(Published November 2007) Injection moulding machinery manufacturer Engel has extended the water assisted moulding equipment options available to its machine buyers through an agreement with Maximator, enabling it to offer the company’s WIT equipment alongside its own developed Watermelt system.

Maximator, which claims to be the leading supplier of WIT hardware, says the partnership with Engel will help strengthen its position by providing an additional sales channel. It will also benefit from project development opportunities with Engel.

To date WIT has been used mainly in single cavity tools. However, Engel and Maximator say they expect multi-cavity system solutions will gain in importance in future.

Maximator says the agreement with Engel does not prevent the company supplying its WIT equipment to other injection moulding machinery manufacturers.

www.engelglobal.com

www.maximator.de

(Published November 2007) Cinpres Gas Injection has appointed a second agent for mainland China. BI Electric (Shenzhen) Company will focus on developing its activities with Chinese-owned processing companies, while Polypro Technology will continue to develop business with Taiwanese-owned organisations.

BI Electric is a division of Cinpres parent BI Group, and is based in the Longgang district of Shenzhen. Its role will encompass technology licensing, distribution, and maintenance of installed Cinpres gas moulding equipment.

Cinpres managing director Jon Butler, says: “BI is recruiting a strong locally based team with a comprehensive range of technical skills. They will provide training in the design of gas mouldings and in the operation of the equipment, and help customers integrate the technology smoothly into existing manufacturing processes.”

www.cinpres.com

(Published December 2007)

Gardena’s Jürgen Knill says: “We required a technology which allowed us to design cooling channels in injection moulding tools, to enable simultaneous cooling of the complete part to maintain part quality as well as to speed demoulding.”

Using standard machining methods, the ideal position of cooling channels in parts with complex geometries often has to be compromised. Using SLM, it was possible to design and build them with a cooling circuit integrated into their most restricted areas.

Finishing operations such as grinding, spark eroding and hardened steel milling can be carried out on the cores using standard processes. Hardness of 52 Rockwell can be achieved.

www.mcp-group.com

Co-Innovate director Neil Ryan (centre) visited Donite Plastics’ engineering manager Stephen Kissick (left) and managing director Michael Knight. Pictured is an airways training system for Belfast medical equipment company TruCorp made with an innovative plastics moulding technology.

A Northern Ireland plastics company has employed the European Union-supported Co-Innovate Programme to transform its operation and win new contracts.

The innovation support programme offers free workshops tailored to individual businesses, audits, funding and one-to-one expert mentoring to help develop businesses.

Based in Saintfield, Northern Ireland, Donite Plastics specialises in the design and manufacture of custom moulded plastic parts, using 3D modelling and its in-house mould making facilities.

The company supplies to leading UK manufacturers, including local racing car manufacturer Crosslé in Holywood and Belfast medical equipment company TruCorp.

Donite moved into new premises last year and has since employed Co-Innovate to double turnover and staff.

“Taking part in the Co-Innovate programme really made us think about our management structure and innovating in other ways which we hadn’t considered before,” explained Michael Knight, managing director of Donite Plastics.

The company, he added, has become “much better-organised” in terms of management team and strategic operations and has “vastly increased” production capacity.

Donite said in a 6 Nov statement that it would continue to work with Co-Innovate to further develop specialised thermoformed plastic panels to be used in off-road and agricultural vehicles.

Co-Innovate supports, according to director Neil Ryan, include workshops that “demystify innovation”, one-to-one business assessments, mentoring, and support for the development of new products, processes or services.

In addition, as part of the programme, 70 businesses are matched with academic institutions for 12-month research and innovation programmes.

Co-Innovate is a project supported by the European Union’s Interreg VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).

The programme has been awarded up to €14.7m European regional development funding in order to support over 1,400 SMEs and micro-businesses in Northern Ireland, the border region of Ireland, and western Scotland.

Turkish car parts supplier Feka Automotive is to begin the construction of a new production plant at the town of ?uprija central Serbia before the end of this year.

Earlier this month, the family-owned firm based at Bursa in north western Turkey, concluded a memorandum of agreement to invest €15m to establish the facility on a 4ha site in ?uprija industrial zone.

Feka company founder Ferit Karsl?o?lu and Ninoslav Eric, president of ?uprija municipality signed the deal on 13 October under which the town will provide the land for a plant to manufacture vehicle lighting and other components.

In its initial phase, the new facility is scheduled to employ up to 110 workers, but with later development is expected to employ almost 10 times that number.

“This is a big investment for ?uprija as the plan is to have up to 1,000 workers employed at the plant eventually. The factory will be located in the industrial zone which has been equipped with help from the Serbian government,” commented municipal head Ninoslav Eric.

During the past year, Feka representatives have toured Serbia visiting a dozen municipalities in a quest to find the most suitable development site before deciding on ?uprija.

Feka Automotive, which injection moulds components for vehicle internal and exterior mirrors, front and rear lighting, water expansion and steering hydraulic oil tanks and mounted interior trim parts, was formed in 1988.

It counts among its customers worldwide a number of tier one auto suppliers and vehicle manufacturers among them Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, PSA, Renault, Porsche, Toyota, Hyundai and Magneti Marelli.

Since 2010, the Turkish supplier has restructured its operations to match its increasing business at home and abroad. In June 2014, the company integrated its design, mould making, moulding production and research and development of two separate plants on a single 15,000m2 site.

Rhodia introduced a new Technyl Star AFX PA6,6 grade characterised by improved flow characteristics, enabling it to be injection moulded with as much as 60% glass fibre reinforcement.

The company says the resin bridges the gap between conventional PA6,6 and high performance polyamides, such as polypthtalamide and polyarylamide.

Laurent Schmitt, president of Rhodia Polyamide said the AFX material is a “game-changing” resin.

“The price is between conventional PA6,6 and PPA, but closer to PA6,6. We have sampled it and it has been tested at customers, with parts moulded and under tests. It is available to customers now,” he said.

The company also introduced Technyl HP at the show, a high temperature resistant PA 6,6 grade targeted at under-hood applications that are presently produced in PA6 but lack the ability to handle the increasing temperatures in this application area. Unlike PA6 and standard PA6,6, Technyl HP can withstand exposure to 1,000 hrs at 200°C and shows less cracks than these materials after 200 hrs. It is claimed to deliver PA6,6 processability at a PA6,6 cost level.

Schmitt said at the show: “We want to be the nylon champion – the PA6,6 champion. While the market is growing at 5%, we are growing twice as fast, at 11%”.

www.rhodia-polyamide.com

The Nepol GB303HP long glass fibre-reinforced PP replaces unsaturated polyester glass fibre and is injection moulded by Iveco supplier Plastal, which has been able to integrate more functions into the part than was possible in the thermoset manufacturing solution.

The thermoplastics component provides a 30% weight reduction in the front panel and bumper structure, is fully recyclable, and reduces production time. The Nepol grade’s good impact and stiffness performance and dimensional stability meets the crash performance required for this application, according to Borealis.

“This is the first time polypropylene has been used in such an application and the move towards injection moulded bumper and front panel structures is a significant advance for the industry,” according to Paul Turner, vice president of automotive and appliance applications at Borealis.

www.borealisgroup.com

Reutlingen University in Germany has developed a process that converts post consumer Tetrapak cartons into a conductive and electromagnetically shielding material.

Tetrapaks have a composite structure. While the paper content is recyclable, the remaining composite, consisting of 84% polyethylene and 16% aluminium, has not previously been considered recyclable.

Reutlingen University has devised a means to convert this mixed waste into a plastic material that can be moulded into a coloured, anti-static and electromagnetically shielding compound. The bright colours are an innovative feature, something that cannot be achieved with conventional electrostatically dissipative materials.

The concept has been proved at plastics recycling company Hiller and has been used in transport and storage containers moulded for electronic equipment by Daigler.

The parts were put on display at the Composites fair in Stuttgart and won second place in the AVK Federation of Reinforced Plastics environmental category.

DBU (Federal German Environment Foundation) supported the project. In its concluding report, it said a typical compound would be made of 14% ground carbon fibres, 10% aluminium, 6% LDPE and 15% talc to achieve shielding beyond 10dB.

Kraiburg will introduce a new range of high performance TPEs later this year pitched at demanding applications requiring heat resistance up to 170???C, such as automotive engine compartment ducting.

Developed together with Lanxess, the company says the new grades will be able to replace some traditional thermoset acrylic and ethylene-acrylic elastomers.

The new grades will provide hardnesses in the range 70-80 Shore A. A number of pilot applications are already under evaluation using single and dual-component moulding, says the company.

www.kraiburg-tpe.com

US-based Hybrid Plastics has introduced a new version of its POSS Flow nanocomposite masterbatch designed to aid processing of PEEK resins.

PEEK POSS Flow is a pellet-form masterbatch based on Hybrid’s polyhedral oligomeric silsequioxane (POSS) nanomaterial additive technology delivered in a PEEK carrier resin. It is formulated for use at addition levels of between 10 and 20%.

In injection moulding applications, POSS Flow technology is claimed to result in reduced moulding pressures and improved flow. In extrusion, processors are said to see reduced screw torque and higher outputs.

The company claims adding 20% of the additive to high molecular weight PEEK almost doubles the MFI.

www.hybridplastics.com

Gerresheimer has put its €70m technical plastics business, which manufactures automotive components, up for sale.

The German moulder and medical device supplier said the move would enable it to concentrate on its core segments of pharmaceuticals and life science.

The business, acquired through the take over of German moulder Wilden last year, employs 550 people. It has facilities in Germany, the Czech Republic and Mexico as well as Italian and Bulgarian jvs.

The move follows the sale of the company’s consumer healthcare business to the Krallmann group in June.

Gerresheimer ceo, Dr Axel Herberg said: “Through the sale of the technical plastics business we are, as previously announced, continuing our focus on the core business of pharma and life science.”

Italy-based Negri Bossi has won a contract to supply five automated high tonnage injection moulding production cells to Fiat’s Cassino plant south of Rome.

The cells will use 3,500 tonne versions of the company’s Bi-Power two-platen machines, equipped with robotics, and will produce parts for more than 1,500 vehicles per day.

Negri Bossi ceo Eugenio Ferragina said the deal “confirms [our] position as a leading supplier in the automotive sector”.

The Fiat contract will help Negri Bossi return to growth in the second half of the year according to Ferragina.

Results for the first quarter of the year showed sales down almost 13% on the previous year and a net loss of E3.8m compared to E1.2m in 2006/7.