Compounding

That's the view of Clariant Masterbatches (Muttenz, Switzerland), which was presenting its package of dedicated products and support designed to help customers' control risk in medical device manufacture and pharmaceutical packaging at the recent Medtec China show in Shanghai. (The Medtec show is organized by PlasticsToday owner Canon Communications.)

A visit to the drugstore of yesteryear would have seen the patient confronted with a plethora of non-descript white or amber containers capped with black or white closures. But pharmaceutical companies nowadays believe that putting color into packaging can go a long way to boosting sales.

Recycled plastics resin manufacturer MVR (Boca Raton, FL) cut the ribbon on its new $9.2 million investment production plant in Frankfort, KY, with an assist from Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Frankfort Mayor Gippy Graham. The plant, which will collect and process scrap plastics, converting it into new, saleable pellets, will create 360 jobs and have an annual capacity of around 90 million lb.

Clear Path Recycling LLC (CPR; Fayetteville, NC), the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling joint-venture company established by flooring manufacturer Shaw Industries Group Inc. (Dalton, GA) and PET resin manufacturer DAK Americas LLC (Charlotte, NC) has started up phase one of its new PET bottle-recycling operation.

For its sixth acquisition in just three years, Citadel Plastics Holdings Inc. chose QTR Inc., which markets custom compounds based on recycled polycarbonate and other engineering thermoplastics. QTR's brand lives on even as the company is being integrated into The Matrixx Group, another Citadel holding. QTR had annual sales of approximately $15 million, more than half out of the automotive market, and ran its compounds off of three twin-screw and to single-screw extrusion lines.    

Expansions slated for two of its facilities means thermoplastics compound supplier Teknor Apex Co. will increase its supply capabilities for both rigid and flexible polyvinyl chloride compounds. The company has long offered flexible PVC compounds in the U.S., but rigid PVC compounds are new for the firm there.

The company, based in Pawcatuck, RI, plans in August to add a new flexible PVC compounding line with a nominal annual capacity of 13,600 tonnes (30 million lb) to its site at Fountain Inn, SC.

Brazil-based additive and masterbatch supplier Cromex (São Paulo) has plans to move to a new facility in São Paulo within the next nine months, outfitting the site with nine new compounding extrusion lines in addition to moving some existing equipment. Cesar Ortega, Cromex commercial director, and Enio A. Ferigatto, projects and products manager, revealed the plans to PlasticsToday during a tour of the company's existing site.

Chinese compounder China XD Plastics Company Ltd. (Harbin) announced plans to establish a new research center to provide technical support of existing products and research and development capabilities for new modified plastics. Located in Harbin Economic and Technology Development District, China XD says the center will be fully operational in early 2011. The company will hire new R&D personnel, add equipment, and expand the facility's infrastructure.

Odoriferous oils enclosed in microcapsules will release a pungent odor if the plastics they're contained in develops small cracks, a potentially life-saving attribute when the plastics are applied in a crash helmet.

Four years after their market introduction, the company's Graphistrength brand of carbon nanotube fillers now has Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval for sale in the U.S. The supplier can look forward to a boost in worldwide sales of its Graphistrength masterbatches, which are already available in Europe and Asia.