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Absolute Haitian to Showcase Compact Injection Molding System at Plastec West
The third-generation Zhafir Zeres electric molding machine will be set up in its smallest configuration at the booth.
By PlasticsToday Staff
Absolute Haitian is bringing the third-generation Zhafir Zeres electric molding machine in its smallest configuration to Plastec West in Anaheim, CA, next week. The 45-ton, eco-friendly press is suited for molding small medical parts and connectors.
The static display of the machine at booth 3910 will allow attendees to closely and safely examine the clamp and injection unit in detail, said Absolute Haitian, the exclusive distributor of Haitian and Zhafir injection molding machinery in North America. The setup will include a sprue picker from sister company Absolute Robot Inc.?
Zeres series electric molding machines are equipped with an integrated hydraulic circuit to facilitate molding applications that require core pull or sophisticated ejector functions. Its electric drives reportedly deliver as much as 70% energy savings, depending on the application. ?
The ZE eliminates the need for an external hydraulic power pack, freeing up space for higher productivity per square foot on the plant floor.
The integrated hydraulic interface (circuit) is installed on the moving platen and provides more flow and increased pressure compared to external power pack solutions. Pressure and flow rates are adjustable via the machine’s controller. Software is included to control up to three hydraulic circuits.?
Pricing for the Zeres electric molding machine is approximately 10% lower than an all-electric model but with the same level of precision and repeatability of an all-electric, according to the company. The Generation 3 ZE 400/80 III on display at Plastec West will be offered at show-discount pricing, and the company’s goal is to sell the machine for delivery from the show floor.
Plastec West and co-located Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West are part of Informa Markets Engineering West , which also includes shows devoted to packaging, automation, and design and engineering, along with dozens of related conference sessions. The event comes to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 6 to 8, 2024.
Krones Set to Acquire Netstal
The German packaging and bottling machine manufacturer said it is close to signing a deal with KraussMaffei.
The Krones Group reports on its website that it is close to signing an agreement for the purchase of 100% of Netstal Maschinen AG from plastics processing machinery company KraussMaffei. The deal is valued at €170 million ($184.48 million), according to media outlets reporting on the sale.
Switzerland-based Netstal is a leading supplier of injection molding machines to the beverage market (PET preforms and caps) as well as to the medical and thin-wall packaging markets. The company has been a strategic partner of Krones, a packaging and bottle machine maker based in Neutrabling, Germany, for several years.
Krones said in its release that Netstal reported more than €200 million in revenue in 2023 fiscal year and employs more than 500 workers. Netstal was acquired by Munich-based KraussMaffei in 1992, and in 2016 the Chinese chemicals group National Chemical Corp. purchased KraussMaffei. In 2018, it became the first German company to be listed on the Shanghai stock exchange. Earlier this year, KraussMaffei announced several changes in leadership .
Although Netstal’s profitability is “below the Krones Group level,” it said that the acquisition will benefit Krones in various ways. Netstal’s PET and Cap businesses complement Krones’ product portfolio for the beverage market, the company said in the news release. “With respect to PET closed-loop solutions, Krones then covers all technologies required from injection molding to PET container production through to filling/packaging and recycling. The medical and thin-wall packaging segments of Netstal support the Krones strategy to diversify into the medical/pharma market as well as into food and home-personal-care applications.” Netstal will retain its business responsibility within Krones, it added, while benefiting from its international scale.?
The final signing of the transaction is scheduled for early February 2024, and it expects the transaction to be completed within the first half of this year.
AMBA Urges Swift Passage of Tax Relief Act to Benefit Manufacturers
The bipartisan bill would allow full, immediate deductions for capital expenses, but it has a very narrow window to pass in time for this tax season.
By Bruce Adams
The American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) has urged Congress to quickly pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 , which the US House Ways and Means Committee passed Jan. 19 by a vote of 40-3.?
The bipartisan bill includes tax breaks sought by businesses, such as full, immediate deductions for many capital expenses, which the 2017 federal tax law extended through 2022. It also would allow businesses to immediately deduct domestic research and development costs, instead of spreading out the deduction over five years, as the 2017 tax law required.
“The inclusion of the immediate deduction of research and development expenses, bonus depreciation, restoring Section 163(j) and the increase to the Section 179 deduction will help to ease the tax burden on America’s job creators allowing them to invest in and continue to grow their businesses,” AMBA said.
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Immediate R&D deductions “critical” for US innovation and jobs
“The loss of full expensing and the requirement to amortize R&D expenses have caused surprise tax bills for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, which many struggle to cover,” said Kym Conis, managing director of AMBA. “Restoring the immediate deduction for R&D expenses will help ensure that manufacturers can continue to utilize this vital tax provision critical to competitiveness, innovation, and US jobs.”
In a March 2023 survey, 77% of AMBA members reported conducting R&D activities in 2022, with an average dollar amount of $1.446 million per company. AMBA members reported that the average increase in tax liability in 2022 due to having to pay tax on R&D as an asset and amortization of expenses was $290,013, the association said. These businesses averaged 56 employees as of April 1, 2023, and a large impact of the tax hike was placed on the shoulders of downstream manufacturers, according to AMBA.
Bill would also increase child tax credit
If passed by Congress, the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 also would?increase the maximum refundable child tax credit from $1,600 per child to $1,800 in tax year 2023, $1,900 in tax year 2024, and $2,000 in tax year 2025, along with an adjustment for inflation in tax years 2024 and 2025, according to Cleveland.com .
The bill also?would provide tax relief for losses and other situations related to qualified disaster areas or events. In addition, it includes language that would ensure that residents of East Palestine, OH, won’t get hit with a tax bill for payments they received from Norfolk Southern after last year’s train derailment there, according to Cleveland.com .
To pay for the tax cuts over the 10-year budget window, the bill would tighten enforcement efforts and make other changes to the COVID-era Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), which under current law may be claimed on amended returns through April 15, 2025, according to TaxFoundation.org , a?leading nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit. “It would apply penalties to ERTC promoters who have failed to comply with requirements for preparing ERTC claims, increase the statute of limitations on assessments of the ERTC, and disallow claims of the ERTC after Jan. 31, 2024.”
Bill’s passage uncertain
Despite its bipartisan bona fides, the bill’s passage is not a certainty.?The next stage for the legislation is to gain approval during the Ways and Means Committee markup session. If it gets the committee's approval, the entire US House of Representatives will consider the proposed legislation. The bill might be processed in the House under the rules of "suspension," requiring a two-thirds vote (instead of a simple majority) to progress to the Senate for further consideration.
“It is unclear if the bill will be approved by the House and Senate in its current form or at all,” according to KPMG, a consulting company and international accounting organization. “While Chairman Jason Smith and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden came to an agreement, ranking members do not appear to be parties to the recent announcement by Smith and Wyden of a bipartisan framework for proposed tax legislation. A final resolution may be delayed until a government funding bill is enacted in early March or even later.”
Any such delay would mean that Congress will not pass the tax legislation in time for businesses and families to benefit from it in this tax-filing season.?
“AMBA thanks Chairmen Wyden and Smith for their leadership in moving legislation with critical tax provisions for small- and medium-sized manufacturers,” Conis said. “Manufacturers in the United States rely on these critical provisions to help invest in their facilities and employees, and improve their global competitiveness.”
Microplastics: They’re Here, They’re There, They’re Every Everywhere
Like soccer icon Roy Kent on the “Ted Lasso” series, micro- and nanoplastics seem to be everywhere, including in our bodies. How worried should we be?
One of the many memorable characters in the Ted Lasso series on Apple TV is the fictitious Roy Kent. He's a former superstar soccer player who was loved by the fans, so much so that they created a cheer that goes something like: "He’s here, he’s there, he’s every everywhere, ROY KENT!" (The show is rated TV-MA; this is a cleaned-up version of the chant.) This chant came to mind over the recent holiday break, as it exactly captures the latest deluge of research reports about micro- and nanoplastics.
Ocean plastics don’t stay in the ocean
For starters, it was discovered that microplastics in the ocean don’t stay in the ocean. In 2021, Hurricane Larry came ashore in Newfoundland directly from the Atlantic without passing over any prior land masses (potential sources of land-based microplastics). Realizing the value of these rare, pristine(?) samples, researchers hastily set up a sampling site and protocol (which involved going to the site every six hours in the midst of the hurricane!). They found that the storm deposited more than 100,000 particles per square meter per day. The days prior to and just after the storm had values of 10,000 to 20,000.
(I also found it ironic that the sampling vessels were held in place with zip-ties, a single-use plastic. Shame on you!)
The microplastics were a real mixed bag of polymers, not just the Big 6. PMMA was surprisingly common, as was polysulfone. Hurricane Larry had come across the Sargasso Sea, home to the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, so it would be interesting to see what happens with other hurricanes that follow different routes.
The other articles that filled my newsfeed in December involved nanoplastics. Not as much is known about nanoplastics, but like Roy Kent, they’re everywhere. New articles told of their distribution across most, if not all, of the planet including the polar regions. Their distribution doesn’t end there, but includes our bodies, the various organs that make us up, and even in our cells.
Nanoplastics unlikely to leach additives into our bodies
One problem is that we don’t know what impact nanoplastics have on our bodies. People can imagine endless nightmare scenarios, such as the leaching of additives into our bodies. While it is true that the smaller the particle, the easier it is to leach out additives, this really shouldn’t be the concern that it is proposed to be. The moment an additive is compounded into a plastic, it can begin to leach (or diffuse) out, and this never stops. As the plastics break into smaller sizes —?first as microplastic —?the leaching will accelerate, and this accelerates further as the size continues to decrease. The size reduction to nanoplastics occurs outside of our bodies so that much or all the additives will have leached out before reaching our bodies. Such thoughts will not reach the news, however, as fearmongering will always be more popular in reporting.
The real challenge in discovering the health risks of nanoplastics is this: When nanoplastics are distributed so far and wide, how will it ever be possible to determine their impact on us and the environment? To reach such a conclusion, you need to have a control sample that is free of nanoplastics. Where can that be found? They’re here, they’re there, they’re . . . .
MORE WEEKLY NEWS
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?? Teijin to Produce Carbon Fiber from Sustainable Raw Materials: Waste and biomass residue earmarked for production of precursor acrylonitrile.
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?? Shrink Film Sustainability: Problems and Solutions: These four solutions and three takeaways provide guidance in responding to the removal of PETG label materials from #1 PET recycling streams in California.
?? TekniPlex Healthcare Adds Multilayer Blown Film Capabilities: The new cleanroom line at the Belgium plant responds to customer demand for packaging with increased barrier properties.