PRA News

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has started the production of high performance prepolymers at its site in Porto Feliz, Brazil. With this measure, the Urethane Systems business unit is expanding its production capacity for prepolymers. In addition, application development and technical services is provided from its state-of-the-art laboratory at the site.…

German Injection moulding manufacturer, Arburg, has started the expansion of its US headquarters in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, thus providing an extra 23,000 sqft of space, or over 80% to the size of the existing building to make more room for set up and acceptance testing of complete turnkey automation projects, customised…

German machinery supplier KraussMaffei Berstorffis planning to build a new plant for extrusion technology. Last month, the company signed a rental contract with committee reservation with VGP, a European project developer for commercial real estate, for an approximately 55,000 sq m production hall and office complex. Completion of the plant…

Advanced composites company Hexcel, together with composite companies, Progen and Future Aerospace, open their new joint venture laboratory and materials testing facility in Shanghai, China. Future Aerospace Hexcel Commercial Composite Testing Limited (FAHCCT) will provide China with a world-class aerospace standard materials testing laboratory that provides technical services including support…

DuPont Transportation & Industrial and ExxonMobil Chemical have jointly developed the new Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) for automotive corner mould seals. By replacing traditional organic slip additives with DuPont’s engineered silicone-based additives, the two companies formulated a next-generation Santoprene TPV platform with improved bonding to ethylene propylene diene monomer (EDPM) rubber substrates and a lower…

Germany-headquartered chemicals company, BASF is opening new Footwear Development Centres in the US (Wyandotte, Michigan) and Thailand; and is also launching a Footwear Innovation Centre in Taiwan in 2020. The company also recently expanded its Footwear Development Centre in Italy. Bringing together a dedicated team of process engineers, footwear specialists…

The future of extrusion around the globe lies in the use of more mono-materials with clear trends towards PLA, PP and PE lines. This was the message from Germany-based extrusion machinery firm Reifenhäuser Group that will be focusing on the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and replace at K2019.  …

Thailand based polypropylene (PP) manufacturer, HMC Polymers is planning to construct a fourth PP plant at its Map Ta Phut site, Rayong Province Thailand, bringing its total PP capacity to over 1 million tonnes and maintaining position as Southeast Asia’s largest PP producer. Further, HMC has entered into a License…

Australia headquartered global packaging company, Amcor has entered into an agreement with US private equity firm, Kohlberg & Company, for the sale of three former Bemis plants located in the UK and Ireland for US$ 394 million.  Collectively these three plants generate annual sales of approximately US$170 million from the sale of flexible packaging for certain…

Additive manufacturing or commonly known as 3D is seeing a spurt of growth with various companies making announcements for new tie-ups and product launches to make the process more commercial for mass production. Collaborations for technologies German chemicals firm BASF’s 3D Printing Solutions unit is to provide its photopolymer additive manufacturing…