Nanjing USEON Extrusion

Last week, we delivered the fourth set of TDD300 single screw extruder (screw of 300mm in diameter) and launched at customer’s factory. This have marked we’ve been leading the technology of huge capacity single screw extruder in China, and established the first position for huge capacity single screw extruder. Our wealth experiences are from foam extrusion, BOPP extruder, 3LPE coating extrusion etc. So USEON’s single screw extruder division has focused on the new position of huge capacity single screw extruder. The first TDD300 single screw extruder had been made in 2007, after we made the TDD240 single screw extruder for 3LPE coating application years ago. It is still working excellently with 5, 000 kg/hr capacity. At the time, it was a milestone for China-made single screw extruder.

The second TDD300 single screw extruder was used as a cooling extruder and connected with a TDS95D twin screw extruder became a tandem extrusion line for CO2 foam XPS panel production line. The capacity of this line was 700kg/hr. This is also the biggest extrusion line in XPS application in China up to now.

Actually, huge capacity single screw extruder is a narrow industry. And that is why it becomes too professional to entry. It needs combination of considerate design and practical experiences. Most importantly, it needs a professional team with dedication and enquiry mind for long time. Any small defects might cause big problems in such project.

For years, when we look back at our achievements, we are proudly aware of what we are doing and what we have done. As the first supplier of huge capacity single screw extruder in China, we are aware of our responsibility, and we will definitely continue to improve this industry.

These days, the United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 is going on. Between China as the representative of the developing countries and the United States, Europe and Japan, developed countries as the representative of the developed countries are having the heated debate each other. Because the developed countries are in an attempt to overule Kyoto Protocol so that China, Indian and many Africa countries wanna quit of this conference. Here I would like to express is that, whether developed or developing countries, we have only one Earth. In fact, we are in the same boat, just as the same as the Titanic. Only developed countries in the first class, and the developing countries are in economy class. It is only through helping each other in order to tide over the difficulties, rather than through political tactics to achieve intentions.

I think that these arguments not only between developed and developing countries, but the rich and the poor arguments. Can you image one country which has 85% families can not afford to buy a apartment (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, blue book) to undertake a major national environmental obligations? It is not only unfair, this is fundamentally anti-science. People who have heard of Maslow’s theory (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), they know human needs are divided into various stages. The first is physiological needs such as food, water, air, etc., then security needs, such as personal safety, sense of space requirements, property safety, health insurance. And then the social needs, including friendship, love. Now in China, food and clothing should be said that has been resolved, that is, the lowest level of Maslow’s needs pyramid has been resolved. However, security requirements, there are some unresolved. Our health care system is not good, medical care difficult and expensive is still one of the major social conflicts. Although we have a democratic system looks beautiful, but the execution of the democratic system is not good. Various legal systems are not perfect, the effect of the implementation is even worse, such as property law. Coupled with higher and higher outrageous housing prices has kept the people away from their house dream. All these make the families do not have the sense of security. In such a social environment, you ask people to make more contribution for global environment protection, it is impossible to achieve. I think the contribution to environmental protection is in the fourth level of Maslow’s theory belongs to others respect and self-esteem areas. Therefore, only if they meet the physiological needs, security needs, and emotional needs of the foundation. It would good to consider environmental protection issues.

What I have said these issues and not just China’s problem is the vast majority of problems of developing countries, and even in developed countries have these problems too, just more or less. Copenhagen conference is undoubtedly a political show of Game Theory, but I would like to remind the developed countries is that, perhaps you have a lot of political tricks. But developing countries have the right to withdraw from the game, once the developing countries out of the game, then the result of the game is no winner. Environmental issue is the problem of all mankind. We have more than 200 countries, seven continents, four grand oceans, three colors people, two genders, but we have only one Earth.

This United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 has more worldwide attentions than before. It is also a sign to speed up the research and development of new materials and energy save materials. USEON Foam Extrusion Team has been devoting to energy save materials. We have a lot of cooperation with Institute of Plastics Processing & Application of Light Industry, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and East China University of Science and Technology. We developed CO2 foam Extruded Polystyrene production line (XPS production line), and still researching for high thickness Polypropylene and Polyethylene sheet. Our BTB Recycle Team has been engaged in PET recycle extrusion technology, it is also a good product for energy save. In my opinion, Chinese extruders will make great contribution to developing countries. Because Chinese machine has the best cost-performance. No matter single screw extruder, twin screw extruder or complete production line. Our price is even less than 1/4 European price with the same productivity. There are 85% people are living in developing countries. That means the majority of worldwide people are living in developing countries. Of course, developing countries need eco-friendly product, but it should be affordable. So the developed countries should take out more helps to developing countries. Since we have the different living status, but we will have the same destiny when global climate become worse and worse.

By Cliff Zhang
USEON EXTRUSION TEAM

After the new CCTV Tower, as well as some domestic manufacturers’ workshop of XPS board had the big fire disaster recently, the voice of flame retardant of construction materials are getting louder and louder. In order to solve the problem of flame retardant XPS board, the most direct and effective way is to put the flame retardant agent into the raw material formulation while in production.

At present, the domestic market of flame retardants used HBCD (Hexabromocyclododecane, C12H18Br6). Including a number of subsidiaries of international corporations in China is also using this kind of flame retardant. This retardant not only has the corrosion to the processing equipments, but also has the harm to the humankind.  Therefore, the use of halogen-free flame retardants becomes the best option. The cooperation between and Clarian proven that the CESA series flame retardant provided by Clariant is a good option. We also intend to help the Clariant globally promote their flame retardants. As the flame retardants are still made in Taiwan, so the price is relatively more expensive. If the domestic demand going up, the engineers from Cleariant said that Clariant would also consider setting the production of this material in the mainland. With the fire retardant requirements of construction material is getting higher and higher, the flame retardant XPS would be compulsory in the soon future.

July 24, 2009

By Cliff Zhang

USEON EXTRUSION TEAM

Last week, a four-day exhibition Chinaplas had been ended. According to my experience over the years of show, Chinaplas should be Asia’s largest plastic machinery and plastic raw materials exhibition.

Through this fair, you can see the impact of global economic crisis on plastic raw materials and plastic processing machinery. Overall this show all the international companies cut in the expenditure on the show. However, several exhibition of large-scale plastic raw materials the company’s design has retained the international company’s image and taste. For example, DOW Chemical, BASF and so on. Comparing to plastic raw material suppliers, plastic machinery company has more impact. Well-known as Krauss Maffei Berstorff, as well as the world’s largest twin-screw extruder manufacturer, Coperion has cut their booth space significantly and reduced the number of display machines. They also simplified the booth decoration. Since well-known manufacturer of underwater granulation auxiliary, GALA just has a standard 3X3 stall, even there is no decoration. May be due to this fail has been held locally, the Chinese Pavilion in general to maintain the style of the past, some large companies such as JWELL, HAITIAN remained a consistent style of the big booth and a large amount of equipment on display. More Chinese company’s booths even are bigger than ever, and the more equipments on display. This fair USEON EXTRUSION also took the biggest booth in the past.

Because the global economic crisis, some companies even canceled the exhibition schedule. For this Chinaplas, some U.S. companies quit the fair. Surely certainly because the influenza. The United States pavilion originally planned, has been occupied by some of the more powerful of the Chinese companies (BOTTENFELD CHINA, JARI MOULD, USEON EXTRUSION), as well as the occupation of a number of European companies (ENGEL, STARLINGER, EREMA). This also shows that so far, China has the slight impact of the global economic crisis. Of course, the effect of this show is the worst time in recent years, according to my estimation, the number of visitors of the audience may be only about one-third of last year.

Surprisingly the ever most popular German Pavilion in the past shows was changed into China Pavilion. The China Pavilion Hall 1.1 has the most visitors in all halls. However, most of them are low-end customers. Of course, all the exhibitors in Hall 1.1 are small enterprises or the enterprises whose target market is low-end customers. Middle and big enterprises are moving to German Pavilion and U.S. Pavilion. Obviously, they want the international competition at this crisis moment.

See, Chinaplas, the mirror of the global economy.

By Cliff Zhang

USEON EXTRUSION

30 May 2009

Recently, we received a lot of inquires from European region about the XPS product line and PET recycling line, as a leading supplier of XPS production line in China, I would like to share my personal views here: the future of XPS production.

Regarding the XPS production technology, the first company to apply for patents is DOW chemical. DOW chemical is now producing XPS board still. The name is Styrofoam.
Because of solubility problems, the traditional XPS is using of HCFC as blow agent in production, such as R142b, R2 2 and so on. Later, as a result of the emergence of the Montreal protocol, some countries have already issued the policy to stop using HCFC as blowing agent any more. Because HCFC not only have greenhouse effect, more deadly is that it will damage our ozone layer. Of course, some developed countries also take the initiative to the provisions of the Montreal protocol in time to move out before the Act to prohibit the using of HCFC. At present, including the United States and some European developed countries is still using of HFC blowing agents, such as R152a. This series of blow agent, although there is no damage to the ozone layer, but still has a larger greenhouse effect. So in the near future, this kind of blow agent will be to prohibit as well. In this connection, the Scandinavian people walking in the front, in the Scandinavian Peninsula, it is now does not allow the use of any HCFC and HFC as blowing agent. Now I will XPS prospects for the development of production technology him two points in my personal view.
First, environment-friendly blowing agent
With the world in recent years have emerged in all regions of extreme climate anomalies, the people around the world on environmental protection issues are of concern. Environmental issues have been generally considered the “future issue” has become an imminent issue. Building energy-saving insulation must be in wider areas and implementation. It has stimulated new PS foam technology must be developed. In other words, the foam blowing agent must deal with environmental issues. CO2 will undoubtedly become the focus of attention. Because CO2 is relatively speaking, have better than the nitrogen solubility, easier preparation, and better economic benefits. As the CO2 is extracted from the air, which can be consumed as part of the air CO2, theoretically speaking, this will also reduce the Earth’s greenhouse effect.
Second, improvement of production equipment
XPS traditional production equipment is the single screw plus single-screw tandem mode unit. As a result of the big cooling capacity requirements of extruder, which makes screw speed should only be very low, on the other hand, the working principle of single-screw extruder also makes the traditional single screw on the mix effect has some limitations. The use of CO2 as a blowing agent, firstly must work hard in the material itself, that is, to solve the problem of solubility of materials themselves, through changes in materials formulations to achieve this aim. Secondly, they have to improve in the machine structure. Say using twin screw extruder which has much better compounding effect than single screw extruder can help increasing the solubility of CO2 in the GPPS. At the same time, equipment must also be enough to ensure good sealing performance, can withstand higher pressure, this can also improve CO2 solubility in the materials, but also can give out higher pressure drop at the exit of the slot die in order to facilitate higher quality of the final the foam board.

With long-term close contact and communication with international well-know raw material suppliers, say TOTAL and BASF in the different kinds of materials we used, we have had a deep understanding of the different material’s performance and characteristics in the foam extrusion with CO2. At the same time our company played our expertise in twin screw extruder, and merged the advantage of twin-screw extruder in the XPS production successfully. Meanwhile we open up the new way to produce XPS in domestic market.

Based on our experience, especially it is necessary to take into account the screw barrel of the structural design to be able to meet the needs of high-pressure sealing. At the same time also to meet the twin-screw extruder backpressure on the impact of slowdown in the life of the gearbox. Another issue is that the blowing agent injection port location selection and design of screw structure for that zone is also very important. Because not only have to take into account the screw structure of the dispersion effects, but also take into account that materials residence time in the extruder and extruder’s energy consumption issues.

By Cliff Zhang

USEON EXTRUSION TEAM

cliffzhang@useongroup.com

06, Feb 2009

The global economic crisis has impacted almost all countries. During this crisis, many companies have closed down. But maybe it is a historic opportunity for many Chinese mechanical and electrical enterprises to entry European market. In my opinion, the followings are Chinese suppliers’ advantages.

Firstly, the price advantage; The global economic downturn, is making raw material prices drop down as well. This is bound to lead to mechanical and electrical products costs to float downward. Also under the pressure of survival, many manufacturers have abandoned the pursuit of high profit, and turned into the survival business strategy. It is good time to purchase the equipments as capital assets. In other industries, such as shoes, caps and clothing category, with the rising of Chinese labor costs and other operating costs, including land, rent, tax and so on, Chinese textile products cost advantage has been lost day by day. The phenomenon of some multi-international companies are thinking to move out can prove this, say NIKE and addidas. But the machine industry is different. In our extrusion industries, Chinese price is only 1/6 to 1/3 of European and American price. For example, the price of our XPS (EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE) production line is less than 1/4 of KraussMaffei Berstorff’s Schaumex and Schaumtandex line. Our twin screw extruder’s price is only around 1/5 of Coperion W & P and Leistritz. The price of our single screw extruder is only around 1/4 of the United States Davis Standard. Despite we have a certain gap in automation level comparing to European company, such as the KraussMaffei Berstorff and Battenfeld, as well as Italy’s ERRE-EFFE-TI spa. But it doesn’t matter for east Europe countries where the labor cost is not too much. This factor is making many European customers who were scared by European expensive price shifted to China market.

Secondly, the policy environment. Almost all countries have carried out their own economic stimulus plan. The same is relaxed monetary policy, bank interest rates sharply lower. And many governments have released interest-free loan, even with government funds, such as the free subsidies policy. This makes many of the significant declines in the cost of capital. At the same time, the Chinese government also increased the export tax rebate rate of mechanical and electrical products to encourage enterprise to export.

Thirdly, the EU funds. The establishment of EU fund is definitely good news for small and medium enterprises (SME) in Europe. EU fund carries out a lot of financial instruments for development, in which Environment included. In order to help the developing Eastern Europe memberships, and improve the environment, EU fund granted remarkable money to support small and medium enterprises among EU membership. Our company, USEON’s CO2 blowing agent for the XPS (EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE) production line and our PET recycling technology are matched the EU fund’s Environment requested perfectly. We already have customers who have got the money support from EU fund. They used our technical documents for applications to the fund. The granted money is sufficient to cover the amount of the cost of our production line.

Sure, above conditions are not favorable for all the Chinese enterprises as well. Because the customers who come from Europe and the United States, they are very critical. As they have been used to looking EU or American machines. So this is the opportunity only for the enterprises those have good quality and management. Or course, this is a good time for Chinese suppliers. As in order to meet the European customer’s requirements, they have to improve their design and quality. This can make them more competitive in the international market. For Chinese enterprises, the most important during this crisis is to hold on. Meanwhile, you should do more work on management and cost control.

By Cliff Zhang

USEON EXTRUSION TEAM

05, Jan 2009

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