new 90,000 tonnes/year plant to produce high performance polyamides at Antwerp in Belgium. The new facility is being built near to the company’s caprolactam plant and is scheduled to commence production in the first quarter of 2014.The polymers produced on the site will be converted to Durethan brand products at Lanxess compounding facilities worldwide. The company expanded
its caprolactam capacity on the Antwerp site to 220,000 tonnes/year in 2011 and is in the process of renewing the first of its two glass fibre ovens as part of a two-year programme that will expand capacity to 66,000 tonnes/year by 2014. ❙ www.lanxess.com
Delta invests in line for conductive compounds
Delta Kunststoffe has installed a new Coperion compounding line at its plant in Weeze, Germany, to produce electri- cally conductive compounds. The ZSK Megavolume Plus
twin-screw extruder is being used to compound carbon black with a range of resins including PP, PE, PS and PA. It has 76 mm diameter screws and can produce compounds with carbon black loadings of 15-40% at throughputs between 1,000 and 1,500 kg/hour. The deep-flighted screws
with an OD/ID ratio of 1.8 work well with the downstream metering of the conductive carbon black into the molten polymer using a ZS-B twin-screw side feeder. Efficient degassing is achieved with a ZS-EG twin-screw side devolatilization unit. The screws feature special
mixing elements to distribute the carbon black uniformly,
Managers from Delta Kunststoffe and Coperion conclude the sale of the new ZSK compounding line
delivering the desired conductivity with relatively low levels of carbon black. Testing carried out in Coperion’s lab showed that the electrical resistivity in the compound will be reduced by up to 1012
when
filled with a specialty carbon black at loadings between 16 and 20 %. Manfred Fiedler, works manager at Delta Kunststoffe, said: “The ZSK 76 Megavolume
Plus was certainly the right choice. Thanks to its volu- metric capacity and its efficient metering of the conductive carbon black into the melt we are able to achieve high output rates. Above all, however, we can now benefit from the high quality of compound achieved with this twin-screw extruder’s excellent mixing behaviour”. ❙ www.delta-kunststoffe.de ❙ www.coperion.com
JCI adds natural fibres to BMW 3 Series
Automotive components supplier Johnson Controls is using a natural fibre reinforced polymer composite to manufacture the door trim panels for the new BMW Series 3 car, claiming a 20% weight reduction over current alternatives. The company says that the
non-visible door panel structural elements are manufactured from a light- weight wood-fibre-reinforced polymer compound. The
6
The latest BMW 3 Series benefits from natural fibre reinforced plastics
weight of the part has been further reduced through the development of a new trim technology called groove
COMPOUNDING WORLD | June 2012
lamination, which allows the fabric or leather trim materi- als to be joined in recesses in the moulding. This eliminates
the need for additional sub-structure parts, according to the company. ❙ www.johnsoncontrols.com