Maryland Thermoform buys Rapid unit BALTIMORE — Maryland Thermoform Corp. acquired the custom thermoforming business of Rapid Industrial Plastics Inc.
Larry Rauch, who joined Maryland Thermoforming from Rapid Industrial, said the acquired business has sales of more than $2 million a year. Rauch, Maryland Thermoforming sales representative for the northeast United States, was sales manager for Rapid Industrial.
Rapid Industrial is moving its horticultural thermoforming business to an undisclosed location in Mexico. It will keep its headquarters and thermoforming equipment for custom work in Jersey City, N.J. It already has begun production in Mexico, according to Rauch.
Rapid Industrial has offices in Houston and in Chino, Calif., from which it will distribute horticultural products. The private firm also distributes resins.
Maryland Thermoform of Baltimore will strengthen its presence in the Northeast with the purchase of the Rapid Industrial custom business, the firm's operations manager, Jim Branham, said in a news release. Maryland Thermoform finalized the deal May 1.
PFB purchases Insulation Industries
CALGARY, ALBERTA — PFB Corp. plans to increase its expanded polystyrene foam business by acquiring Insulation Industries Inc.
Insulation Industries had sales of about C$2 million (US$1.3 million) last year. PFB agreed to pay C$955,000 (US$635,000) for the firm and expects to complete the deal June 9.
PFB President C. Alan Smith said his company plans to keep running Insulation Industries' Calgary plant. PFB operates an EPS plant in nearby Crossfield, Alberta, where it also produces EPS resin. PFB's other EPS insulation plants are in Vancouver, British Columbia; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Kitchener and Ajax, Ontario.
PFB will buy the operation from Nascor Inc. of Calgary. Smith said in a telephone interview from PFB's headquarters in Calgary that PFB will continue to supply EPS insulation to Nascor after the purchase.
Nascor makes a range of construction products, including prefabricated walls containing EPS insulation it sources from Insulation Industries. Smith said the latter firm also has other customers.
Nascor President Richard Dettbarn said in a news release that PFB's acquisition will expand customer service and technical support for Insulation Industries.
Fire at Bayer may slow PC shipments
PITTSBURGH — Polycarbonate product shipments may be delayed as a result of a May 31 fire at Bayer Corp.'s Baytown, Texas, plant.
No injuries or environmental impacts were reported. Production at the plant, which employs 200 and produces 400 million pounds of PC annually, has been shut down as Bayer assesses the situation. No expected start-up date has been released.
The cause of the 9:40 a.m. fire was unknown as of June 2. It was described as "a smoldering electrical fire" in a Bayer news release.
The fire was confined to a room where pigments and additives are prepared. The plant's fire brigades extinguished the fire with help from the Baytown Fire Department.
FDA honors SPI counsel with award
WASHINGTON — Jerome Heckman, the general counsel of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., has received an award from the Food and Drug Administration for his development of a new food-packaging approval program.
The pre-market notification program, enacted by Congress in 1997, shortens approval time for new food packaging from several years to 120 days. Heckman conceived of the program, according to a news release from Washington-based SPI.
Heckman will receive the Special Citation Award during a June 23 ceremony sponsored by the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. An FDA letter said Heckman got the award for "sustained and successful participation in the establishment of a new, fully funded system for FDA's approval of food-contact substances."
Heckman said he was "thrilled" by the award, and said an FDA official told him he is the first person outside of the agency to receive a Special Citation.
