Dugdale customers build for success
Leading PVC compounder, Dugdale, reports brisk demand for the company’s new PVC compounds that have been specifically formulated to meet the recently changed regulations in building standards.
Traditionally, the material supplied into the building products, windows, ancillary and general PVC moulding markets has met the requirements of BS EN 1401 drain products, BS EN 1329 soil and waste products and BS EN 607 rainwater products.
However, Dugdale’s newly developed formulations now also enable its manufacturing customers to now fully comply with the BS 5255: 1989 specification for waste thermoplastic fitting of wall thickness minimum than 2.7 mm – wherein a Vicat Softening Point requirement of > 80 degrees Celsius is mandatory. The compliance of the new Dugdale material therefore opens up further opportunities in the areas of under sink plumbing and waste pipe products.
Dr Jeff Ryan, Dugdale Technical director says that ‘this is a significant sea change in the building market and we have turned it into a clear opportunity for our forward-thinking customers.’
Dugdale worked in partnership with major UK building product manufacturers and then created and achieved approvals for enhanced Calcium Zinc based compounds marketed under Dugdale’s Ducavin PVC brand name.
Ryan says that ‘we learned a great deal from creating these new grades for UK building work. The development involved us in some fundamental redefinition of the moulding process and of the changed behaviour of the PVC in its melt flow characteristics. The result is a building compound that offers greater processing stability, wider processing windows and better batch-to-batch colour consistency.’
Dugdale now plans to use the company’s new laboratory and pilot scale production plant – to be commissioned in January 2017 - in order to do further work with building industry customers and to make further inroads into building applications for its materials.
Dugdale’s understanding of the building and construction trades has also been informed by its in-depth involvement in cradle-to-cradle recycling of building products.
‘PVC building product recycling is recycling that works,’ notes Ryan, ‘it is something that is good for the environment and something that also makes good business sense.’
Dugdale works with sources of post-consumer and post-industrial scrap; down-cycling much material into further products for the building trade such as unseen fascias, decking and boards.
Dugdale has been providing information and advice to its building sector customers on the legislative and commercial implications of Brexit and the pending consequences for future international trade deals.
Ryan comments that ‘for now and at least in the near future, it is business as usual. The relevant EU legislation continues to apply. Once Article 50 has been invoked, there is a time-limited period of two years to complete negotiations, during which time EU legislation will continue to apply.
He adds that ‘at this stage it is therefore unlikely the UK will exit the EU before the 2018 REACH registration deadline. Affected business should therefore plan and act accordingly.’
Central to all aspects of Dugdale’s service is the provision of high-value technical advice on all matters of PVC processing; how, for example, to optimise the processing of calcium zinc materials, how to ensure optimal tool design and how to recycle process waste cost effectively.
The core technical team at Dugdale has over 150 years experience of PVC materials and current levels of activity see the team formulating an average of 50 new PVC compounds per month. Colour matching, meeting customer property requests and changes in legislation - as instanced here in the building sector - are the predominant drivers.
The company has also been recently matching its customer service ethic with a round of capital investment; set this year to take its capital spend to over £2 million since the 2014 MBO.
The new Dugdale investments include laboratory facilities with a mini-compounding and pilot production line; the installation of a new silo, the provision of additional warehousing, and the installation of additional mixing and Battenfeld Cincinatti compounding equipment. These production changes are currently being worked through Dugdale’s 10 high-speed mixers and 11 compounding lines.
Dugdale is once again a Gold Sponsor of the triennial PVC 2017 event in Brighton, April 25-27, 2017.
