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Luxus celebrates 50th Birthday with new compounding line
UK plastics recycler and compounder Luxus celebrated its 50th anniversary this month and revealed an investment in a new Coperion twin-screw compounding line with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes/year at its plant in Louth, Lincolnshire. The company also announced that it is
receiving a £600,000 (€800,000) EU grant for a collaborative project to commercialise its Hycolene range of lightweight polypro- pylene compounds. These contain up to 60% recycled content and are aimed at automotive interior applications. The collaborative project also includes the UK car maker Jaguar Land Rover, the global Tier 1 supplier International Automotive Components, and the compounding line manufacturer Coperion. Speaking about the EU grant, Luxus managing director Peter Atterby told Compounding World: “It is great to get some assistance to move this technology forward into a commercially viable product. Plus there’s the support of stakeholders in the project who have access to resources that we don’t.” The funding requires the production of
compounder extruder has a screw diameter of 70 mm, a long L/D ratio of 56:1, two side feeders and special degassing units. The line also features Coperion K-Tron feed systems, a Tren- delkamp screen-changer, plus a Gala pelletizing system. It is currently being installed at the Louth facility and is expected to be commissioned in February, increasing the company’s overall capacity by 45%.
Speaking about the new line, Atterby
Luxus is increasing compounding capacity at its UK plant by 45%
500-600 tonnes of material during the 24 month period. “We intend to be doing quite a lot more than that by the end of the first year,” said Atterby. He added that Luxus is also looking at global licensing of the technology to support end-users across the world. The company’s new Coperion Mega-
said: “We have a small lab line, but this is our first full-scale production line from Coperion. It really is needed to ensure that we can compound these Hycolene materials in the way we need to. They need to be compounded in a particular way to get the best from the light-weight- ing products that we’re adding”. Luxus was founded in 1965 as a
plastics trader and quickly moved into plastics recycling. It estimates that it has reclaimed close to 1 million tonnes of waste plastics during its first 50 years of existence. ❙
www.luxus.co.uk
Lego and PepsiCo to speak at Masterbatch 2015
AMI has published the programme for the 28th edition of its Masterbatch conference, which takes place on 9-11 June 2015 in Cologne, Germany. The influential speaker line-up includes senior managers from Lego, PepsiCo and Microsoft discussing the specification and importance of colours in plastics products. Søren Kristiansen, director
specialist, materials at Lego System, will give a paper entitled “Masterbatches at the
12
edge”, while Moira Cullen, VP for global beverage design at PepsiCo will discuss “21st century design value”. Microsoft designer Terence Tan will also participate in the conference’s business forum, covering colour and design issues. Other companies represent- ed on the comprehensive Masterbatch 2015 pro- gramme include Automatik, BASF, Clariant, Coperion, ExxonMobil, Ineos, Kreyenborg, Palsgaard, Songwon, Steer Engi-
COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2015
neering, and Zero Nine Design. To see the full programme and booking details, download the 12-page conference brochure at:
http://bit.ly/Mbatch
Adding colour to Lego: Søren Kristiansen will discuss “Masterbatches at the edge”
www.compoundingworld.com
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