03

SA Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy

Creecy noted the intention to amend the regulations was published in Government Gazette 43601 (Notice No 869) on 7 August and emanates from the review of all policies affecting plastic bags in the country.

“Plastic waste has not only become a challenge in diverting it from going to landfill sites, but has grown to be one of the most problematic waste streams that continues to harm the environment,” said Creecy.

The review included determining the improvements required for a possible amendment to the memorandum of understanding between government, business, and labour.

It assessed whether the intended objectives of addressing the plastic bag litter problem and the promotion of the reuse and recycling of plastic carrier bags have been achieved and if any improvements are needed.

Among the areas aimed at raising awareness and strengthening the compact between government, business and labour was the hosting of the Plastic Colloquium by Creecy in November 2019.

As a result, the department was developing a plastics master plan with targets, timeframes, actions and specific goals to ensure that actions discussed at the colloquium are implemented.

NEWS-BANBURY-.indd 23

HISION MACHINE TOOLS HISION MACHINE TOOLS

HISION MACHINE TOOLS HISION MACHINE The high-speed series adopt Haitian Seiko’sTOOLS patented servo

The high-speed serieshigh adopt Haitian Seiko’sergonomics, patented servo technology to integrate dynamic response, technology to integrate high dynamic response, ergonomics, energy conservation and environmental protection with perThe high-speed Seiko’s patented servo The high-speedseries seriesadopt adopt Haitian Haitian Seiko’s patented servo fect high-speed cuttingand experience.

Hision isprotection widely usedwith in perenergy conservation environmental technology to integrate high dynamic response, ergonomics, technology to integrate high dynamic response, ergonomics, high-end manufacturing industries suchHision as mold, aerofect high-speed cutting experience. is widely used energy conservation protectionwith with per- in energy conservationand and environmental environmental protection perspace, rail, auto and muchindustries more high-end manufacturing such as mold, aerofect high-speedcutting cutting experience. experience. Hision in in fect high-speed Hisionisiswidely widelyused used space, rail, auto and much more such high-end manufacturing industries high-end manufacturing industries suchas asmold, mold,aeroaerospace, rail,auto autoand andmuch much more more space, rail,

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HILECTRO ELECTRIC PALLET TRUCK

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leave the previous production, place the recommended amount of Purge-UltraPlast in the machine’s hopper, purge and switch directly to the next production,” he explains.

“Considering the total cost of machine downtime, energy and material savings, as well as the reduction of scrap, defects and recycling costs, and the time saved for the manufacture of good quality salable products, Purga-UltraPlast is at the forefront and ahead of any other conventional purging method,” Rory adds.

• For more information or to run a trial contact Banbury Colour & Dosing Solutions at email: info@banbury.co.za or visit

Haitian Drive Systems ,Hilectro specializes in the production of electric forklifts, storage cars, AGV cars and other energy-saving vehicles. Adhering to the concept of “high-quality, highefficiency and energy-saving”, Hilectro is committed to providing high-quality products for customers all over the world

Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Web : www.cabletech.co.za

2020/10/13 13:07

NEWS

Advance 150+ from Safripol sets new level for clarity, and gloss ‘Tuneable aesthetics’ is new option for bottle makers SAFRIPOL’S new Advance 150® PLUS polypropylene sets a new standard for transparency and gloss for blow moulded containers.

Advance 150 PLUS is a clarified random co-polymer with an MFR (melt flow rate) of 2,8. The grade is formulated, at the Safripol plant in Sasolburg, with a new-generation Ultraclear clarifying agent from Milliken.

Safripol has been making steady process with the clarification of its PP grades and Advance 150 PLUS caps the development process to date, offering a number of advantages for both extrusion blow moulded and injection-stretch blow moulded PP containers. ISBM of polypropylene is becoming increasingly popular.

Advantages include substantially better ‘bottle aesthetics,’ a Safripol spokesperson

said, as well as a low yellowness index. Use of the new clarifying agent in the formulation of Advance 150 also allows for a wider processing window, whereas convertors before believed that failure to adhere very specifically to set processing conditions could result in compromised clarity. Optical clarity remains one of the most important criteria for blow moulded containers, helping to draw attention for beverage brands on supermarket shelves and, ultimately, consumer satisfaction.

“The new grade allows us to offer what we call ‘tunable aesthetics’,” said the Safripol spokesperson.

I can see clearly now … Peta-Ann Lord of Safripol with containers produced with the polyolefin manufacturer’s Advance 150+ PP

CCBSA continues rollout of new 2L returnable Returnable PET is part of The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste vision FOLLOWING successful launches in Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Gauteng, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) continues the roll-out of its 2L returnable Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle into more regions across South Africa. The extension includes North West, Heidelberg, the southern parts of Mpumalanga, the East Rand and sections of Gauteng (Soweto, Katlehong, Diepsloot, Tembisa, Kagiso and Carltonville, amongst others).

Returnable PET is part of The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste vision, which focuses on the entire packaging value chain from how bottles and cans are designed and made to how they’re collected, recycled and reused later. CCBSA is offering more consumers across South Africa value-for-money, while playing its part in protecting the environment.

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During September, National Clean-up and Recycle Month in South Africa, CCBSA rolled out numerous community clean-ups and litter collection campaigns around the country to raise awareness and reduce plastic pollution.

“As a user of packaging we have a responsibility to not only recycle packaging through our various initiatives, but also to continue to invest in infrastructure that can help us develop innovative packaging to achieve our World Without Waste ambitions,” says CCBSA Managing Director, Velaphi Ratshefola.

“By offering a returnable PET bottle, we are creating greater value for money, as well as an incentive for consumers to collect packaging, rather than disposing of it into the environment.”

The returnable bottles are made of PET plastic and feature a paper label with ‘RETURNABLE’ appearing on a green or yellow strip on the front of the bottle. The recommended retail price for the 2L Coca-Cola Original Taste – Less Sugar beverage is R15, which excludes a R9 deposit. Other brands, like Coca-Cola No Sugar, Sprite and Fanta, are also be available in the new 2L returnable PET plastic bottle at a

OCT / NOV 2020

2020/10/13 13:43

Haitian Drive Systems ,Hilectro specializes in the production of electric forklifts, storage cars, AGV cars and other energy-saving vehicles. Adhering to the concept of “high-quality, highefficiency and energy-saving”, Hilectro is committed to providing high-quality products for customers all over the world

Better bottling aesthetics – PP bottles produced with Advance 150+ PP achieve clarity levels up till now associated mainly with PET

HILECTRO ELECTRIC PALLET TRUCK Shini group is able to help you on whole plant planning: conveying, drying, dosing Shini groupisisable able to help youwhole on whole Shini group help you Shini group iscontrol abletoto help youon on whole temperature and system cooling, plant planning: conveying, drying, dosing plant planning: conveying, dosing automation recyclingdrying, for injection plant planning:and conveying, drying, dosing temperature control and system temperature control and system cooling, application or extrusion application .cooling, temperature control and system cooling,

PP containers with the Ultraclear additive have high clarity, and smoother production is achieved too

automation and recycling for injection automation and recycling injection automation and recycling forfor injection application or extrusion application . application orextrusion extrusion application . application or application.

PET plastic bottles

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25

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HILECTRO ELECTRIC FORKLIFT

OCT / NOV 2020

recommended retail price of R12 excluding the R9 deposit.

Once a bottle is returned to CCBSA, it will go on a looped journey to be cleaned to Coca-Cola’s stringent measures and requirements, then refilled and distributed back to retail outlets. When the bottle reaches the end of its lifecycles, after being returned to CCBSA, it will be recycled and turned into another PET plastic bottle.

“This initiative strengthens our PET collection efforts through our various partnerships such as our membership in the PET Recycling Company (PETCO) and several buy-back centres we have established in communities around the country,” adds Ratshefola. “Last year, 62% of PET bottles were collected for recycling. Through this new returnable PET packaging and other innovations, we are set to continue improving our collection and recycling rates, until we reach our ambitious targets.”

During 2019 more than 92 000 tons of post-consumer PET bottles were collected through the PET Recycling Company (PETCO). These bottles were diverted from landfills in South Africa, saving 612,000m² of landfill space.

Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Web : www.cabletech.co.za

2020/10/13 13:04 13:18 2020/09/28

Kelvin Mills has returned to Serioplast in Johannesburg

Lourens Kleynhans, a polymer scientist, joined Sandplast as production manager

On the move

Kelvin Mills has returned to Serioplast in Johannesburg. He was at the Italianowned blow moulding business in Boksburg from 2014-2016 and then spent the four years since at Union Swiss, also an integrated packaging manufacturer.

Kelvin was previously involved in machine sales where he developed prowess in the blow moulding area. As Serioplast develops and builds its own blow moulding machines, it appears he likes the technology.

Motheo Moatshe has been appointed national sales manager at Omya-Idwala, based at Honeydew. Omya-Idwala SA is a leading supplier of calcium carbonate, one of the most popular fillers used in a wide range of plastic products, including film, pipe/profile, cable and a host of other applications. CaCO2 is also used in the construction, agriculture and other sectors. The group supplies a range of other fillers besides.

Lourens Kleynhans, a polymer scientist, joined Sandplast on 1 September as production manager. His responsibilities include receiving and analysing sales demands versus stock levels in the factory, and daily planning to optimise machine productivity; minimise downtime of machines; reduce wastage; and ensure that all production is in line with the companies’ FDA and ISO 9001:2015 guidelines Before joining Sandplast, Lourens worked at Graytec (Pty) Ltd as the new product development chemist. He also took on the role of factory manager parttime in 2020 during the lockdown period.

Graytec specialize in ingredients for the dairy industry in South Africa (such as calcium chloride solution, phosphates, nitrates, cheese cloth, cheese waxes, natural colourants etc).

Lourens brings extensive ISO experience to his new position, having worked in the food industry where yearly 26

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Andrew Parsons of Aerontec will Chris Scarrott has joined Cape Town-based composites supplier, relocate to the UK early in 2021 where he will establish an Aerontec office Aerontec, as general manager

audits are exceptionally important.

Having studied extensively in polymer science, he also brings a sound understanding of plastics in general. He studied polymer science at university and achieved a BSc Chemistry and Polymer Science (2013-2016), BSc (Hons) Polymer Science (2017) and MSc Polymer Science (2018) with a thesis on various grades of isotactic polypropylene from Sasol.

Chris Scarrott has joined Cape Townbased composites supplier, Aerontec, as general manager. He will assist with all aspects of administration as well as promote Aerontec’s products and services to existing and potential clients. Chris will also help to develop the business into new markets and increase Aerontec’s product range. Before joining Aerontec, he worked with Robertson and Caine, South Africa’s largest boat builder manufacturing for export, for 10 years, where he was composites production manager and then R&D composites manager.

With over 30 years’ experience in the composites industry, Chris enjoys the research and development of new technologies, from material design through to manufacturing systems and finished components. His career has seen him responsible for automated composite production for the auto industry; importation construction and the sale of automated composite equipment and tooling systems from the UK to Southern Africa; the design, development and building of sports cars for the USA market, and the production of boats for Ribeye UK and South Africa.

Over the past five years, Chris has also been involved in the training of more than 200 staff members while converting seven different production lines from traditional hand laminating systems to world-class resin infusion and RTM-L production methodology.

Andrew Parsons of Aerontec will be relocating to the United Kingdom during the first quarter of 2021, where he will

establish an Aerontec office. Andrew will continue with much of his current day-to-day operational involvement with Aerontec, working from the now tried and tested remote office. In collaboration with Aerontec’s multinational partner, SKY Composites AG, the UK office will allow Aerontec faster access to the latest products in the composite industry, improving synergies with its European suppliers and expanding the distribution of stitched carbon, PVC cores and processing consumables into new markets.

Farewells

Spike Taylor, MD of Multotec Rubber in Johannesburg, is calling it a day at the end of October. At one point Multo was considering posting Spike to Vietnam to open a plant there but that was scuppered by Covid-19. Originally from Zimbabwe, Spike is a qualified metallurgist (Wits) who first worked in the diamond mining area. He joined Multotec in 1985 and was appointed MD in 2009. One of the successes of his career was his involvement in the drawing up of the MerSETA programme for rubber technologists, which allowed for accredited training and advancement of skills in the field of rubber technology and had a positive impact on the lives of those who participated.

Spike is an honorary game ranger and plans to spend more time working with wildlife, which is a positive gesture as that is all done on a voluntary basis.

It’s also good bye to Harry Crocker of MNM Injection Moulding of East London who is calling it a day. MNM operated a small fleet of injection moulding machines, mainly for the production of small components, along with some assembly.

Harry had an unusual start to his career in the industry in that he entered from the banking sector, which is probably not the ideal launch pad, when he was appointed GM of an automotive component manufacturing operation in

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PEOPLE Port Elizabeth run by Sagercy.

He left in 2006 when the owners sold to a corporate. But the bug had bitten and Harry returned to East London and started MNM the following year. The past decade has been both interesting and challenging, but MNM perservered and, kudos to the man, it attracted buyers at the point it most needed to, when Harry was due to bid farewell.

Int’l appointments

INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has appointed Steve Harrington as its new CEO. Steve previously headed up INEOS Styrolution’s Global Styrene Monomer and Asia-Pacific business units.

He has a 30-year career in the chemical industry, the last 19 years working for INEOS in commercial and senior management roles. He also has prior experience with ICI and

Unilever, and holds a degree in chemistry from Hull University in England.

Kevin McQuade, who has led the company as CEO since 2015, has been appointed as chairman of INEOS Styrolution.

Jonas Wästberg has been appointed as the new CEO of the Rapid Granulator Group, effective 1 September. Jonas will continue to develop Rapid’s global operations and growth.

Jonas holds a Master of Business Administration from Lund and Vienna, and has a background in developing industrial companies.

“I look forward to my assignment at Rapid Granulator,” says Jonas. “It’s an exciting company with a high level of innovation and cutting-edge technology that has a fantastic potential to help the plastics industry facing new challenges.”

Haitian Drive Systems ,Hilectro specializes in the production of electric forklifts, storage cars, AGV cars and other energy-saving vehicles. Adhering Haitian Drive Hilectro highto the concept ofSystems, “high-quality, specializes in the production of electric efficiency and energy-saving”, Hilectro forklifts, storage cars, AGV cars and other energy-saving vehicles.high-quality Adhering is committed to providing to the concept of “high-quality, highproducts for customers all over the efficiency and energy-saving”, Hilectro is committed toworld providing high-quality

Young postdoc awarded prestigious EU fellowship A postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at Stellenbosch University (SU), Dr Upenyu Muza, has received the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action individual fellowship to work at the Leibniz-Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden, Germany. Awarded by the European Commission, the fellowship is one of the most prestigious research grants in Europe for young and upcoming researchers from all over the world.

Dr Muza, originally from Zimbabwe, completed his PhD in December 2019 under the supervision of Prof Harald Pasch, distinguished professor at SU and SASOL Research Chair in Analytical Polymer Science. He says working with Prof Pasch broadened his scope of experience: “Prof Pasch works on world-class projects, and he was a phenomenal person to work for,” he adds. For his PhD, he developed a novel and advanced multidimensional analytical technique that can be used to harvest a wealth of information on the microstructure of complex polymers. During 2019 he was also one of five postgraduate students in South Africa to receive the SASOL postgraduate medal of the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) for innovative, independent and enterprising research. For the immediate future, he plans to work on the design, hybridisation and characterisation of biomedicinal molecules for potential application in targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy.

As soon as the travel restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted, he will join Prof Albena Lederer’s research group at the Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden.

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products for customers all over the world

HILECTRO ELECTRIC PALLET TRUCK HILECTRO ELECTRIC HILECTRO ELECTRIC PALLET TRUCK

PALLET TRUCK

HILECTRO ELECTRIC HILECTRO HILECTRO FORKLIFT

ELECTRIC ELECTRIC FORKLIFT FORKLIFT

Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Office:Web +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za : www.cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Web : www.cabletech.co.za

Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Web : www.cabletech.co.za

2020/10/13 13:21

NEWS

Clean-Up and Recycle Eco-heroes asked to wear masks and make a difference where they were THE 2020 Clean-Up & Recycle SA week, from 14-19 September, culminated in National Recycling Day on Friday, 18 September and South Africa’s 24th year of participating in the annual International Coastal Clean-Up Day which took place on Saturday, 19 September.

“With an emphasis on COVIDsafe clean-ups this year, we asked coordinators to keep the numbers of volunteers to below 50. We spread the message that South Africans should be eco-warriors in their own neighbourhoods instead, by

picking up any litter they saw strewn in streets or at inland water sources such as rivers, streams or canals. Despite the lower than usual turn-out, it was encouraging to see volunteers from all walks of life, of different ages and stages showing up at the various cleanups to help remove litter from our country’s beaches, rivers, canals and other open areas,” reports John Kieser, sustainability manager at Plastics|SA and national coordinator of the ICC. According to John, strict hygiene protocols were in place at all the

Coca-Cola gets cleaning!

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COCA-Cola’s local bottling partners organised a series of beach clean-ups along South Africa’s coastline. The clean-ups attracted more than 269 volunteers who collected and filled 1 184 bags of waste. The clean-ups are part of The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste commitment. CCBSA also sponsored and officially handed over a special Unimog off-road vehicle equipped to pull a beach rake to clear litter from beaches. Designed to easily manoeuvre in sand, the Unimog will be operated by local NGO, Clean Surf. In the Western Cape, a series of cleanups organised by Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages (CCPB) stretched as far as Hermanus and up to Saldanha Bay, including community clean-ups in various waste hotspots.

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SA week a huge success

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• There were 72 audited clean-ups covering a total area of 36km. During these clean-ups, volunteers were requested to count each item they collected in order to complete the Ocean Conservancy’s audit sheets.

• There were 14 audited clean-ups that used the ‘Dirty Dozen’ questionnaire, each covering an average of 500 metres. A total distance of 7km was covered by these volunteers.

• 37 clean-ups preferred to use mobile applications, e.g.

Clean Swell. These volunteers covered and audited an area of approximately 18.5km.

• Audit reports covering a total beach distance of 336 km were received.

• 15 clean-ups by various 4x4 clubs took place, each covering a distance of between 10 and 15km. The West Coast 4x4 group reported that they covered a distance of 25km, bringing the total covered to approximately 180km.

• 4 underwater clean-ups took place, each with a volume of 10 000m². In total, these divers cleaned an area of 300 metres.

• 7 waterways were cleaned - totalling a distance of approximately 5km.

• There were 27 township clean-ups, with Kirkland in Natures Valley seeing the largest participation. In total, these volunteers covered approximately 54km.

• A total of 154 non-audited, informal clean-ups took place along the Cape Provinces’ coastline, covering a distance of approximately 35km.

• Close to 20 tons of litter was removed from the beaches on this Saturday alone.

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www.cleanupandrecycle.co.za

Highlights

OCT / NOV 2020

clean-ups and volunteers were very good about adhering to the request to ensure that they wear their masks and maintain social distancing.

The KZN Marine Waste Network South Coast, used the day to launch the Inkwazi Isu (Fish Eagle Project) and the Unimog and beach rake at Amanzimtoti – an event that was attended by Minister Barabara Creecy of the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF). She also supported a beach clean-up at Dakota beach, Umbogintwini, where 697 bags were collected with a weight of over 2.4 tons. What makes this accomplishment even more impressive, is that almost 90% of the litter collected at these events, was sorted to be recycled.

Thankfully, not as much PPE equipment was found on the beaches as was expected. Some of the stranger items that were removed included an outboard engine, fire extinguisher, computer and mobile phones from the underwater clean-ups. On the land-based beach clean-ups, volunteers removed a portable toilet (with lots of barnacles growing on it), a windsurfer kite and even a lawnmower!

2020/10/13 13:22

DESIGN

Celebrating excellence One of the longest running, most prestigious design awards programmes 2020 MARKS the 40th anniversary of the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), one of the longest running and most prestigious design awards programmes in existence.

Originally founded to recognize exceptional achievement in industrial design, the programme has since grown to highlight design in many connected disciplines including design strategy, branding, digital interaction and so much more. Each

year, thousands of entries are submitted by design teams across the globe, making IDEA one of the largest and most widely anticipated annual awards programmes in the world.

Ultimately, the awards honour great design that brings real benefit to users, clients, and society.

Here we highlight the designs which incorporate plastics, composites and rubber.

Awake RÄVIK Sports, Leisure & Recreation Designed by Brendon Vermillion, Jesper Randrup, Philip Werner, Jordan Spack and Benjamin Alexander of Ride Awake AB Awake RÄVIK is an electric surfboard designed for novice surfers and hardened extreme sports enthusiasts alike. Powered by a patent-pending drive system, the RÄVIK is propelled through any water and over waves with unparalleled efficiency. Designed for both performance and beauty, the materials are matched and placed

for the ultimate user experience and functionality: traction where needed, glide where wanted. RÄVIK’s unique throttle comes with its own induction charger. The throttle is designed for maximized control and precision in operating the craft while freely rising from lying to a standing position. It goes from 0 to 50kph in 4 seconds,

with a top speed of 56 kph (30 knots).

The RÄVIK comes with everything necessary to enjoy a complete riding experience. The Awake app allows the rider to choose a power setting that best matches the rider’s skill level for optimal safety. www.awakeboards.com

APX NEXT P25 all band smart radio with XV remote speaker mic Commercial & Industrial Products Designed by Motorola Solutions Innovation Design and Engineering Development Teams The APX NEXT brings advanced usability and performance to two-way public-safety radios. It combines a touch screen and intelligent voice interfaces with missioncritical performance to ensure a communications lifeline for emergency responders. Police officers are no longer vehicle-bound as the information traditionally found in large mobile 30

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data terminals can now be delivered to this compact, portable device. Its LTE back up and intelligent voice query provide uninterrupted information flow. Cloud-based provisioning and update cycles reduce servicing downtime from months to minutes. Additional capabilities, such as video, data analytics, and AI applications, can be added as needs evolve. www.motorolasolutions.com

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for four decades

Haitian Drive Systems ,Hilectro specializes in the production of electric forklifts, storage cars, AGV cars and other energy-saving vehicles. Adhering to the concept of “high-quality, highefficiency and energy-saving”, Hilectro is committed to providing high-quality products for customers all over the world HAITIAN SERIES HAITIAN MARS MARS 33SERIES HAITIAN HAITIANMARS MARS 33 SERIES SERIES The Haitian Mars Series has been on the marketELECTRIC for over 10 years HILECTRO The Haitian Mars Series has been on the market for over 10 years andand continues to be the top of the line in servo hydraulic injectioncontinues to be the top ofPALLET the line in servo hydraulic injectionTRUCK The Haitian Mars Series has been on the market 10 The Haitian Mars Series has been on the market for over 10 years years molding technology world’sbest-selling best-selling injection-molding molding technology –– the the world’s injection-molding and continues to be the topofofthe theline lineininservo servo hydraulic hydraulic injectionand continues to be the top injectionmachine.

Since its market launchinin2006, 2006, more than 230,000 machine.

Since its market launch more than 230,000 unitsunits molding technology – the world’s best-selling injection-molding molding technology – the world’s best-selling injection-molding of the Mars Series have been delivered. of the Mars Series have been delivered. machine.

Since marketlaunch launchinin2006, 2006,more more than than 230,000 230,000 units machine.

Since itsits market units upgradedMars ,withSeries many design improvements ofMars the33Mars been delivered. ,tailored TheThe upgraded ,with manyhave design improvements ,tailored of the Mars Series have been delivered. for your market ,has new motors, larger platens with increased tie for your market ,has new motors, larger platens with increased tie The upgraded Mars 3 ,with manyhardware design improvements ,tailored bar clearance and increased to maximize energy 3 ,withreliable many design improvements ,tailored Theclearance upgraded Mars bar and increased reliable hardware towith maximize energy for your market ,has new larger increased tie efficiency whilemotors, improving the platens precision. for your market ,has new motors, largerthe platens with increased tie efficiency while improving precision. bar clearance and increased reliable hardware to maximize energy bar clearance and increased reliable hardware to maximize energy efficiency while improving the precision. efficiency while improving the precision.

Bird Two Automotive & Transportation Designed by Josh Morenstein, Nick Cronan, David Hyun, and Florent Alexandre of Branch Creative for Bird

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www.two.bird.co

OCT / NOV 2020

While other scooters on the market are designed solely for personal use and, therefore, have a limited street life when ridden by hundreds of users a day, the Bird Two is designed to be durable enough for mass rentals while delivering both enhanced safety and a superior ride. The designers approached the design holistically with a focus on safety, rider comfort, and product longevity. The result is an ownable, recognizable iconic design that, along with its great build quality, establishes a signature for the brand that is recognizable in a crowded market of essentially identical competitors.

HILECTRO ELECTRIC FORKLIFT

Office: +27 11 704 0824 | info@cabletech.co.za 20 Amelia Lane, Lanseria Corporate Estate, Malibongwe Road, Lanseria

Web : www.cabletech.co.za

2020/10/13 13:24

DESIGN

Bottle Bath Home Designed by STUCK Design, Orca Creation, and Bottle Bath Bottle Bath was designed with one goal in mind: to help make parenting life easier. Time with a newborn is precious, and it should be spent cultivating relationships, rather of fretting over baby bottles. Bottle Bath is a three-in-one device that washes, sterilizes, and dries baby bottles and

related accessories with a single touch of a button. Parents no longer have to hand wash bottles, sterilize them, and let them air-dry in three separate processes. Bottle Bath does all three in a single process – in less than an hour. www.stuck.sg

Cisco Meraki MV Security Cameras Commercial & Industrial Products Designed by Dan Harden, Akifusa Nakazawa and Ari Turgel of Whipsaw, Inc. for Cisco – Meraki and Nick Abalos, Peter Gleason, Nick Kawamoto, Jennifer Ouk, Kevin Park, Juan Rubi, Ian Snyder and Morgan Teachworth of Cisco – Meraki MV smart cameras bring Meraki magic to the enterprise video security world. Simple to deploy, configure, and manage, MV provides reliable security and valuable business insights to organizations of any scale.

Cisco Meraki’s objective was to design an elegant yet discreet camera line that would move beyond the intimidating eyesores found in the physical security industry. The smooth, low profile bowl form flips the typical dome camera shape, without compromising functionality. The glossy, black lens bubble melts into the bowl, creating a distinct look that blends with enterprise environments. www.meraki.cisco.com/products/smart-cameras/ 32

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Dart Electric Rideshare Bike Student Designs Designed by Motorola Solutions Innovation Design and Engineering Development Teams Dart is an electric ride-share bike and associated lifestyle brand. The bicycle ride-share market is focused on getting from point A to point B and seldom prioritizes the rider’s experience along the journey. Dart, in contrast, is an electric ride-share bike that is all about making the journey enjoyable.

The design focused on improved bike performance, versatile riding characteristics, exciting aesthetics, and streamlined user interactions. The electric hub motor gives riders an extra power boost to speed over difficult urban terrain and arrive

at work free of sweat. The adjustable handlebar provides users the option to ride with an aggressive lean over hills or pedal upright comfortably over flat ground. The design and proportion of the bike also inspire confidence and make riders feel stylish. This encourages people to incorporate cycling into their lifestyle. Additionally, the locking mechanism is positioned to let users lock the bike to a rack from either the left or right side, greatly improving disembarking convenience when parking.

Email: vchiang97@gmail.com

DCI TeraTrak R1 Commercial & Industrial Products Designed by: Digital Control Inc. and Tactile Design Teams The DCI TeraTrak R1 is a real-time terrainmapping tool for horizontal directional drilling. It provides accurate and continuous topography data and the location of utilities and waypoints at all stages of the drilling process, which previously required expensive survey methods. Used in conjunction with the TeraTrak app, the R1 visualizes underground hazards and the precise elevation and distance measurements along the drill path. It streamlines the planning for job site boring, making it more accurate, efficient, cost effective, and accessible.

As the ground is becoming increasingly crowded with utilities, the TeraTrak R1 makes it far less likely that the drill crew will run into underground hazards. www.digital-control.com/teratrak/teratrak OCT / NOV 2020

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DESIGN

ClickCheck Medical & Health Designed by Paul Hatch, FIDSA, Andreas Bell, Holly Howes, Ross Brinkman, and Eric Wiegman of TEAMS Design for Essilor Access to eye care is taken for granted in the first world.

But for over 2.5 billion people living in smaller communities in developing countries, little help is available. Many nonprofit organizations provide free or affordable glasses to developing countries, but among the population, there is little awareness about vision correction and, therefore, little demand for the glasses. Vision screening typically requires trained professionals that use expensive equipment. In

contrast, ClickCheck is a self-screening solution that costs under $5 to produce (affordable for an NGO to provide for free) and is designed to be passed from person to person, thus propagating awareness as it goes. It needs no training to use. The ultra-simplicity and low cost of this solution has made it a success where other vision screening apps or kits have failed. www.teamsdesign.com/en/

Elroy Air Chaparral Automotive & Transportation Designed by Colin Owen, Clint Cope, Terik Weekes, Isaiah Jones, and Sean Belardo for Elroy Air Demand for rapid logistics has spiked globally. Traditional infrastructure like roads and airports are not scaling to meet global demand, traffic congestion is at an all-time high, and over 1 billion people live in communities outside the reach of reliable roadways. The Elroy Air Chaparral has the ability to improve the quality of life globally by increasing access to time-sensitive critical supplies. It is an autonomous air vehicle transport solution that leapfrogs traditional infrastructure. It delivers and retrieves cargo, up

to 300 pounds over a 300-mile range, without human contact.

Now hard-to-reach communities don’t have wait to receive critical goods, such as medicine and food. It can also be used in disaster relief situations to resupply critical goods for the military, and to deliver goods to extreme climates, such as rural Alaskan communities – all without risking pilot lives. The Chaparral is distinguished from military, general aviation, and consumer drones while still projecting a gravity appropriate to a high-powered piece of future logistics equipment.

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www.elroyair.com

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Redminut portable pet drinking bottle Outdoor & Garden Designed by Chen Wei Tao and Guan Da Ming of Fo Shan Square Industrial Design Co., Ltd. for Square Intelligent & Technology Co., Ltd. The redminut portable drinking bottle for dogs combines a water reservoir with a drinking trough for ultimate portability. Simply flip open the trough 180 degrees and dispense the water by rotating the cover and pressing the button. The water is released in a controlled manner. Thanks to the compact, leakproof, foldable design, you can take the redminut with you on your travels near and far, always able to quench your dog’s thirst.

Email: marco@sq-id.com

Scotch™ Clip & Twist Tape Dispenser Office & Accessories Designed by 3M Design + 3M Scotch™ Team Welcome to the Clip & Twist, a new type of tape dispenser. It can go anywhere, clip to anything, and quickly transform any area into a space for doing projects. With the increase in open and remote workspaces, desks are shrinking, creating the need for a more compact tape dispenser that can be stored off the top of the desk. The lightweight design offers excellent portability, while the clip functionality allows the dispenser to be mounted on a variety of different surfaces. The dual-axis cutting arm delivers ultimate adjustability. Regardless of the surface it is clipped to, the arm can be adjusted to accommodate easy one-handed dispensing.

Email: jmiles@mmm.com

Equality Leg Student Designs Designed by Haimo Bao, Yiru Wang, Yikui Quan and Yingyu Wang of School of Design, Dalian Minzu University and Bin Xu of Tangshan Shangjiu Industrial Design Center (Tangshan Kun Kiln Ceramic Co, Ltd) The Equality Leg is a leg prosthesis with a low-cost and easy-touse design. It consists of knee and ankle parts and uses composite elastic materials to simplify the precise and complex joints of ordinary prostheses, thereby ensuring that the basic movement needs of users can be met while the cost is greatly reduced. It was designed to give people back their freedom by making it possible for them to walk again and earn a living – and feel hope for the future. www.dlnu.edu.cn/sjxyxb/

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SUSTAINABILITY

Fraunhofer sets out to clear

Currently testing technologies in two different scenarios at two locations 86 MILLION metric tons of plastics end up in the oceans every year, with around 90% of this ending up on the seabed.

The Fraunhofer Centre for Maritime Logistics and Services CML and an international network of partners want to be the first to tidy up this mess with a project called SeaClear.

An interview with project managers Johannes Oeffner and Cosmin Delea follows.

You aim to collect litter on the seabed in the SeaClear project. Why? Oeffner: Marine pollution is one of the most important global problems. It affects the environment, the economy, security, health and culture. Plastics do not degrade easily, so they are likely to remain in the sea for hundreds of years. Considering that forecasts expect plastic production to quadruple by 2050, we will have a huge problem if we fail to take action.

According to the World Economic Forum WEF, the ratio of plastic to fish in 2014 was one to five – by 2050 there could be as much plastic waste as there are fish.

Many approaches to skimming plastic debris from the surface of seas have been put forward. What is your concept?

Oeffner: We’re concentrating on cleaning up the seabed first, especially in coastal areas where pollution is particularly heavy.

In the SeaClear concept, we are making use of various robotic

vehicles that are connected to each other. An autonomous or remote-controlled mothership (unmanned surface vehicle, USV) is supported by two underwater robots (remotely operated vehicle, ROV) and an aerial vehicle or drone (unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV). We deploy the drone and a robot to chart the litter on the surface and in the water column.

The second ROV makes use of this information and uses a custom-designed gripper and a suction device to collect the mapped garbage on the seabed and discard it to collective bin.

What technologies are behind all this?

Delea: We use multi-agent control methods for heterogeneous robots to synchronously steer all autonomous vehicles. This means that one robot’s change of position is acknowledged by the other robots. Each robot has the built-in capability to adapt to these changes without human intervention. Although we do issue a command, it is specifically addressed to one robot, while the other robots will notice the change in pose and react if necessary. We use deep-learning algorithms to detect and distinguish waste from marine fauna and flora. Specifically, we combine different sensory systems such as conventional and multi-spectral cameras or acoustic sensors to obtain relevant data about the waters and, after several training sessions, to online detect and classify marine waste.

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Various robot vehicles are networked with one another in the SeaClear system. An autonomous or remote-controlled mother ship (UPS) on the surface is supported by two underwater robots (ROV) and a flight drone (UAV)

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the seabed of plastic How do you train the autonomous robots?

Delea: Detection and classification require intensive training. The first steps for both are to use information from publicly available sources, such as large online databases that provide footage of marine life. Then we conduct further training with dummy targets. Before the final demonstration takes place, preliminary trials are held to assess their performance.

What are the biggest challenges in this project?

Delea: The challenges at the two test sites are different: The waters at Hamburg are very hard to analyze because of their turbidity and the low visibility. Moreover, currently there are no clear statistics on the type and amount of underwater waste in the port area. This is where we want to further develop the robustness and individual features of the SeaClear system and get it market-ready. To this end, we have brought stakeholders from the port of Hamburg on board to look into SeaClear as a future port service. The great difficulty in Dubrovnik is that public access cannot be restricted. On the other hand, this means a number of additional safety measures will be necessary, which will have to be taken when the system is tested on-site. But the visibility in these waters is close to ideal, so the main

How are you tackling these problems?

Delea: In Hamburg, we are trying to fuse data from different sensors when mapping the marine litter in order to assess what kind of subsea litter is to be found in these waters. We are using mainly acoustic sensors because of the limited visibility. In Dubrovnik, we are going to install additional safety mechanisms on the flying drone, with some assistance from the sensors on the mothership. The object here is to minimize safety issues and prevent collisions.

And how are you going to ensure that fragile ecosystems like coral reefs are not damaged?

Delea: This issue is not present in Hamburg, while the Croatian test site also has few coral reefs. But when the final SeaClear system will be deployed, it will use optical sensors and AI to distinguish the coral reefs, avoid difficult/hazardous procedures to collect just the litter.

Which part of the project is the Fraunhofer CML’s responsibility and who are the other partners in this venture?

Oeffner: CML is the project’s technical coordinator and is responsible for integrating the overall system as well as designing and developing the underwater basket to hold the collected waste.

What’s more, we are developing a virtual montioring centre that sends commands to the robots and disseminates their data.

The project also includes setting up the communication network and the server infrastructure needed to provide SeaClear services to the various clients via web interfaces. The consortium is composed of the Technical Universities of Munich, Delft, Dubrovnik and Cluj-Napoca as well as SubSea Tech Marseille, the Hamburg Port Authority and the DUNEA Regional Development Agency Dubrovnik. The goal is for the latter two organizations to also operate and use the developed system after the project is wrapped up. www.fraunhofer.de

INEOS Styrolution’s fifth sustainability report provides a comprehensive review of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance over the past year.

The report highlights INEOS Styrolution’s strong focus on circular solutions with its expanding ECO family of sustainable products. The Styrolution ECO portfolio comprises styrenics products made from postconsumer recycled material as well as products made using renewable feedstock.

The report covers topics that are important to the company such as reduced carbon footprint, marine litter and pellet loss, health & safety, sustainable procurement, and fair business practices. It also contains special sections addressing the company’s actions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report can be read on www.ineos-styrolution.com/portal/ sustainability

Scott Bader joins biobased polymers project

SCOTT Bader has joined a research project which aims to replace conventional polymers with bio-based polymers in coatings, textiles, homecare and structural adhesive applications.

The Circular High-performance Aza-Michael Polymers as Innovative materials Originating from Nature (CHAMPION) project will run for three and a half years. It was awarded Horizon 2020 funding and includes 14 partners from six European countries, coordinated by the University of York in the UK, according to Scott Bader.

The project will also focus on recovery, reuse and recycling (with the option of controlled energy recovery) as end-of-life options, while all products will be evaluated for sustainability via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and TechnoEconomic Analysis (TEA).

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IN BRIEF

Coastal areas are very different. Where do these trials take place?

Oeffner: We are currently testing the technologies in two different scenarios at two locations at depths of 20 to 30 metres.

We want to demonstrate the process while port operations are underway with the existing infrastructure and fixed procedures in Hamburg’s port. This is why this scenario focuses on the industrial area of the port. The coastal scenario in Dubrovnik, Croatia, addresses the tourism sector and is aimed specifically to clean the waters at tourist hot-spots. The first trials took place at both locations in spring.

Further tests are slated for Dubrovnik in late summer after the trials were suspended because of corona.

objective is to validate the overall system and show its complete set of features.

Ineos Styrolution publishes 2019 sustainability report

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2020/10/13 13:26

SUSTAINABILITY

Winners of the 2020 Innovation in Bioplastics Award Winners developed first-of-its-kind backyard compostable and marine-biodegradable straw THE Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) Bioplastics Division has judged Danimer Scientific and WinCup as the joint winners of the 2020 Innovation in Bioplastics Award.

Together they developed the first commercially sold straws made of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a material verified as a reliable biodegradable alternative to traditional plastic.

WinCup created the Phade™ straws using Danimer Scientific’s Nodax™ PHA, which will completely degrade in any environment without leaving behind microplastics.

Phade straws and stirrers have unique properties that are not sensitive to temperature and high heat shipping conditions.

Danimer Scientific is a pioneer in creating more sustainable and natural ways to make plastic products that are biodegradable and compostable. Applications for its biopolymers include additives, aqueous coatings, fibres, filaments, films, and injection-moulded articles, among others.

Based in the United States, the company holds 125 patents in nearly 20 countries for a range of manufacturing processes and biopolymer formulations.

WinCup is a leading manufacturer of disposable foodservice to-go ware based in the United States. www.danimerscientific.com

www.wincup.com

Magnum launches new tubs made using certified circular PP From SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio ICE cream brand, Magnum, has rolled out more than 7 million ice cream tubs made with certified circular polypropylene from SABIC’s Trucircle™ initiative that uses feedstock made from recycling used, mixed plastic. The launch represented the ‘world’s first’ tub within the ice cream industry that contains recycled plastic and that aims to contribute towards the challenge of keeping plastic waste out of the environment and in the value chain.

Magnum is the first to use recycled plastic within the ice cream industry and after a successful pilot launch in Spain, Belgium and Netherlands last year, the full roll out across all European countries is another exciting step to offer more sustainable packaging to consumers. New Magnum tubs have been developed in close collaboration of Unilever and SABIC. 38

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To be able to answer consumer’s expectations of robust packaging from Unilever’s A-brand ice cream, SABIC has developed a new polypropylene impact copolymer for frozen food packaging. SABIC’s material uses post-consumer mixed plastic as feedstock which is broken down into its molecular building blocks, to create virgin plastics which are then used to produce these new recyclable, ice cream tubs.

By the end of 2020, Magnum will use an estimated 160 000kg of certified recycled plastic material.

The move is part of Unilever’s wider global packaging commitment to halve the company’s use of virgin plastic, by reducing its absolute use of plastic packaging by more than 100 000 tons and accelerating its use of recycled plastic by 2025. The Magnum tubs are now available in Europe and due to be launched globally from 2021 onwards.

SABIC’s ground-breaking Trucircle solutions encompasses the company’s circular materials and technologies including certified circular polymers from the chemical recycling of used, mixed plastic; certified renewable polymers from biobased feedstock and mechanically recycled polymers. www.sabic.com/en

2020/10/13 13:27

Clas

UrthPact helps reduce environmental impact of single-use plastics

The Laripur RS family includes a diversified range of products with top-level technological performance and allows to cover all traditional TPU applications

COIM promotes

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recyclability and the same possibility of adding various types of masterbatch (colour, expanding agents, antistatic agents, 2D additives etc.).

The Laripur RS family includes a diversified range of products with top-level technological performance and allows to cover all traditional TPU applications, from footwear to sporting goods and technical articles such as tubes, profiles and films.

The bioderived content from renewable sources in Laripur RS is very high, up to 70% by weight. www.coimgroup.com

OCT / NOV 2020

ITALIAN multinational, COIM, thanks to the studies carried out in the R&D centre of Offanengo (CR), is successfully moving to the manufacture and distribution of the new Laripur RS thermoplastic polyurethanes which contain a high percentage of raw materials from bioderived, renewable sources.

The grades have been developed ensuring the same high performance, as seen with standard products, without having to change or modify the processing or equipment in the manufacturing environment, whilst maintaining total

IN BRIEF

sustainability with Laripur RS TPU

URTHPACT, a world leader in compostable bioplastic manufacturing, is now shipping their new line of home compostable drinking straws.

The straws are engineered in partnership with Danimer Scientific, another world leader and developer of compostable bioplastic materials. With capacity in the billions for their first year, UrthPact will reduce the environmental impact of the single-use plastics industry, and put a dent in the 142 billion plastic straws used yearly in the United States alone.

The innovative straws are made with Danimer’s Scientific’s signature biopolymer Nodax PHA, which has been certified home compostable.

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SUSTAINABILITY

Vitrimers will make plastics of the future sustainable Self-healing, intelligent properties and can be recycled SCIENTISTS at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany are researching sustainable plastics that are capable of self-healing, have intelligent properties and can be recycled if required.

A team led by chemist and materials scientist Prof Dr Ulrich Schubert at the university is researching ways of making plastics more sustainable.

“Imagine scratched surfaces on household furniture. In the kitchen, for instance,” says Schubert, as he describes a possible application for these intelligent plastics. “You simply heat that surface – let’s say with a hairdryer. Then it not only looks like new again but in actual fact, it is new.” So-called vitrimers are designed to ensure that everyday items have a longer service life. Consequently, they will not need to be replaced as often. They can also be recycled more easily and thereby make a contribution to environmental conservation.

“Composite materials, in particular, can almost never be recycled. That’s because the materials used in them are practically impossible to separate,” Schubert explains. This problem becomes obvious when wind turbines have to be replaced.” This is where large amounts of waste are produced, almost solely by the rotor blades. Apart from a few exceptions, there is no viable strategy for the further use of these resources.”

However, the professor stresses that this could all change

Sustainable, intelligent plastics are being studied at the University of Jena

with intelligent materials such as vitrimers. “These materials can be manipulated. That means their ability to be processed can be managed.” In theory, this would make it possible to produce composite materials that can be separated and reused as needed.

Schubert and his team have set themselves the goal of researching this for the next five years. “We are particularly interested in fibre-reinforced materials,” says Schubert. “We want to embed glass and carbon fibres into the new plastics.

These can then be used for lightweight construction and for cutting down on CO2 emissions, among other things. We are also interested in nanocomposites, which have nanofillers that reinforce the material.”

Intelligent plastics are becoming part of everyday life Schubert is certain that these sustainable plastics will one day become part of everyday life and will be used in aircraft, on surfaces, or in tennis rackets, to name just a few applications.

“Vitrimers are still a very recent class of plastics. Concrete applications have not yet been established. However, our goal is to use this research to open up a new generation of sustainable materials.”

The researchers will be funded over a period of five years by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, which has approved funding of €2 million for the project.

Bio-based Dyneema!

DUTCH company, Royal DSM; SABIC and UPM Biofuels, a leading producer of sustainable raw materials, have partnered to help reduce the environmental footprint of Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fibre.

The collaboration will see Dyneema transition to bio-based feedstock leveraging SABIC’s ground-breaking Trucircle™ solutions for certified renewable products.

This new partnership represents an important step in realizing DSM’s goal of sourcing at least 60% of its feedstock from biobased raw material by 2030. The transition to bio-based feedstock will maintain the unique properties of Dyneema, enabling customers to adopt a more sustainable solution without 40

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compromising process efficiency or final product performance.

Bio-based Dyneema will be available from April 2020.

UPM Biofuels produces bio-based feedstock UPM BioVerno from the residue of the pulping process. This is then processed

by SABIC to make renewable ethylene. By applying a mass balancing approach*, DSM is then able to create biobased Dyneema fibre that delivers consistent durability and performance with a reduced environmental impact. * Mass balance accounting is a well-known approach that has been designed to trace the flow of materials through a complex value chain. The mass balance approach provides a set of rules for how to allocate the bio-based and/or recycled content to different products to be able to claim and market the content as ‘bio’-based or ‘recycled’based. Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation (Mass Balance White Paper).

www.dsm.com

2020/10/13 13:29

Clas

DOMO Chemicals solution in new gardening tool Econamid Air for new helium electric tree pruner

Only 1.6kg, the cutting body of the new product is moulded with the sustainable PA6 based compound with carbon fibre

Furthermore, it offers high stiffness with low density, electrical conductivity, electrical surface & volume resistivity, and improved tribological properties.

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redesign and rethink applications under the eco-design trend. The solution has a 90% reduced carbon footprint when compared to prime polyamide.

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www.domo.org

ARCHMANl, an Italian manufacturer of scissors for viticulture, horticulture, and gardening, has chosen DOMO’s Econamid® Air for its Helium electric tree pruner. An extremely light tool, weighing only 1.6kg, the cutting body of the new product is moulded with the sustainable PA6 based compound with carbon fibre.

The material’s lightweight, strength, electrical conductivity and sustainability credentials, made Econamid Air the ideal material for this application. The lightweight nature of the material offers comfort for the user, while its electrical conductivity prevents the accumulation of energy, and the risk of unpleasant small electrical shocks during use.

Econamid Air is the flagship among DOMO’s line of light engineering solutions, which includes products, prototyping and simulation services, to

2019/09/13 2020/10/13 11:17 13:29

SUSTAINABILITY

Fraunhofer develops

upcycling process for

post-consumer PLA waste

Uses conventional, commercialized eco-friendly, organic catalyst

nearly completely depolymerizing the PLA substrate along DESIGNED for performance and durability, plastics have become an with a high yield of ethyl lactate (80%) in a relatively short indispensable part of everyday life. period of time (< 20 min) and under mild reaction conditions This flexible process However, poor waste management (< 70°C, ambient pressure). scheme is capable of handling virgin PLA of has led to the accumulation of An outstanding feature of this system is the use of a different grades (Total plastic in the environment. conventional and commercialized eco-friendly, organic Corbion LX175 and To solve this issue, the European catalyst. Another special feature of this process is the use NatureWorks PLA 6032 D) as well as postUnion has embarked on a transition of an eco-friendly, low-boiling solvent, capable of selectively consumer PLA cups to a circular system in which plastics dissolving the PLA fraction from a mixed plastic waste are reused, repaired and recycled plastics. It also aims to stream, consisting mainly of PET and PP. produce plastics that are made from renewable resources This flexible process scheme is capable of handling (bio-based plastics). Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most virgin PLA of different grades (Total Corbion LX175 and promising and frequently used polyesters in this category.

NatureWorks™ PLA 6032 D) as well as post-consumer PLA Flexible and versatile, PLA is used in applications cups. The process has been scaled up in 2019 from ranging from disposable cutlery and degradable a laboratory scale to a technical scale (15 L) and sutures to rigid packaging and extrusion its robustness was demonstrated by recycling An coatings, although the dominant market for post-consumer waste PLA cups, without any outstanding PLA is food packaging. effect on the yield of the lactate ester.

A bio-based alternative to fossil-based feature of this The production of both PET and PLA is plastics the production of PLA is both expected to increase by 2021, with the system is the use of raw material and energy-intensive percentage increase of PLA being higher a conventional and (2.39kg corn cobs, 50kg water and than that of PET. Due to its application, 54MJ of fossil energy are required to commercialized ecothe estimated maximum contamination produce one-kilogram PLA). of PLA in waste PET streams could vary friendly, organic While a potential high-volume raw between 0.8% to 8% by 2021. In such a catalyst. material, infrastructure is as yet lacking scenario, innovative methods for removal of for separately collecting and recycling PLA. PLA would be required in order to assure highTherefore, it often ends up in other conventional quality recycled PET. waste streams, thereby contaminating them and In addition, the huge demand for PLA on the consumer disturbing the state-of-the-art municipal recycling strategies. market, coupled with high feedstock and energy demands for its Fraunhofer exploring economically, environmentally sustainable recycling strategy Six Fraunhofer institutes are exploring ways for sustainable transformation of the entire plastic value chain to a circular economy.

Researchers at Fraunhofer ICT along with Fraunhofer LBF have developed a strategy to chemically recycle post-consumer PLA waste into a lactate ester (ethyl lactate) which finds its commercial applications in chemical synthesis, magnetic tape coatings, plastic, metal, wood and food industry.

The process represents an economically and environmentally sustainable recycling strategy, capable of 42

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production, is a major concern for the manufacturers of PLA. In this situation, implementing the aforementioned strategy will not only completely utilize the valuable poly-hydroxy acid even after the end of its conventional life cycle but will also add value to the supply chain.

The present concept therefore has the potential to solve the problems at the confluence of chemical recycling of PLA and sustainable production of lactate esters (potential alternative to conventional petrochemical solvents) by strictly abiding to the fundamentals of green chemistry. It moreover sets up the foundation for a “circular bio-economy” and benefits both “circular economy” of conventional plastics and different elements across the entire societal value chain. www.www.ict.fraunhofer.de.com

2020/10/13 13:32

Lanxess launches bio-based prepolymer line Adiprene Green

Lanxess has developed a new range of MDI polyether prepolymers containing renewable raw materials – Adiprene Green

Replacement for fossil based polyether prepolymers compared to fossil-based prepolymers due to the use of polyether polyols based on starch. The share of bio-based raw materials varies between 30 to 90% dependent on the targeted system hardness. At the same time the existing PU processing capabilities would remain applicable and the properties of the final polyurethane elastomer would be similar to established elastomers based on fossil based polyether or even better.

Adiprene Green prepolymers are easy to handle – they are processed in an identical manner to conventional prepolymers. No modifications to material handling, process temperatures

New type of plastic that maintains its original qualities when recycled IN A new study, scientists reported having developed a plastic that can maintain its original qualities when recycled. Scientists developed this plastic by setting up a bridged bicyclic thiolactone monomer from a bio-based olefin carboxylic acid. The outcome was a plastic (called PBTL) that had all the characteristics of traditional plastics. They next tested their plastic by conducting bulk depolymerization at 100°C using a catalyst. Testing of the result showed the PBTL had been broken down into its original monomer. They followed that up by breaking down samples of PBTL (using a catalyst) at room temperature. And once again, close examination showed the sample had been broken down to the original monomer. Using the monomers from both processes to make new batches of PBTL, scientists proved that the new plastic could be created, broken down, and created again – over and over. Scientists noted, “The process could be repeated indefinitely. They further suggest that their new plastic could make a host of products now made using conventional plastics. The only caveat in the scenario is that such plastics would have to be separated from other materials before they could be recycled.”

or mixing ratios are necessary. In addition, the reactivity profile and demoulding times are similar to fossil based polyether prepolymers.

When reacted with 1,4 butanediol, a range of PU elastomers with a hardness from 40 Shore A to 60 Shore D can be achieved. As the PU system is versatile, Adiprene Green can be handmixed or machine mixed. Moreover, the prepolymers can be processed with Vibracat catalysts from Lanxess.

Products of the Adiprene Green line are well suited for demanding applications such as roll covers, wheels, press sleeves or non-pneumatic tyres.

www.lanxess.com

LANXESS has developed a new range of MDI polyether prepolymers containing renewable, bio-based raw materials. Marketed under the brand name Adiprene Green, the products are suitable as replacement for existing fossil based polyether prepolymers to manufacture highly durable polyurethane (PU) elastomers.

The overall objective to develop Adiprene Green was to create a range of bio-based prepolymers which allow the PU processor to produce components with a reduced CO2 footprint.

Depending on the system, a reduction of CO2 between 20 to 30% is possible

SABIC renewable feedstock PC for lighting SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, has partnered with Elkamet Kunststofftechnik GmbH, an industry leader in the plastics processing industry. Elkamet will be using SABIC’s Lexan™ polycarbonate resin based on certified renewable feedstock in several end applications for the lighting industry.

In October 2019, SABIC launched its polycarbonate based on certified renewable feedstock – an engineering thermoplastic resin that is part of the company’s Trucircle™ solutions for certified renewable products. Based on a cradle-to-gate peerreviewed LCA study, use of SABIC’s Lexan polycarbonate resin can potentially result in reductions in carbon footprint of up to 61% and fossil depletion reduction of up to 35%.

Elkamet is the first in the lighting industry to offer an alternative for our customers in order to keep up with the trend towards more sustainability in the development of plastic components. Diffusors/covers are one of the biggest parts of a luminaire that are made of plastic. By producing them using renewable resources, lighting manufacturers can make a huge sustainability impact.

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COMPOSITES

Solving the SA energy crisis:

Increasing wind energy & Composite cored conductors growing in overhead power market SOUTH Africa could become a power house of wind energy, with a study by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) concluding that over 80% of South Africa’s land has enough wind resource to create farms with very high annual load factors. However, the overall availability of electricity brings challenges to the region, with residents experiencing an ongoing period of widespread power shutdown. Here, Dag Kirschke at global technology company, Exel Composites, discusses how upgrading overhead conductors to those with composite cores can increase wind power transmission across the grid and help solve the energy crisis.

It’s no secret that Eskom, the power utility that produces around 95% of South Africa’s electricity, has faced trouble in recent years. In numerous

or use any water in operation, wind occurrences where demand for power is a valuable renewable energy electricity has exceeded supply, Eskom source. Incorporating more wind has conducted a series of deliberate power into the grid would benefit the shutdowns of power in parts of the environment while simultaneously distribution system to ease strain supplementing overall energy on the grid, known as load supply to improve the shedding. To ensure South To ensure reliability of power to Africa’s residents aren’t South Africa’s residents. left in the dark as a result residents aren’t of unstable power, the left in the dark, the The conductor supply of electricity must supply of electricity potential become higher and more must become However, while wind reliable. higher & more power has the potential Wind power poses a reliable. to generate a large amount promising option to improve of energy for South Africa, energy supply, as South its transmission will be limited if Africa’s approximately the conductors carrying the electricity 3 000 kilometres of coastline provide have a low current capacity. To increase favourable conditions for wind power the use of renewable wind energy and generation. As an energy generation deliver a more reliable energy supply, method that doesn’t produce pollutants

New biocomposite recycling methods Project will improve environmental sustainability in aeronautics COORDINATED by AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, with the participation of the Dutch research centre TNO, the European ELIOT project is developing at large scale the most promising recycling methods for biocomposites, which are now being used in the aeronautics industry.

The project started in July 2020 and will last 32 months. One of the consortium partners is TNO, the Dutch research centre. The project will analyse different recycling methods, including mechanical, thermal,

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chemical and biological recycling.

High-performance composites have become one of the keys to reducing aircraft weight and thus reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The sector has also explored the development of biocomposites that use natural fibres as reinforcement and resins from renewable sources.

Despite all the advantages of these high-performance composites, no efficient solutions have been found for end-of-life management when they

become waste.

The wide range of different types of parts and the fact that they are thermoset make it difficult to recover them. This is more pronounced in the case of biocomposites, a new material, which, unlike conventional composites, does not contain carbon fibres with a high market value.

upgrading overhead lines power transmission across the grid must be optimized.

Conductor current capacity, also known as ampacity, is the maximum current the conductor can carry without exceeding its safe operating temperature range. All conductors have a degree of electrical resistance that causes an amount of power to be lost as heat upon transfer. This heat causes the materials in the conductor to expand, especially as metals are currently the most favoured option, which can be exacerbated by hot South African weather. Expansion results in thermal sag, where the conductor lengthens and drops lower to the ground, which can cause power outages and pose a health and safety risk.

To increase power transmission across the grid safely, more conductor lines must be installed, or existing lines

www.aimplas.net

must be upgraded to conductors with a higher current capacity. However, installing additional conductor lines is a large and complex operation, requiring the acquisition of new land rights, passing environmental regulations, lengthy installation times and additional labour costs. A faster and more economical solution is to upgrade the existing lines.

A powerful change Power conductors consist of an outer conducting ring, most commonly made from aluminum, and a reinforcement core that provides support and strength. Traditionally, conductors are made with steel cores, known as aluminium conductor steel reinforced (ACSR) conductors. The problem with steel is that it has a high coefficient of thermal expansion, meaning ACSR conductors expand significantly when heated, causing the conductor to sag.

Because of the restricted current capacity of ACSR conductors, upgrading them to composite cored conductors should be an important infrastructure project. Composite cored conductors have a much lower coefficient of expansion than ACSRs so they can safely operate at much higher temperatures, making them high temperature low-sag (HTLS) conductors.

In fact, composite cored conductors can carry approximately twice the current of steel cored conductors at much cooler operating temperatures.

They also have a much higher strength to weight ratio than steel, making the reinforcement core thinner to allow a greater proportion of aluminum in the conductor that can conduct electricity without weighing the conductor down.

Time to upgrade Composite cored conductors are rapidly growing in the overhead power market due to their ability to decrease thermal sag and increase power transmission. Upgrading existing lines to composite cored conductors raises the current capacity of the overhead conductors, delivering more wind power to end users, and helping increase the transmission of electricity to residents.

Finnish company, Exel Composites, has several decadesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience in the electrical industry and manufactures composite cores that have a low coefficient of thermal expansion and a high strength to weight ratio to minimize thermal sag and maximize power transmission.

Exelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s composite cores have performed strongly in accelerated aging testing with minimal reduction in performance, and Exel can work with utilities to align with their testing needs. Its carbon fibre composite cores are produced using cost-efficient continuous manufacturing processes, and can be spooled kilometres at a time, while ensuring consistent quality.

South Africa naturally has great wind-harnessing potential, which could help solve the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grid troubles. Now is the time to analyze the transmission and distribution network and plan any cost-efficient upgrades.

Updating the lines will increase the use of wind energy and transmit more electricity to residents, keeping lights on longer for everyone.

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COMPOSITES

Covestro develops machine for direct infusion of PU rotor blades Successful production of a polyurethane wind rotor blade at Goldwind COVESTRO Elastomers has developed a special BaulĂŠ machine for processing its high-performance polyurethane resin into rotor blades.

The Chinese manufacturer Goldwind, has used this machine to produce a 64.2-metre-long polyurethane rotor blade by direct infusion, which was an important breakthrough for both companies.

Covestro designed the machine to solve various challenges involved in the manufacturing process, e.g. process under vacuum, high volume casting and speed of resin infusion. This machine combines a

very accurate dosing, a large variable output controlled by in-mould pressure and a real time data management to ensure a high quality direct infusion process for these large rotor blades.

With the rapid development of the wind power industry, larger wind turbine blades have become increasingly popular in the industry.

Covestro has been committed to providing innovative

www.covestro.com and sustainable products and costeffective integrated solutions for the wind power industry to cope with market requirements and to support the expansion of renewable energy.

In cooperation with industry partners such as Goldwind, Covestro will continue to contribute to the efficient development of the wind power industry.

Closed-loop recycling scheme for end-of-life aircraft ELG Carbon Fibre and Aerocircular in Belgium, have joined forces to establish a closed-loop recycling scheme for end-of-life aircraft CFRP waste streams. Composite EoL fractions are typically shredded and burned or landfilled. By joining forces with ELG Carbon Fibre as an established international player in the field of carbon recycling, the ambition is to establish a closed-loop recycling process of the EoL aircraft carbon composite material stream, maximizing value via a joint approach in further developing the recycling process and new product development using this reclaimed carbon fibre. Doing so, every ton of carbon fibre from the aircraft processed to new material, saves 20 tons of GWP CO2eq at only 1/10th of the energy required compared to producing virgin carbon fibre. This is an important step in ensuring that the carbon fibre composites industry plays its part in meeting the environmental challenges we all faceâ&#x20AC;?.

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www.ELGCF.com

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COMPOSITES

Additive manufacturing of multi-functional parts Multi material jetting system allows different materials to be combined into a single additively manufactured part ADDITIVE manufacturing is currently one of the most significant trends in industry. A team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) has developed a multi material jetting system that allows different materials to be combined into a single additively manufactured part. This makes it possible to create products with combined properties or functions. The new system can be used with particularly high-performance materials such as ceramics and metal.

Researchers have developed a system that enables additive manufacturing of multi-material parts based on thermoplastic binder systems.

Known as Multi Material Jetting, or MMJ, this process combines different materials and their various different properties into a single product.

“Right now, we can process up to four different materials at a time,” says Uwe Scheithauer, a researcher at Fraunhofer IKTS. This opens the door to a diverse range of applications, allowing companies to produce highly integrated

multi-functional components with individually defined properties.

Manufacturing products drop by drop The new system fabricates parts in a continuous process. In the first step, the ceramic or metal powder from which the part will be made is distributed homogenously in a thermoplastic binder substance. The slurries produced in this way are loaded into micro-dosing systems (MDS) to begin the actual manufacturing process. These slurries are melted in the MDS at a temperature of around 100 degrees Celsius, creating a substance that can be released in very small droplets.

The IKTS researchers also developed a corresponding software programme to ensure precise positioning of the droplets during manufacturing. The micro-dosing systems operate in a high-precision, computer-controlled process, depositing the droplets one by one in exactly the right spot. This gradually builds up the part drop by drop at rates of up to 60mm and 1 000 drops a second.

The system works with droplet sizes of between 300 and 1000μm, creating deposited layers with heights of between 100 and 200μm. The maximum size of parts that can currently be manufactured is 20 × 20 × 18cm.

The critical factor is the custom dosing of the metal or ceramic slurries. Getting the dosing right is key to ensuring that the additively manufactured final product takes on the required properties and functions during

MAMBO, the first world’s first real 3D printed fibreglass boat THERE was a time that the yachting and boating industry completely ignored 3D printing. That all seems to have changed dramatically thanks to the work of certain AM pioneers and the availability of new composite AM technologies. One of them is Moi Composites. The Italian startup is unveiling the finished MAMBO (Motor Additive Manufacturing Boat), the first world’s first real 3D printed fibreglass boat using a thermoset continuous fibre composite material. The boat was officially launched and displayed at the 2020 Genova Boat Show from 1-6 October. MAMBO was digitally crafted in patented 3D printing technology, Continuous Fibre Manufacturing (CFM), an innovative system developed by Moi Composites, which uses robots guided by generative algorithms to 3D print continuous fibre composite materials.. A rare 3D printing capability: continuous fibreglass thermoset material makes products strong, ultra-durable, and lightweight and Moi’s robotic system allows for scalability in print size. MAMBO is 6.5m long by 2.5m wide, has a dry weight of approximately 800kg.

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subsequent sintering in the furnace, including properties such as strength, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity.

The project at Fraunhofer IKTS has demonstrated that the technology also works in practice and is scalable. The next step is to

validate the technology for industrial use. As well as supplying the hardware, Fraunhofer IKTS can also help industry customers develop the materials and software required for process monitoring and automation.

OCT / NOV 2020 49

System for Multi Material Jetting of high-performance components with combined properties or functions

www.am-ceramics.dkg.de

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COMPOSITES Thanks to the good adhesion between the blow moulding material and Tepex, a material bond is created in which Tepex can fully exploit its strengths in terms of strength and stiffness

Engineering plastics experts Tilmann Sontag (left), Loreen Winkelhake and Arthur Rieb evaluate the quality of a hollow part reinforced with Tepex during blow moulding at the Dormagen Technical Centre of Lanxess’s High Performance Materials business unit.

Lanxess extends use of composite material to extrusion blow moulding

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One-step process with short cycle times LANXESS is expanding the range of applications of extrusion blow moulding: Continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites of the Tepex brand can also be integrated in the production process.

In a feasibility study, experts at the specialty chemicals company demonstrated that components made of polyamide 6 can be manufactured with blow moulding technology while receiving local reinforcement with Tepex at points subject to heavy loads.

The process can be used to locally boost the mechanical performance

of blow-moulded components, for instance in areas that are subject to high mechanical stress due to impact loads or high pressure.

In addition, it is suitable for the manufacture of blow-moulded structural components, for example hollow sections for car body reinforcement. Extensive use of Tepex can be a key factor in reducing weight and material use because the basic wall thickness of the component can be decreased. Based purely on thermoplastic systems, the hollow parts are easy to recycle, thus making it easier

to establish closed-loop material cycles.

The continuous fibres in Tepex are fully pre-impregnated with plastic.

Consequently, the pressure during blow moulding is sufficient to consolidate the material so that no air pockets are formed. The result is a material bond with excellent adhesion between the blow moulding material and Tepex. Even low blow moulding pressures are enough to form Tepex into critical 3D geometries such as hemispheres with tight radii. www.blow-moulding.lanxess.com

Building the museum of the future THE Museum of the Future currently being constructed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), is one of the most complex structures ever built. The 78-metre high building houses seven floors within a torus-shaped shell that sits atop a three-storey podium. The exterior facade of the torus comprises 1 024 fire-retardant (FR) composite panels. Clad

with stainless steel, each panel is a unique 3D shape and integrates moulded-in Arabic calligraphy. The flowing script forms poems that describe the vision for Dubai’s future.

They also serve as the building’s windows, casting daylight through the column-free interior and creating a dramatic effect at night via 14 kilometres of integrated LED

lighting. Parametric design was used to develop the steel diagrid – a framework of 2 400 diagonally intersecting steel members – to which composite concrete floor slabs and 17 000m2 of composite cladding are attached, the latter using one million square metres of multiaxial glass and carbon fibrereinforced epoxy prepreg

.

Hexcel launches new electromagnetic shielding, radar absorptive technology electromagnetic shielding, and radiation absorption requirements of advanced aircraft applications, the new PEKK carbon-fibre-blended material delivers unique electrical performance that complements Hexcel’s current portfolio of carbon fibre-based and unfilled neat resin HexPEKK 100 material offerings.

Manufactured using the aerospace industry qualified HexAM process, HexPEKK EM components exhibit best-in-class environmental, operational temperature, and chemical resistant performance attainable in the aerospace industry.

By integrating this enhanced EM performance into additive

manufactured components, HexPEKK EM parts do not require costly and time-consuming secondary processing steps, such as the application of conductive coating for the management of electromagnetic interference or radiation absorption.

HexPEKK EM components will be produced at Hexcel’s plant, just northeast of Hartford in central Connecticut, where the company continues to develop the HexAM additive manufacturing process using powder bed fusion technology to fundamentally improve the way the world’s aircraft components are manufactured. www.hexcel.com

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

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

OCT / NOV 2020 51

HEXCEL has launched its latest HexAM® materials technology, HexPEKK® EM – an electrically conductive, high-performance, PEKK-based thermoplastic carbon fibre composite additive manufacturing material offering industry-leading performance.

HexPEKK EM integrates advanced electromagnetic (EM) performance within complex 3D-printed components for the commercial aerospace, defense, and military sectors. HexPEKK EM composite components are flight-ready after printing.

Formulated specifically to meet the static electricity management,

MIDDLE EAST

From pearls

… to 10th largest oil producer Sheikh Sabah oversaw massive changes in Kuwait in his life

BY NIALL MARSHALL

AT the end of September, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sadly died at the age of 91.

In his obituary it was mentioned that when he was born in 1929 the economy of the Sheikhdom of Kuwait, as it was then known, still relied largely on pearling. Within his lifetime Kuwait, a country slightly larger both in area and population than Gauteng, developed from a country supplying pearls to the pre-Great Depression luxury markets in Europe and North America, to being the world’s seventh richest country per capita and the tenth largest producer of oil and a not insignificant producer of polymers.

In 1934, an oil concession was granted to the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), then a joint venture between the AngloPersian Oil Company (later BP) and the American Gulf Oil Corporation (which later evolved into Chevron). It was only in 1938 that commercial quantities of oil were discovered and in 1946 crude oil was exported for the first time. By 1952, Kuwait was the largest exporter of oil in the Persian Gulf.

In 1963, Sheikh Sabah was appointed foreign minister of Kuwait, a position he would hold until 2003. During his time as foreign minister he navigated Kuwait’s way through a number of crises, including the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli wars (Kuwait has a large Palestinian ex-pat community), the 1973 oil crisis, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war (where Kuwait supported Iraq), annexation by Saddam Hussain in 1990, followed by the devastation of Kuwait as the Iraqis were expelled by the US-led coalition in the first Gulf War, and the turmoil following 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq from Kuwait by the USA in 2003.

He also saw the Kuwaiti government nationalise KOC in 1976 and start a process of diversifying the economy from its reliance on oil – a policy which has been less successful than other Middle Eastern countries (partly because it has not been necessary due to the country’s oil wealth). In 1980, the Kuwait Petrochem Corporation (KPC) was formed as a state-owned company and KOC, PIC (Petrochemicals Industrial Company) and other companies became subsidiaries. Often it is different subsidiaries of KPC that are involved in various global petrochemical investments, but ultimately, they are all owned by the State. KPC also owns oil refineries and service stations in Europe and markets its products under the Q8 brand.

52

PIPE MATTERS .indd 52

PIC was established in 1963, the same year Sheikh Sabah became foreign minister, and commissioned its first plant making fertilizer in 1967. It was only in 1993 that Kuwait first moved into producing polymers when PIC formed Equate, a joint venture with Union Carbide Corporation (later acquired

by Dow Chemical). The first Equate polyethylene plant was commissioned in 1997 and a second plant came online in 2007. Together they now produce one million tons of polyethylene per annum. PIC also produces 150 000 tpa polypropylene in Kuwait which is marketed by Equate.

In the 2000’s, PIC and Dow Chemical developed an evercloser relationship: PIC acquired interests in certain Dow Chemical plants and the companies established joint ventures in ethylene glycol (MEGlobal) and PET (Equipolymers).

Both joint ventures subsequently became subsidiaries of Equate and include production plants in Canada, USA, Italy and Germany. An even bigger $17.4 billion K-Dow joint venture in 2008 was cancelled just three days before it was due to launch due to opposition from the Kuwaiti parliament.

K-Dow would have included Dow’s global PE, PP and polycarbonate business as well as Equate.

Apart from joint ventures with Dow, various KOC companies have entered joint ventures in Europe, USA, Korea and Vietnam with ownerships which are not always easy to understand. For example, The Kuwait Vietnam Petrochemicals Company (KVPC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of PIC established in Vietnam to market 75% of the PP production from NSRP (a Kuwait Petroleum International refinery and petrochemical joint venture with Vietnamese and Japanese companies)! PIC has also entered a joint venture with Pembina to build a 550 000 tpa polypropylene plant in Canada.

The Kuwaiti downstream plastics industry is mostly made up of small converters supplying customers in Kuwait and Iraq with pipes, rotomoulded tanks, as well as flexible and rigid consumer and industrial packaging. There are plans to support a 30 000 tpa BOPP plant and a 5 000 tpa raffia plant, but even with these projects the converting industry will not be large.

Sheikh Sabah oversaw massive changes in Kuwait in his life, if he had lived to be 100 he would have got to see the commissioning of the $19 billion Al Zour refinery and petrochemical plant in 2026 which includes a 940 000 tpa polypropylene plant.

OCT / NOV 2020

2020/10/13 13:34

PIPE MATTERS

Size does matter!

Plastic pipe has gone from strength to strength, literally!

BY MIKE SMART, PR. ENG., B.SC. (HONS) CIV. ENG., MSAICE

MRS of not less than 50 MPa and a Design Coefficient (C) PVC PRESSURE pipes were first used about 85 years of 1.4 giving a σ-value of 36 MPa, where σ = MRS/C. This ago and 60 years ago they were introduced into South is a substantial improvement, twice the Allowable Design Africa but were not received enthusiastically. Now, more Stress (σ) of PVC-M, made possible by improved in-line than 95% of domestic sewer reticulation pipes are PVC. production technology which Sizabantu Piping Systems’ Likewise, another commonly used thermoplastic pipe, technology partners Molecor excel at and produce their HDPE SANS 4427, dominated underground services TOM 500 PVC-O pipes. in the mining industry (over 400 tons per month in Innovation is one of Molecor’s core values and through mid-1980) and is still the preferred material for slurry technologically innovative TOM 500 PVC-O branded pipeline applications, and dominates water supply house pipes, they have increased the range of PVC-O pipes connections. from the previous limit of 315mm diameter class 16, to Scientists, polymer technologists and processing 630 class 25, with the M-OR-P3136 system in engineers have enabled the Allowable Design 2010. Then in 2013, to 800 class 20, with the Stress (σ) for HDPE to be increased M-OR-P3180 system. Then to 1 000 class from 5 MPa to 8 MPa – a substantial These 16 in 2020, and now to 1 200 class 16 60% increase. Whilst the increase in innovations and the which will be available in 2021 with the PVC’s strength, created by improved latest high technology M-OR-P5012 system. technology, is even more substantial, polymers have enabled These are exciting developments increasing from 10 MPa to 36 MPa – the service life of for the thermoplastic pipe industry, an incredible 260% increase! enabling it to compete in the large In the 1970s the PVC industry thermoplastic pipes to diameter high pressure pipe market that entered the mining services market now be not less than was previously beyond its capability. following a successful project, led by 100 years These innovations and the latest high Dr Ken Hart, producing a high impact technology polymers have enabled the pipe PVC-HI (SANS 1283) that satisfied service life of thermoplastic pipes to now be the mining industry conditions and enabled not less than 100 years – the duration demanded PVC pipes to be used for underground services. As by clients and consultants. This is more than twice the a result of this, another development project, led by Mike ISO (International Standards Organisation) protocol Osry, produced PVC-M (SANS 966-2) in the mid-1990s requirement that thermoplastic pipes’ design service by adding impact modifiers, commonly CPE (Chlorinated life shall not be less than 50 years. This illustrates the Polyethylene), or Rubber Toughened Acrylics, or a competitive nature of the market and proves an axiom of combination thereof, to the material to increase its impact today’s world – if you are standing still you are probably strength. This enabled the material to exhibit ‘tough’ going backwards. characteristics that facilitated the reduction of the Design PVC technology has improved substantially, and is Coefficient (C) from 2 to 1.4 which increased the Allowable continuing to improve it, giving the pipeline industry proven Design Stress (σ) from 12.5 to 18 MPa. materials to use for large diameter, high pressure, bulk About 40 years ago, PVC-O (Oriented Unplasticised supply pipelines that steel and ductile iron dominated Poly Vinyl Chloride SANS 16422) was developed. historically. PVC-O pipes are lightweight, have negligible Molecular orientation results in the improvement of flow deterioration over time, do not corrode, do not require physical and mechanical properties of the material. In expensive cathodic protection, give labour intensive the intervening 40 years, there have been improvements emerging contractors equal opportunity to be competitive, in PVC-O material from Classification 315 to 500 – the have high impact strength, low creep, low celerity and nomenclature is based on the MRS (Minimum Required extremely low embedded energy – the material to save the Strength) of the material.

Earth?

The latest PVC-O material, Classification 500, has an OCT / NOV 2020

PIPE MATTERS .indd 53

53

2020/10/13 13:34

TRAINING

In-Venting

Leadership requires innovation more than any product or process!

BY KIRTIDA BHANA, TRAINING EXECUTIVE, PLASTICS|SA

Diagram 1: The shift from BC (before Covid-19) to AC (after Covid-19)

A NEW world needs a new leadership paradigm.

Right now, more than ever before, the world needs leaders who serve, unify, and empower. Right now, leadership requires innovation more than any product or process! We need radically different thinking led by progressive thinkers – people who have figured out ways to formulate the new world strategy.

This is not just a matter of upgrading microchips or evolving to bandwidths like 5G – Oh no! It is a lot more complicated than that. It is a mega mindshift that is seismic in nature! The instrument of measurement of which has yet to be created.

Where shall we begin? How about starting with our dear customer and you and me? Here’s the thing: The post-consumerism era is behind us and we are all transitioning and morphing as we speak.

Changes that would usually take companies two years to implement have been fast-tracked in three months! The question we need to ask is: ‘How can we best ride this wave that is accelerating at speeds never seen before?’

Where is the starting point?

Empathy… empathy is the BIG game-changer that will inspire all future products and processes.

If you think that 4IR and digitilisation is all about machines and robots… think again! Maybe the next ‘wake-up call’ will bring the reality check. The world is shifting in the direction of ‘rehumanising’ life on the planet and in the plastics industry, we are in the very ‘eye’ of that storm.

Understanding customer needs and doing thorough fieldwork may sound like ‘back to basics’ principles, but that is exactly what is required.

Over the years, we have moved so far away from the ‘customer’ that customers became consumers and as a result of some manipulative marketing, their ‘needs’ became their ‘wants’. We frantically continue developing product after product to feed the consumerism and here we are today.

Innovation and re-thinking what we produce and how we produce it requires much more than just a Research & Development Division. This table illustrates the point.

People

BC

AC

Who does the designing?

Trained designers

Everybody designs

Team Composition?

Homogenous experts

Diverse teams using participatory methods

Outside Stakeholders?

Managed at arm’s length

Strategic partners

Problems are known

Problem definitions evolve

Expectations on answers?

One ‘best’ big idea that can be proved

Portfolio of small bests to be tested in the real world

The conversion itself?

Debate among competing alternatives

Dialogue in pursuit of insights, opportunities and learning

Processes Problem Framing?

Azer, Liedtka, Salzman, 2017, p.7

Empathy is the first stage in the design thinking process and the table illustrates how differently design thinking works compared to the traditional form of product or process development.

When an organisation uses the design thinking process they enter the world of human-centred design. Since this process is not a linear process, each project will have its own contours and character.

Design thinking makes use of ‘the beginners mind’ in which we encourage people to ask questions as if we do not have the slightest clue of the answer – like an alien from outer space landing on Earth for the first time.

The three main phases of the design thinking process are inspiration, ideation and implementation.

We will discuss this and more in the next article in the December/January issue of SA Polymer Technology.

Empathy is the first stage in the design thinking process

54

TRAINING-.indd 54

•

To learn more about how you could use design thinking in your organisation or if you wish to arrange an introductory talk for your team, please contact: Kirtida Bhana at Plastics|SA, email: Kirtida.bhana@plasticssa.co.za or mobile: 0823220117

OCT / NOV 2020

2020/10/13 13:35

Going further with Experience.

More than 70 years of experience speaks for itself. As a long-standing partner of local and global businesses alike, ENGEL delivers reliable solutions worldwide. Thirty years ago, our experience and passion for our work inspired us to make one of the most groundbreaking developments in our companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history. At that time, we began to eliminate the use of tie bars, a move that represented a milestone in our industry.

Tie-bar-less technology ensures an accessible mould area, even greater precision and excellent mould protection. The concept has allowed us to give our customers long-lasting success â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from 1989 until the present.

We take service to the next level!

ENGEL ensures long-term availability, flexibility and efficiency for your injection moulding production. We support you both on site and online, whenever you need help. You can also benefit from a comprehensive range of training courses that are easily available in person and on the web! Furthermore we offer you our free customer portal e-connect, qualified remote maintenance via e-connect.24 and the monitoring of process-critical components during operation by e-connect.monitor.

engelglobal.com/services

Telephone Number: +27 (011) 595 8320

Classifieds Feb/Mar'2020.indd 96 Classifieds Aug/Sept'2020.indd 80

engelglobal.com/tie-bar-less

2020/01/23 12:40 2020/07/28 13:21

WORLD NEWS

ENGEL presents next generation all-electric e-mac injection moulding machines

56 OCT / NOV 2020

Compact, flexible, cost-effective

clean-room environment.

IN October 2020, Engel presented the next generation of Engel has now reduced the footprint of the e-mac machines its all-electric e-mac injection moulding machine series in a even further. Thanks to an optimised toggle lever geometry, challenging application for the manufacture of pipette tips. the e-mac 265/180 is 450mm shorter than the previous Offering maximum flexibility for individual customer 180-ton version, without reducing the opening stroke. requirements, the e-mac is now even more All movements of the Engel e-mac – including compact.

Engel’s the nozzle movement and ejection – are The quality of pipette tips largely depends e-mac all-electric performed by servo-electric drives. This means on the precision of the injection process. At injection moulding that the machine achieves very high overall the same time, the long cores in the mould machine combines efficiency. If required, a servo-hydraulic unit require absolutely precise movements of can be integrated into the machine frame the mould mounting platens during opening high output and energy without requiring additional space. and closing. All-electric injection moulding efficiency with an machines are therefore the preferred extremely compact Fully automated on the smallest footprint solution in this application segment, where machine design.

The e-mac 180 demonstrated the performance cost-effectiveness is a decisive factor in of the next generation machine with the production choosing a machine. Engel’s e-mac all-electric of pipette tips made of polypropylene in a 64-cavity injection moulding machine combines high output precision mould by Tanner (Feuerthalen, Switzerland). The and energy efficiency with an extremely compact machine cycle time is six seconds, which is exactly the range in which design, ensuring the lowest possible unit costs even in a

BOY to launch insert moulding machine BOY’s insert moulding machine with increased clamping force The BOY 60 EVV

BOY is to offer a new version of its insert moulding machine with an increased clamping force of 600Kn. The BOY 60 EVV machine, which will be available at the end of 2020, will take over from the previous 550Kn model to become BOY’s largest vertical injection moulding machine.

“The increased clamping force is

initially only available for the BOY 60 EVV with injection unit SP 215 (maximum stroke volume of 166.3 cm3)” explained Martin Kaiser, head of mechanical design at BOY. BOY’s three smaller injection units – SP 56, SP 69 and SP 82 – will also be available for this model, according to Kaiser. Overmoulding of insert

An e-mac 265/180 produced these pipette tips

Meraxis to cooperate with polymer manufacturer MOL

SWISS trading group Meraxis and Central and Eastern European oil, gas and petrochemical company MOL Group, are entering into a strategic partnership. They will be joining forces to forge ahead with the development and production of polyolefin re-compounds in the future.

The aim is to develop and produce high-quality recyclebased compounds and then distribute them worldwide.

Meraxis will supply MOL Group with high-quality, post-consumer recycled materials going forward to be blended with MOL virgin polyolefin resins. Using the combined compounding knowledge of Meraxis and MOL Group, a new product portfolio will be developed and firstly it is planned to be produced at Aurora Kunststoffe GmbH, a member of MOL Group in Germany. www.moeller-pr.de

the e-mac machines fully play to their strengths.

Automation makes an additional contribution to the very small footprint of the e-mac 180.. An Engel viper 20 linear robot removes the 64 pipette tips from the mould and transfers them to the integrated compact cell for cavity-sorted depositing. Engelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new automation cell can be custom designed.

www.engelglobal.com

with increased clamping force components of different sizes is easily possible with a total of eight different screw diameters, he added.

The four-tie bar BOY 60 E VV offers a table height of 975mm and access to the mould from all four sides.

It also features dimensions of 3.21m² and plenty of space on the rear machine frame for peripheral devices and accessory equipment. www.dr-boy.de/startseite/

INEOS Styrolution and Trinseo, global leaders in the manufacturing of polystyrene and other styrenic materials, are advancing plans to build the first-of-its-kind polystyrene recycling plant based on depolymerisation in Wingles in the north of France. The planned full commercial scale recycling facility will be capable of processing up to 50 tons a day of post-consumer polystyrene feedstock and is expected to be fully operational by mid-2023. During the conceptual design phase two technology concepts from Agilyx and Recycling Technologies will be evaluated with regards to quality, efficiency and adaptation to different waste streams. www.ineos-styrolution.com

Arburg welcomes 2000th apprentice

WITH a well-founded apprenticeship programme that has been awarded three certifications, Arburg has been making sustained investments in its future for over 70 years. This year, the Lossburg-based machine manufacturer is celebrating a very special milestone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the recruitment of its 2000th apprentice, Michael Gross. The budding engineering technician started his apprenticeship at Arburg on 1 September alongside a further 69 apprentices and students from BadenWuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW).

Arburg is continuing its apprenticeships unabated and enabling the 70 new apprentices taken on in 2020 to embark on a successful start to their working lives. The fact that Arburg takes on almost all of its apprentices and students each year as permanent employees is the result of careful strategic planning. While other companies have withdrawn apprenticeships, Arburg is planning to offer even more in 2021. www.arburg.com/en/gb/careers/apprenticeship

OCT / NOV 2020 57

Smart assistance boosts process consistency For the production of pipette tips, the production cell is equipped with the iQ weight control and iQ flow control smart assistance systems. iQ weight control readjusts the melt volume for each individual shot, ensuring consistently high quality. iQ flow control automatically adjusts temperature differences in the cooling water manifold circuit. This results in constant temperature control conditions and significantly improved energy efficiency, as the speed of the pumps in the Engel e-temp temperature control devices is also automatically managed to reflect requirements.

Ineos Styrolution, Trinseo plans for first PS recycling plant

WORLD NEWS

BASF launch first safety shoe for South America made with Infinergy

®

58 OCT / NOV 2020

High performance responsive material is featured in the midsole of the shoe THE leading Argentine footwear brand, Maincal partners, have worked with BASF to launch the first safety shoe in South America made with Infinergy®, Expanded Thermoplastic Polyurethane (E-TPU). Voran SportSafe, the new safety shoe series

by Maincal enables safety footwear users to move and work in comfort with all-day compression technology.

SportSafe Energy is designed for workers in automotive, food, logistics industries and other challenging work

areas that require exceptional comfort over long periods of time. The design is versatile, allowing individuals to wear the same pair of shoes to work and outside of a workplace.

BASF’s Elastopan is also used in the Ultragrip Sole technology, which provides greater adhesion and resistance to sliding on the most demanding surfaces. Ultralight® polyurethane is another element used in the technology bringing greater comfort, durability and lightness to

the shoe.

In addition to its sporty look and feel, SportSafe features an aluminum toe cap which is 40% lighter than traditional steel. It gives an additional safety component as it is highly visible and reflective. The design of its sole is inspired by natural foot movements offering greater stability while reducing fatigue. www.infinergy.basf.com

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Borealis acquires controlling stake in South Korean compounder

FOLLOWING long years of contractbottling, the smoothie and juice producer Innocent has decided to build the very first bottling plant of its own. Krones won the order for four complete PET bottling lines and the corresponding IT landscape. The paramount consideration for ‘the blender’, as Innocent has christened its greenfield project, was sustainability: the aim is to build an entirely CO2-neutral factory. Each of the four identical PET lines handles up to 32 000 containers an hour. The new plant has been tasked with filling about 400 million bottles of chilled drinks a year. In all, Innocent has invested approximately US$250 million in this project. www.krones.com

SABIC to expand capacity in Asia for resin used in copperclad laminates

SABIC intends to boost production capacity for its specialty Noryl™ SA9000 resin to support rapid growth of highperformance printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in 5G base stations and high-speed servers. This latest expansion, will nearly double regional production in Asia.

The incremental gain in capacity will help to reduce global lead times for manufacturers of high-performance copper-clad laminates (CCLs). The expansion project is currently underway in India, with completion expected by the end of 2020.

WE DRIVE THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

OCT / NOV 2020 59

BOREALIS has successfully acquired a controlling stake in South Korean compounder DYM Solution Co Ltd. The acquisition solidifies Borealis’ position as a partner of choice for global wire and cable customers. Based in Cheonan South Korea, DYM Solution Co Ltd. was founded in 1992 and is a provider of compound solutions for the global wire and cable industry.

It specialises in semi-conductive, halogen-free flame retardant (HFFR), rubber and silane cured compounds. www.borealisgroup.com

Krones building a CO2neutral bottling plant

VISIT OUR new virtuell showroom

ShowHello!

YOUR LOCAL EREMA CONTACT DEAN TOI (PTY) LTD dean@deantoi.co.za

Whether it is inhouse, postconsumer or bottle recycling: you can only close loops in a precise and profitable way if machines are perfectly tuned for the respective application.

Count on the number 1 technology from EREMA when doing so: over 6000 of our machines and systems produce around 14.5 million tonnes of high-quality pellets like this every year – in a highly efficient and energy-saving way.

CHOOSE THE NUMBER ONE.

WORLD NEWS

Eggersmann delivers recycling plant for world’s largest offshore industrial park

60 OCT / NOV 2020

Designed for throughput of 700 tons of commercial waste and 500 tons of household waste per day GERMAN recycling technology firm, Eggersmann Anlagenbau, has delivered a recycling plant in Dubai for commercial waste from the world’s largest offshore industrial park.

The company explained that it was commissioned with the engineering planning and construction of a recycling plant for industrial, commercial and household waste, with the original contract with Ramky Enviro Engineers Middle East signed in December 2017.

In addition to engineering design and planning, the scope of the order also included the procurement, manufacture and delivery of the entire plant technology and components as well as

assembly and commissioning.

The plant is operated by Farz, a joint venture between Ramky and Imdaad. It has been designed for a throughput of around 700 tons of commercial waste and 500 tons of household waste per day. The day-to-day industrial and commercial waste from the world’s largest offshore industrial park, Jafza Jebel Ali Free Zone, is processed in three stages.

In the material receiving area of the two-line plant, the material composition is assessed to determine whether the material must be pre-sorted as a first step or whether it can be forwarded directly for processing in the plant.

For commercial waste, pre-shredding is imperative due to the large number of bulky solids. Two Eggersmann TEUTON shredders are in use around the clock and process a total of around 1200 tons per day before passing on the material to the trommel screens that are also supplied by Eggersmann.

The screening operation is followed by separation of ferrous and nonferrous fractions as well as the sorting of plastics, cardboard and paper with NIR devices. Eggersmann ballistic separators then split the plastic fractions into flat and three-dimensional parts. Other infrared devices sort the three dimensional plastics into PET and HDPE.

ExxonMobil introduces new foamable PP New high melt strength (HMS) grade improves product stiffness up to 30% EXXONMOBIL has introduced new foamable Achieve Advanced PP6302E1, an easily and affordably processed sustainable solution for high volume applications, including food and beverage packaging, industrial packaging, building products, and automotive parts.

This new high melt strength (HMS) grade improves product stiffness by up to 30% compared to standard HMS PP foam, for significant cost reduction opportunities.

Olivier Lorge, global market development manager, polypropylene, Vistamaxx and adhesions business, said: “Historically, foam applications have been dominated by

amorphous polymers such as PS, PU and PVC. Foamed PP is a relatively recent advancement having been introduced only about 20 years ago, but it never gained much commercial traction. Customers can now challenge reality and rethink what’s possible for lightweight foamed PP parts in high volume applications.”

Achieve Advanced PP6302E1 is a viable alternative to PS foam, PFAs, and VOCs and monomer concerns (prop 65), which are being increasingly regulated.

Processable on existing PS foam lines with varied blowing agents, the new PP reduces material use while delivering

product integrity, and is recyclable in those communities where appropriate collection and recycling facilities exist.

“Converters, brand owners and OEMS can unlock opportunities in a range of applications that benefit from lightweighting and insulation while leveraging PP properties,” Lorge concluded. “As regulation and sustainability goals and preferences change, the food packaging industry is experiencing a shift from PS to PP, and it is a trend that is expected to continue.” www.exxonmobilchemical.com

Two Eggersmann stationary TEUTON shredders are in use around the clock and process a total of around 1200 tons of waste per day.

The recycled fractions of PET, HDPE, paper, cardboard, ferrous and non-ferrous are then pressed into bales and returned to the material cycle. The residue fine waste fractions are pressed into containers for subsequent disposal to landfill. The remaining high calorific value fraction is supplied to cement works for use as an alternative fuel (RDF).

The waste process, allows valuable recycling fractions of about 25 - 30% to be recovered, which correspondingly relieves the current landfill. The emissions of CO2 and CH4 also lowered considerably. At the same time, RDF is obtained, thus reducing the use of fossil fuels in the cement plants.

To allow for future options, there is an area for expansion on the plant site for a second plant of the same size.

ABOVE: View of the Dubai recycling plant shortly before the opening ceremony.

OCT / NOV 2020 61

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WORLD NEWS

ALPLA builds HDPE recycling plant in Mexico

ALPLA Group, a global specialist for packaging solutions and recycling, continues to pursue a strategy of expanding its recycling activities worldwide. The family-owned enterprise from Austria is now building a plant in Mexico for recycling HDPE. It is planned to produce 15 000 tons of post-consumer recycled material each year.

Alpla has acquired a property in Toluca, capital city of the State of México in the country’s centre.

Construction of a state-of-the-art recycling plant will commence on it in autumn 2020, with its launch planned for the second half of 2021.

The amount invested is roughly €15 million and 65 jobs will be created. The company will be run as a 100% subsidiary of Alpla. The target markets are primarily Mexico, neighbouring countries in Central America and the United States. www.alpla.com

PS producers in development agreement to advance circularity of PS

TO accelerate driving the circular economy for styrenics forward, three of the world’s leading polystyrene producers, AmSty, INEOS Styrolution and Trinseo signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to jointly explore recycling options for polystyrene.

This JDA represents the first global combined effort to explore advanced recycling technologies, optimize them for commercial use and call for all contributors along the value chain to make circularity of polystyrene a reality. The three companies are aiming at an economy where post-consumer polystyrene waste does not end up in landfills but is recognised as a valuable resource for the development of new materials for future use. www.ineos-styrolution.com 62 OCT / NOV 2020

NOW – ALPLA presents innovative refill packaging Container weighs only 10g when filled with 80ml liquid REFILL containers are becoming increasingly popular for cleaning products. The reasons why are plain to see: they are small and light, consume significantly less plastic, reduce freight expenses by up to 90% and let sophisticated spray bottles be reused. With NOW, Alpla is presenting an ideal packaging solution for concentrated cleaning chemicals.

Many cleaning products consist mostly of water. That is why it is a good idea both ecologically and economically to provide the active ingredients in a concentrated form.

The packaging solution consists of two elements: 1. A small bottle with liquid concentrate. The snap lid developed especially for it features a predetermined breaking point, yet it still seals the bottle safely.

2. Minimalist neck inset: the inset is inserted into the cleaner bottle and allows for an easy press through the predetermined breaking point. The neck inset remains in the neck of the bottle while the spray nozzle can be screwed back on without a problem.

The small bottle is plugged head first onto the cleaner bottle.

The concentrate flows safely and cleanly into the bottle after an audible click. The process is concluded by adding water.

NOW is ultra-lightweight.

The container weighs only 10g when filled with 80ml liquid, approximately half the weight of comparable competitor products for concentrates. Thanks to the light weight and minimal size, freight expenses are also reduced by up to 90% because more than 200,000 refill containers can be carried by a single truck.

NOW is made 100% HDPE. The empty container is fully recyclable and can be disposed of in the recycling sack or bin. Since the refill container is attached head first onto the cleaning product bottle, the remaining contents are discharged optimally. Recycled HDPE can be used to manufacture the refill container, making a bottle-tobottle life cycle possible.

www.alpla.com

Refill: The concentrate flows safely and cleanly into the bottle after an audible click

Our Winning Formula Sets Us Apart ELASTOMERS

PLASTICS & COMPOSITES

ACM CR EPDM Epichlorohydrin FKM HNBR HTV Silicone IR NBR NR PVC/NBR Blends SBR & BR

ABS Acetal Additives Composites CPE CSM EVA HIPS & GPPS Nylon PC PVC TPE & TPV TPU

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AUXILIARIES & SERVICES

Aluminas Antimony Products Blowings Agents Carbon Blacks Flame Retardents Hydrocarbon Resins Magnesium Oxide Masterbatches MC & PE Waxes Mineral Fillers Peroxides Process Aids Rubber Chemicals Silanes Silica Sulfur Zinc Oxide

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ANCHOR CHEMICALS Batch Off Bonding Systems Coated Powders Factice Masterbatching Process Aids Toll Mixing

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www.carst.co.za

Classifieds Oct/Nov'19.indd Apr/May'19.indd 92 92

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

diary

CHINAPLAS moves to Shenzhen for April 2021 debut

The Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Centre has 400 000m2 of indoor exhibition space that comprises 19 exhibition halls all located on the first floor

COMING UP

Embrace new economic development, seize opportunities in Greater Bay Area industries’ supply chains gradually returned to normal operations. In April, the year-onyear decline in the total output of plastic products narrowed, achieving a recovery of 8.6% from the previous month. In the battle against the pandemic, plastics played a key role in the production and supply of vital healthcare materials, personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and medical facility construction.

CHINAPLAS’ decision to move to Shenzhen also takes into account the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Centre, an ideal venue for a world-class trade show. Its 400 000m2 of indoor exhibition space comprises 19 exhibition halls all located on the first floor. It is worth noting that this is the world’s first exhibition centre with full 5G coverage.

THE 34th edition of CHINAPLAS has been rescheduled to 13-16 April 2021, at a new venue – Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Centre. This will be the first time that CHINAPLAS will be held in Shenzhen. The trade fair will alternate between Shenzhen (odd years) and Shanghai (even years) in the future, continuing to empower upstream and downstream plastics and rubber companies to uncover greater opportunities in the new phase of China’s economic development.

Shenzhen combines China’s market potential and its unique geographic advantages, and the upcoming CHINAPLAS will help to position the plastics and rubber industries to seize new growth opportunities.

Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is in a deep recession.

Facing downward pressure from foreign

trade, China’s State Council is redirecting the economic focus from export to a domestic-demand-driven model as the new normal. China’s 1.4-plus-billion population and 400-plus-million middle-income consumers represent the largest such grouping in the world, with consumption potential unmatched by any other economy.

Over the years, China’s plastics and rubber industries have laid a solid foundation and built strong resilience and continuity into the economy. Combined with continually emerging new trends and opportunities, all signs currently point to a positive outlook. In the first quarter, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and business shutdowns, the Chinese New Year off-season and other factors, China’s plastic products output dropped 22.9% from the same year-ago period. Production resumed in April in an orderly way, and

Composites for Europe 2020

Pacprocess Middle East & Manufacturing Indaba Africa in December 2021 will be virtual

NEW name, new concept, new opportunities: Composites Europe becomes Composites for Europe from 9-11 November will see the business summit for composite materials take off with a new format and fresh ideas. The event takes place in Stuttgart, Germany.

“The market is changing. With Composites for Europe we are opening up a new chapter and actively coshaping current developments in the industry,” says Goetz-Ulf Jungmichel, Event Director at organiser Reed Exhibitions. The event wants to provide the industry with guidance especially on its way towards automation and for rising to the challenges of digitalisation on the continuously promising Germanspeaking markets. www.composites-europe.com

PACPROCESS MEA 2020, the international exhibition for processing & packaging in the Middle East and Africa, is a comprehensive exhibition addressing the requirements of the food, beverage, confectionery, bakery, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, non-food, and industrial goods sectors in the Middle East and Africa. The exhibition brings together local and international industry stakeholders to showcase cutting-edge technologies and forge lucrative partnerships.

It has been postponed to take place in December 2021, in Cairo, Egypt. www.pacprocess-mea.com

64 OCT / NOV 2020

www.ChinaplasOnline.com

AFTER consultation with industry partners and taking into account the latest government guidelines and regional travel restrictions, it has been decided to present the 2020 Manufacturing Indaba (9-10 December) as a virtual event. Attendance will be free of charge. The main goal, obviously, is to allow companies and attendees to interact safely with each other.

All the provincial Manufacturing Indaba events and the East Africa edition have been postponed to the second half of 2021. www.manufacturingindaba.co.za

Open house with innovative applications and ‘smart’ products THE new premises of Arburg’s new Italian subsidiary in Peschiera Borromeo was officially opened on 30 September. With managing directors Gerhard Böhm and Guido Frohnhaus as well as Stephan Doehler, Arburg’s European sales director, prominent guests from the Arburg parent company were in attendance.

At the subsequent Open House event on 1-2 October, around 200 guests had the opportunity to experience innovative machines and applications live and to gather comprehensive information about ‘smart’ digital products and services.

The Arburg subsidiary in Italy has remodelled its building in Peschiera Borromeo and also expanded it by 80%. Covering some 2 000m2 of floor space, the new premises offer more space not only for intensive customer support and training, but also for larger conferences and events.

The larger showroom now offers space for up to 10 Allrounder injection moulding machines, presenting a broad cross-section of the Arburg portfolio. Customers can test their own moulds on various hydraulic, hybrid and electric Allrounders, for example.

The training area was expanded

by around 30% and now covers 114m2.

One highlight of the current open house event was a ‘green’ application around an Allrounder 270 S compact, processing the IamNature® organic material from partner, Maip Group. The energyefficient and compact machine produced salad servers from this innovative organic compound.

An electric Allrounder 370 E Golden Electric demonstrated how highly flexible production can be realised without conversions and non-standard sequences.

The exhibit alternately produced magnetic gears and rotors.

Magnetisation of the compound took place directly in the mould.

The example demonstrated that it is possible to work with two injection and mould programmes without additional programming effort, even on standard machines.

An electric high-performance Allrounder 470 A produced doorstops made of Kreiburg TPE thermoplastic® K, which possesses a particularly low specific weight.

This injection moulding application illustrated how choosing suitable materials can reduce part weight and cycle time. www.arburg.com

During the Arburg Open House, the guests were able to see the performance of the Arburg technology

2020 ENGEL live e-xperience: 13-16 October www.tig-mes.com Fakuma 2020: 13-20 October Virtual, www.fakuma.basf.com ICIS World Polyolefins Conference 2-5 November: Virtual – online www.icisevents.com Chemical Recycling Conference 3-4 November Marriott Hotel, Hamburg, Germany www.ami.ltd/chemrecycling Composites for Europe: 9-11 November Exhibition Centre Stuttgart, Germany www.composites-europe.com BrauBeviale: 10-12 November Nuremberg, Germany www.braubeviale.de Potential of Thermoplastic Composites 17-18 November, Frankfurt, Germany www.avk-tv.de/ PETnology Europe 2020: 24-26 November Virtual, www.petnology.com Wire & Tube 2020: 7-11 December Düsseldorf Fairgrounds, Germany www.wire.de

EVENTS

Arburg Italy opening event receives great response

Manufacturing Indaba: 9-10 December Virtual, www.manufacturingindaba.co.za

2021 Interplastica: 26-29 January Moscow, Russia, www.interplastica.de Interpack 2021: 25 Feb-3 March Düsseldorf, Germany, www.interpack.com Africa Energy Indaba Exhibition: 2-3 March, CTICC, Cape Town www.africaenergyindaba.com ChinaPlas: 13-16 April Shenzhen, China www.chinaplasonline.com IMPC: 18-22 April Cape Town, www.impc2020.com WAITEX: 20-22 April Accra, Ghana, www.waitex.com.gh

Propak East Africa 2021: 18-20 May Sarit Exhibition Centre, Nairobi, Kenya www.propakeastafrica.com Propak Cape: 8-10 June CTICC, Cape Town, www.propakcape.co.za

OCT / NOV 2020 65

PLAST 2021: 4-7 May Milan, Italy, www.plastonline.org

diary

reliable technology & digital service for the beverage industry Digital systems prevent downtime and production loss BY taking part in BrauBeviale from 10-12 November at the Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg, KHS demonstrates that a trade show can also be successful for exhibitors even under difficult circumstances.

The exhibition focus will be on KHS’ new and further developments in filling technology, especially those for the can and glass bottle segments. The KHS Group will also be presenting its broad portfolio of digital services that give customers numerous benefits, particularly in view of the current social and travel restrictions.

A conscious decision has been made not to exhibit any machinery to adhere to the hygiene and social distancing

rules currently in force.

With its further developments for beverage cans KHS is meeting the growing market demand for this container segment.

For instance, the KHS Innofill Can DVD can now fill beverages while they are warm. Another important upgrade is the new pneumatic lowering device for the centering bells that further

arburg Technology days 2021 66 OCT / NOV 2020

More than 93 000 invited guests from around 50 countries since 1999 THE Arburg Technology Days have been a unique and firmly established event in the international world of plastics since 1999. In 2020, due to the coronavirus and with significant foresight at the time, Arburg cancelled the event to avoid exposing visitors and employees to risk.

Arburg has decided to host next year’s Technology Days from 9 to 12 June 2021.

“Welcoming around 6 000 visitors every year, the Technology Days are a hallmark that Arburg is famous for all over the world,” explains Juliane Hehl,

who is responsible for the marketing department in her role as managing partner.

Although things continue to be very unclear at the current time, the company is anticipating that the situation around the epidemic will be more positive by June 2021 and that once the cold and flu season is over, the event and its proven successful concept will be able to go ahead.

Since 1999, more than 93 000 invited guests from around 50 countries have attended the Technology Days, some Nobody had even heard of corona in 2019: around 30 exhibits and applications in the Customer Centre gave visitors to the Technology Days an overview of the depth and breadth of Arburg’s portfolio of machines and processes

50% of whom have been first-time visitors. The four-day event at the company’s headquarters in Lossburg owes much of its success to a unique mix of theory and practice. More than 50 exhibits featuring applications from all sectors of industry demonstrate the entire range of Arburg’s products and services. They include new innovations, the machine and robot system portfolio with its turnkey systems, numerous processes and digital products, as well as pre-sales and after-sales service.

The Efficiency Arena – the stage which showcases the highlights of the event – is a major attraction for visitors.

There are also expert presentations, tours of the site and – last but by no means least – opportunities for visitors to engage in personal dialogue with Arburg representatives.

www.arburg.com

Innofill Can DVD - The optimized version of the Innofill Can DVD has a pneumatic lowering device for the centering bells. This provides significant benefits with regard to the standard of hygiene

expanding its portfolio for the filling of sensitive beverages such as beer and fruit juice. The long-tube filler is especially convincing here with its high degree of flexibility and modular design.

boosts the standard of hygiene already inherent on the can filler. ‘Little brother’ Innofill Can C, on the other hand, has had its production capacity optimized. Instead of 5,000 to 15,000 cans an hour, the machine can now process up to 50 000 containers in the same time.

Furthermore, with its Innofill Glass platform KHS is

Digital systems prevent production loss When social distancing and travel restrictions greatly hamper the maintenance and repair of machinery, creative solutions are called for.

Thanks to its proven ReDiS remote diagnostic service and augmented reality service KHS also reliably helps its customers to remedy faults quickly and directly by remote access – without a KHS service engineer having to be on site. The digital monitoring of entire lines is just as smart, this made possible by the web-based Basic Line Monitoring software that assesses the line’s efficiency and pinpoints any possible errors. The German turnkey supplier also proves a reliable partner to its clients with its 24/7 Service HelpDesk.

This is available round the clock for spare parts inquiries and to process any technical problems that might arise. www.khs.com

Interplastica 2021

INTERPLASTICA 2021, the international trade fair for plastics and rubber, will be held again at the AO Expocentre in Krasnaja Presnja in Moscow from 26-29 January 2021. To guarantee the highest degree of safety for exhibitors, visitors, partners and employees, Messe Düsseldorf Moscow is currently developing a comprehensive hygiene and infection protection concept in close coordination with the operator of the exhibition centre and in compliance with the hygiene regulations in force in that country to be employed at interplastica.

Alongside machinery, raw materials and equipment the focus will again be on the circular economy and recycling themes in the coming year. The Recycling Solutions segment featuring highly specialised enterprises was received very well at its debut during the previous interplastica and will also be continued in 2021 with accompanying discussion forums revolving around waste management and circular economy.

Beyond this, innovative technologies for all sectors of plastics processing will be showcased not only at the exhibitors’ stands but also addressed in the lectures and discussions at the Polymer Plaza and as part of the special show 3D fab+print Russia. Experts here will again pick up on current developments and additive manufacturing possibilities in technical talks and demonstrations. www.interplastica.de

OCT / NOV 2020 67

• •

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

•

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Polyolefins Reworked and Repaletised Materials Official distributor for Politem on PA6, PA66 unfilled and filled compounds

diary

NPE2021 sees overwhelming interest and enthusiasm

68 OCT / NOV 2020

NPE2021 returns to the Orange County Convention Centre (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida from 17-21 May 2021.

Every three years, NPE offers the plastics industry a global platform to highlight innovation throughout the industry across a show floor that features more than 112 000m2 of exhibit space. With 2 100+ exhibitors spotlighting the latest technologies, equipment and machinery, materials, and processes across 13 distinct technology zones, including 3D/4D printing, bottling, robotics and automation, and flexible and rigid packaging,

this is the show the industry won’t want to miss.

As the plastics industry continues to help in the fight against COVID-19, NPE will highlight both transformed manufacturing processes and redesigned supply chain operations that deliver personal protective equipment to healthcare workers. The trade show will also feature the latest evolutions in MedTech and 3D/4D printing that are keeping first responders and frontline workers safe against the coronavirus. www.NPE.org

KZN Industrial Technology Expo next year

Asian PUs event rescheduled to July 2021

UTECH Middle East / Africa foam & expo in Dubai

KZN’s premier trade show for the industrial technology sector, will take place from 21–23 July 2021. The KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Technology Exhibition (KITE) next year promises to once again be the conduit for the province’s best-of-breed industrial technology solutions.

The Expo brings together leading suppliers and manufacturers with a captive audience that has the express desire to source and secure productivity-enhancing solutions. A launchpad for hundreds of industry-changing products and services over the past 38 years, KITE is the perfect medium for suppliers of industrial technology to directly address their potential customers. www.kznindustrial.co.za

THE PU China/UTECH Asia show, the Asian region’s leading polyurethanes exhibition, has been rescheduled to take place from 28-30 July 2021 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Centre. The event had originally been due take place in July.

Connecting suppliers and buyers from across the polyurethane industry for three days of networking, learning and identifying new business opportunities, PU China/ UTECH Asia attracts both Chinese and global names in the PU market, with exhibitors including Cannon, Concentrol, Covestro, DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts, Ekosystem, Krauss Maffei, Milliken, Momentive, Solvay, Tosoh, Wanhua and others. www.puchina.eu

The new exhibition and conference for the polyurethane industry in the Middle East and Africa, has been rescheduled to 26-28 October 2021, at the Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The exhibition had been due to run in March 2021, but has been postponed due to the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic. As well as the change of dates, the organisers have announced the addition of a co-located show, Adhesives Sealants & Bonding Expo, also organised

by Crain Communications and Media Fusion. Adhesives play an important role in mattress production and the inaugural show runs with an additional adhesives special feature area. www.mefpu.com

www.fdt-africa.com

SA food & beverage sector could emerge from pandemic stronger than before Businesses forced to pivot and innovate have the potential to drive surge of industry development THE COVID-19 pandemic has forced mindset changes and innovation that could improve local food and beverage businesses, and could even catalyse innovation and growth in future. This is according to exhibitors and experts on the advisory board of food & drink technology Africa, the food and beverage industry’s trade show and conference to take place from 13-15 July 2021 at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, outside Johannesburg.

Delivering an overview of the latest developments, innovations and technologies in the food and beverage industry, this event is the optimum business platform of its sector. food & drink technology Africa is colocated with IFAT Africa, the leading trade fair for water, sewage, refuse and recycling, and analytica lab Africa, the only trade fair for laboratory technology, analysis, biotechnology and diagnostics in South Africa.

While the pandemic and restrictions dealt a blow to revenues for three months, businesses that pivoted fast and marketed themselves well have managed to cushion the blows, and now have the potential to emerge from lockdown stronger than before.

Suzette Scheepers, CEO of food & drink technology Africa organisers Messe Muenchen South Africa, says

Solutions for fine mesh straining, processing of rubber compounds UTH GmbH of Germany presented its latest cost-cutting and resource-saving solutions for the processing of rubber materials at RubberTech China in Shanghai in September, which surprisingly went ahead, even though with less popularity than was the case before.

Uth presented its latest range of products, including a further developed Roll-Ex® fine mesh straining system, a brand-new Dual Drive concept as well as a TRP Reworker, an innovative technology for the economical reworking of material in rubber processing. The innovation of the Dual Drive development is that of significantly reducing wear and tear of the rotors of the gear pump when handling abrasive compounds. This increases long-term productivity of the machines by prolonging lifetime and also cuts maintenance and servicing costs.

www.UTH-gmbh.com

active marketing will remain key to business growth in the short to medium term. “Businesses have to highlight their value propositions now more than ever before. Channels such as social media and trade events are crucial for building communities of loyal customers.”

JBee Steyn, national sales manager at SMC Corporation, believes that many local manufacturers are now planning to fast-track their plant modernisation programmes. “Efficiency and energy saving has become very important for everyone, and it appears that during lockdown, many people found time to analyse data and calculate the ROI on modernisation and energy efficiency,” says.

Ecolab a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, reports that the stringent new health and safety standards being implemented as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic are set to improve food production standards in the long term.

Source productivity-enhancing industrial technology solutions at KITE 2021 KZN’S premier trade show for the industrial technology sector, Kwazulu-Natal Industrial Technology Exhibition, takes place next year from 21-23 July 2021 at the Durban Exhibition Centre.

The expo brings together leading suppliers and manufacturers with the express desire to source and secure productivity-enhancing solutions. A launchpad for hundreds of industry-changing products and services over the past 38 years, KITE is the perfect medium for suppliers of industrial technology to directly address their potential customers.

The expo brings multiple suppliers together under one roof over three days to help equip businesses with tools to grow, and is a showcase for a multitude of tried and tested industrial technology solutions. Also on offer is the free-to-attend content-rich information seminar sessions at the SAIMechE Seminar Theatre.

Visitors are drawn to the show by its unrivalled showcase of the latest industry products, equipment and services, including: • electronic components • packaging and plastics machinery • heavy machinery • hygiene products and services • industrial equipment and components • IT and telecommunications manufacturing equipment • materials handling • monitoring, process control and sensors • security equipment • workwear and protective equipment • plant and facility equipment • safety equipment and machinery, tools & industrial services www.kznindustrial.co.za

OCT / NOV 2020 69

books

AMI predicts a positive future for global chemical recycling sector AMI Consulting has published its brand-new report on the global chemical recycling industry. The report provides a comprehensive view of the current status of chemical recycling of commodity polymers, market drivers, growth dynamics as well as a forecast for future development.

AMI Consulting’s study “Chemical Recycling – Global Status 2020”, quantifies the global market for chemical recycling in terms of the amount of plastic waste chemically recycled by region, polymer and technology through to 2030. It also quantifies the amount of post-consumer plastic waste potentially available for chemical recycling. Key trends and various factors affecting the market are discussed in depth, and the activities of main players currently active in the market reviewed.

70 OCT / NOV 2020

Practical concentrate WHY complicate things when you can make them simple? Colourants and flavours for beverages are often not directly mixed with water and prefabricated, readyto-use syrup concentrates are used instead. In the production of plastics, too, so-called masterbatches – granules with a high concentration of colourants, other additives, or fillers – are preferred to powders, pastes, or liquid additives.

Premixed concentrates with precisely defined properties facilitate processing and increase process reliability: colour masterbatches contain pigments or dyes; additive masterbatches specifically modify other properties of plastics. A wide variety of additives can be combined, for example stabilizers, antioxidants, antistatics, or flame retardants. Ceresana is now publishing the second, completely revised edition of its market study on masterbatches: the global demand for plastic masterbatches is expected to rise to almost 4.5 million tons by 2027.

www.ceresana.com/en/market-studies/plastics/masterbatches/

AMI Consulting estimates, that global plastic post-consumer waste volumes were 215 million tons in 2019, of which just over 10% was recycled. Chemical recycling of plastics is a promising approach to meet the recycling targets, and to introduce a circular economic model to plastics manufacturing. With

chemical recycling, the plastic material can be turned back into a polymeric feedstock. Chemical recycling enables the recycling of plastic materials that cannot currently be mechanically recycled, including contaminated, multilayer and mixed plastics

www.ami.international

Figure 1: Chemical Recycling by Region, 2030

Free eBook leverages analytics to improve manufacturing process

TOMRA Recycling publishes eBook unveiling potential of connected machines

INDUSTRY 4.0 fuelled by innovative processes, emerging roles, and next-generation technologies is having a transformative impact on manufacturing. Progressive manufacturers are harnessing data for deep, actionable insight to improve production processes, making them transparent, proactive, agile, and even optimised.

If you are interested in improved asset uptime, reduced warranty costs, and increased manufacturing throughput, then this eBook, Lifecycle Insights, chief analyst and researcher, Chad Jackson, provides executives with insight into the smart manufacturing transformation, highlighting the key elements that make it a reality.

Download the eBook, sponsored by Altair, for expert insights from industry analysts and actionable next steps at:

CONNECTED machines and cloudbased data storage is transforming how businesses collect, access and analyze data. The recycling industry is at the advent of discovering the power of data reported by connected optical sorting equipment. This capability is ushering in a new era of data-driven process optimization suggests the new eBook, “Digitalization – Connect to Enhance Productivity in the Recycling Industry,” from a global leader in sensor-based sorting, TOMRA Sorting Recycling.

The free-to-download eBook examines that stored service reports, spare parts orders and product manuals improve machine maintenance efficiency. It also peers into the not-so-distant-future where leveraged production data, combined with advanced analytics, will result in the development of new sorting technologies and processes that will improve sorting efficiency and boost final product purity. To download your free copy visit:

https://web.altair.com/leveraging-analytics-to-improve-the-manufacturing-process-ebook

www.solutions.tomra.com/ digitalization-ebook

Classifieds Oct/Nov'2020.indd 71

2020/10/13 13:42

sports

DsM enables groundbreaking protective cycling jersey for tour de France Offers cyclists effective abrasion protection at speeds up to 60km/h

DUTCH company, Royal DSM, says that Dyneema® is driving the performance of Team Sunweb’s protective cycling jerseys in the 2020 Tour de France.

Together with its partners, Team Sunweb and Craft Sportswear, DSM has helped to deliver a jersey that, when combined with a protective baselayer, offers cyclists effective abrasion protection at speeds up to 60km/h, while also reducing the severity of open wounds at even higher speeds.

Cycling jerseys can support riders by enabling protection for a large portion of the body, while allowing for moisture transport to the surface and offering low thermal resistance. However, cycling jerseys made with conventional materials offer limited protective performance.

“Being 15 times stronger than steel

on a weight for weight basis, Dyneema fibre offers an excellent solution to increasing the abrasion resistance of a fabric, reducing the severity of road rash in case of a crash, without compromising the rider weight or comfort,” states Piet Rooijakkers, head of R&D Team Sunweb “What’s more, the new jersey can form part of a modular protection solution, where riders can easily take off or put on layers according to race and weather conditions. In this way, the new jersey will support our riders significantly in the Tour de France and beyond.”

DSM introduced the world’s first-ever bio-based HMPE fibre in May 2020. Biobased Dyneema fibre offers the same exact performance as conventional Dyneema with a carbon footprint that is 90% lower than generic HMPE.

DSM enables ground-breaking protective cycling jersey with Dyneema fabric for Tour de France

www.dsm.com

Sports floorings with CO2 COVESTRO has worked with Shandong INOV New Materials Co, a materials manufacturer and engineering contractor of plastics sport floorings, to complete the laying of a walkway using CO2-based material Cardyon at Covestro’s Asia-Pacific Innovation Centre in Shanghai. The carbon dioxide for the walkway is contained in a binder, or more precisely, in one of its components, a so-called polyol named Cardyon which was developed by Covestro to synthesize plastics. The 66-metre-long and 1.2-metre-wide walkway uses polyurethane adhesive based on Cardyon, as well as the molecular structure design by INOV. It features outstanding elasticity and flatness, which brings more comfort. The walkway material has high yellowing resistance, with lasting colour.

So far, Cardyon has been used to produce soft polyurethane foam for mattresses and upholstered furniture, as well as sports floorings in the hockey facility of a renowned sports club in Germany.

72 OCT / NOV 2020

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