Bunting Introduces New Conveyor System

Bunting Magnetics Co., Newton, Kansas, has introduced a new line of high-intensity separation conveyors at the WasteExpo show in New Orleans, May 21-23, 2013. Bunting produces precision magnetic products for the recycling, food, printing, automobile, plastics and electronics industries.

Read more...

Recycled Plastics in the Garden—It’s All About The “Green”

Our lawns and gardens seem to be all about the “green” …

We spend a lot of green on our lawns and gardens—nearly $30 billion a year. We grow a lot of greens—nearly a third of us grow food in our gardens. And many companies now make outdoor gardening products with recycled plastics—this contributes to sustainability and makes our lawns and gardens a bit greener.

Read more...

Self-lubricating polymers bolster machine output

Can-making equipment is nothing if not specialized. Yet the subsystems found on these machines offer a number of design lessons that can be applied more broadly by any engineer working to improve the performance and reliability of high-speed equipment.

Read more...

Ford Cutting Back on Summer Shutdowns to Meet Demand

For the second consecutive year, Ford is shortening its traditional 2-week summer shutdown for a majority of its U.S. assembly plants to meet demand for its products.

Twenty-one facilities, including six assembly plants, will see only one week of summer hiatus this year, resulting in production of an additional 40,000 units.

Read more...

S. Carolina firms merge to become Blue Ridge Thermoforming

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Two South Carolina thermoformers have merged and are moving operations to Greenville.

The combined operation will be based in the former PFC-Systems Inc. plant, which had specialized in heavy-gauge thermoforming for a range of industries. PFC merged with Blue Ridge Packaging, which focused on thin gauge thermoforming in Simpsonville.

Read more...

Phase 2 Construction Gets Underway At National Composites Centre

Construction on the second phase of the NCC got underway, with a turf cutting ceremony attended by the Business Minister Michael Fallon. He was joined by a group of major business leaders and academics who are part of this collaborative project.

Read more...

Polymer Breakthrough Inspired by Trees and Ancient Celtic Knots

Scientists at the Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials (NFB) in the National University of Ireland Galway have just published their breakthrough polymerization method in Nature Communications. Their new polymerization technique allows for the easy creation of new complex, multi-functional, branched compounds.

Read more...

Composites Help Disintegrate Spacecraft Fuel Tanks

Carbon fiber composites are nothing new in aerospace. They're being used increasingly in aircraft, satellite launchers, and spacecraft. What is new is their use in a satellite's fuel tank that has been designed to burn up on re-entry.

Read more...

Axion Develops New Recycled Polymer

The U.K.-based company Axion Polymers has developed a variant of its high-grade recycled polymer, Axpoly r-PS01, that comes from plastics from refrigerators that will be used to make toys and other applications.

Read more...

Lego railway declared longest plastic train set ever

Eighty Danish Lego devotees got together on May 10 and 11 to help one Henrik Ludvigsen with his plan to build the world's longest plastic toy train track.

At 4,000.25 m (13,124 ft) in length and using 93,307 pieces, the track met with the approval of the records keepers of Guinness – after the Lego train engine completed its 4-hour journey from one end to the other, that is.

Read more...

‘Convenience' food packaging changed our lives

Recloseable packaging and microwaveable plastic trays were named top packaging breakthroughs that most impacted peoples' lives over the last 25 years in an on-line survey hosted by DuPont. Together the two categories of invention captured 48 percent of the votes. The online survey was available to industry professionals from Apr. 9 through May 10, 2013.

Read more...

Chemtura Announces Expansion of Its Urethanes Business into High-Performance Thermoplastic Polyurethane Products

Chemtura Corporation (NYSE/EuroNext Paris: CHMT), a world leader in hot-cast urethane pre-polymers, today announced the launch of its thermoplastic polyurethane product line under the Ultralast™ brand.

 “The unique formulation of our Ultralast Thermoplastic Urethanes allows plastic manufacturers to achieve superior performance by utilizing Chemtura’s cast urethanes technology,” said Matthew Hellstern, president and general manager of the Urethanes business.

Read more...

Chinaplas: Invista secures site for China polyamide 6,6 plant

Leading polyamide supplier Invista (Wichita, KS) has signed a Land Reservation Agreement with the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Development Company for a polyamide 6,6 resin site at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP).

Read more...

Conair mulls how it will manufacture products in Brazil

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL — Auxiliary equipment producer Conair Group, which has sold and serviced machinery in Brazil since 1976 but has no local manufacturing or sales presence, is eyeing Brazilian expansion that could include more service technicians, and a new office with sales staff.

The company is also actively exploring whether to do a manufacturing partnership in Brazil — like it has done in India — or to build its own manufacturing facility, like Conair has in C...

Read more...

Borealis Announces a Q1 Net Profit of €61 Million

Borealis, a provider of solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers, announces a net profit of €61 million compared to €140 million in the same quarter in 2012.

The decrease in net profit was a result of lower sales volumes and profits in its joint venture, Borouge, due to a planned turnaround for routine maintenance, as well as soft market conditions for the European Polyolefins business.

Read more...

BASF offers new variants of compostable plastic Ecovio

Germany-based chemicals company BASF has extended its compostable and partially bio-based Ecovio range of plastics with new grades suited to thermoforming and injection moulding.

BASF’s Ecovio T2308 grade exhibits similar mechanical properties to those of amorphous PET, and will now be available for the production of thermoformed trays and cups.

Read more...

Lanxess plans Ningbo red pigments plant

Lanxess’s Inorganic Pigments business unit is to build a new high-tech facility for premium iron oxide red pigments at the Ningbo Chemical Park, in eastern China’s Zhegiang province. The €55 million plant will create 150 new jobs and will have an initial capacity of 25,000 tonnes/year. Construction will begin in Q2 for start-up in Q1 2015.

Read more...

UK households studied for recycling habits

Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is monitoring 10 UK households for the next six months in order to build up a picture of the nation’s domestic recycling habits.

The ‘Recycle for the Future’ study, conducted with Exeter University, will try to find out why UK at-home recycling rates are below the European average, despite consumers claiming they wanted to recycle.

Read more...

BioAmber raises $80m in stock offer

US sustainable chemical maker BioAmber raised $80m (£53m) following an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock on 10 May.

However the firm already is getting a taste of life as a public company, seeing its share price fall from $10 (£6.60) to $8 (£5.30) in its first week of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Read more...