Thermo Haake, Prism form Thermo Prism
PARAMUS, N.J. - Testing instrument maker Thermo Haake has acquired Prism Ltd., a United Kingdom-based supplier of laboratory-sized twin-screw extruders.
The company in Staffordshire, England, has been renamed Thermo Prism and organized into Thermo Haake's Polymer Technology Business Unit. Terms were not disclosed.
Thermo Prism has introduced a new compounding extruder with screw diameters of 16 millimeters, called USALAB. A horizontally split barrel has a length-to-diameter ratio of 40-to-1. A quick-release clamshell design gives easy access to the screws.
Thermo Haake, which is based in Paramus, is part of Thermo Electron Corp. of Waltham, Mass. The company makes rheometers, lab scale mixing and extrusion equipment, temperature controllers, viscometers and other equipment.
Davis-Standard works toward getting `lean'
PAWCATUCK, CONN. - Davis-Standard Corp. is working with the Connecticut State Technology Extension Program to establish lean manufacturing at its factories.
Under lean manufacturing, the Pawcatuck machinery maker is developing practices to continuously improve internal efficiencies, add value and benefit customers. Initially, Davis-Standard has implemented the system at its gear case production area, with a goal of cutting production time in half.
Davis-Standard wants to expand lean manufacturing throughout its entire manufacturing process.
The company makes extrusion systems, blow molding machines and wire and cable coating equipment.
Brucker stretch film lines popular in China
SIEGSDORF, GERMANY - Brucker Maschinenbau GmbH, a supplier of biaxially oriented stretch film production lines from Siegsdorf, has sold machines to several major Chinese film manufacturers.
Wujin Jin-Shi, a major masterbatch producer in China, has ordered a five-layer specialty film line.
Wuxi Kuanyo ordered a 27-foot-wide biaxially oriented polypropylene line, which Brucker claims is the biggest BOPP line running in China. That deal led to several more sales of 27-foot-wide, five-layer lines, to Hefei Guofeng and Siulam Wing Ning.
Jason International buys RoboTrim router
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - Jason International Inc., which makes whirlpool baths and showers, has purchased a RoboTrim router from Robotic Production Technology.
Because Jason makes products one at a time, employees are required to trim more than 50 bath models, with parts constantly changing as they come down the line. The computer numerically controlled router, a Fanuc robot, works with a bar coding system set up by RPT that lets the robot read the code on each part, then run the correct program.
RTP engineers integrated a tool changer with six spindles to hold the drills, routers and saws.
RTP, of Auburn Hills, also gave the router touch-sensing capability to locate the placement or a part and adjust its work accordingly.
Eprotec launches first U.S. sales office
INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. - Eprotec Polymer Processing Technology has established a sales office in Indian Trail.
The three-person sales staff is the company's first branch into the United States from Regensdorf, Switzerland, where the firm makes pumps. Components will not be manufactured at the U.S. facility, said Patrick Wait, who is in charge of engineering/applications.
The domestic arm, Eprotec Americas, officially launched May 1, when it began selling pump systems produced by the Swiss parent company, he said. Eprotec plans to order auxiliary components from companies in the United States, Wait said in a June 22 telephone interview.
He did not disclose the company's sales or its investment in the U.S. expansion.
