Was slippery awaiting-trial prisoner Bongani Moyo trying to escape again? This is the question the authorities are pondering after weapons were found in the Pretoria cells of some of his closest associates.
Moyo, who escaped from Boksburg Prison in 2010, is due to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with an escape from the capital’s magistrate’s court in August where he appeared on armed robbery charges.
At the time of the courthouse escape, Moyo was appearing with co-accused, Kumbulani Sibanda, Leon Ncube and Thabani Sibanda on 13 charges, including robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of unlicensed firearms.
It is alleged they were involved in more than 35 bank robberies.
He came into court on crutches and was not shackled. He was re-arrested in Hillbrow 18 days later.
While prison officials have denied Moyo was found with weapons, sources in New Lock Prison said Correctional Services reaction unit members found a homemade firearm and ammunition in his cell, along with a cellphone loaded with airtime.
The cells of Moyo, Sibanda and another awaiting-trial prisoner jail officials would only identify as Dube, were raided after a tip-off on Wednesday that the three were planning an escape.
Dube is awaiting trial for his alleged role in an armed robbery at a jewellery store in Montana.
The three are interned in New Lock Prison’s high security B-Section. They are seen as extremely dangerous and a high escape risk and are being held in single cells in a section of the prison known as “The Basement”.
In Wednesday’s raid, reaction unit members recovered surgical blades, hacksaw blades, a firearm made from plastic, a cell door key mould disguised as a cellphone and a half-complete plastic key.
Also found, Correctional Services sources said, were eight rounds of ammunition.
“These are the worst of the worst and now they have been found with this contraband. The only way they can get these items is (by) bribing warders,” said the source.
“It is a major security breach and from information obtained it is clear that they were planning an escape soon,” said the source.
Correctional Services spokes-man Phumlani Ximiya confirmed the finds, but denied any contraband had been found in Moyo’s cell.
“That is simply not correct. Your sources have it wrong,” he said.
Ximiya said the recoveries were made following a tip-off from other inmates to prison officials.
During the search prison officials recovered two surgical blades, two hacksaw blades, a key mould made from a cellphone card, an incomplete cell door key made from plastic and a firearm made from plastic, he said.
Ximiya said authorities afe investigating how the items had ended up inside the cells. “Anyone, including warders, found to have contributed to this, will be dealt with severely internally and criminally.”
2012年2月2日星期四
2012年2月1日星期三
Teklas uses PP in WIT production
The Turkish company Teklas Kaucuk, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011, has built up core activity in rubber media ducts, anti-vibration parts and windscreen wiper blades.
The company established a plant in Kardjali, Bulgaria, in 2006 and started to use water assist injection moulding technology at the plant at the end of 2009. That first WIT line consisted of a KraussMaffei KM 150-370 CX injection moulding machine and a PMEcube WIT module from PME Fluidtec.
The WIT line has been used to mould 3D cooling water ducts for an Opel 1.4 litre car, using tools from Hofmann Werkzeugbau. Opel originally foresaw a long and complex metal duct, but it finally decided on a plastic version in BASF's special Ultramid A3HG6 WIT grade of polyamide 66.
BASF said in November 2011 that Teklas has since supplied a large range of engine compartment cooling water, air and oil ducts made of the special Ultramid material to "almost all large European automobile manufacturers."
Teklas now has four KraussMaffei machines using WIT in Bulgaria and one at its headquarters in Bayrampas, near Istanbul. These are supplemented by eight Engel vertical machines, four each in Bulgaria and Turkey, that are used to overmould hoses, as well as three 3D blow moulding machines in Turkey.
Teklas uses the "melt pushback" version of the WIT process, while post-moulding robotic systems apply metal rings and TPE seals to the WIT ducts.
Looking at other technologies, Teklas told European Plastics News that a completely new development in 2011 was its use of a special Polyfort unreinforced polypropylene from Schulman. This material will this year be used for serial production of automotive drainpipes with integrated flexible bellow sections that facilitate assembly and allow for movement during driving.
European Plastics News spoke to Teklas' new business development and R&D director, Murat Bozkurtlu, and Schulman's innovation manager, Thilo Stier, on Schulman's stand at Fakuma 2011. Bozkurtlu said the new PP plastic duct made in the WIT process is a substitute for a rubber duct that Teklas was blow moulding for Opel.
At the time of the Fakuma meeting, Bozkurtlu said prototype tools had already been cut and he showed an example of a moulding produced on these tools (pictured above). The tools were made by the local Turkish mouldmaker Elvanlar Plastik, based in Gebze, within an eight-month development time. Teklas says it carried the full cost of the prototype tools.
While the example showed at Fakuma had one bellow section, Bozkurtlu said a two-bellow version has been designed for serial production by using hot runners. This first plastic version of the pipe belongs to the Opel "Delta" platform that includes the Astra car; there are around 1.5m Delta platform cars in worldwide production.
The two-bellow series production tool was ready at the end of January 2012 and another 12 tools will follow by the end of March for serial production of a number of PP ducts and other items, Bozkurtlu said last month.
"The established blow moulding solution makes no sense compared with the highly integrated PP plastic version" if you consider the blow moulded part's need for clips to be assembled onto the ducts, says Bozkurtlu. The integrated bellows on the WIT ducts replace O-rings applied to the blow moulded ducts, although Bozkurtlu says the injection moulded version also uses O-rings, but these are "just for sealing".
Stier points out that the special Polyfort PP material has sufficient melt strength to withstand not only the application of water in the WIT process to from a tubular structure, but also a second "blowing" application of water to form the integrated bellow sections. Teklas has applied for a patent for this special technique.
The company established a plant in Kardjali, Bulgaria, in 2006 and started to use water assist injection moulding technology at the plant at the end of 2009. That first WIT line consisted of a KraussMaffei KM 150-370 CX injection moulding machine and a PMEcube WIT module from PME Fluidtec.
The WIT line has been used to mould 3D cooling water ducts for an Opel 1.4 litre car, using tools from Hofmann Werkzeugbau. Opel originally foresaw a long and complex metal duct, but it finally decided on a plastic version in BASF's special Ultramid A3HG6 WIT grade of polyamide 66.
BASF said in November 2011 that Teklas has since supplied a large range of engine compartment cooling water, air and oil ducts made of the special Ultramid material to "almost all large European automobile manufacturers."
Teklas now has four KraussMaffei machines using WIT in Bulgaria and one at its headquarters in Bayrampas, near Istanbul. These are supplemented by eight Engel vertical machines, four each in Bulgaria and Turkey, that are used to overmould hoses, as well as three 3D blow moulding machines in Turkey.
Teklas uses the "melt pushback" version of the WIT process, while post-moulding robotic systems apply metal rings and TPE seals to the WIT ducts.
Looking at other technologies, Teklas told European Plastics News that a completely new development in 2011 was its use of a special Polyfort unreinforced polypropylene from Schulman. This material will this year be used for serial production of automotive drainpipes with integrated flexible bellow sections that facilitate assembly and allow for movement during driving.
European Plastics News spoke to Teklas' new business development and R&D director, Murat Bozkurtlu, and Schulman's innovation manager, Thilo Stier, on Schulman's stand at Fakuma 2011. Bozkurtlu said the new PP plastic duct made in the WIT process is a substitute for a rubber duct that Teklas was blow moulding for Opel.
At the time of the Fakuma meeting, Bozkurtlu said prototype tools had already been cut and he showed an example of a moulding produced on these tools (pictured above). The tools were made by the local Turkish mouldmaker Elvanlar Plastik, based in Gebze, within an eight-month development time. Teklas says it carried the full cost of the prototype tools.
While the example showed at Fakuma had one bellow section, Bozkurtlu said a two-bellow version has been designed for serial production by using hot runners. This first plastic version of the pipe belongs to the Opel "Delta" platform that includes the Astra car; there are around 1.5m Delta platform cars in worldwide production.
The two-bellow series production tool was ready at the end of January 2012 and another 12 tools will follow by the end of March for serial production of a number of PP ducts and other items, Bozkurtlu said last month.
"The established blow moulding solution makes no sense compared with the highly integrated PP plastic version" if you consider the blow moulded part's need for clips to be assembled onto the ducts, says Bozkurtlu. The integrated bellows on the WIT ducts replace O-rings applied to the blow moulded ducts, although Bozkurtlu says the injection moulded version also uses O-rings, but these are "just for sealing".
Stier points out that the special Polyfort PP material has sufficient melt strength to withstand not only the application of water in the WIT process to from a tubular structure, but also a second "blowing" application of water to form the integrated bellow sections. Teklas has applied for a patent for this special technique.
2012年1月29日星期日
UWI inventors seek investors
GASPS of amazement emanated from the group of onlookers gathered inside the demonstration tent on the lawns of the Caribbean's premier tertiary institution last week as researchers switched on what could be the world's first cardiac surgery simulator.
The machine with the pulsating pig's heart was the highlight of the University of the West Indies' (UWI) 13th annual Research Days, held last Thursday and Friday. It could also be the start of great things for cardiac surgeons Drs Paul Ramphal and Daniel Coore, who invented the machine, called the UWI Cardiac Surgery Similator.
According to the two, the instrument — a combination of mechanics, computerised electronics, artificial blood, and dead animal flesh — will not only shorten the time spent on training young local surgeons, but will also make them more competitive on the international scene.
"It is difficult to spend time during the (real life) operations taking junior surgeons through the procedure. Time is of the essence in cardiac surgery," said Ramphal, who said he was tasked with the challenge of training three new cardiac surgeons in 2001.
"So the inspiration really, was how do I get my new trainees to a level so that when they reach overseas to complete their training in a high-volume centre like the UK, Canada, or the US, they will not be behind, and preferably in a more advanced position than the other trainees who were at those centres?" he said.
The similator, which reanimates a pig's heart — medically, the closest in structure to a human heart — also pumps artifical blood through the organ and is programmed to duplicate real-life scenarios that a trainee surgeon would have to deal with on the operating table during open-heart surgery. Computer leads hooked up to the heart can make it beat in different rhythms, and also track artificial vital signs on an attached monitor.
It's considered a remarkable achievement, with nearly limitless potential if the simulator can be duplicated and sold in the specialised market for cardiac equipment.
This is why the success of the UWI Research Days notwithstanding, its inventors are looking for investors to help them duplicate their creation.
"Whenever we show it to the professionals in the field or the industry people who are involved with the equipment in cardiac surgery, they all want one," he said. They want to know where to buy one, but we just don't have the infrastructure here to be the production centre," said Dr Ramphal.
"We are not a factory. We need a commercial operation to do that," interjected Dr Coore. "So we are in the stage where we are looking for commercial entities to take it on, produce it and to sell it," he said.
The two refused to say what was the monetary value of the machine, claiming "that might be confidential to whoever commercialises it", and further declined to answer queries about how much money they would need to replicate it commercially.
The machine with the pulsating pig's heart was the highlight of the University of the West Indies' (UWI) 13th annual Research Days, held last Thursday and Friday. It could also be the start of great things for cardiac surgeons Drs Paul Ramphal and Daniel Coore, who invented the machine, called the UWI Cardiac Surgery Similator.
According to the two, the instrument — a combination of mechanics, computerised electronics, artificial blood, and dead animal flesh — will not only shorten the time spent on training young local surgeons, but will also make them more competitive on the international scene.
"It is difficult to spend time during the (real life) operations taking junior surgeons through the procedure. Time is of the essence in cardiac surgery," said Ramphal, who said he was tasked with the challenge of training three new cardiac surgeons in 2001.
"So the inspiration really, was how do I get my new trainees to a level so that when they reach overseas to complete their training in a high-volume centre like the UK, Canada, or the US, they will not be behind, and preferably in a more advanced position than the other trainees who were at those centres?" he said.
The similator, which reanimates a pig's heart — medically, the closest in structure to a human heart — also pumps artifical blood through the organ and is programmed to duplicate real-life scenarios that a trainee surgeon would have to deal with on the operating table during open-heart surgery. Computer leads hooked up to the heart can make it beat in different rhythms, and also track artificial vital signs on an attached monitor.
It's considered a remarkable achievement, with nearly limitless potential if the simulator can be duplicated and sold in the specialised market for cardiac equipment.
This is why the success of the UWI Research Days notwithstanding, its inventors are looking for investors to help them duplicate their creation.
"Whenever we show it to the professionals in the field or the industry people who are involved with the equipment in cardiac surgery, they all want one," he said. They want to know where to buy one, but we just don't have the infrastructure here to be the production centre," said Dr Ramphal.
"We are not a factory. We need a commercial operation to do that," interjected Dr Coore. "So we are in the stage where we are looking for commercial entities to take it on, produce it and to sell it," he said.
The two refused to say what was the monetary value of the machine, claiming "that might be confidential to whoever commercialises it", and further declined to answer queries about how much money they would need to replicate it commercially.
2011年12月15日星期四
Artist of the week 168: Svein Flygari Johansen
Svein Flygari Johansen is a modern-day Romantic. While his hero Caspar David Friedrich captured the mysteries of mountains and forests in paint, Johansen uses the latest technology for his ecologically minded projects. In his UK debut, Am I Making Up What Really Happened?, the fusions of art, nature and science (created with his technical collaborator, Jonny Bradley) include a giant plastic sack of fish-free Thames river water suspended from the ceiling in a low-lit, cave-like gallery. Beneath it, the twitching shadow of a trout swims across the floor as a digital projection. The effect is magical, like seeing a ghost.
Though now based in Oslo, Johansen was born and raised in Alta, the northern-most city in the world, and the raw Nordic fjords and forests are at the heart of his work. As a boy, he campaigned against the Norwegian government's controversial plans to build a power station and dam on the local Alta-Kautokeino river. It proved a formative experience, focusing his attention on conservation and the age-old culture of Norway's indigenous Sami, whose land rights were thrown into question by the government proposals.
The conflict between old and new ways of life is brought into focus in works such as the photo diptych The Fence (2007). In one image where fresh grasslands are lit up by a blue summer sky, a rickety wooden Sami reindeer fence winds. In the other, it's winter, the landscape muddy and sliced in two by an industrial white metal fence, heralding the privatisation of ancient common land on the borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
A similar tension is at play in the shimmering limestone humps that spread across the floor in his current show like a scaled-down Nordic landscape. Yet this panoramic vision of untouched natural beauty palls somewhat when you discover the sparkle is thanks to a crystal coating of ammonium sulphate, a chemical more commonly used in industrial fertiliser and related to the nitrate used in explosives.
There's a sleight of hand, now you see it now you don't, quality to Johansen's work. He points to what is lost in a changing world, where ancient ways and eco-systems succumb to the rapid march of global capitalism.
Though now based in Oslo, Johansen was born and raised in Alta, the northern-most city in the world, and the raw Nordic fjords and forests are at the heart of his work. As a boy, he campaigned against the Norwegian government's controversial plans to build a power station and dam on the local Alta-Kautokeino river. It proved a formative experience, focusing his attention on conservation and the age-old culture of Norway's indigenous Sami, whose land rights were thrown into question by the government proposals.
The conflict between old and new ways of life is brought into focus in works such as the photo diptych The Fence (2007). In one image where fresh grasslands are lit up by a blue summer sky, a rickety wooden Sami reindeer fence winds. In the other, it's winter, the landscape muddy and sliced in two by an industrial white metal fence, heralding the privatisation of ancient common land on the borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
A similar tension is at play in the shimmering limestone humps that spread across the floor in his current show like a scaled-down Nordic landscape. Yet this panoramic vision of untouched natural beauty palls somewhat when you discover the sparkle is thanks to a crystal coating of ammonium sulphate, a chemical more commonly used in industrial fertiliser and related to the nitrate used in explosives.
There's a sleight of hand, now you see it now you don't, quality to Johansen's work. He points to what is lost in a changing world, where ancient ways and eco-systems succumb to the rapid march of global capitalism.
2011年11月29日星期二
Huawei Vision
If you are familiar with Huawei, you probably know it as the brand that makes the cheap phones. Until now, the Huawei phones we've reviewed at CNET Australia have been all cheaply built plastic handsets, some of which we loved, but only because they are so ridiculously affordable.
The Vision breaks this mould with a much more attractive and sturdy design than previous Huawei handsets. The company opts for a unibody aluminium chassis for most of the phone's body, with a tri-tone battery cover like recent HTCs. Only the bottom third of this cover is removable, giving access to the 1400mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot, pre-loaded with 2GB of memory.
However, Huawei's most improved smartphone element is its display, with the 3.7-inch screen on the Vision far outpacing the screens on any in its budget Ideos range of phones. This screen is more like one you'd expect from HTC or Samsung, with a WVGA resolution, good colour and decent off-axis viewing angles. Most impressive is the curved glass over the LCD panel. This curve bulges slightly from left to right, following the line of your thumb as you swipe between home screens. Huawei says it takes 17 hours to curve each piece of glass, which is an amazing titbit, resulting in a somewhat smoother touchscreen experience.
Keeping a smartphone to a price under AU$300 is remarkable when you consider the build quality described above, and even more so when you add a number of software costs into the equation. To give the Vision a first-class user experience, Huawei has licensed a number of third-party apps to enhance the phone's look and feel. Most notable is the SPB 3D launcher; a slick-looking home screen replacement that sits on top of Android. With SPB 3D, you get seven customisable home screens, plus a bunch of great-looking widgets. It's not quite as polished as HTC's Sense UI, but it is very close, and it has a number of similar elements to Sense, including great-looking weather presentation.
The onscreen-typing experience is also improved by an app called TouchPal, which features excellent early word prediction and some other really nifty typing features. If TouchPal or SPB 3D don't work for you, both are easy to switch off, leaving you with Google's default Android Gingerbread experience.
Powering the 3D home screens is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. This chipset also includes an Adreno 205 graphics processor, which is evident when we ran the Neocore 3D benchmark with the Vision and saw a result of 59 frames per second — a score on par with most of this year's biggest releases.
The Snapdragon chipset is the same option taken by manufacturers for last year's favourite phones, including the Desire HD and this year's Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Again, you can see how this processor stacks up in a comparison of benchmark results.
If there is one area where the Huawei Vision is not like its more expensive competition, it's in the quality of its 5-megapixel camera. This shooter is passable for spur-of-the-moment photos, but its autofocus is quite slow, and its colour reproduction skews the palette of most images towards being bluer than they naturally are. It is a fair bit better than cameras we've seen from Huawei in the past, but it's a good step short of the competition this year.
The Vision breaks this mould with a much more attractive and sturdy design than previous Huawei handsets. The company opts for a unibody aluminium chassis for most of the phone's body, with a tri-tone battery cover like recent HTCs. Only the bottom third of this cover is removable, giving access to the 1400mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot, pre-loaded with 2GB of memory.
However, Huawei's most improved smartphone element is its display, with the 3.7-inch screen on the Vision far outpacing the screens on any in its budget Ideos range of phones. This screen is more like one you'd expect from HTC or Samsung, with a WVGA resolution, good colour and decent off-axis viewing angles. Most impressive is the curved glass over the LCD panel. This curve bulges slightly from left to right, following the line of your thumb as you swipe between home screens. Huawei says it takes 17 hours to curve each piece of glass, which is an amazing titbit, resulting in a somewhat smoother touchscreen experience.
Keeping a smartphone to a price under AU$300 is remarkable when you consider the build quality described above, and even more so when you add a number of software costs into the equation. To give the Vision a first-class user experience, Huawei has licensed a number of third-party apps to enhance the phone's look and feel. Most notable is the SPB 3D launcher; a slick-looking home screen replacement that sits on top of Android. With SPB 3D, you get seven customisable home screens, plus a bunch of great-looking widgets. It's not quite as polished as HTC's Sense UI, but it is very close, and it has a number of similar elements to Sense, including great-looking weather presentation.
The onscreen-typing experience is also improved by an app called TouchPal, which features excellent early word prediction and some other really nifty typing features. If TouchPal or SPB 3D don't work for you, both are easy to switch off, leaving you with Google's default Android Gingerbread experience.
Powering the 3D home screens is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. This chipset also includes an Adreno 205 graphics processor, which is evident when we ran the Neocore 3D benchmark with the Vision and saw a result of 59 frames per second — a score on par with most of this year's biggest releases.
The Snapdragon chipset is the same option taken by manufacturers for last year's favourite phones, including the Desire HD and this year's Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Again, you can see how this processor stacks up in a comparison of benchmark results.
If there is one area where the Huawei Vision is not like its more expensive competition, it's in the quality of its 5-megapixel camera. This shooter is passable for spur-of-the-moment photos, but its autofocus is quite slow, and its colour reproduction skews the palette of most images towards being bluer than they naturally are. It is a fair bit better than cameras we've seen from Huawei in the past, but it's a good step short of the competition this year.
2011年10月27日星期四
Patterns and Moulds Ltd exhibits at The Composites Engineering Show 2011
On the Patterns & Moulds stand visitors will be able to see CNC machined patterns and mould parts finished to varying levels, and learn about projects the company has recently completed for customers in the composites, marine and automotive industries.
Patterns & Moulds uses the Solidworks and Mastercam CAD/CAM design software. The company, located in Leicestershire, UK, has expertise in the production techniques needed to accurately fabricate a wide range of modelling and tooling products, from CNC machined tooled timber, MDF, modelling and tooling boards, through to polyester and epoxy-based seamless modelling pastes.
All glass reinforced plastic (GRP) moulds are manufactured in house and come with either timber or steel support frames which are fully bonded into the body of the moulds for added strength and rigidity. All split GRP moulds have a joggle joint feature to perfectly re-align mould sections back together.
“We are an independent, family owned business with a dedicated and incredibly loyal, long serving skilled workforce," says managing director George Lucas.
"We provide an end-to-end service for all mould-making needs. The team prides itself on being flexible, reliable and consistently supplying customers a quality product on time and to budget. To stay abreast of latest developments and techniques, we investment year on year in staff training and our facilities to ensure we maintain modern, up to date equipment and techniques.”
Patterns & Moulds uses the Solidworks and Mastercam CAD/CAM design software. The company, located in Leicestershire, UK, has expertise in the production techniques needed to accurately fabricate a wide range of modelling and tooling products, from CNC machined tooled timber, MDF, modelling and tooling boards, through to polyester and epoxy-based seamless modelling pastes.
All glass reinforced plastic (GRP) moulds are manufactured in house and come with either timber or steel support frames which are fully bonded into the body of the moulds for added strength and rigidity. All split GRP moulds have a joggle joint feature to perfectly re-align mould sections back together.
“We are an independent, family owned business with a dedicated and incredibly loyal, long serving skilled workforce," says managing director George Lucas.
"We provide an end-to-end service for all mould-making needs. The team prides itself on being flexible, reliable and consistently supplying customers a quality product on time and to budget. To stay abreast of latest developments and techniques, we investment year on year in staff training and our facilities to ensure we maintain modern, up to date equipment and techniques.”
2011年9月12日星期一
Suwary plans acquisitions, new product launch
Polish plastic packaging and car accessories manufacturer Suwary has announced plans to acquire one or two local packaging business and to start producing multilayer plastic bottles, with capacity of up to 30 litres, at its plant in Pabianice, Poland.
Suwary is controlled by Canada’s packaging and mould making group Wentworth Technologies, which holds a 59.99% stake in the business.
Suwary’s latest investment was possible because of the company’s improved financial results. In the first half of 2011, the company posted revenues of 42.18m zloty (€10.05m), up a robust 72.9% over the same period a year earlier. Its net profit rose to 1.47m zloty (€0.35m), an increase of 25.5% compared to the first half of 2010.
With the planned acquisitions, Suwary aims to increase its EBITDA fourfold by 2016, the manufacturer said in a statement. Over the first six months of this year, the company’s EBITDA was 4.39m zloty (€1.04m).
“The first half of 2011 was a quite difficult period for the plastic packaging industry, as the prices of plastic reached record-high levels. But despite this, we have managed to report good financial results, and we expect the next six months to be even better for our business,” said Walter T. Kuskowski, chief executive of Suwary.
According to Kuskowski, the Polish company is dedicated to further advancing its growth strategy and increasing its plastic packaging output. Suwary plans to launch production of the new multilayer plastic bottle in the third quarter of 2011, he said. The project will be co-financed from the European Union regional development funds.
Suwary is currently completing construction of a new plastics packaging plant in Ksawerów, Poland. Other plans by the manufacturer include boosting production of plastic screw caps.
Suwary is controlled by Canada’s packaging and mould making group Wentworth Technologies, which holds a 59.99% stake in the business.
Suwary’s latest investment was possible because of the company’s improved financial results. In the first half of 2011, the company posted revenues of 42.18m zloty (€10.05m), up a robust 72.9% over the same period a year earlier. Its net profit rose to 1.47m zloty (€0.35m), an increase of 25.5% compared to the first half of 2010.
With the planned acquisitions, Suwary aims to increase its EBITDA fourfold by 2016, the manufacturer said in a statement. Over the first six months of this year, the company’s EBITDA was 4.39m zloty (€1.04m).
“The first half of 2011 was a quite difficult period for the plastic packaging industry, as the prices of plastic reached record-high levels. But despite this, we have managed to report good financial results, and we expect the next six months to be even better for our business,” said Walter T. Kuskowski, chief executive of Suwary.
According to Kuskowski, the Polish company is dedicated to further advancing its growth strategy and increasing its plastic packaging output. Suwary plans to launch production of the new multilayer plastic bottle in the third quarter of 2011, he said. The project will be co-financed from the European Union regional development funds.
Suwary is currently completing construction of a new plastics packaging plant in Ksawerów, Poland. Other plans by the manufacturer include boosting production of plastic screw caps.
2011年3月15日星期二
Diary of a start-up - Safetray makes its Festival debut
My nails dramatically decreased in size during the month of July. I nervously nibbled as I
awaited the first production units arriving from China, desperate for Safetray to play its
own part in the largest arts festival in the world - a showcase in front of an international
audience within my beloved hometown during Edinburgh's multiple festivals.
Leading up to the arrival I had been fed worrying snippets of information regarding the
progress with the mould tool. The initial photographs were kept from me - Fearsomengine quite
rightly deciding that a snapshot image of a mangled piece of plastic might be more upsetting
than informative - and so it was a relief indeed to finally see (a fortnight ago) a physical
embodiment of the Safetray looking actually rather handsome.
And so it was, at a stall in the glorious sunshine at Edinburgh's Foodies Festival in
Holyrood Park, the very first Safetrays - hot off our production tool - were let loose on the
general public; and what a reaction we received.
The most common reaction from people was the suggestion that we should go on Dragons' Den;
the second was one of surprise that nobody had ever thought of it before.
A new reaction - limited to a handful of people, exclusively Scottish - was that Safetray is
'cheating'. A remnant of our Calvinist past, I imagine: if it makes our lives easier, it must
be immoral. Curiously, I quite liked that perspective. Maybe it's the Calvinist Scot in me
welcoming criticism.
The majority were overwhelmingly supportive and excited by the concept - especially those who
were hospitality professionals. Our pre-order book was bulging by the end of the weekend,
filled with trade buyers and consumers alike. With a few amendments to be made and our first
substantial volume of the Safetrays only arriving in October, I was just sorry that we were
not able to sell them on the spot.
An added bonus to Foodies was the amount of people who entered our competition: 'Should have
used a Safetray'. The task? To be filmed recounting a tale of an accident involving a toppled
tray. The prize for the most spectacular story was a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne, the
winner of which is to be announced when we launch our retailing website with video-embeds via
YouTube.
Over thirty people told us their stories. There were stories of A-list celebrities with food
in their laps; a girl so fresh from a coffee spill accident that she was still wearing the
bandages; red wine over a white shirt at a restaurant opening and an accident involving a
customer being set alight with a toppled tray of flaming Sambucas. Yowzers.
We chose The Famous Spiegeltent to be the first venue to use the Safetrays in situ. One of
only handful of its kind left in the world, this stunningly beautiful mirrored tent seemed a
fantastic launch pad for our trays. Amidst acrobats hanging from ropes, strong men flinging
scantily-clad ladies, jazz chanteuses singing their delicate standards and magicians turning
doves into ducks, the Safetray made its own seemingly gravity-defying debut.
Glasshouse Events, who this year manage the bars in the Spiegel Garden, also work on the Golf
Open, the Six Nations Rugby and The Grand National. It's exciting to think of the all events
at which the trusty Safetray might be acting as a silent partner in service in the not too
distant future.
awaited the first production units arriving from China, desperate for Safetray to play its
own part in the largest arts festival in the world - a showcase in front of an international
audience within my beloved hometown during Edinburgh's multiple festivals.
Leading up to the arrival I had been fed worrying snippets of information regarding the
progress with the mould tool. The initial photographs were kept from me - Fearsomengine quite
rightly deciding that a snapshot image of a mangled piece of plastic might be more upsetting
than informative - and so it was a relief indeed to finally see (a fortnight ago) a physical
embodiment of the Safetray looking actually rather handsome.
And so it was, at a stall in the glorious sunshine at Edinburgh's Foodies Festival in
Holyrood Park, the very first Safetrays - hot off our production tool - were let loose on the
general public; and what a reaction we received.
The most common reaction from people was the suggestion that we should go on Dragons' Den;
the second was one of surprise that nobody had ever thought of it before.
A new reaction - limited to a handful of people, exclusively Scottish - was that Safetray is
'cheating'. A remnant of our Calvinist past, I imagine: if it makes our lives easier, it must
be immoral. Curiously, I quite liked that perspective. Maybe it's the Calvinist Scot in me
welcoming criticism.
The majority were overwhelmingly supportive and excited by the concept - especially those who
were hospitality professionals. Our pre-order book was bulging by the end of the weekend,
filled with trade buyers and consumers alike. With a few amendments to be made and our first
substantial volume of the Safetrays only arriving in October, I was just sorry that we were
not able to sell them on the spot.
An added bonus to Foodies was the amount of people who entered our competition: 'Should have
used a Safetray'. The task? To be filmed recounting a tale of an accident involving a toppled
tray. The prize for the most spectacular story was a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne, the
winner of which is to be announced when we launch our retailing website with video-embeds via
YouTube.
Over thirty people told us their stories. There were stories of A-list celebrities with food
in their laps; a girl so fresh from a coffee spill accident that she was still wearing the
bandages; red wine over a white shirt at a restaurant opening and an accident involving a
customer being set alight with a toppled tray of flaming Sambucas. Yowzers.
We chose The Famous Spiegeltent to be the first venue to use the Safetrays in situ. One of
only handful of its kind left in the world, this stunningly beautiful mirrored tent seemed a
fantastic launch pad for our trays. Amidst acrobats hanging from ropes, strong men flinging
scantily-clad ladies, jazz chanteuses singing their delicate standards and magicians turning
doves into ducks, the Safetray made its own seemingly gravity-defying debut.
Glasshouse Events, who this year manage the bars in the Spiegel Garden, also work on the Golf
Open, the Six Nations Rugby and The Grand National. It's exciting to think of the all events
at which the trusty Safetray might be acting as a silent partner in service in the not too
distant future.
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