Phenolic still going strong

Phenolic still going strong

Industry news Georgia-Pacific and Kemrock Industries team up US-BASED Georgia-Pacific Resins Inc (GPRI), a manufacturer of phenolic resins, and compo...

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Industry news

Georgia-Pacific and Kemrock Industries team up US-BASED Georgia-Pacific Resins Inc (GPRI), a manufacturer of phenolic resins, and composites moulder Kemrock Industries and Exports Ltd of India are joining forces to supply resins to India and the surrounding regions. The two organisations are forming a new company, Georgia-Pacific Kemrock International Pvt Ltd, to supply thermosetting resins to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). GPRI is licensing its phenolic resins technology to Kemrock

for the composites, coated abrasives and foundry markets. The products will be manufactured at Kemrock’s facility in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, and distributed by Georgia-Pacific Kemrock International, which will also offer polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy resins manufactured by Kemrock Industries. GPRI previously licensed its phenolic resin technology to Kemrock Industries in 2004 for manufacture of composite products for various applications. “This investment further expands our business globally by

marketing our combined resin technology to key industrial segments of the rapidly expanding Indian and regional markets,”said Peter Williams, GPRI’s vice president of speciality resins and international business. Kemrock manufactures phenolic, vinyl ester, polyester and epoxy resins, and it has pultrusion, sheet moulding, compression moulding, vacuum infusion and resin transfer moulding processes. Kemrock Industries; www.kemrock.com Georgia Pacific; www.gp.com

Cray Valley consolidates operations UNSATURATED polyester resins producer Cray Valley is investing at its Miranda de Ebro facility to consolidate its entire resin production in Spain within the site by the end of 2007. The project entails doubling production capacity at the Miranda site and the shutdown of the unsaturated polyester resin plant at the Sant Celoni site. The Celoni site will now focus on its other activities. The company says that this investment reflects ongoing efforts to improve its competitiveness. Cray Valley; www.crayvalley.com

LETTERS The game isn’t over yet Dear RP, Congratulations on 50 years of Reinforced Plastics, and thanks for the walk down memory lane (Reinforced Plastics, September 2006). The 1960s page reached out and grabbed me when I saw the advert for CRYSTIC 189. The 67 ft Halmatic hull illustrated was one of several used for motoryachts, including Zemi, a 1960s sportfisherman that has seen continual and heavy use in the Bahamas since that time. Zemi was designed by J.B. Hargrave Naval Architects, where I was vice president for 14 years. We worked with the yacht’s owner again in the 1980s to repower the yacht for extra speed, and I was contacted once again by the same owner a few weeks ago for a second repower of the nearly-

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REINFORCEDplastics

40-year-old hull. Sounds like a three to one advantage for reinforced plastic over iron – so far. The game isn’t over yet! Dudley Dawson, President Dawson Marine Group Inc Phenolic still going strong Dear RP, The excellent review of pictures, decade by decade, of reinforced plastics products featured in Reinforced Plastics over the past 50 years that appeared in the September edition had one omission that I feel needs to be added. On page 29 the Dallas Fort Worth Airport ‘People Movers’ are featured. These are especially noteworthy since they were among the earlier large scale uses of phenolic matrix GRP. The complete body shell was manufactured by Insulation

October 2006

Equipments Ltd of Oswestry from BP Chemical's Cellobond J2018L phenolic resin with glass reinforcement. The roof structures were sandwich panels of phenolic foam, to give some thermal protection from the Texas sun, and were manufactured by spray-chop whilst most of the other components were hand laid. All of the good surfaces had a phenolic surface improver applied in mould and the decorative finish was with Trimite Ltd’s paint system for phenolic GRP. The mouldings were supplied to Dallas as kits of both internal and external panels and assembled onto aluminium frames. They have been repainted a few times, as the airport has changed its house colours, but are still going strong which just proves the

durability of phenolic GRP, chosen originally for its excellent fire performance in these driverless vehicles. Ken L. Forsdyke. Principal, FORTECH, UK

What do you think? Reinforced Plastics welcomes your comments on this, or any other issue relating to the composites industry. Please send your letters to the Editor, Amanda Jacob, at the following address: Reinforced Plastics, Elsevier Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK; e-mail: [email protected]; fax: +44-(0)1865-843973. (Letters may be edited for reasons of space and clarity.)