Extrusion International 6-2023-USA

30 Extrusion International 6/2023 30 INDUSTRY NEWS Opening of the Second Plant in China Celebrated Orion S.A. has celebrated the completion of its first greenfield project – a carbon black plant in eastern Chi - na that will supply fast-growing demand in Asia. The facility in the city of Huaibei in Anhui province will produce carbon black for a variety of applications, in- cluding coatings, printing inks, rubber, polymers, fiber and rubber. The site’s two production lines have a total capacity of 70 kilotons per year. “The Huaibei facility is a huge milestone for Orion. The state-of-the-art plant enables us to better support our Chinese customers with products that are made in China,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said at the Nov. 17 opening ceremony. “Now we can reallocate production lines in the U.S. and Europe so that we can increase sup- ply to customers in those markets.” Orion’s other plant in China is in Qingdao in the east- ern province of Shandong. The facility, built in 1994, produces carbon black grades for tires, mechanical rub- ber goods and specialty applications. Painter commended everyone on the Huaibei project team for overcoming the extreme challenges posed by the Covid-19 virus. “Despite the constant disruption during the worst periods of the pandemic, our employees, contractors and leadership team kept the project on track,” the CEO said. “As always, we put the safety, health and the welfare of our people first, providing nutritious meals, warm beds, testing and medical care. But still, it was the heroic dedication of our team that delivered this project under extremely trying circumstances.” Orion S.A. orioncarbons.com Pelletizer Expert Now Offers New Service To help plastics processors keep their pelletizers cutting at peak performance, Bay Plastics Machin- ery (BPM) — pioneers of pellet- izing technology for more than 60 years — has introduced BPM Fast Track, a unique rotor sharpening service. When pelletizer rotors lose their edge, honing them isn’t as simple as, say, sharpening a knife. In fact, pelletizing rotors have three distinct angles that all require a specialized process to sharpen properly. BPM’s expert technicians can sharpen ev- ery brand of rotor and even build new ones if required. With BPM Fast Track, after re- ceiving the customers’ rotors, Bay analyzes and sharpens them, then ships them back to customers – and the entire process takes only two weeks or less. BPM also provides this 2-week-or-less repair service for feed rolls. “One-week turnarounds for sharpening are not unusual for us,” notes Ryan Brant, BPM’s rotor cell manager. “If the repairs require welding, that takes two weeks.” By contrast, said Brant, it can take oth- er repair services months to com- plete a sharpening. To learn more about BPM Fast Track or for more information on how to ship your rotors to BPM: Bay Plastics Machinery https://bayplasticsmachinery.com/