Extrusion-Film & Sheet

With sales returning to the levels seen in 2008, the company's best year on record, film and sheet extrusion systems supplier Macro Engineering & Technology Inc. (Mississauga, ON) is planning to expand its production floor space by approximately 40%. The new room will be used mainly for setting up and testing machinery prior to shipment.

In a sign that global investment is picking up in the plastics sector, Taiwanese compounding extruder supplier Sino-Alloy Machinery Inc. (Taoyuan) has scored a number of successes of late in delivery of equipment to Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.

When a heat exchanger begins to fail or becomes problematic, it may be indicative of various problems ranging from inappropriate mechanical design to unforeseen chemical reactions. But, is it better to replace or to repair a heat exchanger?—By American Power Services (Erlanger, KY)

Sheet, compounds, and packaging products supplier Spartech Corp. (St. Louis, MO) will open a new technology center in St. Louis, combining its material, product, and packaging development centers into one location. The new center will expand to an 80,000- to 100,000-ft² facility that Spartech plans to have operational by mid-summer 2010.

Even though manufacturing activity at U.S. firms slowed up a bit compared with January, the latest data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM; Tempe, AZ) showed February was the seventh successive positive month. The hope is that the activity will filter into other sectors; the fear is that current activity may be largely due to replacement of depleted inventories.

Some plastics packaging processors' sustainability plans are further along than others. Among the pace setters is Innovia Films, which has earned CarbonNeutral certification for its range of cellulose-based NatureFlex coated biodegradable and compostable packaging films. 

Extrude hydrophilic materials PET and PLA with no need for pre-drying: That's the promise being made by extruder manufacturers PTi and Bandera, which have teamed up to offer dryer-less extrusion lines for processing sheet from these materials.

As Chinaplas opens in Shanghai this April, China will more than likely be celebrating its impending emergence as the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, expecting to have edged slightly ahead of Japan when the final 2009 GDP numbers come in.

The launch of our Extrusion Expert series of webinars in January generated great feedback and a long list of questions. Here we share with you not only the questions your competitors and peers asked, but also the answers to those. It’s an extrusion information overload.

Consumer and foodservice packaging major Pactiv has acquired thermoformer PWP Industries from holding company HPC Industries for $200 million. HPC is the holding company run by Leon Farahnik, who just two years ago sold his stake in the world's largest shopping bag processor, Hilex Poly, another company he founded.