The following news items were compiled by reporter Bill Bregar at the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. Composites Institute's annual exposition, held Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Cincinnati.
Pultruder Omniglass names new officers
Omniglass International, a Canadian pultruder, has named two composites industry consultantsas officers: Jeff Martin, president and managing director; and Joseph Sumerak, technical director.
Laurie Da-vies, who made the announcement at the Composites Institute conference in Cincinnati, will continue as chief executive officer.
Martin and Sumerak founded pultrusion machinery maker Pultrusion Technology Inc. in 1981. That firm, in Twinsburg, Ohio, has been renamed PTI.
Both men will continue to run their consulting businesses in northeast Ohio: Martin at Composite Window Technologies Inc. of Hudson and Sumerak at Pultrusion Dynamics Inc. of Oakwood Village.
Omniglass International is affiliated with Omniglass Ltd. of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Also in Cincinnati, Omniglass announced it signed an agreement to license its technology to Spilka Composites of Alesund, Norway. Spilka will make window profiles.
Davies also said Omniglass will supply its licensees with Dura-pul-brand pultrusion machines designed for the Omniglass technology, which manufactures thin-walled, complex profiles at high speeds.
BMC Corelyn makes coloful tableware
A revised specification should open the door to colorful composite dishes for federal civilian and military employees.
The new spec for plastic tableware should be approved by April. It includes a new classification based on an isopolyester bulk molding compound called CoreLyn, produced by Bulk Molding Compounds Inc. of St. Charles, Ill. BMC custom compounds CoreLyn using isopolyester resin supplied by Aristech Chemical Corp. of Pittsburgh. Aristech bases the resin on purified isophthalic acid from Amoco Chemical Co. of Chicago.
BMC and Kenro Inc., a custom molder in Fredonia, Wis., proposed the material to the federal General Services Administration.
Asian companies buy CPE pultruders
Composite Process Equipment Inc., a pultrusion machine maker in Haslet, Texas, said it sold six pultruders, nine forming dies and a roll mat slitter to Jixi Window & Door Co. of Jixi, China.
The equipment can produce more than 22,000 feet of pultrusions per shift, CPE said.
CPE also sold one pultruder to Shinsei Co. of Osaka, Japan, to make tent poles.
Magazines target composites market
Show attendees learned about two new composites magazines.
Denver-based Ray Publishing Inc. will debut Composites Technology with its May/June issue. The magazine, which will come out every other month, will be distributed to 25,000 readers who work with glass-fiber-reinforced plastics in the transportation, construction, electrical/electronic, marine, corrosion-resistant, appliance, business equipment and other markets.
According to Publisher Judith Ray Hazen, Composites Technology is a sister publication to Ray Publishing's other magazine, High-Performance Composites, which is aimed at products made with more-advanced fibers such as carbon and aramid.
Ray Publishing was born in 1993 when several staff members left Advanced Composites, Advanstar Communications Inc.'s composites magazine. Advanced Com folded in 1994.
The other new publication, Composite Profile, is published quarterly by the European Pultrusion Technology Association, based in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. By 1996, the magazine will have a controlled circulation of 850 people, worldwide.
PPG Industries buys glass-fiber factory
PPG Industries Inc. of Pittsburgh announced plans to purchase a glass-fiber factory in Chester, S.C.
PPG will purchase the Chester plant of Glass Fiber Technologies, which ceased production in 1986 after operating briefly.
The plant's annual production capacity will be about 50 million to 60 million pounds of glass fibers, according to John Horgan, PPG senior vice president. Horgan said production will begin in the spring of 1996.
PPG approved $50 million for the plant, its third glass-fiber plant in North America.
PPG also announced plans to commercialize more than a dozen new products for composites, including mat and roving for pultrusion, three new types of chopped strand for the thermoplastic polyester market, reinforcements for weavers and knitters, a chopped-strand mat for hand layup and roving for sheet molding compound processors.
Fibrex snowplow uses Dow Derakane
Cities where metal snowplows tear up the roads, take note: A Canadian company has fabricated a lightweight, all-composite snowplow for the Quebec Ministry of Transportation.
The snowplow, made by Fibrex Fibre de Verre Inc. of Terrebonne, Quebec, weighs 2,200 pounds less than a steel plow, while retaining strength and rigidity, the company said. Primary load-bearing components, the front plow, side wing and thrust frame, are made using Derakane 8084 epoxy vinyl ester from Dow Plastics of Midland, Mich.
The snowplow was made by hand layup. Elliptical springs connecting the chassis to the front plow are filament wound.