Jan H. Schut

1 Sep 2006

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.

1 Aug 2006

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.

1 Aug 2006

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.

1 Jul 2006

Summer Storm of Price Hikes

Soft or flat prices in the first five months of the year ended with a thunderclap in June.

1 Jul 2006

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.

1 Jul 2006

PET Reclaimer Moves Downstream

When Nadim Bahou headed Envipco’s West Coast ��ý 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.

1 Jun 2006

What to See at NPE 2006: Extrusion

The new factor in extrusion machinery at this NPE is the influx of Asian suppliers.

1 Jun 2006

What to See at NPE 2006: Recycling and Scrap Reclaim

Recycling and reclamation are once again hot technologies—this time because of high resin prices.

1 Jun 2006

What to See at NPE 2006: Compounding and Mixing

Throughput capacities are going up for compounding equipment of all types.

1 May 2006

Sluggish

Demand for most commodity resins was generally lackluster in the first quarter and the beginning of the second.

1 May 2006

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.

1 Apr 2006

Moving 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.