Your Business In Brief - March 2009
Gloucester Engineering Teams Up With Kabra in IndiaGloucester Engineering Co. in Gloucester, Mass., has formed a joint venture with Kolsite Group in Mumbai, India, to build blown film lines at Kabra Extrusiontechnik Ltd., a Kolsite company.
Gloucester Engineering Teams Up With Kabra in India
Gloucester Engineering Co. in Gloucester, Mass., has formed a joint venture with Kolsite Group in Mumbai, India, to build blown film lines at Kabra Extrusiontechnik Ltd., a Kolsite company. The 50/50 venture, called Kabra Gloucester Engineering Ltd., plans to build a plant in Daman, India, near an existing Kabra plant. It intends to produce Gloucester’s standard Contracool multi-layer and monolayer blown film lines in the 250- to 650-kg/hr output range for production of film with layflats from 1.8 to 2.5 meters. The lines will use Gloucester’s spiral die technology and updated winders designed by Kabra. Motors and gearboxes will come from international vendors with a global warranty.
Gloucester will continue to build the same models in the U.S. depending on delivery-time requirements. The Indian-built equivalents will be less expensive, but savings will depend on the size and complexity of the machine, Gloucester says. Lines built by Kabra Gloucester will be sold globally by both parent companies under their respective brands.
This is Kabra’s third foreign partnership. Kabra announced joint ventures in 2007 with American Maplan in McPherson, Kan., and Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik in Germany. Maplan and BEX took a 14% equity position in Kabra, while Kabra licensed extruder technology from BEX. American Maplan and BEX are former sister companies of Gloucester Engineering. • www.kolsite.com
For more information visit Gloucester Engineering's PT Online Showroom.
Bayer Builds Biggest Carbon Nanotube Plant
Bayer MaterialScience AG in Germany (U.S. office in Pittsburgh) has started building a facility to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in Leverkusen, Germany. With a capacity of 440,000 lb/yr, it is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world when it comes on line by the end of this year. A pilot plant with an annual capacity of 132,000 lb has been operating in southern Germany since 2007. Bayer’s Baytube CNTs are already being used to produce tough, extremely strong, and lightweight composites.
For more information visit Bayer MaterialScience's PT Online Showroom.
New Name for Kleerdex
Kleerdex Co., LLC, Bloomsburg, Pa., maker of Kydex acrylic/PVC and polycarbonate sheet, has changed its name to Kydex, LLC.
For more information visit Kleerdex Co., LLC's PT Online Showroom.
Clariant Creates Liquid Colors Unit
Clariant Masterbatches Div., Holden, Mass, has created the Rite Systems Business Unit to produce liquid colorants at three U.S. plants it acquired from Rite Systems, Inc. last year.
For more information visit Clariant Masterbatches' PT Online Showroom
More Resin Plants Shut
In the face of slack demand, resin producers have implemented massive capacity cutbacks. The latest news includes the shuttering of Dow Chemical Co.’s 225-million-lb LDPE plant in Freeport, Texas, which opened in 1959. And Americas Styrenics LLC cut PS production in Marietta, Ohio, by 350 million lb.
For more information visit Americas Styrenics LLC's PT Online Showroom
