PROGRESS AT CHEMELOT
[BIZ: Geleen, January 22] This plant will be located in the direct neighborhood of SABIC where important quantities of acetylene gas are produced and filled into cylinders and bundles. The availability of technical well-trained operators in Geleen was also an important reason for the CYMACO management to choose to set up the shop in Geleen. The new operators from CYMACO will first receive an intensive training at the Willebroek site. As the manpower can work in shifts, a very flexible testing capacity is guaranteed. The extra production capacity in Willebroek – a result of moving the acetylene testing – will be used for new activities. This year a high performance ultrasonic testing unit for gas cylinders will be taken in service too. The company also intends to start re-qualifying and maintaining tube trailers and transport vessels of up to 2000 liters. There is also a range of other centers at Chemelot that have been covered by the Meuse-Rhine Journal in the past. These include Neocork (Issue 169), the Biomedical Materials Program (BMM) (Issues 171 & 175), the Isobionics biotechnology company (Issue 179) and Chemtrix, which has chosen Chemelot for the development of micro reactor systems which use chip technology and are much smaller than conventional batch reactors and consequently safer and more efficient. There is also Z-Safety, already covered in Issue 184. Chemelot does seem to be drawing them in.
Chemelot is destined to be an international campus for innovative business and there has been a presentation of developments there in recent years. Among the new companies is CYMACO which is building a new test shop for acetylene cylinders in Geleen to improve the service to their customers, at the same time raising the production capacity.
The ADR regulation (concerning the transportation of dangerous goods) requires that for safety reasons the acetylene cylinders will be periodically tested. Due to their strategic location near SABIC, CYMACO is convinced that the down time of the retested cylinders will be reduced considerably. This very short delivery period helps the owners not only to have their cylinders back in service faster, but also to make savings on the transport charges, as the transport of cylinders is reduced to a minimum due to a strategic location near the filling station.
http://www.chemelot.com/