Supplier News… (July 01, 2004)

Hot runner manufacturer Mold-Masters Limited (Georgetown, ON) will be opening a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in China this summer. The 75,000 square-feet plant, located west of Shanghai in Kun Shan City, will serve as Mold-Masters headquarters in China. It will consolidate existing operations in the region, allowing Mold-Masters to strengthen support for its growing Chinese customer base.

“Mold-Masters has been investing in China since the mid-1980s. The time is right for us to expand, given the growth of our electronics and telecommunications customer base in China,” said Mold-Masters president Jonathon Fischer.

Phase 1 of the new facility is currently under construction on a 15-acre site. Plans are to triple the space by 2007.

Cinpres Gas Injection Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) and Alliance Gas Systems (Chesterfield Twp., MI) have announced an agreement to cross license each company’s U.S. patents and patent applications. The agreements cover Alliance’s Backspill process and Cinpres’ Plastic Expulsion Process (PEP), with sub-licensing rights for both companies.

The Backspill and PEP processes were developed in the late 1990s when both companies were working on methods to improve techniques of expelling plastic from mold cavities by gas injection. Both companies arrived at similar but not identical solutions, and both filed U.S. patents. The PEP and Backspill methods allow a molder to fill the product cavity and then pressurize the plastic before opening the valve(s) to enable the expulsion of the plastic melt. To prevent future conflict with Cinpres’ Full Shot molding patent, Cinpres is including this method when used with Backspill and PEP in its license to Alliance.

Dow Chemical Canada Inc. will close its epoxy production facility in Sarnia, ON, effective August 1, 2004. The facility produces solid epoxy resins and Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resin. Dow said changing global market dynamics in the epoxy market has resulted in under utilization of capacity at the Sarnia plant. Currently the plant is producing about 7.7 MM lb. of D.E.R. solid epoxy resins and about 4.4 MM lb. of Derakane resins. Dow said it will consolidate production and supply to North American customers from the company’s epoxy plants in Freeport, TX and Joliet, IL.

To meet growing demand in China, Dow began producing epoxy at a new 88 MM lb. converted epoxy resins unit in Zhangjiagang, China in May 2003.

Bohler-Uddeholm Thermo-Tech has become the first heat treatment company to be certified under the new ISO 9000/TS16949: 2002 standard. The ISO standard is a globally recognized automotive sector document which requires increased commitment to quality system improvement and performance measurements based on data and flow process reviews. The company’s Mississauga, ON plant operates 2, 5 and 10 bar vacuum hardening furnaces, as well as other tempering furnaces and surface treatments.