PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2012

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 04/12 www.petpla.net Bernhard Merki leaves Netstal KraussMaffei Group has appointed Dr. Hans Ulrich Golz as “President” of a common Group-wide Injection Mold- ing Machinery Segment. Bernhard Merki, CEO of Netstal Maschinen AG, decided to step down from his position and to leave the company. “The new “President” of the Group-wide Injection Molding Machinery Segment, Dr. Hans Ulrich Golz has served the company to date as President of the Extru- sion Technology Segment and Chairman of the Management Board of KraussMaffei Berstorff. Dr. Karlheinz Bourdon and Frank Peters, previously responsible for Injection Molding Machinery and Reaction Process Machinery at KraussMaffei, will take up new posts as part of the reorganization measures at the injection moulding machinery segment. Dr. Karlheinz Bourdon will take up the post of “Vice President Technolo- gies” and will be amongst others responsible for the common segment activities in Research and Development, Product Management and Process Engineering Development. As “Vice President Sales KraussMaffei” Frank Peters will have sole responsibility for sales of injection molding machin- ery bearing the KraussMaffei brand. “We will increase our injection moulding activities throughout the Group. We will therefore maintain the independent market presence of the Netstal and KraussMaffei brands with a clearly defined prod- uct portfolio and separately operating sales organizations for both brands”, said Jan Olaf Siebert, Chairman of the Board of Management of KraussMaffei AG. www.krauss-maffei.com www.netstal.com Unifi using Starlinger for Repreve yarn Unifi, the US-based producer of multifilament polyester and nylon textured yarns has installed two Starlinger recy- cling lines at its Repreve Recycling Center in Yadkinville, North Carolina. The Starlinger recycling lines have been designed to recycle PET flakes from plastic bottles, fibre waste and polyester fabrics. The post-consumer product is produced on the recoStar PET machine while a recoStar universal machine is used for the hybrid product. At Unifi’s request, Starlinger custom-designed the equipment with a focus on colour, IV (intrinsic viscosity) and POY(pre- oriented yarn) spinning and texturing performance. The recoStar PET recycling line converts 100% PCR flakes into chip, which is then processed on a special spinning line. It is designed to ensure constant IV in the recycled chip. It has an integrated energy recovery kit that reuses heat from the granulation process for preheating the PCR flakes. In-house waste, combined with a share of PCR- flakes, is recycled on a Starlinger recoStar universal line. Both lines use a specially designed cascade filtration system that enables filtration down to 25μm, to meet the high requirements in the fibre industry. Repreve is used by a range of brands and retailers, including Polartec, Patag- onia, The North Face, Hon and Steelcase. As reported in PETplanet (issue 3/2012, page 36), Ford Motor Company has chosen the Repreve product for its new Focus Electric car. www.starlinger.com Industry standard optical measure- ment of permeation published The Industrievereinigung fur Lebensmitteltechnolo- gie und Verpackung e.V. (IVLV) has published a stand- ard entitled “Testing plastic materials - optical method for determination of the oxygen permeability of packag- ing systems (films and moulded parts)”. The Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV was involved in the development of the testing method and prepared the technical bulletin. The oxygen permeability of a packaging system is one of the most important cri- teria determining whether that packaging system can be used for foods and pharmaceuticals. Oxygen permeability has most commonly been measured using the mano- metric or the oxygen-specific carrier gas method with an electrochemical sensor. Oxygen sensors that can be read optically are also now available and have become estab- lished in biotechnology and beverage technology. They are currently primarily used for barrier measurements on filled beverage bottles but there have been no accredited standards and measurement procedures for them, until now. The Fraunhofer IVV has developed and validated a permeation test procedure in collaboration with an indus- trial partner, which can be downloaded free of charge as Technical Bulletin no. 108/2011 in either English or German at http://ivlv.de/de/Veroeffent.html. Th e standard will serve as the basis for DIN, CEN, and ISO standards, which will be drawn up in collaboration with analytical equipment manufacturers, research institutes, and users starting in 2012 or 2013. http://ivlv.de/de/Veroeffent.html The 8th China International Recycled Polyester Forum Shanghai 2012 CCFEI and PRF have announced that they are jointly organizing the 8 th China International Recycled Polyester Forum 2012, September 13 -14 at the Jin Jang Rainbow Hotel Shanghai, Yan’an West Road, Changning District, Shanghai, PRC. The conference will cover the latest market trends in mainland China and provide in-depth information of technology development in the polyester recycling industry chain. China now accounts for a quarter of the world’s PET capacity and a similar proportion of the PET recycling market. Details of the polyester recycling industry chain and the results of CCFEI’s market research focus on polyester recycling will be presented during the event. www.ccfei.com www.ce-pip.com www.polyester-recycling.com