News Briefs (November 01, 2007)

Unionville, Ont.-based Dier International and Montreal-based D Cube have announced a strategic alliance for the Eastern Canadian market, and appointed each other as exclusive sales representatives. The agreement will include products manufactured by Motan Inc., Rapid Inc., Thermal Care Inc., Arburg Inc., and Erema. D Cube will handle all products for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Meanwhile, Dier International will handle Arburg and Erema for Ontario, and continue to handle all the other brands for all of Canada except for D Cube’s territory.

Georgetown, Ont.-based Mold-Masters Limited used the K-2007 trade show to announce a new 10-year global extended warranty program for its hot runners. Given that the typical warranty in the hot runner industry is only one year, company president Jonathan Fischer said the new warranty made a clear statement about the company’s confidence in the “performance and reliability” of their hot runners.

Construction has started on American Kuhne’s new engineering, manufacturing, and extrusion laboratory, situated on 12 acres of real estate in Hopkinton, R.I. American Kuhne will move in to their new facility in June of 2008.

Atlanta, Ga.-based injection stretch blow molding machine manufacturer Nissei ASB Company has appointed Plastics Machinery Inc. of Newmarket, Ont. as representative in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Mold supplier StackTeck Systems Inc., of Brampton, Ont., has installed a high-speed milling machine and a wire-electric-discharge machine in order to improve its injection mold production. The company also plans to add new injection presses to its technical service centre, to expand mold testing.

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based auxiliary supplier Conair has formed a new business unit — called Conair Extrusion — to focus exclusively on providing solutions for downstream extrusion applications. The company has also acquired Kawkawlin, Mich.-based downstream extrusion equipment manufacturer Michigan Plastics Machinery (MPM). According to Conair, all key MPM employees are expected to remain with the business.

Baltimore, Md.-based auxiliary supplier Novatech Inc. has opened a Great Lakes regional projects office in Kalamazoo, Mich. to serve customers in that region. The office will provide on-site consulting, system design and supervision of installation for the company’s resin drying, blending and conveying systems.

Ineos Nova — the 50/50 styrenics joint venture between Calgary, Alta.-based Nova Chemicals Corporation and Ineos — has announced plans to shut down its Montreal, Que. polystyrene production site by the end of 2007. The plant has an annual production capacity of 120 million pounds of polystyrene. The shutdown will remove approximately six per cent of Ineos Nova’s polystyrene production capacity in North America, the company said.