news
New Asahi Kasei plant for the USA
Asahi Kasei has finalised plans to build a second compounding plant in the USA at Athens in Alabama. The 30,000 tonnes/year
facility will produce the company’s Thermylene PP and Leona PA6,6 grades for automotive applications, as well as some other performance compounds. The new production plant is scheduled to begin produc- tion in the first half of 2016. Asahi Kasei already has a 105,000 tonnes/year compounding facility at Fowlerville in Michigan. The new facility will enable it to increase its supply of compounds to the North American automotive industry and particularly to manufacturers in the southern states, where the company said growth is most notable. ❙
www.asahikaseiplastics.com
Chinese facility to make WPC window profiles
German-Chinese start-up company Kappes Environment Technology (KET) will com- mence production of recycled HDPE-based wood plastic composite (WPC) window profiles at its new plant at Bengbu in the Anhui province of China in August of this year. The EcoLife profiles, which
comprise a WPC core encased in a thin protective aluminium layer, will be manufactured in a two-stage compounding and extrusion process using equipment supplied by Germany’s KraussMaffei Berstorff and by Austria’s
Greiner Extrusion. The production hardware includes a 1,500 kg/hour KraussMaffei Berstorff ZE130 R twin-screw compounding unit that will be used to prepare the WPC, which is made from up to 50% wood fibre in post-con- sumer recycled HDPE. The modular compounding
system includes a 50D extruder with side feeder and two degassing units, along with a full gravimetric feeding system designed to fit into the limited headspace production area at the KET plant. KraussMaffei also supplied
three coextrusion profile lines for the new plant, which includes downstream systems from Greiner Extrusion. ❙
www.kraussmaffei.com ❙
www.ket-ecolife.com
Researchers complete nano-study
Spanish automotive technology centre CTAG hosted the final meeting of an EU-funded project intended to explore applications for nano-clay reinforced biopolymers for
application in the car industry last month. According to the 13-strong
research group, the four-year ECOplast project has seen the development and evaluation of
a range of natural fibre reinforced PHBs and a nano-clay containing PLA, as well as the synthesis of a novel PBP polymer from silk proteins. ❙
www.ecoplastproject.com
Coperion consolidates its sites in the USA
Coperion K-Tron has an- nounced a consolidation of its North American business. It is relocating operations from its existing Coperion facility at Ramsey in New Jersey into the K-Tron headquarters at Pitman in New Jersey plus Coperion’s other USA facilities at Wytheville in Virginia, and Houston in Texas.
The changes will be made
over the 18-month period to November 2015 and will involve transferring most of
8
Coperion’s is relocating operations to K-Tron’s facility at Pitman in New Jersey
and to bring the management and operation teams closer together.” Coperion said order
the current Ramsey positions. As part of the plans, the facilities at Pitman and Wytheville will be upgraded. “These changes are in line with our strategy to fully
COMPOUNDING WORLD | June 2014
integrate our Coperion and Coperion K-Tron Business Units,” said Thomas Kehl, president of Coperion. “We are realigning our assets to take advantage of available space
processing, equipment demon- strations, as well as extruder testing, will continue at Ramsey until the Pitman site modifications are complete. The Wytheville plant will be used for manufacturing, while the Houston office will continue to support sales and engineering. ❙
www.coperion.com
www.compoundingworld.com
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