Author: RubberWorld

LEIBINGER has been nominated for the German Innovation Award, operated and judged by the prestigious German Design Council for its new IQJET industrial printer.

The new line in South Carolina is satisfying the high demand in particular from the tire industry in North America and makes the supply chains of Evonik partners in the region resilient by enabling local silica sourcing.

Silica is a key ingredient for fuel-efficient tires and other products like toothpaste or coatings. The group is investing a mid-double-digit million Euro amount. The construction of the new production line is scheduled to begin in mid-2024. Operations will start in early 2026.

Brenntag presented solid financial results and a record free cash flow for the financial year 2023. In a challenging market environment, both divisions, Brenntag Specialties and Brenntag Essentials, delivered results below the record year 2022 but in line with expectation. The divisional results were affected by low demand and inflationary impact on costs. Throughout the year, a slight sequential improvement in volumes was seen and during the fourth quarter of 2023, Brenntag returned to its growth path.

KRAIBURG TPE has released a new range of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) products that contain at least 73% recycled content. The new Recycling Content TPE for Automotive series has been designed to fulfil a variety of technical applications. KRAIBURG TPE is also announced an agreement with Tessi Supply, which will use the grades to produce inlay cases and floor mats.

Attendees of the MODEX trade show will have the opportunity to witness firsthand the capabilities of Liberty Robotics’ advanced machine vision systems, focusing on the mixed case palletizing capabilities of the recently launched VPack™ system. VPack™ features ad hoc picking capabilities and digital twin technology, along with high-accuracy sensors for precise box detection.

Lion Elastomers and Emulco NV have signed a supply and distribution agreement for Trilene® 65 L-EPDM, a key ingredient for Emulco’s new water-based EPDM dispersion products. The agreement gives Emulco the rights to use Lion’s Trilene ® 65 L-EPDM as the raw material for a new line of water-based emulsions under their new brand name Aquapol®. These novel dispersions can be cured at ambient temperature with peroxide, UV, or hybrid curing technologies. This opens new opportunities for various coating applications, such as roof coatings and anti-corrosion coatings. These novel dispersions offer superior performance, durability, and environmental benefits compared to conventional solvent-based coatings.

AirBoss of America Corp. announced its fourth quarter and annual results. The company generated $40.9 million cash from operations during 2023, compared to consuming $30.8 million in 2022; 2023 Adjusted EBITDA1 of $26.8 million on Adjusted Profit1 of $(6.4) million and a loss of $41.7 million;
Finished 2023 with a Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio1 of 3.30x; and declared a quarterly dividend of C$0.07 per common share.

Guill Tool introduced The Bullet®, an extrusion head with fixed center design, multi-port spiral flow design and gum space adjustment, plus the added feature of no fastening hardware, so cleaning and restart are easier and faster than any conventional head on the market currently, according to company sources. Recently, the company began offering the next generation of this unique and patented tool, The Bullet II.