Jan H. Schut
Novel Vacuum Calibrators Raise Sheet Output and Quality
Flat vacuum-calibrator plates, typically used to extrude hollow profile sheet, are showing up in new forms and new uses.
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NPE 2006 News Wrap-Up: Compounding
Much of the compounding news at the NPE Show in Chicago in June ad-dressed the growing trend among extrusion processors to become compounders.
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Olefin Prices Take a Breather
Midsummer brought a sudden pause in price escalation—at least for polyolefins—after a storm of increases announced in June.
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Summer Storm of Price Hikes
Soft or flat prices in the first five months of the year ended with a thunderclap in June.
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NPE 2006 News Wrap-Up: Recycling and Scrap Reclaim
NPE was full of new equipment and systems for recapturing valuable in-plant scrap and post-consumer/post-industrial plastic waste. Recovery of PET packaging and film or fiber waste were particular areas of emphasis, as were lots of new granulators, from the world’s biggest to micro-size and even ‘clean-room’ models.
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PET Reclaimer Moves Downstream
When Nadim Bahou headed Envipco’s West Coast business of granulating PET bottles through “reverse vending machines” in the early 1990s, he saw there was a shortage of PET grinding capacity in the region.
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What to See at NPE 2006: Extrusion
The new factor in extrusion machinery at this NPE is the influx of Asian suppliers.
Read MoreWhat to See at NPE 2006: Recycling and Scrap Reclaim
Recycling and reclamation are once again hot technologies—this time because of high resin prices.
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What to See at NPE 2006: Compounding and Mixing
Throughput capacities are going up for compounding equipment of all types.
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Smaller EPS Beads Make Thinner Walls In Cups, Casting Patterns and Cushioning
Smaller is proving to be better in several different areas of expandable bead molding.
Read MoreMoving Die Parts Change Profile Shapes 'On the Fly'
Change one tubing lumen into two, or two lumens into three, or even split one tube into two in a “Y” shape: These are some of the dramatic alterations that can be made “on the fly” with a novel articulated die concept available for license from Specialty Silicone Fabricators, a medical tubing maker in Paso Robles, Calif.
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