Indorama Ventures inks deal with Indo Rama Synthetics to set up PTA, PET, PSF plant In India

Thailand’s Indorama Ventures has signed a deal with Indo Rama Synthetics to set up a new petrochemical plant in India. The project, announced during the visit to India of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, will manufacture Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF). Details of the US$700 mln project, including its capacity and location, are expected to be made public once formal negotiations have been completed.



“India today is a fast-growing market that is demanding attention from the world’s fast-moving consumer goods companies, who are our customers,” said Aloke Lohia, group CEO and Indorama Ventures. It is imperative that we are there to serve these customers and the emerging local producers who will be consuming more and more PET and PSF over the next decade. We are looking at the long-term double-digit growth in demand for such products and feel this is the right time to move into the market.”

High performance duct by Thermoplastic - Very first time !!

A highly successful metal replacement application is a new supercharger outlet elbow/duct made of DuPont™ Zytel® HTN PPA from DuPont Performance Polymers. The intermediary duct for the outboard engine captures all the value of engineering polymers – parts consolidation, high-temperature resistance, lower weight and reduced cost – with no performance tradeoffs. The high-performance duct is the first use of a thermoplastic in a pressure-charged air handling duct for outboard engines. The thermoplastic duct, which delivers charged air from the supercharger to the charged air cooler, operates in an extremely hot environment (up to 175°C). Zytel® HTN51-series resin, a high-temperature resistant PPA, meets the stringent thermal requirements, replacing thin-gauge 1018 formed steel which also required a heat sleeve for added thermal protection. The 7-in-long, 2.4-in dia. thermoplastic duct doesn’t require a heat shield and provides a cooler touch. The conversion from metal to Zytel® HTN PPA reduces the number of parts (six to five) and lowers associated part costs. The plastic design eliminates the corrosion layer and a related painting step which was required on the steel version and also offers more pleasing aesthetics (better surface appearance). Also eliminated was a failure of the metal to repeatedly cut the rubber cuffs at the end of the duct. Known for its exceptional temperature and load resistance, Zytel® HTN resin also provides 15% faster cycles than competitive PPA materials. The material’s high-glass transition temperature of 145°C facilitates better flow and faster part ejection. The supercharger elbow duct was manufactured by using a rotating core to produce a gentle, curved design which helped minimize pressure drops. The injection molding process also produced parts with greater dimensional stability than those made of formed steel.



The plastic supercharger outlet duct is used on all four- and six-cylinder models of Mercury Marine’s flagship Verado supercharged outboard engine. Mercury was an early adopter of engineering thermoplastics in outboard engine components and has increasingly used DuPont materials for their unique benefits over traditional materials like metal.

Plastic Fuel Tanks !!

New Developments for Plastic Fuel Tanks


Plastic fuel tanks have gained widespread use in applications that include automotive, marine, construction, agriculture, power equipment, and all-terrain vehicles. Plastic fuel tanks are desirable because they can be formed in complicated shapes, are corrosion resistant, are light weight, have high puncture resistance, and are relatively low cost. Fluoro-Seal has developed two new technologies that can make plastic fuel tanks even better. One technology increases the fire resistance of plastic tanks, which enhances safety. The other technology increases the barrier properties of plastic tanks, which reduces the permeation of fuel through tank walls and enables plastic tanks to comply with current and pending environmental regulations.


Increased Fire Resistance


When a current version plastic fuel tank is exposed to fire, the plastic either melts or decomposes and allows the contents to flow out and add fuel to the fire. To buy time in case of a fire, plastic fuel tanks used in marine applications are molded in crosslinked resin. Crosslinked plastic does not melt when heated. But as the temperature of the plastic increases, the plastic begins to decompose and burn. When exposed to a fire, a non-crosslinked plastic tank may fail in approximately 11/2 minutes and a crosslinked plastic tank of the same size and shape may fail in 21/2 - 3 minutes.

Because of U.S. Coast Guard requirements concerning survivability of fuel tanks in a burn test, only crosslinked resins are used in marine applications. Clearly it is desirable to make plastic fuel tanks that can endure fires even longer before they fail.
Fluoro-Seal has developed a method for modifying plastic tanks such that they have an intumescent coating on the outside surface. When these tanks are exposed to fire, the intumescent coating is converted into a thick, insulating layer of noncombustible foam. This char layer is extremely effective in insulating the plastic such that it barely gets warm when exposed to fire. Using the Coast Guard test protocol, it was demonstrated that plastic fuel tanks made in noncrosslinked resin and coated with the intumescent coating can survive the test longer than is mandated by the requirements.

Barrier to Permeation Loss



One characteristic of plastic fuel tanks is that they allow small amounts of fuel to permeate through the tank walls. The amount of fuel lost this way is quite small and is not usually missed by the owner. However, if one adds up the small amounts of hydrocarbon losses from the hundreds of millions of plastic fuel tanks in use in the U.S., this represents a substantial amount of air pollution. Therefore, various Federal and State agencies continue to enact legislation to increasingly reduce this source of pollution. In fact, new legislation is scheduled for enactment in the next few years that will affect millions of plastic fuel tanks made each year for various non-automotive applications. Existing technologies for increasing the fuel-barrier properties appear to not be sufficiently effective for all of these tanks. Fluoro-Seal has developed two different types of technologies for significantly increasing the barrier properties of plastic fuel tanks. The company is working with tank manufacturers and plastic resin suppliers to optimize these technologies. With the combination of these two different approaches, the company is confident that all types of plastic fuel tanks, independent of the molding process used to make them, can be made compliant with new evaporative loss regulations.


Courtesy:http://www.fluoroseal.com