Plastics Technology

FEB 2013

Plastics Technology - Dedicated to improving Plastics Processing.

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lots of news in engineered compounding Three companies, two of them domestic masterbatch suppliers, and one a German compounder, recently made new moves in engineered compounds for the U.S. market. •Americhem expands: Color and additive concentrate producer Americhem Inc., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, has acquired Infnity Compounding, LLC of Swedesboro, N.J. Infnity makes flled, reinforced, lubricated, electrically active, and precolored compounds, primarily in engineering resins. This is Americhem's frst foray into engineered compounding. As an Americhem Group Company, Infnity will continue to operated independently in New Jersey, under existing management. (330) 929-4213 • americhem.com; (856) 467-3030 • inmnitycompounding.com •Lehmann & Voss Forms U.S. Subsidiary: German engineered compounder Lehmann & Voss & Co. has set up Lehvoss North America LLC in Pawcatuck, Conn., its frst direct representation here. A local partner has been qualifed to produce the company's Luvocom compounds for the new marketing venture, which is headed by general manager Alfred Barkiewicz, formerly of Davis-Standard. Lehmann & Voss formerly had a U.S. joint venture with Techmer PM, which has been terminated (see below). (860) 599-5616 • lehvossllc.com •Techmer forms new unit: Color and additive concentrate producer Techmer PM, Clinton, Tenn., has acquired full ownership of Techmer Lehvoss Compounds LLC (TLC), its former joint venture in engineered compounding with Lehmann & Voss of Germany (see above). Techmer has renamed the unit Techmer Engineered Solutions, LLC (TES). Techmer acquired all assets of the former j.v. except the Luvocom product line. Techmer did acquire the Plaslube and Electrafl product lines, which the j.v. had previously acquired from DSM Engineering Plastics. (865) 457-6700 • techmerpm.com 6 february 2013 Plastics technology Nano-Layer Shrink Film: Strong But Thin Ultra-thin stretch-oriented blown shrink flm now can be processed using the Layer Sequence Repeater (LSR) technology developed by BBS Corp., Spartanburg, S.C. In a paper to be delivered later this month at the SPE Polyolefns 2013 Conference in Houston, BBS reports producing flms containing 25 to 77 nano-layers of nylon 6/66, EVOH, and PE and then biaxially orienting them. "We found that the more layers there are in the flm structure, the easier it is to stretch-orient at astounding stretch ratios of up to 7x7 compared with 5x5 normally," says Henry Schirmer, inventor of the LSR and president of BBS. "Having 77 nano-layers within an ultra-thin 26 gauge flm means that each nano-layer is truly in the nanometer measuring range. The average thickness in this example is 8.6 nm." The LSR is an independent unit inside the die (see image). It forms the nano-layer stack and inserts it between other layers in the flm. The paper, coauthored by shrink-flm processor Bollore of France (U.S. offce in Dayville, Conn.) and EVOH supplier Soarus LLC, Arlington Heights, Ill., was eye opening to Schirmer for several other reasons. First, it led to a theory that nano-layers create a new order of crystal structure in EVOH that is consistent with forming a copolymer with nylon 6/66, as observed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Another new theory of Schirmer's explains polymer fow within the LSR. "While the LSR has very narrow slots for alternating layer fow, there are very many slots, meaning that the overall fow is very relaxed because it is all slow and in parallel against many metal surfaces," he states. "The melt therefore has more alignment, like a carding machine combing cotton, but with less melt orientation than normal. This means more polymer is available for stretch orientation, as we have seen with the high stretch ratios. BBS technology is available through Alpha Marathon, Woodbridge, Ont. (864) 579-3058; (905) 265-2055 • alphamarathon.com That's One Complex Molding Job! Under the hood of the 2012 Nissan Altima is a water outlet assembly that looks like an injection molder's nightmare. It's a manifold for the cooling system that has 10 undercut male barb ports—all without parting lines—that feed coolant to and from the transmission cooler, throttle cooler, heater core, and oil cooler, and also provides coolant to the radiator. It is molded with six cores and 12 shutoffs, all of them nonplanar. It also incorporates a press-in-place seal, sealed threaded insert, a wire-harness bracket, and oil drip rail, and it houses the thermostat. It's molded in 33% glassflled PPA (Amodel AS-1933HS from Solvay Specialty Polymers, Alpharetta, Ga.) The molder, MPC, Inc., based in Walworth, Wis., says this part required advanced mold-flling analysis so as not to overpack the part and cause brittleness. It also required precisely timed hydraulics and mechanical actions to sequence fve slides; and Scientifc Molding was used to actuate multiple valve gates precisely based on temperature and pressure transducers. The moldmaker was Industrial Molds, Rockford, Ill. Little wonder, then, that this part was recognized not once, but twice, with industry awards last year. It won the award for best Single Part in the 2nd International Plastics Design Competition, sponsored by SPI at the NPE2012 show in April, and was chosen as the Powertrain category winner at the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards in November. (770) 772-8200 • solvayplastics.com; (815) 397-2971 • industrialmolds.com

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