Intensified carbon reduction efforts

Plastindia 2012, India’s major gathering for the plastics and rubber industry, brought carbon footprint reduction as its ultimate goal. In fact, manufacturers have been making efforts to ensure that they no longer contribute to the pollution of the environment -- and some of them have done a good job. This year’s edition brought together exhibitors from India as well as those from other countries. International exhibitors came from Asia, Europe and North America.

Aside from the range of products and services presented at the show, this year’s conference focused on sustainability with sessions dedicated to issues on recycling and sustainability. Highly competent speakers provided insights and updated the participants with the trends and developments in the plastics and rubber industry.

Innovations towards sustainability

The booth of LANXESS AG ( www.lanxess.com ) showcased the company’s thrust towards “green mobility.” The day before Plastindia, the company inaugurated its new compounding facility for high-tech plastics in Jhagadia in Gujarat. “We are very well positioned to the growing needs of the various markets we serve. Plastindia is a good forum for us to showcase some applications of these plastics for the automobile and electronics industries. In addition, we also showcased products from our business units — inorganic pigments and functional chemicals — as they too find several relevant applications in the end-products that are made of high quality of plastics,” according to Dr. Joerg Strassburger, Country Representative & Managing Director, LANXESS India Private Limited.

Italy ’s Zambello Riduttori (www.zambello.it) whose latest model prides itself for having the lowest energy consumption showcased their latest gear box. “With the same motor power, our gear box is smaller,” said Alessandro Feller, Zambello’s Export Sales Manager, adding that the challenge was to downsize the gear box without affecting reliability. This is where Germany’s SKF came in — providing a package of products and technical recommendations. The gear box used in a plastic extruder has to operate in very tough conditions. It must apply a huge amount of torque to the screw whilst being able to handle the very heavy axial loads created by backpressure in the barrel and the viscosity of the plastic itself. This makes the selection and sizing of the thrust bearing normally fitted in the gear box drive a difficult challenge.

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