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The show you can't afford to miss!

Plastics in Canada is producing the only official Showguide for Plast-Ex 2007, which closes on March 23.
Our Showguide is the sole one being distributed to all showgoers at each of the show's entrances.

And if you want to be sure you draw the people to your show booth, contact Gillian Thomas at 416-764-1527 or gillian.thomas@plastics.rogers.com to arrange advertising in the Showguide.

News

Biopolymers spring up all over
The hunt for raw materials made from renewable resources as opposed to oil and natural gas is broadening. The National Research Council has a project involving biodegradable polymers made from maple syrup.
Since the syrup business has been in decline in recent years, this offers a welcome opportunity to farmers. In Quebec alone, there is currently an annual total of 27-million kg of surplus maple sap. NRC researcher Jalal Hawari says the material being produced could be used for medical applications like drug delivery systems and surgical sutures.
His process uses Alcaligenes latus, a bacterium that transforms sucrose into polyhydroxyalkannoates, or PHAs. His team began work with liquid waste from apple juice manufacturing, but has found better success with the maple syrup.
And on the industrial scale, Dow Chemical has developed a process for making monopropylene glycol from glycerin generated in the manufacture of biodiesel fuel. Propylene Glycol Renewable (PGR) will be used for making unsaturated polyester resins, plasticisers and chemical intermediates.
Mady Bricco, global product director, propylene oxide/propylene glycol, says production of PGR can be expected to provide additional environmental benefits when compared to propylene-based PG.  Laboratory tests indicate that manufacturing PGR will consume considerably less fresh water than conventional PG.
Further, in Ontario, the provincial government has announced funding for the Ontario BioAuto Council. This is chaired by Bernard West, former president of Canada Colors & Chemicals Ltd.
The council is working to link agriculture and forestry with the chemical and plastics industry to produce materials and chemicals from biological feedstocks. Bio-based materials, including flexible foams and rigid plastics, are planned to be supplied to auto parts manufacturers and assemblers for incorporation into Ontario-made cars and trucks. The Council is also working to identify other markets for bio-based materials such as the
packaging and construction sectors.
Biopolymers, West says, "is projected to be a $50-billion global market by the year 2015."
www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
www.dow.com
www.bioautocouncil.com

Husky looks for a suitor
With the full financial review of the company announced two weeks ago, Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. (Bolton, Ont.) has indicated it wants to see if an outside buyer will offer a suitable price. The company has engaged Citigroup Global Markets as its financial advisor in the review.
Like other processing machinery suppliers, Husky has found its market very difficult in the past five or six years. Although the company does just over $1-billion in annual sales of its presses, hot-runner systems and PET preform moulds, profits have been slim in recent years, and it was recently forced to lay off 85 employees.
Founder Robert Schad, who still owns almost half the company shares, says the review might result in a sales, a merger, a joint-venture – or no change at all. Officially, he retired two years ago, and John Galt became president and CEO, but Schad is still chairman.
Husky has been widely reported to be in talks with other injection moulding machinery companies in recent years. This, however, is its first time it has gone public about such a possible move.
In part, the announcement reflects the problems of a high-technology company that has to keep investing heavily in its product offering. Speaking of recent efforts to expand its markets and distribution network, Schad said, "While Husky's competitive position has become stronger as a result, we do not believe that this position is reflected in our current market valuation."
Company shares rose 27 per cent following the announcement.
www.husky.ca

Husky chairman Robert Schad

SMS continues move out of plastics
Germany's SMS (Dusseldorf, Germany) continues to offload its plastics machinery operations, announcing on March 7 that it had sold Battenfeld Extrusionstechnik GmbH, American Maplan Corp. and Cincinnati Extrusion GmbH to a European private equity investment firm, Triton, with no prior history in the plastics field. Include in the sale was an extrusion downstream equipment supplier, SMS Extrusion Kempen GmbH.
The remaining significant holding, Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. (Gloucester, Mass.) is still owned by SMS. The sale price of the companies has not been revealed.
The extrusion companies have annual sales of about $210-million, employing about 1,000 worldwide.
www.sms-k.com

Machinery giant restructures
The mpm Group of plastics machinery companies has reorganised. Its Berstorff and Krauss-Maffei arms will merge their extrusion operations, and this mpm holding will be integrated into a 'new Krauss Maffei' in a second step.
Injection moulding machine builder Netstal Maschinen AG will become a subsidiary of the new Krauss Maffei GmbH. The Demag Plastics Group will remain an independent entity and be managed separately from the new Krauss Maffei.
Chairman and CEO Richard C. Osborne will become chairman of the mpm Group's advisory board. Effective April 1, his successor will be Dr. Dietmar Straub. Straub has worked in leading positions at the Mannesmann Group for many years.
By merging their extrusion businesses, the combined companies aim to cover a wider range of applications and products in extrusion and, with the exception of the sheet extrusion there will be no overlaps in the product ranges.
"The customers will benefit from a wider product spectrum and a deeper application know-how," said Osborne. The merger will be finalised by the end of the 2006/2007 fiscal year.
www.mpm-group.com

US industry holds its own despite losses
Despite external challenges, the plastics industry remains one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the US, demand for plastics remains strong and the industry remains vital to the US economy. That is the state of the industry according to two new reports from the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (Washington, DC).
SPI's 2005 Global Business Trends, and Size and Impact of the Plastics Industry on the US Economy, uncover some bright spots, including a 9.7 per cent growth in demand in 2005 and an increase in the overall value of shipments. American produced plastic goods still hold significant market share over imports, and imports have not rapidly overtaken market share, when measured on industry-wide basis. Additionally, certain plastics industry sectors are performing very well, including construction materials (plastic pipe and fittings, profile shapes, foam products), packaging (film and sheet, plastic bags) and medical products.
"After 25 years of growth, we started to observe declines in jobs, number of facilities and capital expenditures in 2000," says SPI president and CEO William Carteaux. "The 2005 data show that those declines remain with us. Now that the new Congress is established and has their sleeves rolled up, we have been seeking commitments from key committee leaders to do all that they can to bring down natural gas prices and level the playing field for US manufacturers with China and other trading partners."
Still, the reports say the industry has lost 271,100 jobs (a 19 per cent decrease) since 2002. The majority of losses occurred between 2002 and 2004, when natural gas prices began climbing. In addition, there has been a loss of 1,713 facilities since 2002.
www.plasticsdatasource.org.

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Changes

Mitutoyo Canada Inc. has named Peter Detmers of national sales manager and support service manager. He began his career with Mitutoyo in 1991 in the technical support department and has also served as a sales and application specialist for several years before becoming support service manager and calibration laboratory manager. He is now responsible for all aspects of sales, service and calibration lab activities.

Vice-president Jay Summers, now oversees day-to-day operations of Mitutoyo Canada Inc. reporting to Mikio Yamashita, who was recently appointed president of Mitutoyo America Corp. in Aurora, Ill.
www.mitutoyo.ca

Peter Detmers

Specialty chemicals manufacturer Sartomer Co. has announced a corporate restructuring to enhance global customer support for companies with multinational operations. It will operate with three geographical sales regions, five central operating functions, and two global business units, all of which report directly to the president. The Americas region will be led by Albert Tuccio, vice-president, formerly VP of  sales.
www.sartomer.com

Vinyl profile extruder North Star Vinyl Windows & Doors (St. Thomas, Ont.) has been bought by Atrium Companies Inc. (Dallas, Tex.) North Star, founded in 1985, has a 233,000-sq ft extrusion and fabrication plant, and will continue to operate under the current name. Atrium, which has not released the terms of the deal, is a privately held, New York-based investment firm owned by Kenner & Co. Inc.
home.atrium.com

Steve Duckworth has become head of the global market segment – consumer goods for Clariant Masterbatches Division. He will work closely with regional and product marketing managers to develop the company's position in the consumer products segment. He has worked in the past for PolyOne Corp., Raychem, GE Plastics and DSM.
www.clariant.masterbatches.com

Steve Duckworth

Harold Humphrey has died after a brief illness. He was 88. A tireless inventor, he helped develop radar insulators in WW2, and a detector for carbon monoxide in aircraft cockpits. Later, he developed a fibreglass helmet for the RCAF, followed by a range of FRP items, including large storage tanks and the antenna housing on top of Toronto's CN Tower.

Harold Humphrey

Milacron has promoted Lewis Nuzzie to applications development manager. He joined Milacron in 1998 after several years at Textron Automotive, where he designed and supervised several large-part injection moulding manufacturing cells. His most recent position was senior sales engineer in the Chicago area for Cincinnati Milacron products.
www.milacron.com

Lewis Nuzzie

Printex (Poway, Cal.) is expanding with a machine showroom and distribution centre in Toronto. It will have pad printing equipment, accessories and supplies available for demonstration and quick shipment direct from the facility. Printex has manufactured pad printing equipment in the US for 25 years, and has a corporate office in New York that oversees Canadian operations.
www.printexusa.com

Scientific Technologies Inc. (Fremont, Cal.), a provider of automation safeguarding products, has completed its previously announced merger with a subsidiary of Japan-based Omron Corp. As a result of the merger and related transactions, Omron acquired STI's Safety Products Group (SPG) business and STI sold its Automation Products Group (APG) business to Automation Products Group, Inc., a new company formed by members of the Lazzara family. The total transaction values the equity of the Company at approximately $110.8 million.
www.omron.com

Dow Automotive (Auburn Hills, Mich.) has named Peter Sykes as successor to George Hamilton to lead the organisation. Hamilton will lead a new coatings business for Dow Chemical. Sykes has been with Dow since 1981 and has held a number of financial and operational management positions around the globe, including the position of treasurer of Dow Japan Ltd. He most recently served as the vice president of Dow's Plastics business in Asia-Pacific and also has been business manager for Dow's Engineering Thermoplastics in the Pacific region. For now, Sykes plans to lead Dow Automotive from its offices in Tokyo, Japan.
www.dow.com

Kevin McManus has been appointed president of the KMT Group's newly-formed Robotic Solutions business area.  McManus, who served as president of recently-acquired Robotic Production Technology (RPT) since 1999, will now oversee operations at KMT Robotic Solutions, Inc. in Auburn Hills, Mich., KMT Robotic Solutions, AB in Ronneby, Sweden and KMT Robotic Solutions in Shanghai, China.
www.kmtgroup.com

Kevin McManus

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Miscellaneous

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Coming Events

March 26: CAMM meeting, featuring Brian Masse, MP for Windsor West, on the recent government Industry Report. At the Ciociaro Club of Windsor, Oldcastle, Ont. (Contact: Lise Peterson at 519-255-7863 or lise@camm.ca).

March 29-30: Society of Plastics Engineers, Quebec section, Topcon on Injection Moulding: Designing for Processors and Processing for Designers. At the Industrial Materials Institute, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Martin Bureau at 450-641-5179 or Martin.Bureau@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca).

April 2-4: International Symposium on Polymeric Materials for Regenerative Medicine. At Industrial Materials Institute, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Martin Bureau at 450-641-5179 or Martin.Bureau@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca)

April 14-18: 29th annual spring meeting of the Association of Rotational Molders. At Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa, Las Vegas. (Contact: 630-571-0611 or info@rotomolding.org).

April 19: Society of Plastics Engineers, Ontario section: Injection Moulding Minitec, at the Delta Toronto Airport West Hotel. (Contact: Pam Robb at 905-671-1511 ext. 206 or probb@brenntag.ca).

May 1-3: Plast-Ex 2007, Canada's not-to-be-missed national plastics trade show. At the International Centre, Toronto. (Contact: Sally Damstra at 905-678-7748 or sdamstra@cpia.ca).

May 5: Galea Awards, CPIA Quebec's annual recognition of outstanding individuals and companies. At Hotel Mortagne, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Marie-France Sosa, at 450-641-5926 or mfsosa@acipquebec.ca).

May 7-11: Brasilplast 2007, at Anhembi Park Exhibition Hall, São Paulo, Brazil. (Contact: Alcantara Machada company at 5511-3030-9463 or almax@almax.com.br.)

May 21-24: Chinaplas, at the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Pazhou, Guangzhou, China. (Contact: Hong Kong 852-2811-8857 or chinaplas@adsale.com.hk).

May 22: CPIA's Canadian Natural Composites Council annual general meeting, at the Hall of Ideas EFG, Madison, Wis., during the 9th International Conference on Wood & Natural Fiber-Plastics Composites (Contact: Marilyne Berman, 905-678-7405 Ext. 278, or mberman@cpia.ca)

May 24: Quebec plastics pioneers social hour and dinner, at the Whitlock Golf and Country Club in Hudson, Que. (Contact: Terry Browitt at 450-458-5591 or tjbrowitt@terinex.com)

June 14: Canadian Plastics Pioneers, annual golf tournament and reunion dinner. At Richmond Hill Golf & Country Club, Richmond Hill, Ont. (Contact: Peter Stephen at 905-940-5577 or pstephen@stephensales.com).

October 24-31: K 2007, Germany's international plastics super-show, at Dusseldorf Trade Fairgrounds. (Contact: Stefan Egge at 416-598-1524 or messeduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca)

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Screw design – the quest for the perfect spiral
Injection moulding of micro parts
Extrusion report – Innovations in blown film
Spotlight on Granulators & Shredders
Raw materials report
Processor profile

Closing: May 16

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