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AIPMA Office Breares 2012-2013 AIPMA Fast track Finance AIPMA Plastic Parks AIPMA MOU with SIDBI Save through AIPMA Insurance MOU 9th Plastivision India 2013. AIPMA WFO Shell announces world’s first oil sands carbon capture and storage project Water soluble film also edible
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Bleach Producer Cuts Cooling Costs
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China could alter global market for recycled plastics EU commissioner tells plastics to reduce impact Onex buys Krauss Maffei for €569m Industry players respond to China’s new recycling policy Noise-cancelling technology allows for quietly efficient car PETRA proposes new way to judge materials' recyclability Bottle Wars: Video showcases plastic milk bottles dropped out of helicopter SussexIM draws national attention with its Made-In-America Mr. Lid Work advances on production of human organs
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Engel, Cantoni combine injection and blowmolding into one process Study: Plastics' light weight worth potential environmental impacts Arburg holds magnetic attraction for Lettergold
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Automotive PC glazing gets a big push Bringing Factories Back to the City
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Thermoplastic resin deployed in aerospace application via additive manufacturing
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India's economy will outpace China's by 2048
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Shell announces world’s first oil sands carbon capture and storage project ALBERTA, Canada — Shell will go ahead with the world’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project for the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada, the company announced Wednesday. The “Quest” project will capture more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is equivalent to taking 175,000 North American cars off the road, according to Shell’s website. “If you want to achieve climate change goals, CCS has to be part of the solution,” said Shell CEO Peter Voser. “We are helping to advance CCS technology on a number of fronts around the world, but Quest will be our flagship project.” The Athabasca Oil Sands project produces bitumen, which is piped to Shell’s Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton, Alberta. From late 2015, Quest will capture and store deep underground carbon dioxide produced in bitumen processing. The Alberta government will invest $745 million in Quest from a $2-billion fund to support CCS, while the government of Canada will invest $120 million through its Clean Energy Fund. **************************
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Water soluble film also edible Water-soluble films producer MonoSol LLC says it has produced an edible film that can be consumed with food packaged in it. MonoSol says its Vivos edible delivery system can be made into pouches that dissolve and release their contents when exposed to hot or cold liquids. Benefits include convenience and sustainability because the packaging doesn’t need to be discarded as waste. The packaging also allows consumers to practice portion control by consuming fixed amounts of the food or beverage contents. Targeted applications include food producers and food-service kitchens that package powdered fruit drinks, energy supplements, instant teas, gravies and soups, pasta and other products, according to the Merrillville, Ind., company. MonoSol says the patent-pending film is a proprietary blend of food-grade ingredients. The firm claims the film is transparent and has no taste or odor. It is a good oxygen barrier and mechanically able to withstand converting techniques. Earlier this year, MonoSol was acquired by polyvinyl alcohol producer Kuraray Co. Ltd. of Tokyo. **************************
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Bleach Producer Cuts Cooling Costs Plastic cooling tower provides maintenance and energy savings. Kuehne Chemical Company, Inc., South Kearney, N.J., produces concentrated solutions of bleach (sodium hypochlorite). It starts by creating a concentrated ultrapure brine solution. Then, electrolysis of the brine generates gaseous chlorine, which is quickly reacted with sodium hydroxide to produce bleach. "It appears to be a fairly simple process, but we have to control the heat of reaction," says Richard Wilkes, director of corporate engineering. "The process is cooled to the appropriate temperature range partly by heat exchangers that utilize cooling water as the exchange medium. That water, in turn, circulates through a cooling tower and heat is dissipated into the atmosphere. The cooled water then recirculates back to the heat exchangers, which continuously draw off heat." However, the metal-clad cooling towers required frequent maintenance, including cleaning and fan-drive-system adjustments. This led to cooling tower downtime, which necessitated shutting down the bleach process for extended hours. With the aging cooling tower reaching the end of its service life, the company in 2009 decided to replace it with an advanced engineered-plastic design from Delta Cooling Towers. Kuehne decided on a TM Series "two cell" model — a lightweight, compact, modular design with expansion capacity for upgrading up to a six-cell model (2,000 cooling tons).
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In 2011, Kuehne purchased an additional one-cell cooling tower, which was placed online on March 23, 2012, and has been fully operational since then. The engineered-plastic cooling towers easily met the firm's cooling expectations. The biggest surprise came from the comparatively maintenance-free operation of the system. "One of the things that we've found is that the surface tension for particles in the plastic cooling tower basin is much less than that of steel basins," notes Wilkes. "Even after more than two years since the startup, there has been no wind-blown particulate buildup and no mud whatsoever in the tower basin. We do scheduled blowdowns on the tower, which is standard, but, unlike the metal-clad basins, the blowdowns of the new plastic towers are completely washing any foreign materials right down the waste pipe. That means no cleaning of the tower basin." One of Wilkes' favorite features of the new cooling tower design is the direct-drive fan system, which also saves on maintenance costs and downtime. "Instead of having a large shaft-driven or belt-driven fan drive, Kuehne liked the direct-drive unit with the new Delta system. As a result, Kuehne reduced its total horsepower requirements," says Wilkes. "Our old cooling tower had a 75-hp shaft-drive motor system. The new one has four independent 10-hp direct-drive motors. That's a reduction of 35 hp, which saves on energy costs for the same cooling tonnage." Inerting Made Efficient: Replacing Extractive Oxygen Analyzers Extractive systems for oxygen measurement in inerting/blanketing applications require a great deal of maintenance. Even if well maintained they are subject to failure due to their complexity. In-line systems based on polarographiat tryder@deltacooling.com. *************************
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India's economy will outpace China's by 2048 India is likely to overtake China to become the world’s largest economy by 2048, according to a leading academic. In the first of a series of lectures delivered in London last week Professor Douglas McWilliams, of Gresham College, said that China’s economy was already slowing and the country’s growth would decline to around 4% per annum during the 2020s. And while China would overtake the US as the world’s largest economy “by around 2023” forecasts from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) suggested that India’s economy will outpace that of China’s in less than four decades. However McWilliams warned there was “obviously a wide margin of error” in such forecasts. China’s economy is expected to grow by 7.4% this year, a figure regarded in some quarters as a ‘hard-landing’ after the country’s phenomenal performance in recent years. In his lecture McWilliams said that the scale of the competitive challenge from Asia industrialization for Western economies was particularly great “because the pace of change in the emerging economies has been so rapid that attitudes have not had time to adjust to prosperity”. “In the east they do not take prosperity for granted and continue to work hard, support businessmen and keep taxes down. The average Singaporean works 2,307 hours a year; the average Hong Konger works 2,287 hours. “We in Britain work 1,625 hours. It’s as if the average Singaporean worked over four months more a year in effect than we do,” he said. Highlighting a more relaxed tax regime in Asian economies, McWilliams said if western regimes did not adjust their policies to match those of the competitive economies in the east there was a risk that the rest of Europe, including countries who were outside the euro, like the UK, “could slide in the same way that Greece now has into first stagnation and then economic collapse”. **************************
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China could alter global market for recycled plastics China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is drafting a policy that could have direct impact on the global market for recycled plastics. The China Plastics Processing Industry Association’s Plastics Recycling Committee – a group that represents recyclers in China – has sent an official response to the ministry summarising two main points in opposition to the new draft regulations on imported plastic waste. The key point in the official letter, which PRC-CPPIA shared with PRW sister publication Plastics News, said a regulation that lists import of unwashed postconsumer plastics as an illegal activity “lacks rationality”. From a technical point of view, post-consumer plastics need to go through sorting, washing and grinding, which should take place in the same stage. Imported waste plastics that are prewashed frequently have a mix of materials, which affects the quality. The letter added that some types of waste plastics are difficult to dry after washing and will retain 25 percent of water, inflating the import cost. Water could also cause quality issues for engineering plastics such as nylon. “If [the government] bans the import of unwashed plastics, it in fact will hurt the operation of many waste importers and recyclers with the exception of PET bottle flakes,” the letter said. Second, the letter argues that it is unreasonable to require recyclers to granulate materials before they are sold. The purpose of granulation is to facilitate uniform feeding of the materials. If regrind meets the feeding standards, it is wasteful to go through an additional procedure of granulation.
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For example, the group said, clean PET flake is used to make polyester fibre, without having to be granulated first. “We believe the current regulatory and control measures of waste plastics import are very strict. The double-check mechanism of offshore inspection and arrival inspection at the customs effectively prevents the import of banned materials and pollution. Most importers and recyclers are law-abiding operations. [If the government] elevates the control measures simply because of individual cases of management oversight or malicious behaviour, [it] could limit the normal operation of lawabiding businesses and will not be conducive to the healthy growth of the industry,” the statement concluded. The ministry’s draft policy stipulates the criteria for receiving import licenses and details on facility inspections. Companies that are eligible to apply for the import and processing of waste plastics include: • Polyester fibre manufacturers. • Processors of plastics products and other manufacturers that use waste plastics in the raw materials. • Companies that make granulated materials from waste plastics. • Companies that make recycled PET flake with existing annual capacity of no less than 30,000 metric tons can apply to import recycled PET grinds and industrial scrap. Ineligible companies include firms that make ultrathin shipping bags, food-contact products, medical products and construction supplies (with the exception of decorative products). **************************
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EU commissioner tells plastics to reduce impact Despite plastics having some important environmental advantages the industry should be doing more to lessen their overall impact on environment, said Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment. Speaking at the PolyTalk event organised by PlasticsEurope in Wiesbaden, Germany, last week, Potočnik said: “I believe in the future of the European plastics industry. But the time has come to be more critical of our use of plastics.” The commissioner expressed his views to a gathering of business leaders from the European plastics industry, representatives of the green lobby and officials from European organisations. “We need green economics and we need green economics in the plastics industry,” he said. Potočnik acknowledged the benefits of plastics, such as their lightweighting advantage in areas such as automotive and packaging. However, the moves towards innovation and sustainability have set the challenge of how to make the most of plastics’ benefits without increasing environmental impacts. “Future competitiveness will depend on doing more with less,” he said. One challenge is to improve plastics recycling in the EU. While some countries have high recycling rates, others are sending too much plastic to landfill. Potočnik suggested incineration of waste plastics for energy recovery could constrain the supply of raw material for plastics recycling. “Too often plastics are downcycled, not recycled,” he said. Potočnik also urged the plastics industry to help develop products which are designed for sustainability, products that can be repaired, updated and dismantled easily.
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Major environmental issues for the plastics industry include marine litter and the proliferation of carrier bags. The European Commission is currently assessing options to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags. Potočnik seemed to rule out the possibility of a ban on plastic carrier bags, telling the PolyTalk audience that “pricing measures plus targets are the most likely option”. Also speaking at the Wiesbaden meeting was Sir Jonathan Porritt, founder of director of Forum for the Future, a UK-based sustainability think tank. Porritt said he could sense the industry’s frustration at not being able to get across its message – that it contributes to sustainable developments in markets like automotive, packaging and construction – but he warned the sector against relying on finite resources of hydrocarbons for raw materials. Continuing to do so would not stop the industry from developing sustainable innovations, “but it will stop the industry from becoming the force for good in society that it can be”, he added. **************************
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Onex buys KraussMaffei for €569m Onex Corporation, the Toronto-based private equity firm, has confirmed it has agreed to acquire KraussMaffei, the German plastics machinery manufacturer, for €569m (£453m). The global plastics industry had been awash with speculation for some time that a deal was imminent and a statement from Onex today confirmed the transaction, which it anticipates will close by 31 March next year, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals. David Mansell, a managing director at Onex, said KraussMaffei was a “global leader in each of its three segments, with a decades-long reputation for technology and quality. “We look forward to working with Jan Siebert and his management team to further build on the company’s market-leading position”. KraussMaffei is the first European-based investment for Onex Partners III, a $4.7bn (£2.9bn) fund run by Onex which will inject $340m (£210m) into the business. Onex is not unfamiliar with the global plastic market; as recently as last year it had exited and re-entered the sector, selling its stake in Husky Injection Molding Systems, and then turned around late in the year to acquire extrusion equipment supplier Davis-Standard. In a statement Krauss Maffei said it had made “successful steps to strengthen the business in its core markets as well as to expand its global presence in growing markets, particularly the Brice countries and Asia”.
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Speaking about the Onex deal, Jan Siebert, KraussMaffei’s chief executive, said: “Building on our recent success, we see good opportunities to further grow the company. “I am very pleased to be partnering with Onex given its track record and experience in our industry. I am looking forward to working with this experienced and successful company.” Referring to KraussMaffei’s previous owners since 2006, private equity firm Madison Capital, Siebert said: “I would like to thank Madison Capital for a reliable and trustful partnership over the last six years. “The firm supported our strategy and business activities successfully, especially throughout the worldwide crisis in 2008 and 2009”. KraussMaffei, which employs 4,000 people worldwide, posted revenues of around €1bn (£798m) in the year to 30 June, 2012. **************************
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Industry players respond to China’s new recycling policy BEIJING Face-to-face with officials from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, China’s plastic recyclers reported their view of the current conditions of the industry and their take of the draft policy of “Imported Waste Plastics Environmental Protection Regulation” at a meeting organized by the recently founded China Scrap Plastics Association Co. Ltd. Zheng Yang, an official from the ministry’s Solid Waste Management Center, gave an overview, noting that there are nearly 1,600 companies nationwide that import and reprocess waste plastics. They import a total of approximately 8 million metric tons annually. The new regulation will set a market entry barrier, which is 4,000 square meters of site area and 5,000 metric tons of annual processing capacity, Zheng said. It also divides the 1,600 or so companies into four categories and raises certain requirements for each category. CSPA Sectary General Jason Wang pointed out six major issues facing China’s plastics recycling industry: pollution and negative public perception, reselling of import licenses, trading of imported waste plastics, “industry turmoil and survival,” high compliance costs and low penalties for illegal activities, and the absence of a large-scale and high-technology model. An industry representative brought up enforcement issues at the local level. Chen Zuhan, chairman of Guangdong Haifeng Xinzhou Plastic Products Co. Ltd., said customs officials in Shantou have not approved any import of waste plastics this year.
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“We already had the green light from the [ministry], but didn’t expect to encounter issues at the customs,” he said. His company even had the local county government send an official letter to customs, requesting the processing of imported materials. “But nothing worked,” he said. He also is a vice president of CSPA. Wang Weiping, general manager of Shanghai Dongjin Plastic Fiber Product Co. Ltd., added that customs officials tend to give high appraisals to imported materials. “Companies have to take non-standard means to balance the duties with other taxes, which is not conducive for the company’s normal growth,” he said. Wang is a CSPA supervisor. On the topic of moving recyclers into industrial parks for better management, Wang said it should be case by case. The model might work in Guangdong, he said, but not in Shanghai. There are a total of 25 companies in Shanghai that are involved in the import of waste plastics. “It’s impossible to find a new campus and move these companies there.” An official from the China Resource Recycling Association also believes there are major hurdles to the “campus management” model that is encouraged in another recent new regulation. Vice Secretary General Tang Aijun said the operating costs in industrial parks can be too high for recyclers. She cited scrap metal recycling parks in Zhenhai and Zhaoqing as examples. Due to the scarcity and high cost of land, it makes little economic sense for localities to allocate land for such purposes. In Guangdong province, however, recycling parks are recommended to help small recyclers integrate into large operations.
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Chen Jiangqiang, president of the Regenerative Resources Association of Guangdong, said Guangdong province reprocesses more than half of the waste plastics that China imports. More than 70 percent of recycled granulate producers are located there. “It’s easier to regulate companies of all sizes in the same campus, and the provincial government asks these parks to centralize logistics and warehousing. A micro-sized recycler could become a unit of the bigger operation that’s managed by the park,” Chen said. He is also chairman of Guangdong Tianbao Renewable Resources Development Co. Ltd. China’s plastic recycling sector also needs technological upgrades to facilitate its growth. Chen Qiang from the Shandong International Recycling Committee said regulations need to be constantly updated as technology advances. He mentioned the bottle-to-bottle technology that’s used in North America and Europe. “This technology is the highest level of plastics recycling. This approach is not only legal, but should also enjoy a series of preferential policies of the [Chinese] government,” he said. **************************
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Noise-cancelling technology allows for quietly efficient car The Ford Motor Company has found that efficiency comes at a price. Noise. When engineers for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker tuned the engine for Ford’s new 2013 Fusion hybrid sedan to get the most miles out of a gallon, the engine produced what the carmaker termed “unpleasant powertrain sounds.” So to keep the efficiency without annoying drivers and their passengers, Ford is equipping the Fusion with “active noise-cancellation technology,” complete with speakers integrated into the headliner and flooring and a control box that can generate a reverse sound signal inside the car to mask the sound. Automakers and their suppliers have been looking at a variety of noise issues related to future cars for years. The industry has faced issues with requirements in Europe to reduce engine noise outside cars so they are less annoying to pedestrians. But it also faces concerns globally that electric cars and hybrids must produce some kind of sound as a warning to alert people who are visually impaired that a car is nearby. There have been active noise-cancellation systems in air-intake manifolds, extra sound absorption layered between the passenger compartment and engine to block sounds and additional film layers in auto glass to cut out road noise. Ford’s system is designed to keep drivers comfortable while they also achieve 47 mpg performance. The Fusion hybrid places three microphones within its headliner, with two microphones over the first row of seats and one over the rear seats. Those microphones measure engine noise and send a signal to the electronic active noise-cancellation control module mounted behind the instrument panel. The module will generate opposing sound waves to cancel out the objectionable sound, and direct that sound through the audio system. The hybrid will make it into dealer showrooms in North America later this year. **************************
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PETRA proposes new way to judge materials' recyclability NEW YORK -- To overcome recycling test barriers that discourage improvements in PET resin, the PET Resin Association has developed a recyclability assessment model that it said is a more “realistic and effective method for assessing recyclability” of various types of PET resin than the guidelines from the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers. The PETRA model integrates the need for continued innovation with stringent resin testing and monitoring, said Ralph Vasami, executive director of PETRA, which represents North American producers of PET resin. The group announced its Recyclability and Innovation Model and posted it online Oct. 16. The document provides voluntary criteria for testing, evaluating and ensuring the recyclability of newly developed PET resins that are used in manufacturing PET bottles and containers. New York-based PETRA said it issued the model when “it became apparent” — three years after discussions between the two organizations became in 2009 — “that APR was unwilling to change its protocol to allow for the introduction of resin variations anticipated for relatively low market presence, even if offset by additional recyclability safeguards.” The PETRA model allows for testing variations at levels of 2 percent and 10 percent, which PETRA said encompasses the vast majority of today’s new PET resin variants. Current recyclability guidelines in the PET Bottle Critical Guidance document from the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers call for resin testing at concentrations of either 25 percent or 50 percent.
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The European PET Bottle Platform PET Recycling Test Protocol allows for testing at lower concentrations than APR. “APR requires resin variants and innovations typically having a low market presence to meet the same requirements of a resin accounting for 25 percent or 50 percent of total North American PET production,” said PETRA. Those requirements discourage innovation, make product differentiation difficult and preclude the introduction of resin improvements, PETRA said. “In recent years, the APR’s focus on defining recyclability in terms of meeting the capabilities of the least-sophisticated recycling operations has been increasingly at odds with advances in resin science and resulting innovations.” PETRA’s model focuses on real-market resin performance and the evaluation needs of producers, brand owners and recyclers, said Vasami. In addition to special-use resins, PETRA’s model does include criteria for testing at those more robust levels of 25 percent and 50 percent. In general, PETRA said its model is designed to combine the most progressive elements of the existing European PET Bottle Platform recyclability guidelines and the APR recycling guidelines for North America — without sacrificing rigorous testing benchmarks or compromising innovation. PETRA stressed that under its model all innovations will be tested to the same performance criteria and given either a pass or fail mark. According to PETRA, its model includes: * A rigorous test protocol to measure recyclability in terms of a resin’s physical and chemical performance characteristics.
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* A dispersion assessment, based on the test protocol results, that calculates the volume of a resin type that can safely be placed in the marketplace without compromising the overall recyclability of PET. * The provision of control resins that reflect the current North American supply of water-grade and carbonated soft drink-grade PET resins, for use with the test protocol. * Annual test monitoring — once the model is in prevalent use — of the combined virgin PET stream to identify and quantify any changes in the virgin resin stream that might adversely impact the recyclability of PET. Under the program, PETRA will provide industry-representative control resins to organizations that use the model for testing. Once the model is widely used, PETRA said it will be committed to funding annual third-party testing and monitoring of the PET resin stream. **************************
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Bottle Wars: Video showcases plastic milk bottles dropped out of helicopter On the PlasticsToday twitter page, a follower had sent us a link highlighting a "plastic packaging innovation." Naturally, I was curious so I clicked on the link that sent me to a YouTube page to the video entitled, "Bottle Wars." Apparently a battle of epic 'plastic' proportions is brewing in the UK. The video was created by Nampak Plastics Europe, a manufacturer of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) milk and juice bottles, primarily for the dairy industry. Nampak currently produces about two billion plastic milk bottles annually. The company's fully recyclable Infini HDPE bottles, contains 15% recycled material and can achieve up to 25% lightweighting compared to standard milk bottles. The film, which is accompanied by the soundtrack of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, compares the strength of Nampak's Infini bottles to that of its main competitor, Alpla. The video shows 25 Infini bottles and 25 of Alpla's rival bottle being dropped from a helicopter at a height of 300 feet. With parachutes attached, blue for Nampak and red for Alpla, the bottles hit the ground at the same speed as they would in the industry-standard 0.9m-drop test performed in laboratory conditions. While the Infini bottles remain intact and bounce on the runway, Alpla's design split and empty milk over the tarmac. I have to say Nampak went great lengths to showcase the strength of its HDPE bottles. One of my first questions to Jamie Tinsley, commercial director for Nampak Plastics, was about the investment to shoot the video.
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While he couldn't divulge details regarding the cost, he did point out, "it didn't cost anywhere near the amount that people seem to think it did." All of the footage was captured in a single day. "The 'Bottle Wars' video was a direct response to some incorrect information that Alpla had circulated across the market, making false claims about Infini's robustness compared to their own inferior design," Tinsley said. "Our film makes it blatantly clear which bottle is stronger." If you watch the video, you saw that the Alpla crashed and burned while the Infini bottles survived. Obviously since Nampak is behind this video, it wasn't hard to predict that conclusion. Reading some of the comments about the YouTube video, one said, "I'm 300 ft tall, these'll comein so handy whenever I drop the milk! Thanks, Infinibottle!" Another user stated, "Absolutely brilliant, and I'm not surprised to see the Alpla bottles fail. The ones in our local Tesco are flimsy and frequently distorted. Using recycled HDPE material places additional demands on lightweight bottles and my gut feeling is that the Infini bottle will be capable of accepting much higher percentages of rHDPE than the Alpla bottle." Lightweight bottles here to stay This video comes a time where the issue of the lightweight bottle is a significant battleground for the future of the industry. Waste reduction targets set for retailers under the Courtauld
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Commitment and the Dairy Roadmap states that milk packaging must use 30% of rHDPE by 2015 and 50% rHDPE by 2020. "It's a key time for the British milk industry, a next-generation, eco-friendly bottle needs to be chosen and there are predominantly two competing products in the market: our own Infini bottle and one from a competitor, Alpla," Tinsley said. Alpla recently announced it will produce its lightweight HDPE bottles for Arla Foods, which will deliver a weight savings in excess of 20% compared to Arla's current milk bottles. Alpla is also targeting an industry first recycled HDPE material content of 50% in all bottles for Arla Foods. The Infini bottle was officially launched in 2012 after four years of collaborative efforts from the Nampak team and following extensive trials, tests and rigorous market research. Tinsley said the design team developed an innovative manufacturing approach, which Nampak has successfully patented, by enabling the overall bottle, as it is being blowmolded within the mold, for the plastic not be stretched as far into all four corners, as it is with the standard design. Other features such as the area around the neck of the bottle and the overall multisided bottle walls make for a far stronger bottle even at these vastly reduced weights, he said. The company is close to having 30 million bottles sold now into the UK dairy market. Tinsley said the plan is to have Infini rolled out across its entire business and they are in the process of converting machines to support this initiative. Throughout 2013, the main bulk of the equipment will be phased over to Infini.
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Blowmolding processing trials are already underway to determine the feasibility of incorporating 30% and 50% rHDPE in the company's milk bottles. License opportunities do exist for the Infini design and Tinsley said they are "keen" to explore as many opportunities as they can from around the world. "The approaches we already had for the Infini design are not limited to the milk industry either, it includes detergents, juice, fabric softeners and many other items currently packaged in plastic bottles," Tinsley said. "The new Infini design has created quite a stir." Does that mean detergents wars are in the near future? Top of Form **************************
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SussexIM draws national attention with its Made-In-America Mr. Lid Made-in-America is garnering more and more attention from the national news media as consumers increasingly prefer American-made products versus those from overseas. A recent study by AARP noted that 72% of consumers in the 50-64 age group say Made-in-America labeling “significantly influences their purchases,” and 81% of that group noted that they buy American because they believe it helps the economy. SussexIM, a custom injection molder for multinational brand owners, recently launched its first proprietary or “branded” product: Mr. Lid. The food storage container that has an attached livinghinge lid has earned national media attention for SussexIM for its ability to design, develop and manufacture high-value, quality consumer products in the U.S. The company has 65 presses ranging from 25 to 725 tons, with most of the Mr. Lid products being molded in the 300- to 400-ton presses.
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Fox Business News spent an entire day recently at SussexIM’s headquarters in Sussex, WI to highlight the innovative design of Mr. Lid and to use Sussex and the product as an example of the increasing trend toward Made in the USA. The patented system of secure, water-tight, easy stacking storage containers is unlike competing storage containers in that Mr. Lid’s covers are permanently attached using the living hinge design, eliminating a common consumer frustration—lost lids. Mr. Lid comes in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors, and are microwave and dishwasher safe. Keith Everson, SussexIM’s CEO, told PlasticsToday, “Absolutely there’s more attention being paid to Made-in-America.” With a greater awareness of the role of manufacturing in creating a strong economy with good jobs, people are starting to make USA-made products their first choice when shopping. The live broadcasts from the plant were aired three different times during the day with a different Fox Business host each time. “Fox Business News was excited about this,” Everson said. SussexIM is also excited about Mr. Lid. While the product is new to the market, Mr. Lid’s infomercials have been a hit, and the containers’ popularity rose faster than Everson anticipated. Mr. Lid can now be found in CVS, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart, Shop-Ko and many more. In Wal-Mart, Mr. Lid can be found in the “As Seen on TV” aisle and is doing so well it will soon be moved into the housewares section of some 3600 Wal-Mart stores.
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Additionally, SussexIM has just completed a big order for QVC to be featured in a cooking show that will include various kitchen-related items, to be aired on October 28. Everson admitted that the company’s core business is custom injection molding, and there are areas of marketing and selling consumer products that fall outside of their expertise. To provide the marketing, fulfillment, and distribution, SussexIM subcontracted to a New Berlin, WI company, Norman Direct. “We’re the innovator and the manufacturer,” explained Everson. “Norman Direct has connections with the companies that produce infomercials, the big box retailers, and news outlets such as Fox News, and can do the distribution and fulfillment. We focus on what do best and hired the experts to do all of the rest. That’s how we’ve kept our sanity here.” Everson said the company’s employees are excited about the product. “To see what we make here selling in the stores is really exciting for them,” Everson said. “We have a company store so our employees can buy these at a discount. If you’re related to anyone who works here I know what you’re getting for Christmas.” Everson is proud of the fact that SussexIM is a part of the movement to make more products in the U.S. “We’re bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. from overseas and, in the process, delivering quality and value, and hopefully improving the daily life of consumers just a little bit,” he said. “And, when consumers see the U.S. flag sticker that says ‘Made in the USA’ on something, they’re more inclined to buy that product.” **************************
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Work advances on production of human organs Significant progress continues at major research organizations to develop materials and processes to produce human organs. Equipment is highly specialized and borrows from inkjet printing to produce threedimensional shapes. It's a distant—very distant—cousin to 3D printers used for additive manufacturing in the industrial world. A person's own stem cells are used as the printing material, often in conjunction with scaffolds made from bioresorbable plastics that simulate the shape of human organs, such as kidneys. The mechanical aspect of the technology is fairly well developed, but engineers lack knowledge of the complex cell structure within human organs. In the industrial world, 3D printers can work from CAD files to produce parts with intricate internal geometries. Advanced bioreactor at Columbia University.
In the medical world, the CAD files to drive the bioprinters are the missing link keeping creation of human organs 15 to 20 years from development. One of the bellwether commercial developments was the introduction of a bioprinting machine from Organovo (San Diego, CA) that can print blood vessels. Ten of the machines have been produced and are being used in research and to help pharmaceutical companies develop human biological disease models in three dimensions.
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Organovo is now a publicly held company and is ramping up its capabilities. It recently moved into a facility with cleanroom space nearly four times larger than its previous site. Cleanroom facilities are used to produce functional human tissues created by Organovo's bioprinting process. "Organovo's facility expansion provides a state-of-the-art space for our team to drive innovation with our research and development initiatives and supports partnering activities with our bioprinting technologies," said Keith Murphy, chairman and chief executive officer of Organovo. Progress also continues at other major research sites: Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are working on a project to print skin cells on burn wounds. A laser first scans the wound to create a design file showing where to deposit each cell type. Skin cells are placed in a print cartridge with a material that provides support. Several institutions are working on technologies, often involving specialized polymers, to create the vascular networks needed to support organs such as lungs. Work is taking place at the Laboratory for Bioregenerative Medicine & Surgery at Cornell, Draper Labs, and Case Western Reserve University. Columbia University's Laboratory for Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering is developing advanced bioreactors. The Tissue Microfabrication Lab at the University of Pennsylvania is developing unique micro- and nanofabrication tools to control and measure the adhesive and mechanical environment of cells. **************************
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Engel, Cantoni combine injection and blowmolding into one process Engel Austria GmbH and Italian-based Cantoni have developed a new process that combines the injection molding and blowmolding processes into one injection molding machine. The process, called the inject2blow method, is a system that offers injection molders the possibility to produce blown containers without switching to a different technology, Christoph Steger, VP Business Unit Packaging for Engel toldPlasticsToday. "Simple
and easy processes are one of the key success factors of modern production, especially in areas where smaller lot sizes and frequent design, shape changes are necessary," he said. "A one-step-process on one machine with one mold where inserts can be exchanged fast and simple shows immense advantages in terms of flexibility and investment costs. This fact led to the idea of developing such a system that combines fast and simple design changes with the flexibility to just need one specific machine that could also be used for other applications as well." For the manufacture of wide-necked jars, an Engel Victory injection press with 90 metric tons of clamping force runs a two-by-two cavity mold produced by Cantoni with a cycle time of less than 14 seconds.
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In addition to the Engel injection molding machine, the system includes the Cantoni sliding table mold and an Engel viper linear robot that removes finished parts from the mold. Both the injection molding and blowmolding processes are visualized, monitored, and controlled via the Engel injection molding machine CC 200 control unit. This means that injection molding machine operators don't have to learn how to use new technology; they will be guided intuitively through the integrated injection and blowmolding process by the Engel control unit, according to the company. Preforms normally have to be made using injection molding first and then subjected to a second process on a blowmolding machine before they become a final product, but the new method allows small ready-to-use containers to be manufactured in one process, Steger said. The company said other benefits include integrating the processes include lower system investment costs, a smaller system footprint, higher system availability, simpler quality control, and no maximum clamping force. The inject2blow method can be used to process a wide range of thermoplastics from polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonates to PET. The type of applications produced with the technology includes any small- and mid-sized container and bottle with a neck-body-ratio of approximately 1:3. Main areas can be found in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food industry, examples would be containers for hand lotions or mascara, and cycling bottles, Steger said. **************************
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Study: Plastics' light weight worth potential environmental impacts WASHINGTON -- The American Chemistry Council is touting the results of a life-cycle analysis that shows lighter-weight plastic auto parts not only save fuel, but those fuel savings easily outweigh any impacts from producing those parts. The ACC’s Plastics Division used two parts already in production — a front support bolster on Ford Motor Co.’s 2010 Taurus sedan and the running board on General Motors Co.’s 2008 Chevrolet TrailBlazer and GMC. The Taurus bolster was 46 percent lighter than a plastic and steel bolster in the same car, while the running board was a 51 percent weight improvement over a steel running board, the group noted in an Oct. 16 press release. PE International Inc. of Boulder, Colo., considered the environmental impacts of the bolster and running board in each stage of the product’s life cycle, including energy used during their production, product manufacturing impacts, product use and end-of-life treatment of the parts. The study showed that lightweighting the running board would reduce energy use by 2.7 million gallons of gasoline over the life of the vehicle, while reducing the weight of an all-plastic bolster would reduce energy use by 770,000 gallons. As a result, both parts have lower net environmental impacts over their full life cycles than previous metal components, ACC officials said. **************************
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Arburg holds magnetic attraction for Lettergold Newmarket-based family-run injection moulder Lettergold Plastics has acquired its first new Arburg injection moulding machine, a 570 C 2000-800 model from the Golden Edition range. An Arburg finance package gave Lettergold breathing space to bring a new product to market – an innovative magnetic filter system to protect domestic central heating boilers. Patents are pending for the design of the filter, which will be available from DIY stores and plumbers’ merchants via sister company Lettergold Water Treatment Solutions. The Domestic Water Treatment Association is working with Lettergold to lobby government that all newly installed boilers be fitted with a magnetic filter, to ensure continuously efficient operation. During the 12 month lead time for the filter, a suite of new tooling was sourced from a UK toolmaker rather than the Far East. Lettergold director Darren Smith worked with a major polymer manufacturer to ensure that materials used for the filter would give the required service life of 15 years at 85°C. Lettergold serves a diverse range of customers, including the biotechnology market. The company is accredited to ISO 9001, BS25999 and ISO 14001 standards. **************************
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Automotive PC glazing gets a big push Sabic's Innovative Plastics business has a major new weapon in its effort to commercialize polycarbonate glazing. Sabic and Ulvac this morning announced availability of a new system for highvolume plasma coating of automotive PC glazing components. Developed as part of a two-year collaboration, the technology "marks a significant milestone in enabling automakers to take full advantage of PC glazing to create lighter vehicles for improved fuel efficiency and performance", according to the companies In another development in Sabic's glazing efforts, the rear quarter windows of the Citroen DS5--made with polycarbonate--are a finalist in the 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers' Automotive Innovation Awards and represents an advance, albeit a slow one, for polycarbonate as an automotive glazing material. The Citroen DS5.
Use of PC provides a 20% weight savings and a unique styling not possible with glass.
The Citroen application shows the potential for the process. D and roof pillars are integrated in a single component, eliminating gaps. An air spoiler is also integrated into the design to improve fuel efficiency. "This is the largest rear quarter window in production in polycarbonate today," says Matthew Marks, automotive marketing manager at SABIC Innovative Plastics. In the two-step injection compression molding process, the polycarbonate is first molded, and then black PC/ABS is molded around the perimeter.
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An earlier version of the approach with Teijin PC was shown at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show. Injection compression provides a low stress part with very good optical qualities. Clamp forces are about 40% to 60% lower than in regular injection molding. To improve abrasion resistance, the part uses a traditional silicone wet coat system that goes through a two-layer double bake silicone hard coat process. The grade of Lexan PC used in the application is specially formulated for glazing. "We have other (applications) coming down the road that are very similar to this," says Marks. Sabic Innovative Plastics has been a major promoter of polycarbonate glazing for more than 15 years. Bayer MaterialScience and GE Plastics (now owned by Sabic) formed a joint venture in 1998 called Exatec that investigated ways to improve the abrasion resistance of polycarbonate. In 2007, GE Plastics acquired Bayer's interest in the company, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sabic's Innovative Plastics business. One reason for the separation was the trend toward use of different coating technologies in the United States and Europe. The Citroen rear quarter window does not use the Exatec process. Sabic applies its plasma coating technology on North American and Asian projects while Bayer focuses on Europe with the wet-coating approach. Sabic operates the only full-scale plasma coating system in the world in Wixom, MI. It includes a massive two-color, 2,400-ton Engel injection compression machine and a lab for research and prototype programs in a clean room environment.
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It's believed Sabic would like to get out of the injection molding business, but needed to make the investment to spur development. The Ulvac announcement gives the Exatec technology a big jump start. "Ulvac studied Exatec plasma coating technology and found that it offers significant advantages in the processing time and performance it gave us," says HisaharuObinata, chief executive officer, Ulvac. "In fact, we found that the Exatec plasma coating process is at least 30 times faster than other plasma coating technologies used for PC glazing. We then validated the process and plasma coating through the creation of the Ulglaze machine." .Ulvac has sold more than 1,000 similar inline systems capable of coating large parts with both high reliability and productivity. In addition to automotive glazing, the Ulglaze system may also be used in consumer electronics display applications (touchscreens, monitors) and electrical components, semiconductors and solar cells. **************************
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Bringing Factories Back to the City The 'Factory of the Future' will be greener, leaner and an integral part of tomorrow's cities. By 2025, the number of megacities (cities with populations over 10 million) will grow from 23 to 36, the United Nations forecasts, and the population in the top 600 cities in the world will grow by 500 million. In the near future, Hans-Jörg Bullinger told the World Manufacturing Forum Tuesday in Stuttgart, Germany, two-thirds of the world's population will live in megacities. Countries such as Germany won't have such massive urban areas, but Bullinger, president of research institute Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, warned it would be a “big mistake” for manufacturers in export-dependent Germany to ignore this demographic change. "Our cars which we develop here will be mostly driven in megacities. We have to choose products and services which fit into the specific demands of those megacities,” he told the gathering of some 400 political and business leaders examining policy issues facing manufacturing nations and companies. Germany is sponsoring research to develop a High-Tech Strategy for dealing with six global challenges arising from such massive demographic and technological changes: health and nutrition, safety and security, mobility and transportation, information and communication, energy and living, and production and environment. To meet these challenges, researchers are envisioning what a “city of the future” will look like and the technologies needed to deal with a more resourceconstrained future. With energy, for example, Bullinger said Germany now produces 20% of its electrical energy from renewable resources.
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Wind farms are being planned for the relatively shallow North Sea to boost electrical production, he noted, but transmission lines will be needed to bring that power to cities such as Stuttgart and systems built to store it. "We will want to rebuild nearly the entire power system," he said. In a smart future city, he said, part of the energy answer will be to create a more decentralized power system. Homes will become individual power sources, with solar panels on the roof and a heat pump in the basement. Factory of the Future Manufacturing makes up 24% of Germany’s economy and researchers plan for a significant role for the sector in the country’s future. But manufacturing, Bullinger said, must be smarter and more efficient. He noted that in the past, factories moved to areas outside cities because they were noisy and polluting. But now, he said, many factories are cleaner and could have a new place in the urban environment. Moving them back into the city would provide a "higher quality of life," he said, by allowing employees to walk to work rather than commute in cars. Urban factories would be closer to populations of skilled workers, suppliers and technical and research centers. In Germany, Bullinger pointed out, industry consumes almost half of the nation’s electrical power. He said manufacturers need to become both more energy and materials efficient. For example, companies save 20% in energy cost by using recycled aluminum rather than primary aluminum.
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Increasing the use of recyclable materials and bringing recycling facilities closer to factories could reduce energy and material demand. When a manufacturer purchases a machine tool, the purchase price of the tool accounts for only 20% of the lifecycle cost of the machine. The other 80% is consumed with operational and maintenance costs. He said energy costs and cooling lubricant account for more than one-third of the cost of that machine over a 10-year period. So energy efficiency would have a dramatic impact on reducing manufacturing costs. By making machining processes more accurate, he said, manufacturers benefit not only through reduced waste in the form of less scrap material but also save on the energy used to produce the scrapped product. Energy efficiency extends not just to operational costs but to the design of products. Producing green automobile powertrains, for example, could result in not only the use of less material but also improved operating efficiency and the production of 20% less CO2. “This is the vision we have for the cities of tomorrow zero CO2 emissions, energy efficient, even higher quality of life, smart cities built on intelligent networks, resource efficient,� Bullinger concluded. **************************
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Thermoplastic resin deployed in aerospace application via additive manufacturing An amorphous thermoplastic polyetherimide (PEI) grade has been designed for application in rapid prototyping for small runs of parts. Ultem 9085 addresses one of the biggest challenges for aerospace OEMs according to its developer SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business (Pittsfield, MA): namely to produce small volume parts quickly and cost-effectively. The strong, lightweight, flame-retardant resin has been utilized together with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology from Stratasys, Inc. (minneapolis, MN), to enable a Stratasys’ customer, Taylor-Deal Aviation LLC (TDA; based in Dallas, TX), to create specialty fluid and air handling parts in hours rather than weeks, while meeting the latest industry regulations for flame, smoke and toxicity. Key benefits of this unique new use of Ultem 9085 resin with FDM include enhanced design flexibility, costeffective low production runs, accelerated cycle times and compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and OEM flame-smoke-toxicity regulations.
Air distribution duct made using SABIC’s Ultem resin and Stratasys’ Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology.
“Taylor-Deal Aviation is pioneering new technologies that give aerospace customers cost, time and weight savings,” says Brian M. Taylor, president, Taylor-Deal Aviation.
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“With SABIC’s high-performance Ultem resin and Stratasys’ advanced FDM technology, we are creating exciting new designs that enable the cost-effective manufacture of small quantities of specialty parts. This new solution is helping us to rapidly supply customers with superior components offering FAA compliance and light weight for better fuel efficiency and driving our growth into new global markets.” “Our Fused Deposition Modeling equipment is ideal for quickly producing parts with complex geometries that could not be done as easily or cost-effectively using traditional manufacturing processes,” says Ryan Sybrant, business development manager, Stratasys. “Success with FDM also depends upon using the right material. Combining FDM technology with SABIC’s Ultem resin gives customers like Taylor-Deal Aviation a total solution. It’s an alternative design and manufacturing method that can create finished parts for demanding aviation applications.” The patented Stratasys FDM process, and additive manufacturing process, creates three-dimensional parts directly from computer aided design files, layer-by-layer, for use in design verification, prototyping, development and manufacturing. FDM technology solves two key challenges for TDA: • In custom aircraft designs and modifications there are geometric limitations that make traditional manufacturing methods ineffective. • Tooling for fiberglass parts and machining costs for metallic parts make them too expensive for low production runs that are very common in aerospace. Compared to competitive materials such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK), Ultem 9085 resin delivers compliance with FAA FAR 25.853 requirements, including Ohio State University (OSU) 55/55.
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It features inherent flame retardance without additives. Ultem 9085 resin also provides a high strength-to-weight ratio, outstanding elevated thermal resistance, high strength and stiffness, and broad chemical resistance. David Wildgoose, general manager, Engineering Resins, Innovative Plastics, noted, “The exceptional physical properties of our high-performance Ultem resin enhance the value of FDM technology to quickly produce differentiated manufactured components. As a result, TDA not only gains efficiencies from the FDM process, but is also able to deliver customized components that meet the most stringent aircraft safety requirements and contribute to sustainability. Using FDM with Ultem resin presents great opportunities for a wide range of applications where there were previously no cost-effective solutions.� FDM technology using Ultem 9085 resin can be applied to other industries, such as rail and other transportation sectors, where it is vital to remove manufacturing costs, eliminates weight to reduce fuel consumption, improve design freedom, and meet flame-smoke-toxicity safety standards. Applications include parts and ductwork to handle air or fluids in hidden spaces, or other parts requiring complex geometries. Other industries that benefit from Stratasys’ technology include automotive, consumer, medical, and military. **************************