Mocon relocates HQ to a larger facility
MINNEAPOLIS — Mocon Inc., which makes testing instruments for packaging, pharmaceutical and other markets, has moved its corporate headquarters into a 60,000-square-foot building two blocks from its old 40,000-square-foot facility in Minneapolis.
Mocon's new headquarters has a larger production area and laboratory functions. The new location has five labs and a training center to provide hands-on instruction for the company's product lines.
Guy Wray, marketing manager, said Mocon now has its first applications development laboratory for customers to test brand-new products.
Mocon makes testing devices for measuring permeation; leak detection; aroma, flavor and odor; package integrity, shelf life, sustainability, safety and package-cost reduction.
“This investment will enable Mocon to provide even greater value to the global medical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, packaging, environmental and oil and gas markets,” said Robert Demorest, president and CEO.
Demorest said Mocon will expand its new product development, testing, production and customer service.
Wray said Mocon has 120 employees worldwide, including 85 at the headquarters. Mocon has two other U.S. facilities, in Lyons, Colo., and Round Rock, Texas.
The company opened a technical support office in Shanghai in 2007.
Firms team to offer enhanced PEEK
ALPHARETTA, GA. — Solvay Advanced Polymers LLC is partnering with Entegris Inc.'s TEGOTM Polymers unit to develop advanced carbon nanotube-enhanced PEEK products for emerging applications in the medical, aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries.
Alpharetta-based Solvay Advanced Polymers will supply its KetaSpire polyetheretherketone resin to Entegris, which will sell compounds using its carbon nanotube technology. The compounds will target applications requiring weight reduction, enhanced stiffness and flexibility, thermal management, and static-charge dissipation.
Billerica, Mass.-based Entegris has developed proprietary technology for the uniform dispersion of carbon nanotubes into PEEK and other thermoplastics to create homogeneous blends.
Former Spartech exec forms consulting firm
ST. LOUIS — Former Spartech Corp. executive Phillip Karig has opened Mathelin Bay Associates LLC, a new firm aimed at helping plastics processors buy resin more cost effectively.
Mathelin Bay has offices in St. Louis and Berlin. The focus of the firm “is to supply processors in North America and Europe with insightful and impartial market advice and alternatives,” Karig said in a July 22 news release.
Mathelin Bay also will provide “the essential information to make an informed purchase in the short term or to plan long-term procurement strategy,” he added. Resin supplier consolidation and more frequent and larger price increases “have reduced the purchasing leverage of plastics processors and severely pressured their profit margins,” Karig said.
Karig has more than 20 years of plastics experience, most recently with Spartech, a maker of extruded sheet, compounds and related products based in Clayton, Mo.
Ashland adds Solvay PPA resins to lineup
DUBLIN, OHIO — Ashland Distribution has expanded its North American lineup with 21 grades of Amodel-brand polyphthalamide resins from Solvay Advanced Polymers LLC.
PPA is a specialty resin used in parts for automotive, industrial equipment, water handling and other markets. The 21 grades covered in the deal include glass-reinforced, flame-retardant and structural grades for injection molding uses.
The agreement between Dublin-based Ashland and Solvay AP of Alpharetta, Ga., takes effect May 1. Ashland will provide all technical marketing, account management, application development and customer support for the designated PPA grades in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, officials said in a recent news release.
The partnership “enables [Solvay AP] to streamline the supply chain and take advantage of Ashland's logistics capabilities,” Solvay AP's Tom Wood said in the release. Wood serves as the firm's senior vice president of crystalline polymers.
Solvay AP makes resins and compounds based on high-end engineering resins. The firm is a unit of specialty chemicals and plastics producer Solvay SA of Brussels.
Ashland Distribution ranks as one of North America's largest resin distributors. The firm is a unit of specialty chemicals maker Ashland Inc. of Covington, Ky.
Alliance to offer free consulting services
ROMULUS, MICH. — Supply disruptions for butanediol, a thermoplastic polyurethane feedstock, have led TPU supplier Alliance Polymers & Services LLC to offer free consulting services to its customers.
Butanediol makers BASF Corp. and LyondellBasell Industries AF SCA each declared force majeure for the material last month. BASF experienced a power outage at its site in Geismar, La. LyondellBasell cited an “unplanned production disruption” at its plant in Channelview, Texas.
As a result of the shortage, butanediol makers have announced significant price increases for the material.
Alliance principal Stephane Morin said that his Romulus-based firm “is uniquely qualified and positioned to provide timely, accurate and relevant advice and products to fill the possible TPU shortage.”
Alliance's offer includes free technical counsel, product solutions and alternatives to help processors meet their product and production needs.