Krauss-Maffei offers stock XS extruders
FLORENCE, KY. - Pipe extruders can change dimensions on a continuously running system, with the QuickSwitch offered by Krauss-Maffei Corp.
The company in Florence and its German parent also have a new range of lower-price XS extruders designed to be ordered from stock.
QuickSwitch can change pipe dimensions in a matter of minutes, without stopping the line. Normally in pipe extrusion, the line has to be stopped, the extrusion head and downstream equipment taken apart, replaced and adjusted, in a process that takes several hours.
Volker Kiel, vice president of technical operations, said a specially modified extrusion head uses a cone-shaped mandrel system driven by a servomotor that adjusts the wall thickness and pipe diameter.
One key feature is a calibrating basket, which consists of moveable segments whose inner surfaces form a smooth, circular inner wall. The inner radius of the calibrating basket can be changed, in a stepless fashion, with precision, Krauss-Maffei said.
Much of the ``on-the-fly'' technology was developed and tested jointly with German pipe extruder Egeplast Werner Strumann GmbH and Co. KG.
QuickSwitch comes in three versions, covering pipe diameters from 32-63 millimeters, 75-160mm and 160-250mm.
In other news, K-M is targeting the new XS extruders at standard pipe and profile applications at the lower end of the output range. The controller also runs downstream equipment. K-M is targeting profiles for automotive, furniture and lighting, plus coextruded, multilayer pipe.
Kiel also said Krauss-Maffei has expanded the range of its parallel twin-screw extruders to include more choices for the length-to-diameter ratio.
Resin distributor buys East Coast companies
NEWTON, MASS. - Resin distribution veteran James Duffy has purchased a pair of distribution firms on the East Coast.
Duffy acquired Goldmark Plastics International Inc. of New Hyde Park, N.Y., and Pro Resins Inc. of East Kingston, N.H., earlier this year. He has named the combined company Goldmark Distribution Inc. and moved its business office to Newton.
Duffy purchased Goldmark from Kenny Gross, who had founded the business along with two partners in 1957. Pro Resins founder Joe St. Martin retains a minority stake in the new firm.
The new Goldmark distributes a range of commodity resins and a smaller mix of engineering resins in the northeastern United States and Canada. The firm deals in prime and wide-spec material.
Duffy was a founder of Leominster, Mass.-based Performance Polymers. He and four other previous employees of Plastic Distribution Corp. of Ayer, Mass., launched Performance in 1988 and in the next decade grew the firm to almost $200 million in annual sales. He stayed with that firm - which was acquired by European distributor Ellis & Everard plc in 1998 and now is owned by Royal Vopak NV - until late 2002.
German firm picks site for N. America
CLARKSBURG, W.VA. - German polyurethane systems supplier Stockmeier Kunststoffe GmbH & Co. KG has selected Clarksburg for its first North American production site.
West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise joined Stockmeier representatives recently to announce the company's decision to settle in a 29,000-square-foot building in the Harrison County Business and Technology Centre near Clarksburg. The operation will employ as many as 25, the company said.
Bielefeld, Germany-based Stockmeier Kunststoffe chose West Virginia because of the proximity to its markets and key raw material suppliers, according to Managing Director Edwin Martinkat. He also lauded the state for its support.
Wise said Stockmeier's decision marks the first German investment in West Virginia since the state set up a European trade office in Munich in 1999.
Stockmeier Kunststoffe makes PU systems for coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers, castings and binders for industries such as electrical, filter and sports flooring. It is part of the Stockmeier Group, a family-owned holding company with roots in the chemical distribution business. It reports annual sales of about $220 million and employs 390.
British Vita acquires French compounder
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - British Vita plc has purchased thermoplastic elastomer compounder Polytex SAS of Bordeaux, France, for 700,000 euros ($784,000).
Polytex, which recorded 2002 sales of 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million), operates a single plant focused mainly on clean room production for medical devices. It employs 10.
The deal is Manchester-based British Vita's sixth acquisition this year.
``This business will complement our existing position in technical products and provide excellent growth opportunities for Vita's TPE portfolio,'' said Calvin O'Connor, Vita's industrial polymers divisional director.
Meantime, the company's extrusion division, Vita Thermoplastic Sheet, is investing several hundred thousand dollars to upgrade its Royalite Plastics srl plant in Tribiano, Italy.
Also, Vita plans to complete a new polyurethane foam plant in Hungary by the summer of 2004. The $7.8 million plant is awaiting Hungarian government permits.
The facility will be Vita's fourth foam plant in Eastern Europe: the others are in Lublin and Brzeg Dolny, Poland, and Alytus, Lithuania. The company has closed four foam shape conversion plants in Germany in the past year, cutting more than 100 jobs.
British Vita also is expanding TPE production in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, the firm invested £1 million ($1.5 million) to install a new Berstorff twin-screw compounding line in Middleton, England.
