The German KraussMaffei Group has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China. According to KraussMaffei, it is a key strategy of the company to make more investments in the Chinese market.

Teknor Apex announced the availability of the Monprene RG-15100 series, TPS compounds with the surface appearance and haptics of silicone rubber. The materials are said to exhibit lower compression set than standard TPS compounds, withstand temperatures in excess of 100 °C, and provide chemical resistance for food-grade, cosmetics, and other regulated applications. The materials meet U.S. and EU regulations for single- and repeated-use applications with dry, acidic, aqueous, and alcoholic food types. Hardnesses range from 30 to 80 Shore A.

Songwon, the South-Korean chemical specialties supplier and 2nd largest manufacturer of polymer stabilisers in the world has introduced new TPUs at Chinaplas 2019. The Songstomer polyether TPU product families P-3200A10/P-3200-A10U/P-3200-D10 are well-suited to a number of applications such as cables, tubes, films, profiles, compounds and masterbatches. Their ability to secure higher mechanical property stability, including less discolouration under long-term heat aging and thermoplastic processing and their high resistance to hydrolysis and microbe attack, make them products of choice for compounding, said the company in a statement.

In addition to strand pelletizing, ips Intelligent Pelletizing Solutions GmbH & Co. KG has also established a solid standing in the market with underwater pelletizing systems. Since the launch of this type of system in 2016, ips has already sold some of ips-UWG 75 S underwater pelletizing systems. Now the first ips-UWG 120 S system for throughputs of up to 2,500 kg/h is to be commissioned at the premises of an extrusion profile producer in Italy. The company manufactures most of the materials required for its production internally. Among other things, these include the appropriate compound for the production of pipework systems. In future, this will be manufactured using an unterwater pelletizing system ips-UWG 120 S.

On 17 May 2019, Andrea Carta, Arburg Director of Overseas Sales, together with Ratree Boonsay, Managing Director Arburg Thailand and Dr. Alexander Raubold, Counsellor Economic and Commercial Affairs of the German embassy in Bangkok, officially opened the new premises of the injection moulding machinery producer in Samutprakarn, Thailand. To mark the occasion, the subsidiary led by Ratree Boonsay hosted an open house event. Around 60 customers attended the event. On 10 May 2019, a traditional blessing ceremony with nine Buddhist monks had already taken place, intended to bring luck to Arburg Thailand and its employees.

The APS Elastomers’ polyether-based Zythane 7000 series of non-halogen flame retardant TPU just received the UL flame rating of V-0. The products are formulated for both injection moulding and extrusion applications with ease of processing. Typical applications include cable sheathing, spiral and pneumatic tubing, film, irrigation hoses, conveyor hoses, hydraulic hoses, flat flex cables, and automotive sensor cables.

The annual trade show JEC World is a must for the global composites industry but definitely not a platform where you would expect to see interesting and innovative applications involving thermoplastic elastomers. Although at this year’s JEC World held from 12-14 March in Paris, KraussMaffei showed a successful combination of its proprietary FiberForm process and swivel plate technology for multi-component injection moulding: a centre armrest for the automotive interior with a pleasant to touch TPE surface . The FiberForm process developed by KraussMaffei combines the thermoforming of organo sheets and injection moulding into one process. This process results in fibre-reinforced plastic components that are particularly lightweight yet feature a high level of strength.

Demonstrating how it inspires ingenuity in plastics was the focus of Huntsman at Chinaplas this May. At the show, Huntsman highlighted its expertise in polyurethane-based elastomers. Huntsman also promoted its Elastamine polyetheramine products, which can boost the performance of engineering plastics and fibres.

BASF plans to build a TPU as well as an engineering plastics compounding plant at the company’s proposed integrated chemical production (“Verbund”) site in Zhanjiang, China. The company said that these will be the first production plants to come onstream at the site. The TPU plant will have a capacity of 32,000 t/y; the engineering plastics compounding plant will supply a capacity of 60,000 t/y of these products.

Monitoring Recyclates for Europe (MORE) is a new unified digital platform to monitor the uptake of recycled polymers into products. The IT platform is available to be used by converters since 25 April 2019. It was developed by EuPC in cooperation with its members and in support to the European Commission’s EU Plastics Strategy. Its objective is to monitor and register the plastics converting industry’s efforts to reach the EU target of 10 million t of recycled polymers used annually between 2025 and 2030.