Responding to the emerging wood plastic composites (WPC) market in India, global extrusion technology company battenfeld-cincinnati (Vienna / Austria; www.battenfeld-cincinnati.com) has formed an alliance with family-owned WPC specialist Hardy Smith (Gujarat / India; www.hardysmith.org). Battenfeld-cincinnati said the companies are joining forces to offer their local customers solutions for manufacturing innovative WPC products. In India WPC profiles and panels are emerging as a popular alternative to wood panels, which are relatively expensive due to limited wood resources.

Hardy Smith, which was originally a wood company, has operated in the WPC consulting business since 2011 and offers complete solutions for WPC manufacturing. The company provides technology, machinery and raw materials for WPC products, and is developing injection moulding and compression moulding technologies for applications in industries including automotive, construction, information technology, electronics and insulation.

Battenfeld-cincinnati said it has been offering custom-built extrusion machinery to manufacture WPC products for more than a decade.