News

Plast-Ex Summit speakers confirmed
The line-up of speakers for the Plast-Ex Summit '08 on May 22 is growing. This event, co-sponsored by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and Plastics in Canada magazine, is for senior executives in the plastics industry looking to decide on strategy in today's market.
Confirmed speakers now include Jonathon Fischer, president of Mold-Masters Ltd., who will examine some of the challenges and opportunities facing Canadian equipment manufacturers; Gerry Fedchun, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturing Association; and Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Also, former NOVA Chemicals vice-president Paul Clark, who consults with India's giant Reliance Group, will give an overview of how India's plastics industry is evolving. In addition, the Great Lakes Manufacturing Council, a consultative trading alliance between Ontario and several US states around the Great Lakes, is contributing a speaker who will look at how some of the rust-belt states have revitalised some of their industries.
The event is at the Rogers Center (formerly the Skydome) and includes dinner, as well as networking opportunities before and during a Blue Jays baseball game that will be watched from the Rogers VIP box.
www.plastexsummit.ca

Fast Heat moves out of heating elements, sensors
Fast Heat Inc. (Elmhurst, Ill.) has sold its range of heating elements and sensors to Tutco, Inc., another supplier of heating technology. However, this does not affect Fast Heat's hot-runners and temperature controllers, which it will continue to sell under its own name. Fast Heat business units in the United Kingdom, France, and Singapore will continue to supply the heating element product line throughout Europe and Asia.
Tutco is allowed to use the Fast Heat name on the heaters sold in North America for up to two years. After this time, it must use a different designation in the marketplace. This company designs and manufactures heating components for a variety of commercial applications including refrigeration, HVAC, lab equipment and vending.
"The divesture of our heating element product line in North America will give us the capital and management time to focus on new opportunities," says Fast Heat CEO Tom Stojka. "We are constantly looking for ways to penetrate new emerging technology markets to grow our business and leverage our brand name globally."
His company is now emphasising its RFID e-pedigree systems, which it sells to food processors and pharmaceuticals manufacturers.
www.tutco.com, www.fastheat.com

Machinery builders change hands and status
As reported previously, Engel North America is closing its Guelph, Ont., machinery building facility and reducing its Canadian operations to a sales and engineering office. However, it's not the only injection moulding machine supplier undergoing changes.
Another large injection moulding machine builder, Demag, is being purchased by Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. Demag includes Demag Ergotech GmbH (Schwaig, Germany) and Van Dorn Demag Corp. (Strongsville, Ohio). It was no secret the Demag group was up for sale, and the deal is expected to close as of March 3, according to a statement from Sumitomo. The outcome should be an operation with the largest sales figure of injection moulding machinery of any company that manufactures globally, replacing Engel in that position. China's Ningbo Haitian Group Ltd. has the largest sales by number of actual presses sold.
Sumitomo and Demag are conducting the deal through an exchange of stock, with Sumitomo gaining complete control of Demag. Both companies will continue to make all-electric machines and perpetuate some of their brand-names. The big advantage is that Sumitomo gains a foothold in Europe and other markets where it is currently only a minor player, while Demag loses a Eurocentric approach. Demag ceased manufacturing operations in North America last year, and only conducts sales activities here.
Austrian-based Battenfeld Kunststoffmachinen GmbH is still looking for a new owner, after venture capital firm Adcuram (Munich, Germany) announced it wanted to exit the moulding machine business because of chronically low margins. Georg Tinchshert, acting managing director of Battenfeld, says he hopes a new owner will be in place by the end of March. His company has had about 100 enquiries from interested buyers, and has retained Deloitte and Touche to help sort through them.
www.shi.co.jp/english, www.dpg.com, www.battenfeld-imt.com

Stork enters North American markets
An unfamiliar brand-name in injection moulding machines is coming to North America. Holland's Stork Plastics Machinery B.V. is opening a sales office in Shirley, Mass., under a former Netstal sales executive, Tony Thompson. As sales manager for Stork on this continent, he will be selling into both Canada and the US.
SPM's specialty is high-speed packaging machinery up to 1,500 tons. Its output is small – under 140 machines per year – and it needs to increase this figure. Primarily, it has focused on Europe until now, and there are only about two dozen Storks on this continent.
At K 2007, the company introduced its new S+ machines for pails, buckets, thinwall containers, caps and closures, CD jewel boxes and similar products. These presses are available from 110 to 1550 tons.
The company's root go back to the 1960s, when it made presses under licence from Reed Corp. in the US. The company says there are still elements of the original Reed equipment design in its line.
The company hopes to sell 10 presses a year initially, building up to a spare parts operation as business grows. The company can be reached at 978-425-5197 or tony.thompson@storkspm.com.
www.storkspm.com

Clarification
A  News item in our last enewsletter stated the national board of CPIA refused a request for greater autonomy for the Quebec region. What was refused was a tied demand to rehire former regional director Pierre Fillion as part of a move towards greater autonomy. The national board has continued to state that it is willing to devote the time and energy to find a new governance model that would give Quebec region the greater autonomy it wished.
www.cpia.ca

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Recent results In selling into the U.S., do you find the greatest challenge is: That high Canadian dollar 55% Border regulations 13% Uninformed or hostile border officials 19% US customers' preference to deal with American firms 13%

Changes

Blue Bins Unlimited Ltd. (Mississauga, Ont.) is claiming it is now the largest supplier of reusable plastic containers to the commercial and household moving industry in Canada.
www.bluebins.com

Arkema has been named a winner of the 2007 Nano 50 Awards for development of its controlled architecture polymers technology. The awards, presented by Nanotech Briefs magazine, recognise the top 50 technologies, products and innovators that have significantly impacted, or are expected to impact, the state of the art in nanotechnology. Arkema's technology is based on the BlocBuilder controller, an initiating species and a nitroxide controller combined into one molecule. BlocBuilder controller provides a straightforward, robust method for producing high purity, functionalized block copolymer structures tailored to specific end uses.
www.arkemagroup.com

Assets of Universal Mould & Die Co. Ltd. are being auctioned today at the firm's Stoney Creek site. Universal made injection and compression moulds. Infinity Asset Solutions Inc. (Concord, Ont.), is holding the auction, which can also be accessed through a simultaneous webcast.
www.infassets.com

A. Schulman Inc. plans to close its plant in St. Thomas, Ont. It also plans to sell a plant in Orange, Tex. The St. Thomas plant employs about 120 people, and produces 74 million-lb per year of compounded thermoplastics. Much of this goes into automotive applications, which the company describes as low margin products.

Nick Nigro has joined Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. (Lincoln, RI) as product sales manager – extrusion systems. He has 30 years of experience in the blown and cast film industries and was previously employed by Foremost Equipment, Gloucester Engineering, and Cloeren.
www.whcorp.com

Nick Nigro

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Classified Ads

Job Forum

Businesses For Sale

Miscellaneous

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Coming Events

2008

February 21: Society of Plastics Engineers, Ontario section monthly dinner meeting, with Marion Axmith of the Vinyl Council of Canada, speaking on Green Building Products. At the Delta Toronto Airport West Hotel. (Contact: Joe DeRose at 416-410-2286 or jd@axispsi.com).

February 21: CTMA dinner meeting, at the ISCAR Technical Centre, Oakville, Ont., featuring technical presentations and demonstrations of the latest strategies for hard machining, high speed machining, tool holders, special machining and more. (Contact: 519-653-7265 or info@ctma.com).

March 12: Space draw for Expoplast 2008. (Contact: Tom Sockett at 905-678-7748 or tsockett@cpia.ca).

March 20: Society of Plastics Engineers, Ontario section, annual University Night. At McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. (Contact: Leonardo Simon at 519-888-4567 or lsimon@uwaterloo.ca).

April 6-9: The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) Annual Expo will be held at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Fla. (Contact: Stacy Flint at 609-799-4900, ext. 62, or SFlint@icma.com).

April 8-11: Plastimagen 2008, Mexico's premier plastics show, at Centro Banamex, Mexico City (Contact: Guadalupe Olvera Arellano at 52-55-1087-1650 or golvera@ejkrause.com).

April 10: Basics of Plastics, an introduction to the elements of the plastics industry. At the Rogers campus in Brampton, Ont. (Contact: Edward Mason at 416-764-1514 or edward.mason@plastics.rogers.com)

May 12-13: Tenth International Conference on Progress in Biofibre Plastic Composites. At the Toronto Airport Renaissance Hotel. (Contact: Guida Williamson at 519-249-0545 or www.biocomposites-toronto.com)

May 22: The Plast-Ex Summit 2008 is a look at the urgent issues facing the plastics industry in Canada. Co-sponsored by Plastics in Canada magazine and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. At the Rogers Center, Toronto. (Contact: Nick Passingham at 416-764-1527 or nick.passingham@plastics.rogers.com).

May 26 - 29: Aseanplas 2008 incorporating Aseanrubber 2008, Southeast Asia's main international trade fair for plastics and rubber. At Singapore Expo. (Contact: Messe Düsseldorf North America at 312-781-5180 or info@mdna.com).

September 30 - October 2: Interplas 2008, Britain's national plastics show, at the Birmingham NEC, UK. (Contact: Graham Earl at 020 8910 7890 or graham.earl@reedexpo.co.uk).

October 22-23: Rotoplas '08, the international rotational moulding event, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Ill. (Contact: Maria at 630-578-3266 x225, or mariap@cmservnet.com)

October 20-21: Expoplast 2008, Quebec's triennial plastics show, at the Palais de Congres in Montreal. (Contact: Tom Sockett at 905-678-7748 or tsockett@cpia.ca)

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Focus section on Plant Automation
Plastics in transportation and non-passenger vehicles
Blow moulding report – Developments in PET equipment
Spotlight on Raw materials handling equipment
Raw materials report
Processor profile


Closing: March 12, 2008

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