Plastic and leather injected

Bader GmbH & Co., Goppingen, Germany (represented here by Bader USA), a supplier of leather components for automotive interiors and the largest maker of leather-clad car gearshift handles in Europe has found a new use for leather scraps not suitable for prime auto applications. Bader usually sells the scrap leather to processors in Pakistan or Asian countries that make wallets, handbags, and other accessories. Five years ago, Bader created Kollamat, a subsidiary that compounds leather scrap with resin. Bader is now marketing the material (also called Kollamat) commercially. The plastic/leather compound may find use as a replacement for vinyl in auto interiors or for toys. The plastic/leather mixture absorbs moisture and has a soft leather-like feel and appearance, notes Alexander Stoll, director of the Kollamat business.
To produce the Kollamat, the leather is chopped and shredded into fiber. Bader adds chemical agents that remove up to 80% of the moisture and retard aging. A special process is used to compound the leather, resin, color, and additives into moldable pellets. Stoll says the material can be foamed.


Stoll showed off a 100-g injection molded drinking cup made of 60% leather fiber and 40% LDPE. It was molded on a 100-ton Arburg Allrounder C 1000-250 press on a 58-sec cycle. The single-cavity mold required slight modifications. Bader has also produced a shoulder guard made with TPE and 25% leather. “Products can be molded with 10% to 70% leather by weight. The leather can be combined with many different polymers, including TPE, EVA, PVC, LDPE, PS, or EPDM,” says Stoll. Usually it can be run with short cycles and low clamping forces.
Leather is best suited for use with polymers that melt in the range of 320 to 338 F, he notes, so PP may be excluded because it processes at around 428 F. Due to its high viscosity, the material is molded currently with a cold runner. Stoll says the leather compound requires more intense mold cooling. Parts experience about 0.5% mold shrinkage. Kollamat has a typical elongation between 5% and 120%, moisture content of 1% to 3%, density from 0.5 to 1.2 g/cc, and tensile strength from 145 to 1450 psi.
Meanwhile, new information is available on the Optifoam LSR injection foaming process unveiled at last year’s Arburg Technology Days (see Learn More). Developed by Sulzer Chemtech in Switzerland, the process has been upgraded with new valves for material dosing and gas loading to improve repeatability. The dosing of the gas used to affect resin metering by causing slight changes in pressure levels, but that has been alleviated. The new valves achieve more exact dosing and hold part-weight variations to less than 0.1% of target, vs. about ±1% before.
The Optifoam technique adds nitrogen or CO2 under 1450 to 2900 psi to both LSR components through metering units connected to each material feed line. Introducing the gas in a “supercritical” state enables it to diffuse fully into the LSR. Optifoam can reduce weight by 30% to 60% and Shore hardness by up to 50%.

GM Saltillo, San-luisPotosi, Silao in Mexico

General motor to Saltillo Mexico is really huge. There is thousand of car parked all around the GM complex. You can find assembly plant, motor plant and paint. they do the Cadillac, Chevy, and the Saturn view. They is transmission as FWD 6 SPEED & FWD Hybrid Program, and motor as HFV6 Engine Program To San Luis Potosi 300 km down Saltillo they are doing the Aveo car. To Silao they do the Suburban, Avalanche, Gmac sierra, Cheyenne and Engine & Transmission. To Toluca they do Engine & Foundry

LINAMAR plant in the Industrial park of Saltillo / Mexico

LINAMAR CORPORATION
IN MEXICO

November 1, 2002, GUELPH, Ontario - Linamar Corporation (TSX:LNR) is pleased to announce the
completion of the purchase of Federal-Mogul’s camshaft manufacturing operation in Saltillo, Mexico
operating under the name of Federal-Mogul Camshafts de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V. The transaction
was completed on October 31, 2002. Terms were not released.
Federal-Mogul Camshafts de Mexico employs approximately 160 people for the manufacturing of
camshafts for the North American original equipment market. Sales in 2003 are expected to be US$13 to
US$15 million. The 73,600 square foot facility was built in 1994 and has been QS 9000/ISO 9001 certified
since February 1997. Major customers of the operation include General Motors and DaimlerChrysler.
“This acquisition is another step forward in our strategy of expanding and developing our automotive
engine business by adding depth and capability in camshaft manufacturing technology,” said Linamar
President & CEO, Linda Hasenfratz. “In addition this plant is in very close proximity to our Linamar de
Mexico plant which fits our operational concept of plant clusters.”
Linamar Corporation designs, develops and manufactures precision machined components, modules and
systems for engine, transmission, chassis and industrial markets primarily for the North American and
European automotive marketplace. The company has more than 8,800 employees in 30 manufacturing
locations, two research and development centers and four sales offices in Canada, United States,
Mexico, Germany, Hungary and Japan.

Fortis Plastics adds plant in Mexico

By Rhoda Miel | PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
Posted February 18, 2009
SOUTH BEND, IND. (Feb. 18, 2:10 p.m. ET) -- Fortis Plastics LLC has added an injection molding shop in Mexico to its holdings as part of a plan to create a “new business model” for plastics.

With its purchase of Dallas-based Moll Industries Inc.’s Moll Ramos facility in Ramos Arizpe, Fortis is plotting a strategy through a series of acquisitions to be a regional custom molding specialist that can work with a variety of customers in their own back yards, rather than the more traditional consolidation model of buying companies focused on one or two industries.

“A lot of people in the past have acquired [molders] and then put all their back offices — all their engineering, all their technology — in one location,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph M. Mallak in a Feb. 9 telephone interview. “What we’re trying to do is look at this as a regional molding play. We plan to keep things in the region, so they’re close to their customers, close to their needs and our engineers will know their plants and know their tools.”

Fortis was created in 2008 when private financial group Monomoy Capital Partners LP of New York purchased the injection molding unit of Atlantis Plastics Inc., then added L&P Plastics LLC to its portfolio. It has a corporate headquarters in South Bend, Ind., and 10 plants with injection molding and extrusion in a belt across the center of the U.S., ranging from Elkhart, Ind., and Jackson, Tenn., down to Booneville, Miss., and Brownsville, Texas, and now extends into Mexico, Mallak said. It closed some plants to consolidate operations in Brownsville and Elkhart, but remains on the lookout for other potential sites.

The companies did not disclose the purchase price for the Ramos Arizpe plant. The 136,000-square-foot injection molding facility supplies parts to Mabe Mexico, a Mexico City-based appliance maker, and it is close to other major manufacturers including Whirlpool Corp., Deere & Co., Carrier Corp. and Black & Decker Corp.

Fortis wanted to go to Mexico to work with companies already in Mexico, Mallak said. It does not want to supplement U.S. jobs with work in Mexico, but rather build up a chain of regional molders.

Regional capabilities are very important to customers who need expertise from their suppliers, but don’t want to spend hours on a plane to meet with engineers or mold designers at a single technical center, he said.

Fortis will boost its regional molding purchases with additional improvements in-house through a companywide lean manufacturing focus, led by George Pucci as vice president of operational excellence, and by leveraging its knowledge of materials and tooling. Those improvements will be key for Fortis and its customers.

“We don’t want to do this just for us,” Mallak said. “If we can do more cavitations in a tool and shorter cycles with automation and less labor involved, that helps us and helps them.”

Fortis already has contacts in a variety of industries through Atlantis, which molded parts for home appliances, and L&P which had injection molding and structural foam molding for power tools, the medical industry and auto industry.

Fortis, with backing from Monomoy, is in a good position as a buyer now not only because it has ready access to funds that some of its competitors do not, but also because its strategy gives it more flexibility in finding the right target firms.

There are deals being discussed throughout the industry, but there is more demand for acquisitions within the medical and packaging fields, said one merger and acquisition consultant. That means that Fortis will have wider range of companies to pick from, and have fewer competitors for those companies that they want to buy.

“[Monomoy] was very smart about being conservative three or four years ago,” Mallak said. “They kept a lot of cash back. That’s given us a luxury as good deals come about.”

The company will consider both individual plants and firms with as many as 10 different plants, if they have the right locations and a good customer mix, he said.

“It’s exciting that we’ve got a lot of potential for growth in front of us,” he said.