Extrusion-Pipe & Profile

JM Eagle, the world’s leading manufacturers of plastic pipe used in infrastructure projects globally, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Contech Construction Products that allows end users across the country access to Eagle Corr PE™. This partnership ties directly into JM Eagle’s strategic mix of customers and enhances its nationwide footprint for this line of products.

Verification of recycled content is important to today's consumers, particularly with all the unsubstantiated claims with regard to recycled content. One company just announced that it's the first wood-alternative decking manufacturer to receive verification of recycled content.

Additives supplier Baerlocher (Münich, Germany) will increase capacity for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) heat stabilizers at its plant in Dewas, India, doubling output of its one-pack stabilizers by adding 7000 tonnes/yr of capacity. The expansion, which will cost nearly €1 million, will be completed in two stages with work initiating in December of this year.

Keller Plastics, the extrusion processing business unit of Keller Products Inc., has expanded its range of products with the addition of polylactic acid (PLA) extruded profiles that offer flame resistance. Potential uses could be in point-of-purchase displays, packaging, wall partitions and other construction applications, furniture, and more.

Japan’s population is not just shrinking, it’s also aging. By October of this year, an estimated 23.1% of its population will be 65 or older vs. just 13% of the population aged less than 15 years old.

In his first three Extrusion Expert webinars, Allan Griff, a consulting engineer and extrusion expert with more than 40 years of experience in plastics extrusion, focused on machinery and auxiliaries. In his fourth, he went inside the barrel and hopper to look at resins.

Entitled, “Do monkey with the formula,” the webinar, which drew more than 700 registrants, sought to empower extruders to be able to make alterations to compounds where needed and better understand how different resins, additives, and compounds interact.

Based on statistics recently provided by the plastics and rubber machinery association within German trade group VDMA, the past 10 years have produced one significant winner in the global processing machinery market in terms of export market share gained—China—while the loss of export market share has been shared by a number of countries but felt most harshly in absolute terms in Japan. 

Custom injection molder Dickten Masch Plastics (DMP) has hired Andy Bondhus to work as a plastics engineer at the firm.  Bondhus will work out of the company's processing facility in Iowa, where he will support part design, mold flow, tooling, and tool design for DMP. Bondhus began his career at Lake Tool Inc. as a moldmaker, ran his own company (Plastic Solutions Inc.) for 11 years, and most recently was a tooling and design engineer at Innovative Injection Technologies Inc. (i2tech).

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.

The Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) has developed a Roadmap based on inputs provided by plastics industry participants that will act as a guide for plastic processors to meet the aspirations of the government's New Economic Model (NEM).