CHICAGO—The Chicago Rubber Group
is planning a larger technical format and a
table-top exhibition for its Sept. 27 meeting
and dinner in Arlington Heights, Ill.
Under the themes of technical service
and the economic outlook, the program will
include four technical papers, a keynote address and an economic forecast.
John Paro, president and CEO of Hall-star Co., will give the keynote address on
the value and usefulness of technical service. Joseph Fry, senior economist at
DuPont, will be the pre-dinner speaker and
will talk about the economic outlook.
The technical presentations will be:
● Jim Reszler, Trostel Ltd., on technical
service needs at his company;
● Uday P. Karmarkar, Akron Rubber Development Laboratory Inc., on materials
research in the laboratory in tire aging and
durability test development;
● Thea Robinson, Caterpillar, on that
company’s expectations in technical service; and
● Matt Putnam, Tech Pro Inc., on a simplified method of testing for quality and
process control.
The exhibition will feature seven exhibits by supplier companies and the ACS
Rubber Division. The event will begin at
12: 30 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in the
Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
For more information and reservations,
contact Brian Olson at brianolson@hmroy-al.com, or Carl Caputo at ccaputo@chem-et.com.
Break time during the International Latex Conference in Las Vegas
Aug. 21-22 gave Philip Meister
(from left) and Calvin Guthrie,
chemists with Roho Inc. in
Belleville, Ill., a chance to catch up
with Dave Schuck, technical director for Killian Latex Inc. in Akron.
Coverage from the conference appears on page 6.
RPN photo by Dave Zielasko
Topcor, investor buy lining firm
Momentive, Roembke
to host 2-day seminar
OSSIAN, Ind.—Momentive Performance
Materials and Roembke Manufacturing &
Design Inc. will host a symposium Sept. 18-
19 to review the latest equipment, materials and developments in injection molding
and the flashless tooling of silicones.
Attendees will hear presentations from
equipment manufacturers and have the opportunity to tour Momentive’s custom formulation facility in Garrett, Ind., one day
and Roembke’s headquarters in Ossian,
Ind., the next. The two companies said they
will showcase the latest applications for
health care, automotive, aerospace, electronics and other industries.
Visit www.momentive.com/geam-/Home-Page/Home/symposium/ for details.
By Brad Dawson
Rubber & Plastics News Staff
BATON ROUGE, La.—Topcor Companies L.L.C. has
gained control of rubber lining fabricator Bud Enterprise
Lining Co. Inc. to add to its growing list of businesses serving the chemical and petrochemical industries.
The purchase was completed July 23, with ownership
shared equally by Topcor and entrepreneur Jay Roccaforte. Topcor created a new unit, Topcor Belco L.L.C., to
absorb the Belco operations, located in Prairieville, La.
Roccaforte, who was semi-retired after a successful career in industrial distribution before the deal was made, is
the new president of Topcor Belco.
The team of former Belco owners—Managing Partner
Jack Carter, Freddie Dufren, Larry Campbell and Don
Mosley—will remain with the company in management,
though Carter and Mosley plan to retire within six to 12
months.
Topcor’s interest in the rubber lining business grew
over the last few years, and Belco had the best reputation
in Louisiana as a supplier and fabricator, said James M.
Baker, Topcor president and CEO. Plus, Carter had been
looking to sell the Belco business for some time, so there
was motivation on both sides to get the deal done.
The parties had the basis of the agreement negotiated
by late spring, Baker said.
The purchase includes the 20,000-sq.-ft. plant in
Prairieville and the 8½-acre parcel it sits on, he said. The
facility has a rubber lining shop, a metal fabrication operation, two autoclaves, a blast yard and business offices,
and employs about 30.
Topcor plans to build corporate offices and a warehouse
on the available 3½ acres at the newly acquired site and
move its headquarters there by late summer of 2008, Baker said. Square footage will double with the additional
buildings, he said.
Business has been very good for Belco in the last few
years, with 10-percent annual growth, but 2007 revenues
are expected to double those of 2006 because of the completion of some big projects, Baker said. He and Roccaforte
have “aggressive continued-growth plans” for Topcor Belco, including investment in equipment and upgrades, expansion of the metal fabrication business to complement
rubber lining services and the establishment of a training
program.
Topcor wants to “bring more first-class rubber liners up
to speed to handle our anticipated increase in rubber lining volume,” Baker said. Much of Topcor Belco’s work is
the lining of new vessels and repair to existing rubber lining vessels.
Topcor’s oth-
TOPCOR STATISTICS er businesses include Topcor
About $32 million Services Inc. and Topcor Au-
gusta L.L.C.,
both structural concrete restoration and
protection service companies; U.S. Fusion L.L.C., a supplier and fabricator of high-density polyethylene piping and
lining systems; and Topcor Offshore L.L.C., an oil and gas
products and services supplier.
Baker didn’t break down the individual revenues for
each Topcor business but said the estimated 2007 sales for
all the affiliate companies will be about $32 million. Each
unit has been growing in the 10-20 percent range in recent
years, he said. Overall, the firm employs about 130.
Topcor Belco’s main markets are within the chemical and
petrochemical manufacturing arena, with large users within the fertilizer and chlor-alkali industries, Baker said.
Most chemical plants have selected applications that rubber linings can address, with the bulk of the uses for the internal linings of tanks and piping systems, he said.
Total sales, 2007:
Annual growth rate
for each division:
Total employment:
About 10-20%
130
Firm takes on EPDM tube with TPV
DEADLINE NEWS
Trelleborg to close factory
STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Trelleborg A.B.
plans to close its Morbylanga, Sweden,
molded goods plant and move production to
a newer facility in Estonia.
The relocation could cost up to $4.37 million plus a further $2.91 million investment in the Estonia factory, the firm said.
INDEX
Editorials .......................... 8
RubberSheet ...................... 43
Technical notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Vol. 37, No. 3, Sept. 3, 2007—Rubber & Plastics News
(ISSN 0300-6123) is published every other Monday by
Crain Communications Inc. Periodical postage paid at
Akron and at additional mailing offices. Address all subscription correspondence to: Circulation Department,
Rubber & Plastics News, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, Mich.
48207-2912. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Rubber & Plastics News, Circulation Dept., 1155 Gratiot Ave.,
Detroit, Mich. 48207-2912.
By Brad Dawson
Rubber & Plastics News Staff
PARK HILLS, Mo.—A custom
plastic extruder and profiler is prototyping a thermoplastic vulcanizate
tube that could be an alternative to
EPDM in some applications because
of the improvements it provides.
PGS L.L.C. began work on the tube
product earlier this year after a customer told the company the EPDM
formula it was using required a
change because of oil seepage from a
tube diffuser in a water filtration application that could potentially cause
early product deterioration, according to J.J. Vickers, project manager
at PGS.
The TPV tube would allow for less
resistance during operation and theoretically last longer because of less
drying and cracking, Vickers said.
The product has passed through initial tests but remains in the prototyping stage, as the company tries to determine the quickest and most
consistent way to manufacture it, he
said.
No timeline to get to the next stage
of production has been given yet,
Vickers said, and the company still is
waiting for a field test order. Peter
Greene, director of membrane technology for Environmental Dynamics
Inc., the customer for which PGS is
making the tube, said the product
“shows performance promise to continue evaluations.”
The diffuser applications for TPV
tubing include pond aeration systems, fish hatcheries and sewage
treatment ponds or septic tank systems, Vickers said. The company has
been using TPV materials for several
years in other applications like seals
for silt-tight gaskets used in storm-water drainage pipes and industrial
vacuum tank gaskets.
Other advantages of TPV over
EPDM include fewer constraints in
production, such as curing; less cost
to manufacture; and easier managea-bility of tolerance levels as the part is
manufactured to size because of less
estimated shrinkage within a shorter
time, PGS said.
While the material cost is about
the same as EPDM—and less than
urethane—during initial testing PGS
found that a smaller part made from
TPV serves the same specification,
equating to less material used and a
lower cost to the customer.
Vickers said that after field tests
are completed, the TPV diffuser
should replace a portion of the market, and then “the most suitable material will hold the largest share.”
PGS—which employs eight at its
15,800-sq.-ft Park Hills plant—also is
developing a successor product to the
tube to the same customer, a smaller-sized diffuser manufactured from
thermoplastic urethane or a flexible
urethane, he said. The company is
scheduled to provide that product for
initial testing beginning this month.
TPVs and other thermoplastic elastomers are a growing business for the
company, with sales expected to rise
2-4 percent annually in the market,
Vickers said. The TPV/TPE segment
makes up an estimated 12 to 15 percent of PGS’ total sales, he said.
