DuPont putting $175 million in film line
WILMINGTON, DEL. — DuPont Co. plans to invest $175 million in its Tedlar PV2001 oriented film production line in Circleville, Ohio, to support global demand for photovoltaic film.
The film line expansion will use existing and retrofitted assets. Wilmington-based DuPont said the investment is in addition to $120 million in capacity expansions, announced in August, for raw materials used to make the film.
Film production is scheduled to begin in September 2011.
Tedlar films are designed to provide long-term durability and performance for photovoltaic backsheets. According to DuPont, manufacturing steps for Tedlar oriented film include producing vinyl fluoride monomer, which is converted into polyvinyl fluoride resins, and then extruded into film.
DuPont plans to increase monomer capacity in Louisville, Ky., and polymer resin capacity in Fayetteville, N.C., by more than 50 percent to support the film project. Construction is under way at both plants, and the facilities are scheduled to open in mid-2010.
The company expects overall sales of its family of products into the photovoltaic industry to exceed $1 billion by 2012.
“The photovoltaic market increasingly demands materials that enable modules to reliably deliver power for decades,” said David Miller, president of DuPont Electronics & Communications.
Invista says new PET doesn't use glycol
WICHITA, KAN. — Invista sarl claims it has developed a new extrusion blow molding grade of PET capable of making bottles with integral handles.
Unlike other extrusion blow molding grades of PET, the new material is not modified with glycol, a material that Invista said can present challenges to recyclers.
“Invista has taken a different and innovative technical route by modifying PET for higher melt-strength and slower crystallization that allows the material to be handled and processed under PET recycling conditions,” Schotland Business Research Inc. said in a news release.
Jeff Wardat, business development manager at Wichita-based Invista, will present information about the resin at Nova-Pack 2010 Conference on PET Containers for Food & Beverages, Feb. 9-10 in Orlando, sponsored by Schotland.
According to the company, the new, modified PET resin can be processed at temperatures and conditions similar to standard PET. Higher melt temperatures, however, may require modifications to existing extrusion blow molding equipment.
The ability to recycle the new resin in the clear PET stream has been demonstrated according to protocol from the Washington-based Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers, the company said.
EnerDel to produce batteries in Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS — Lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel Inc. will invest $237 million in a new manufacturing plant in Indiana with capacity to make battery packs for up to 600,000 cars.
EnerDel, the Indianapolis-based subsidiary of Ener1 Inc., will take over 211,500 square feet of a building in Mount Comfort, Ind., with the option to buy the entire 423,000-square-foot building in the future, the company announced in a Jan. 21 news release.
The new plant will double EnerDel's U.S. manufacturing capability and add up to 1,400 jobs, the company said. EnerDel will be able to produce complete battery packs for 600,000 gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles or 60,000 electric-only vehicles in Mount Comfort.
EnerDel makes prismatic lithium-ion batteries for both the automotive and stationary electric grid markets. Prismatic cells are flexible sheets typically placed within thermoplastic frames for stability, while plastics are used in cables, ducts and connections, and to house various electronic components in the battery pack.
It has partnerships with automakers including Volvo, Mazda and Nissan. Ener1 is the largest shareholder in Think, an Oslo-based electric-car company that will begin making its plastic-body car in Elkhart, Ind., in 2011.
Custom molder JB relocates within Calif.
SANTA ANA, CALIF. — Ten years after opening its doors, custom injection molder JB Plastics Inc. has returned to Santa Ana, Calif.
The firm was founded in a 5,000-square-foot plant in Santa Ana in 2000, but in recent years had been operating from a pair of buildings covering a total of 36,000 square feet in Orange, Calif., about 10 miles away.
Now JB is back in Santa Ana, in a 28,000-square-foot facility a few blocks from its original location. The company also shares space with sister company RAM Automation, which works with automation equipment and other technologies
Copyright 2010 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.