news
Oxea boosts plasticiser capacity
Oxea is to increase European capacity of its Oxsoft GPO DOTP plasticis- ers by 50,000 tonnes/year. It has signed an agreement with a third party to establish a joint production of DOTP by the end of 2015, it says.
“The European market
for phthalate-free plasticis- ers is growing rapidly,” said Oxea’s project leader, Christian Boehmer. The company has also
expanded its range of phthalate-free plasticisers with two new bio-based products. Oxblue DOSX (dioctyl succinate) and Oxblue ATBC (acetyl tributyl citrate) are aimed at applications such as food cling wraps. ❙
www.phthalate-free-plasticizers.com
JM Eagle hits back at law firm and whistleblower
Pipemaker JM Eagle has hit back at the former employee whose allegations led to the company being sued under the False Claims Act last year. In November 2013, JM
Eagle was found liable for selling sub-standard pipe under the Act. Now, the company has sued John Hendrix – the whistle- blower who brought the original case against it – and Phillips & Cohen (P&C), the law firm that represents him. In the suit, JM Eagle alleges that the law firm helped Hendrix to “steal confidential, proprietary and trade-secret documents from [its] files” in order to build a substantial case against it. The suit, filed in February,
alleges that P&C “directed, encouraged and facilitated
Hendrix’s acts of theft and deception that cannot be mistaken for, or excused as, simple ‘legal advice’. Rather, P&C was involved in this pilfer- ing scheme.” Over the course of four months, says JM Eagle, the law firm supplied Hendrix with information – such as specific search terms – that could be used to find specific docu- ments. “No valid excuse or
justification exists for the conduct of P&C and its attorneys who orchestrated the brazen theft of confidential and privileged documents,” says the company. JM Eagle argues that, as
well as being privileged, the documents are subject to the confidentiality agreement that Hendrix signed when he
became an employee. It says that P&C showed the docu- ments to JM Eagle customers – in order to convince them to join the case – resulting in these customers removing JM Eagle products from their approved lists. This has affected the
company’s business, it says, and it is asking for compensa- tory damages. Separate to this, JM Eagle
has filed a motion requesting a new trial, alleging that the original trial included “errone- ous or insufficient” jury instruction, “irrelevant and prejudicial” evidence, and that the verdict was “replete with factual inaccuracies and inconsistencies”. A hearing for this will take
place in late April. ❙
www.jmeagle.com
Pexco expands medical extrusion in Mexico
Pexco, a specialist in medical plastics processing, is to expand its manufacturing facility in Mexico. The company plans to
construct a new building and manufacturing space, with a dedicated medical manufac- turing clean room environ- ment, at its facility in Mexicali. Work is expected to be finished by August of this year. Pexco currently has a 17,000 sq ft facility with Class 8 cleanroom, and 10 produc- tion lines. The expansion will add around 31,500 sq ft of production and warehouse
www.pipeandprofile.com
Shillingford: “Expansion underscores our commitment to medical plastics market”
of Pexco, said: “This expan- sion, coming on the heels of our acquisition of Spectrum Plastics last year, further underscores the focus and commitment of our business to the medical plastics market.” Pexco has been in Mexicali
space, plus a 7,600 sq ft cleanroom in order to fulfill recently won business for the company’s medical division in
the region. Pexco extrudes medical tubing and profiles at the site. Neil Shillingford, president
since it acquired the Multitube extrusion operation in 2011 and says it is the only inde- pendent local Mexican medical plastics extruder in the Tijuana medical manufacturing cluster. Pexco is owned by Odyssey
Investment Partners. ❙
www.pexco.com
March/April 2014 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 5
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