Gain and Negri Bossi develop partnership
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MICH. — Gas-assisted molding equipment supplier Gain Technologies Inc. has announced a partnership with injection press supplier Negri Bossi USA Inc.
Gain also has broadened its line to include pressure swing absorption, or PSA, nitrogen generators.
Negri Bossi USA, based in Newark, Del., has supplied Gain with an all-electric Canbel press, VE480-3600, with 528 tons of clamping force, for Gain's Detroit demonstration center. The press, with multiple-zone hot-runner control and sequential valve-gate control, has been modified to add Gain's gas-assisted system for mold trials.
Both Negri Bossi and Gain have been using the machine for demonstrations, mold trials and limited production. Negri Bossi also will use the facility for customer training programs.
Gain Technologies is based in Shelby Township.
Gain also is offering a new line of PSA nitrogen gas generators, high-pressure compressors and gas controllers. This is the first time Gain has offered PSA generators, said Gain President Edward Smith. Gain will continue to offer its portable units that run on one injection molding machine.
``[PSA] is a lower-cost option for multiple systems,'' Smith said.
A high-pressure nitrogen compressor is added to the generator, to supply several injection molding machines. The compressor also may be used in combination with a bulk liquid nitrogen system.
The one- or two-valve gas controller can be mounted to the injection press, so it takes no extra floor space.
Publication honors
Graham as innovator
YORK, PA. — Control Design magazine named Graham Engineering Corp., which makes blow molding machines in York, as its Innovator Award winner for 2008.
The trade magazine praised Graham's development of a new personal-computer-based control system for its rotary wheel extrusion blow molding machines.
Control Design solicited nominations from its readers.
Engel posts 2nd year of record press sales
SCHWERTBERG, AUSTRIA - Engel Holding GmbH, the injection press and robot maker from Schwertberg generated sales of $983 million for its fiscal year, ended March 31 - its second straight year of record sales.
Company officials said Engel increased market share in North America and Asia.
In Europe, Engel said its market share has risen 7 percent in the past five years, to nearly 25 percent today.
Next year, Engel will build a 65,000-square-foot machine hall at its large-tonnage press plant in St. Valentin, Austria. Also, the company currently is building a new plant in Kaplice in the Czech Republic.
Single opens branch
in Charlotte, N.C.
HOCHDORF, GERMANY - Single Temperiertechnik GmbH of Hochdorf has stepped up its activities in the United States, by creating a subsidiary, Single Temperature Controls Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina.
``The new U.S. branch is a new milestone of our progression toward internationalization,'' said Karlheinz Gruber, chief executive officer. The company has supplied its U.S. customers with temperature control systems, heat transfer units and chillers.
The new U.S. national sales manager is Michael Bloomhuff, who has a degree in machine engineering as well as experience in the pump industry and the supply of blow molding equipment.
Until opening its own location, Single was represented in the United States by injection press maker Krauss-Maffei Corp. of Florence, Ky.
Single has identified sales potential in North America for high-temperature water-pressure systems and special high-perform- ance temperature equipment for injection molding.
In addition to the new facility in Charlotte, Single is now represented by more than 30 sales agencies worldwide.
Cooper Standard
adds Billion presses
VITRE, FRANCE - Cooper Standard Automotive Inc. turned to two-component injection molding instead of extrusion for flexible sealing parts for the Peugeot 308 car, made in its factory in Vitre.
Cooper Standard bought two injection presses from French injection press maker Billion SA, each with 750 metric tons of clamping force.
The multishot molds and indexing plate were supplied by Jean-Pierre Grosfilley SAS.
Instead of metal shells, which had to be manually clipped on to the sealing component, Copper Standard now uses molded polypropylene. The PP parts are molded with elastomer seals on the rotating molds.
SPE program sending Maac units to schools
CAROL STREAM, ILL. - Maac Machinery Corp. of Carol Stream this year has shipped three of its laboratory thermoforming machines to schools, under a program with the Society of Plastics Engineers' Thermoforming Division.
Maac shipped machines to the University of California, Los Angeles; Gettysburg High School in Gettysburg, Pa.; and San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif.
Maac officials said that under the program, the $30,000 cost of the lab machine is split three ways: Maac picks up $10,000 of the value, the Thermoforming Division donates another $10,000, and the school pays the remaining $10,000.
Frigel, Heisler unite
for cooling systems
LAKE ZURICH, ILL. - Frigel North America Inc., which sells machine and mold-cooling equipment, has formed a partnership with Heisler Green Inc., a maker of environmentally friendly water-treatment chemicals for cooling towers, boilers, closed-loop systems and waste water.
Frigel, of Lake Zurich, plans to promote Heisler Green's CoolGreen products with the Frigel Ecodry, a closed-loop cooling system.
Ecodry operates by pumping the water returning from the process into heat exchangers and cooling it with ambient air flow.
``Cooling water accounts for approximately 98 percent of industrial water used in the United States,'' said Jim Green, vice president of Heisler Green in Downers Grove, Ill.
Green called Ecodry ``the cooling technology of the future.''
Wittmann completes France consolidation
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Wittmann Kunststoffgeräte GmbH has completed the consolidation of its French operation, the former Paul Regad SA business that makes molds for in-mold labeling, on a new site in Chassal, France.
The IML specialist how is housed with Wittmann's granulator production, in a new factory. The Chassal plant is not far from Regad's former factory in St.-Cloude, and the former Wittmann granulator plant in Oyonnax, both in France.
Vienna-based Wittmann bought Regad in 2006. The company has equipped the new mold shop with a five-axis robotic production unit. Two injection presses are available for mold testing.
Switzerland firm buys
U.S. dryer producer
UZWIL, SWITZERLAND - Buhler AG of Uzwil has purchased Aeroglide Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based maker of drying systems for the chemical industry and other sectors.
Aeroglide has supplied some products to Buhler for years. Buhler will operate Aeroglide as a separate business unit.
Aeroglide employs 230 and generated 2007 sales of $64 million.
Aeroglide makes drying equipment for industrial products, foods and animal feed. In plastics, the company supplies dryers for acrylic-based gel dryers, such as super-absorbent polymers, and other specialty polymers such as fluoroelastomers and laminating films.
Buhler's U.S. operation, Buhler Inc., is based in Minneapolis.