Interesting problems arise when sedan cars are reengineered as roadsters or convertibles. Removing the roof to create an open cockpit typically lowers a vehicle's torsional rigidity by at least half, leading to concurrent losses in handling "crispness" and ride. The challenge - and opportunity - is how to add stiffness back without paying too high a weight or cost penalty.

Prior to fabricating large or small plastic parts, you must familiarize yourself with the materials you will be working with and their requirements. You will also need to understand the customer's wishes and/or needs and make sure they are realistic. The right assembly equipment is also important in order to be efficient and provide a quality, competitively priced product. The article emphasizes on all this...

Thorn Lighting in Spennymoor, County Durham, UK is leading a project to develop organic light-emitting diode (OLED) materials and efficient device structures for large area lighting applications. The article focuses on this...

Rapid production, now economically feasible in only a few specialised situations, could soon allow routine direct production of functional plastic parts in small quantities, and on a custom basis without any intervening prototyping steps.

It seems so easy to produce a good plastic weld. But, is it really so, or are there some hidden failures that might occur that nobody is able to recognize? When you know what kind of failures can occur, you will have a better understanding of plastic welding and what constitutes a good or a bad plastic joint. The article briefly goes over some important considerations for plastic welding...

Research & Development budgets in the automotive sector are not immune to cost pressures faced by the industry. The challenge for automakers and suppliers is to find innovative ways of optimising R&D expenses in an environment characterised by converging global regulatory trends and the proliferation of diverse products at local levels.

The Portal of Light is honoured to welcome Matthew Tanteri (IESNA, IALD) in its family of Lighting Designers. Matthew is Principal of Tanteri + Associates, an architectural lighting design and consulting practice that provides a complete scope of daylighting, solar shading and electrical lighting integration services to architects, designers, and building owners.

China has about 150 out of the 1000 RFID suppliers in the world. About 100 of them make RFID tags, increasingly by printing the antennas as UHF versions become more popular and the Hana Label process of printing HF antennas reel to reel directly onto the paper feedstock leads to yet more orders at the ten million level, following the student rail pass. Read the new report HF RFID - The Great Leap Forward.

South Korean engineers say that they had developed a new transparent electrode that could reduce the production costs of display screens used in computers and mobile phones. The new technology is expected to cut production costs by 50 per cent, and has the potential to greatly expand the use of displays and touch screen panels because it can be bent, the team led by Lee Geon-woong at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) said.

If you think all trade shows are the same, get yourself along to PDM, to be held in Telford, England, 15th -17th April 2008. PDM stands for Plastics Design & Moulding and the accent is as much on design as it is on processing. Wednesday (16th April) is traditionally the 'design' day and one particular exhibit is worthy of close inspection.

A long time before there was welding, bolting or soldering, there was splicing. Splicing is the oldest and one of the simplest ways of joining two pieces together. The concept of splicing involves the connection of pieces by using the surface adhesion between the parts and the adhesives' firmness or cohesiveness. The article emphasizes on this...

It is widely known and published that modern sterilization techniques used in the healthcare industry can have a detrimental effect on thermoplastic polymers. In particular,gamma sterilization, which is the most common ionization method, can cause substantial changes to occur in polymeric materials. Polymer chain scission and cross linking can both occur, altering the physical properties and appearance of materials and ultimately affecting the functionality of a device utilizing these materials. RTP Company’s TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) Division has initiated a series of projects to measure the effect different sterilization methods have on RTP Company’s standard TPE products used in medical devices. This paper discusses the effect gamma sterilization has on these various TPE compounds produced by RTP Company for the healthcare industry.

What discourages companies using rapid prototyping techniques? One reason is technical limitations, another is a lack of knowledge and information and a third is uncertainty about the economic benefits. The aticle emphasizes on overcoming raw material limitations in selective laser sintering...

The trillion-plus-dollar per annum semiconductor packaging (encapsulation) market, currently dominated by thermoset epoxy could become significant for injection molders. Epoxies with their low viscosity at relatively low temperatures have a major advantage as the epoxy simply flows over the electronics to be embedded without damaging the microchips during epoxy transfer molding, presently the typical process used for encapsulating semiconductors.

Pressure-sensitive paint will warn when a bridge is about to collapse. VTT Technical Research Centre in Helsinki, Finland, added piezoelectric crystals, which produce a voltage when stressed, to a resin which was painted on the underside of a steel footbridge.

Cambridge University spin-off, Plastic Logic Ltd., a leading developer of plastic electronics is developing and exploiting a portfolio of intellectual property based on inkjet printing of active electronic circuits using advanced plastic materials to form thin film transistors that can be used in many plastic electronic applications.

Selective Laser Sintering is a process that was patented in 1989 by Carl Deckard, a University of Texas graduate student and SLS is a registered trademark by DTM of Austin, Texas, USA. It is one of the most rapidly growing rapid prototyping techniques (RPT).

Plastic welding is, in a lot of industries, mostly unrecognized, but fabricators often need to join plastic parts together in one way or another. Not all plastic elements are suitable for adhesives. So what other methods besides mechanical fasteners are available? The most likely procedure to choose is plastic welding. The article emphasizes on this...

Industrial manufacturing requirements for indelible direct part marking containing machine vision codes are growing exponentially. Direct part marking enables tracking a product from the time of manufacturing until the end of its useful life.Direct part marking containing unique identification information necessitates digital process technology such as inkjet, dot peen, and laser marking.

There is much to recommend electric vehicles (EVs) today as we struggle with rising fuel prices, warnings that we have entered a "Post-Peak Oil World," and as concern over the environmental and societal impact of vehicle emissions grows. EVs provide clean, quiet operation, mechanical simplicity, fine driving control, excellent conversion efficiency, and the ability to generate torque rapidly and convert kinetic motion back into electricity using regenerative braking.

Once again transistor radios made from carbon nanotubes make the news. Nanotube devices and circuits are now possible, thanks to a novel growth technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois, Lehigh and Purdue universities in the US.

Organic based solution processable devices may revolutionise the lighting and photovoltaic industries of the future. The lifetime of these devices can be improved by incorporating carbon nanotubes (tubes made of carbon atoms, 1000s of times thinner than the width of a human hair) in the polymer to form a composite.

Automotive safety restraint system components increasingly use flexible styrenic and olefinic TPEs. With continued evolution in automotive interior design and performance requirements, demands on material technology are concomitantly rising. A growing trend towards molded in color solutions with low gloss aesthetics require TPE materials with very low gloss, improved scratch resistance, and low temperature ductility. Innovations utilizing Teknor Apex's compounding technology have enabled the development of low gloss styrenic elastomers for airbag door applications that provide an optimized combination of low temperature performance, surface aesthetics (low gloss and improved scratch resistance), and ease of processing. This paper highlights the salient features of these new compounds and the effect of injection molding condition on the gloss at the surface of the cover.

White-light emitting ultra-small CdSe nanocrystals present exciting possibilities in the area of solid-state lighting technology. In this work, thirteen dissimilar polymers were examined as potential encapsulants for these single-sized nanocrystals. Films of the encased nanocrystals were characterized in terms of nanocrystal aggregation and changes to the nanocrystals' natural emission. The Hildebrand and Hansen solubility parameters of each encapsulant were found to be correlated to the quality of nanocrystal encapsulation achieved. Encapsulants with cyclosiloxane or bisphenol-A type epoxy structures caused extensive aggregation of the nanocrystals at low loading levels (<0.5% w/w) due to the solubility difference between the polymer structure and the nanocrystals' ligands. Of the encapsulants tested, the most robust, color stable, and homogenous encapsulation was obtained using a biphenylperfluorocyclobutyl polymer. In this polymer, nanocrystal loading levels up to 18% w/w were achieved. White-light emitting CdSe nanocrystals encapsulated in the biphenylperfluorocyclobutyl polymer were coated on various UV-LEDs creating a white light source with chromaticity coordinates of (0.324, 0.322) and a high color-rendering index of 93.

A new technique for printing extraordinarily thin lines quickly over wide areas could lead to larger, less expensive and more versatile electronic displays as well new medical devices, sensors and other technologies.

The dream of printing electronics onto and into anything sounds pretty magical, particularly when it is said to involve creating bionic man, having edible electronics, smart clothing, skin patches that deliver drugs according to the need that they sense and many other things straight from comic books. However, there is now a clear road map taking us to these things.

The money spent on printed and potentially printed electronics doubled in 2007, as did the number of organisations participating. There are now about 1500 organisations doing significant work, most of them being academic. In 2008, there will be much more emphasis on commercialisation and many more countries will join the fray.

The application voted the Most Innovative Use of Plastics in the Materials category at last November's SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala and the event's Grand Award Winner was a color-converting plastic for custom-color backlighting of vehicle interiors. At first, the beauty and innovation of this high-tech solution is easy to miss. After all, interior backlighting has been around for decades.

Digital manufacturing is finding a new home with mold manufacturers. With customers placing repeat orders that tend to be low volume and take time and resources away from in-production projects, it makes sense for moldmakers to look for fast, efficient alternatives to in-house production of those projects.

Carbon nanotube array absorbs light, could boost solar energy conversion. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University have created the darkest material ever made by man.

More often than not, extrusion operators do not critique the barrel zone temperatures to the resin when being processed when using a barrier type extrusion screw. By studying the heater zone layout and how they are located in reference to the different sections of the screw this will help determine the proper zone setting.

Today, there are three global trends that call for a thermoplastic solution for horizontal body panels (hoods, roofs and trunk lids): Vehicle differentiation reducing the average annual production per name plate; Higher fuel cost demanding lightweight materials; Pedestrian...

If you put down a list of material properties for a plane, you would of course have lightness as the main criterion - it stands to reason that if you have to spend money on fuel to propel an aircraft into the sky, you need the aircraft to be as light as possible. The article emphasizes on this...

In addition, the PCM application increases the thermal comfort inside the passenger compartment, and could delay the aging process of the cover material of the instrument panel. Applied to the seats, the PCM improves their thermal comfort substantially, especially on hot summer days. The PCM-film application in the discussed components is durable, maintenance free and does not require the use of any external energy supply.
Energy can be saved and the thermal comfort inside the passenger compartment can be enhanced by the application of textile composites with thermoregulating properties. The thermo-regulating properties are provided by the application of phase change material (PCM) - a highly productive thermal storage mean. In order to create the textile composites with thermo-regulating properties the PCM is contained in a polymeric film that is laminated to a textile carrier. A study has indicated that the application of the developed composites is especially beneficial in car seats, headliners and instrument panels. In the paper, specific solutions for the application of the textile composites in car seats, headliners and instrument panels will be introduced and test results, received in rigorous field tests, will be discussed.

Automotive safety restraint system components increasingly use flexible styrenic and olefinic TPEs. With continued evolution in automotive interior design and performance requirements, demands on material technology are concomitantly rising. A growing trend towards molded in color solutions with low gloss aesthetics require TPE materials with very low gloss, improved scratch resistance, and low temperature ductility. Innovations utilizing Teknor Apex's compounding technology have enabled the development of low gloss styrenic elastomers for airbag door applications that provide an optimized combination of low temperature performance, surface aesthetics (low gloss and improved scratch resistance), and ease of processing. This paper highlights the salient features of these new compounds and the effect of injection molding condition on the gloss at the surface of the cover.

The thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) class of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) provide good compression recovery and seal force retention. The performance of these materials is quite equivalent to conventionally vulcanized rubbers. The EPDM rubber / polypropylene base TPVs are being widely adopted commercially to replace the conventional thermoset rubber materials, such as EPDM rubber (EPDM), poly-chloroprene rubber i.e. neoprene (CR) and chlorosulfonated poly-ethylene, trade name Hypalon (CSM)...

Vehicle manufactures are under considerable pressur to improve the fuel efficiency of their global fleet. This drive is coming from increased consumer interest in climate change, oil supply and demand pressures, and growing concerns regarding energy security.

A material called graphene - a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice - could allow electronics to process information and produce radio transmissions 10 times better than silicon-based devices.

Scaling up laboratory production techniques to produce commercial quantities of high quality, high purity carbon nanotubes is a difficult process. But this is set to change with another type of recently discovered nanotube currently under investigation. This promising new material is molybdenum-sulfur-iodine nanowires.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. proudly announces that its method for manufacturing high-quality carbon nanotubes (CNT) has been named a winner in the third annual Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 awards in the Technology category.

Most everyone who supplies the extrusion industry had a presence at this show, but there was little really new machinery. This highlights the changed purpose of such shows - to do business, make contacts, get answers to technical problems, compare offerings, and buy/sell products. There were more synchronous motors to be seen: Reifenhauser featured them, and Macchi uses them for all their new film lines.

The market for plastics in contact with food continues to grow. The subject of plastics in contact with food extends beyond the packaging market. EU regulations refer to any polymer system that can be reasonably expected to come into contact with food.

Plextronics, Inc. announced that it has received a strategic investment by Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc.. The investment will help Plextronics continue to expand its product development and manufacturing capabilities, as well as increase its investment in sales and marketing activities.

There have been several innovative technologies introduced over the past few years to improve plastic molded parts cycle times thus resulting in increased productivity and reduce manufacturing cost. The article amphasizes on Ritemp™ mold cooling technology whose primary objective is to overcome one of the key problems with the molding process; namely variations in the surface temperature of the mold.

Researchers for the first time have been able to measure a specific interaction for a single functional group with carbon nanotubes using chemical force microscopy - a nanoscale technique that measures interaction forces using tiny spring-like sensors. The article emphasizes on this...

Rapid prototyping, in its different forms, is now widely used for both aesthetic and functional assessments, and today's 3D printers are sufficiently accurate and affordable that companies can justify having one (or more) in their design offices.

Blocks of carbon nanotubes can be used to create effective and powerful pressure sensors, according to a new study by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The article emphasizes on this...

Plastic welding is a huge domain and certainly too large for the scope of this article. Therefore, I will limit my discussion to the types of plastic welds that are generally available to plastic fabricators. This article will give you the basics on plastic welding. It will assist you in your choices about the welding needs within your company.

At its Innovations Center in Linz/Austria, Borealis develops customer applications in the automotive manufacturing sector and other segments. 270 people are employed here developing solutions based on polypropylene.

In continuously updating our new trilogy of reports on respectively printed electronics in Europe, East Asia and the USA, certain lessons jump out of the page. Europe has far more organisations active in the subject of printed and potentially printed electronics than any other continent.

At a trade press conference held in advance of K 2007, BASF took advantage of the opportunity to introduce their latest innovations that are to be presented to visitors to K. As far as the automotive sector is concerned, there are a number of features on offer. The article emphasizes on this application...

From stadium cups to bottles for laundry care products, from yogurt cups to paint pails, from ice cream tubs to boxes for medical sharps, the benchmark and quality of container decoration has been improved to the highest standard by the use of in-mold label and decoration technologies. The article emphasizes on this...

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a simple new technique for identifying and repairing small, potentially dangerous cracks in high-performance aircraft wings and many other structures made from polymer composites. The article emphasizes on this research...

Junhong Chen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is pioneering better methods of making CNTs more predictable.

From stadium cups to bottles for laundry care products, from yogurt cups to paint pails, from ice cream tubs to boxes for medical sharps, the benchmark and quality of container decoration has been improved to the highest standard by the use of in-mold label and decoration technologies. The article emphasizes on this...

All researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) got an unexpected bonus for their efforts: a unique annealing process that may make practical the use of BCP thin films for patterning nanoscale features in next-generation microchips and data storage devices.

Since plastics do not all present with the same attributes or offer the same physical characteristics, there is a need for specificity in the accelerated aging testing of them. Through proper testing, manufacturers can better realize the benefits of copolyester plastics for their combination product needs. This article reviews a number of issues related to accelerated aging testing.

On 1st June this year, a new piece of chemicals legislation, called REACH, came into force in the European Union. It stands for the Registration, Evaluation, Restriction and Authorisation of Chemicals. The article emphasizes on this...

As compared to the overall powder coating market, the use of this clean, cost-effective technology to coat plastics parts is estimated to make up only about 1 percent of the market. But the use of this technique is starting to grow due to new solutions to the age-old challenges. The article emphasizes on this...

Printed electronics is a term that covers printed and potentially printed electronics and electrics. It is the basis of an emerging $300 billion business embracing transistors, memory, displays, solar cells, batteries, sensors, lasers and much more.

Medical grade resins require special attention when processing through a hot runner system. Reason for the special attention is, many product applications are in sensitive area of medicine delivery or surgical procedures where the plastic part needs to retain a high degree of properties in order to correctly perform. The article emphasizes on this aspect...

Both PVC and CPVC pipes are utilized extensively in plumbing systems due to their relative low cost and ease of installation. CPVC is preferred over PVC in some applications where improved fire and heat resistance are required. The article emphasizes on the many potential causes of failure on many PVC and CPVC pipes and fittings...

Newer soft thermoplastic elastomers, TPEs, materials offer new ways to improve products and add value to the consumer.The range of TPEs available is becoming broader and their hardness range is being extended to softer products.The article emphasizes on their selection and applications...

By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.

Periodic micro- and nanostructures (gratings) have many significant applications in electronic, optical, magnetic, chemical and biological devices and materials. Traditional methods for fabricating gratings by writing with electrons, ions or a mechanical tip are limited to very small areas and suffer from extremely low throughput.

On October 9, 2007, Mr. Sabreen will present an E-training Seminar entitled "Advanced Technologies for Laser Marking of Plastics and Coatings" on behalf of SpecialChem/Omnexus. The article emphasizes on this technology...

Researchers from the University of Delaware and Washington University in St. Louis have figured out how to train synthetic polymer molecules to behave-to literally "self-assemble" -and form into long, multicompartment cylinders 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, with potential uses in radiology, signal communication and the delivery of therapeutic drugs in the human body.

Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs) are group of materials which bridge the gap between thermoplastics and thermo set rubber. The article emphasizes on its key features, types as well as applications...

Gentag, Inc. and The CORE Institute® in the USA have announced a joint collaborative effort to develop and market RFID diagnostic Skin Patches for Medical Applications in Orthopedics. The article describes this...

Europe may be losing the race for the huge new business of printed electronics and the rejuvenation of society. That is a possible conclusion from the new IDTechEx report Organic and Printed Electronics in Europe which analyses and compares the activities of 248 European organisations in the sector...

Many hot runner suppliers have contributed much to the plastics industry – providing process and commercial benefits that otherwise could not be realized. Up until now all hot runner systems were provided in two versions: thermal gate or valve gate system designs...

Liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) are a unique class of thermoplastics that contain primarily benzene rings in the backbone with molecules that are stiff, rod like structures organized in large parallel arrays.

Tire pressure monitoring is set for a major expansion. Based on NHTSA's TREAD mandate, legislation finalized last year requires that all new light passenger vehicles weighing less than 4500 kilograms built or imported into the U.S. to be equipped with tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) by the 2008 model year...

Basell, the world's largest producer of polypropylene (PP) and advanced polyolefins continually develops higher clarity polypropylene product families.

FDM is the second most widely used rapid prototyping technology, after stereolithography (SLA). A plastic filament, approximately 1/16 inch in diameter fed from a coil supplies material to an extrusion nozzle (in an alternative arrangement, plastic pellets are fed from a hopper). The heated nozzle melts the plastic and controls the flow of the melted plastic.

Why use recycled plastic lumber for a deck, chair or even railroad ties? Why not just use wood? Plastic lumber has important advantages over traditional hardwood...

Battenfeld is a micromolding process pioneer with its patented Microsystem. Microsystem 50 is a complete manufacturing cell for the production of high precision microparts...

One of the most important technological advances in the field of plastics over the last half of the twentieth century has been the extensive replacement of metals with plastics...

Most PET bottles (soft drinks and water) we come across on super market shelves have a neck of 28 to 33 mm when measured on the outside of the thread beads (the so-called T-Dimension) while juice bottles usually feature a 43 mm neck. A bottle with a neck above 43 mm is considered a wide-mouth container...

Reminiscent of the launch of fluorescent, halogen and LED, CeeLite's Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) technology is predicted to change the definition of lighting...

T-Ink in the USA is a model to everyone in the printed electronics industry when it comes to innovating for major brands. Using basic printed components such as interconnects, thermochromic displays and touch buttons, T-Ink made a successful interactive tablemat for McDonald's in Australia and a successful interactive party tablecloth for Hallmark...

In Organic Light Emitting Diode OLED production and its technology, East Asia leads the world by a big margin, though with the older, glass-based technology and usually through license of key intellectual property from Western companies such as Kodak, UDC and DuPont...

The worldwide trend in design for more compact and lighter parts has long been implemented in Automotive and E&E applications. A direct result of this approach is the continuing reduction in weight and size of components accompanied by ever increasing operating temperatures. And yet these markets are aiming for minimum maintenance during the life cycle of a product.

Wire-mesh screens are used in almost all extrusions, to filter out contaminants and also to build up pressure in the extruder. Pressure is both good and bad: it helps mixing, especially useful if screw speed is high and the plastic isn't in the system very long. However, more pressure means more resistance to flow through the head and die; the motor must work harder and increase melt temperature coming out of the extruder, which could limit production rate...

Polyurethanes are commonly used in a number of medical device applications. This brochure is designed to address many questions and issues relating to medical applications and to provide direction as to where further details may be obtained.

Edison's original incandescent lamp bulbs were recently sold as collector's items. They still work. Contrast the one year declared life on many of today's lamp bulbs...

Singapore is a small country but it has nurtured high technology businesses very successfully. Collaboration between the Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore who develop memory technology and the National University of Singapore, produced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) storage, based on a polymer in 2006...

Plastisol can be applied by spray coating by use of one of several techniques. The plastisol must be atomized and forced or attracted to the surface of the parts to be coated.

A gear pump is a device placed between the extruder and the die, and takes over the function of pumping through the die. It is often called a "melt pump," which is technically correct, but the last zone of an extruder screw is a melt pump, too, so it is more precise to call it a gear pump...

The tire industry is constantly facing more demanding challenges. In addition to the increasingly astringent safety and environmental requirements, new technical challenges arise. Efforts to further reduce Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are putting new constraints on Tire Pressure Management. Formulating better performing tire innerliners is thus becoming a priority target for the industry.

A ban on fire retardants that were identified as posing health, safety and environmental risks, was initiated by the European Commission. Part of the European Union (EU) Directive on the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) bans certain brominated flame retardants (PBB [poly-bromine biphenyl]; PBDE [penta-bromodiphenyl ether]). While the Western Europe restriction, which applies to products that currently enter the market, is not expected to spread substantially to other regions, the use of BDE found in many flame retardants has also been restricted in some U.S. states including California, Michigan, and Oregon...

This paper will explain some of the procedures, process controls, equipment, and plastisol variables that are used to consistently produce quality products using the dip coating process.

When Campbell's Soup saw its popular "Red & White" Campbell's soups as a natural extension of its highly successful microwaveable bowls for Chunky and Select soups it turned to Stull Technologies for a new improved overcap. "The company wanted a cost-effective solution to lock the lid onto the container, while maintaining consumer convenience," said Jason Stull, marketing services manager for Stull Technologies. The new easy-to-use, yet tight locking lid developed by the company has tabs that fasten securely over the container's bead to prevent it from popping off during microwave heating...

Pathway engineering is a multidisciplinary field that enables microbial cells to be exploited for human use. The concept involves utilizing technologies to manipulate a microorganism to use any carbon source to produce a range of desired biomolecules. The substrate glucose, for example, can be converted to a wide range of products such as enzymes, proteins, peptides, vitamins, amino acids and organic acids as well as the biofuels ethanol and hydrogen. The range of possibilities is making this discipline the new standard for establishing efficient production of bioproducts...

Bayer MaterialScience has commercialized a new class of polycarbonate, which expands the material's reach into lower and higher temperature applications. The new Makrolon DP1-1848, a copolycarbonate of bisphenol A and a proprietary bisphenol, exhibits a completely new characteristic profile with excellent transparency. Strengths are significantly increased in comparison to traditional bisphenol A polycarbonate.

Cyro Industries (subsidiary of Degussa Corporation) Vu-Stat Y-20 compound was developed for medical device applications that are sensitive to static discharge. The Vu-Stat compounds provide permanent ESD protection even after many cleaning wash cycles. Static charge can create difficulty or reduce efficiency in the delivery of dry aerosol pharmaceuticals in drug delivery devices. Cyro developed an electrostatic dissipative (ESD) material that would maintain transparent and ESD properties under a variety of humidity conditions and after repeated washing.

BASF has commercialized a highly transparent styrene-butadiene copolymer, Styrolux 3G 33 SBC, which also features impact strength and competes with other clear plastics such as PVC, acrylics, or polycarbonate. Styrolux is the trade name for the BASF range of thermoplastic styrene-butadiene copolymers (SBC).

As the use of plastic parts increases in various segments of the appliance and electronics industries, specifying the optimal method for joining molded plastic parts has become more challenging and important than ever. This is due to the expanding range of polymer formulations available, along with the increasing number of additive options for reinforcing or modifying the material...

Voridian, a division of Eastman Chemical Company and the world's largest supplier of PET resins for packaging, commercialized a PET resin that contains an FDA compliant UV light absorber to protect delicate colors, flavors, aromas, vitamins and nutrients in custom packaging for foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and personal care products while maintaining the crystal clarity of standard PET. Figure 1 Vitiva PET PC715 UV absorber color protection-Voridian. Containers made from the Vitiva PET PC715 will block virtually all UV light from 320 to 370 nanometers, whereas standard PET and other packaging materials, such as glass, polypropylene, and polyethylene allow UV light to pass through the packaging, negatively impacting product quality...

Alternative blowing agent provides "green" blown foam.

At the recent Geneva Auto Show, Hyundai unveiled the QarmaQ, a crossover SUV concept vehicle that not only strikes the eye with its C-shaped polycarbonate windows and wraparound windscreen, but also shows its environmental colors by using materials made from recycled PET water bottles to create its plastic shell. The article gives detailed view...

General Motor's electric concept vehicle introduction by Robert A. Lutz, Vice Chairman, Product Development, and Chairman, GM North America at the recent North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit was the Chevrolet Volt. The article give detailed view...

Swiss automotive futurist Frank Rinderknecht's Rinspeed concept car, 'eXasis,' was recently introduced at the Geneva Auto Show. The collaboration in concert with Bayer MaterialScience AG celebrates Swiss based Rinspeed AG's 30th company anniversary and Bayer's 40th year from introduction of its first all-plastic car, 'K67,' at Dusseldorf's 1967 K Fair...

Recycling is the primary pillar in the Green Plastic Temple - along with degradability, bio-plastics, and the anti-PVC passion of those who are looking for a scapegoat to divert attention from scientific and quantitative truths.

At the recent North American International Auto Show held in Detroit, Michigan, USA the legendary Bob Lutz of General Motors spoke on and answered questions from SpecialChem Plastics & Elastomers regarding the emerging trends in automotive technology convergence...

At the recent Commercializing Bio-Resins Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, USA the entrepreneurial Oliver Peoples of Metabolix spoke on and answered questions from SpecialChem Plastics & Elastomers regarding the emerging trends in bioplastics performance thrusts...

At the recent Polymer Nanocomposites TopCon Meeting held at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA the erudite Michael Rubner of MIT spoke on and answered questions from SpecialChem Plastics & Elastomers regarding the emerging trends in nanoplastics surface effects...

Unique among polymers are the PVC plastisols. Their uniqueness is limited only by the ability of the formulator. The article deals with these plastisols...

Advancements in direct laser marking of plastics yield unprecedented marking quality, contrast and speed. This article presents the newest generation of laser material science and laser equipment systems. With proper application, laser marking can provide manufacturing advantages and bring value to a products appearance and function...

Gas Assisted Injection Moulding, generally assigned the mnemonic GAIM covers a number of processes that introduce a gas into the melt stream for a number of different reasons. Fundamentally there are two process but there are several derivatives of each. The article emphasizes on this process...

Co-injection moulding is a process that takes advantage of the way in which a polymer melt flows in an injection mould. A polymer melt is a compressible, non-Newtonian, viscoelastic fluid where in most circumstances the apparent viscosity of the melt decreases with increases in both temperature and shear rate. The article emphasizes on this process...

Thermoplastic bottles, jars containers and other hollow products are made in large quantities by the Injection Blow Moulding process. This process is a development from the original Extrusion Blow Moulding process and produces products of superior quality in both visual and dimensional aspects and without any need for the trimming of flash that is so common in extrusion blow moulding. The article emphasizes on the above process...

Carbon nanotubes are known for exhibiting unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties, useful for a wide range of applications. Nanocyl, a leading carbon nanotubes (CNT) specialist, manufactures thin multi-wall CNTs that are incorporated as an electro-conductive additive in plastics for applications in the electronics and automotive industry. Attributed benefits in engineering plastics are high retention of elongation at break & impact strength when designing electrostatic discharge (ESD) materials for automotive applications requiring Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1645 specifications. Electronics assembly and packaging require more and more clean and conductive materials. Minute additions of Nanocyl’s carbon nanotubes enable again plastics to achieve more constraining specifications thanks to the low level of addition (< 3 wt. %). Examples are trays, conveyor belts...

The process of injection moulding of structural foam differs from the standard, or conventional injection moulding of thermoplastics in that the objective is to create a component that has a cellular core enclosed in a non-cellular skin all from the same polymer and produced in one 'shot'. The article emphasizes on this process...

The article emphasizes on the process of injection moulding that involves special machinery to force molten thermoplastics into a mould at high pressures and to facilitate the opening and closing of the mould so that the parts so formed, can be ejected...

Patagonia is trying to incorporate recycled PET as much as possible. The questionaire deals with above information...

The automotive industry has taken much interest in the nanotechnology revolution attracted by the possibility of significant weight reductions, improved performance, aesthetics and recyclability offered by these materials and is exploring a range of new uses for nanocomposite materials. The article emphasizes on such materials...

The materials of the future in particular, the high performance plastics, are opening up new technical possibilities for innovative products. The article emphasizes on high performance plastics materials that maintain twenty-five percent or better of their room temperature properties at 310 °F and higher, and are stronger, and have important characteristics, such as chemical resistance, stiffness, fire retardance, composite processability, and others, to stretch the boundaries of plastics applications...

The article emphasizes on innovatice plastics applications such as : Bee-O-Pac, Helimax Powermoon, Pocket Chair, Honey Bunns Stool, WetnOz Pet Feeding Bowls and Infiniity Climber.

Many new capabilities in CAD, CAM, and CAE software products are of interest to molders and tool makers. In addition to new mold design tools in CAD design software, there is new software for inspection and reverse engineering. The article highlights simulation software for thermoforming and profile extrusion processes as well as injection and blow molding...

Polymer nanocomposites are formed from blends of nanometer sized fillers with either thermoset or thermoplastic polymers. The properties of polymer nanocomposites are remarkably different from those of conventional materials. The article emphasises on nanocomposites markets, new development trends, new nanocomposites strategies and global technology highlights...

Plastics processors serving markets as various as cosmetic packaging, appliances, and sporting goods can achieve iridescent multi-colored effects through the use of color additives. The article emphasizes on such additives...

Styrene block copolymers are thermoplastic and elastomeric materials, which typically have a triblock structure, with polystyrene blocks on both ends of a rubber mid-block. The rubber mid-block is typically a polydiene, either polybutadiene or polyiosprene, but also may include ethylene-butadiene (SEBS) or ethylene-propylene (SEPS) variants. The article emphasizes on such polymers...

Rapid prototyping refers to a host of related technologies that are used to fabricate physical objects directly from CAD data sources. These unique methods add and bond materials in layers to form objects and offer advantages in many applications compared to classical subtractive fabrication methods such as turning or milling.

Proprietary technology developer, Inter-Mold Corp. has commercialized Inter-Mold Hook (IMH) technology in which a hook and loop fastener (Velcro style) system can molded directly into plastic parts in a standard one-shot injection molding process. The article emphasizes on this technology...

Products designed for applications in medical technology have to meet a number of very special criteria. Typically excellent mechanical properties are required, even in components with small dimensions and wall thicknesses. The article emphasizes on implantable grade PEEK (polyether ether ketone) resins which are an excellent example of medical grade plastics materials...

The medical device industry is making important contributions to advances in healthcare. The sector is characterized by a high level of innovation and intense competition. The article emphasizes on this section of market...

Annual global spending on health research has more than tripled in a period of 10 years rising to just under US$106 billion in 2006 from US $30 billion. Global investments in health R&D are dominated by just a few countries. The article emphasizes on the health industry...

Melt temperature is a measure of the temperature of the melt at a specific point. It is NOT a measure of the metal (barrel, adapter, die) near that point. The article emphasizes on this...

The minimum thickness that can be moulded is a function of the apparent viscosity of the polymer melt, the pressure available from the injection unit and the distance the melt has to flow. The article emphasises on the various aspects of the wall thickness and how it controls the cost...

A new conveying-system controller by AEC Inc. that can handle up to 24 vacuum conveying pumps, 128 loading stations, and 128 purge valves makes use of enhanced graphics to make the system more versatile and simple to use. Conair has been refining and enhancing its material handling control platform called ILS central-the Intelligent Loading System. The article emphasizes on new controllers for material conveying, loading and storage...

Many plastics processors could benefit from improved raw materials handling systems, or upgrade to central raw materials handling systems. The article emphasizes on such systems...

DeviceNet, used extensively by the automotive industry, is a low cost communications link to connect industrial devices (such as valve manifolds, motor starters, process sensors, variable frequency drives, panel displays, operator interfaces, limit switches, photoelectric sensors, bar code readers, and so on) to a network. The article emphasizes on such network automation technology in plastics manufacturing...

The manufacture of high quality structural composite components for aerospace applications has historically involved autoclave curing, a time consuming, high labor, and capital intensive manufacturing process. The article emphasizes on low cost alternatives to traditional autoclave molding processes that can produce the same mechanical performance that autoclave curing provides...

With thermoset