Latest - Plastics and Elastomers R&D Highlights

Top experts review the latest patents they read and the latest papers and lectures they attended at conferences; they then make a selection of the most promising technologies and summarize in a few lines what the substance you should take away with you.

Latest

Mar 22, 2010 - Heat-insulating transparent PVC sheet - Patent
This invention provides a heat-insulating transparent PVC sheet useful to replace glass or to be laminated to glass windows by a non-coating process....

Mar 19, 2010 - Fire Retardant PP nanocomposites and automotive applications - Technical Paper
The structure, thermal behavior and flame retardant properties of PP nanocomposites treated with complex flame retardants composed of layered double...

Mar 18, 2010 - Metal-containing Polymers - Technical Paper
The incorporation of metallic units into polymer chains is a promising route to functional metal-containing (nano)materials. The resulting polymers... (1 Member Reaction)

Mar 17, 2010 - A Unique Paradigm in Cross-Linked Polymers - Technical Paper
Polymer networks possessing reversible covalent cross-links constitute a novel material class with the capacity for adapting to an externally applied...

Mar 16, 2010 - Renewable thermosets: A critical review - Technical Paper
This review presents the recent advances in the synthesis, properties and applications of thermosetting materials derived from renewable resources.... (1 Member Reaction)

Mar 15, 2010 - Potential hazard in structural applications of PLA - Technical Paper
With their excellent biocompatibility and relatively high mechanical strength, PLAs are attractive candidates for application in load-bearing,...

Mar 12, 2010 - Anti-fogging and adhesion improvement on polymer surfaces - Technical Paper
The hydrophobic properties of polymeric surfaces causes fogging in transparent packaging and poor adhesion to printing colors and coatings. Novel...

Mar 11, 2010 - Properties of carbon nanotube composites - Technical Paper
This article reviews the current state of research in polymer/carbon nanotubes (single wall and multiwall) composites in context to various types of... (1 Member Reaction)

Mar 10, 2010 - Development of low moisture absorbing sheet molding compound - Technical Paper
This article reviews the role of sheet molding compound (SMC) constituent components in controlling the moisture absorption of the final molded...

Mar 09, 2010 - Recent advances and challenges in designing stimuli-responsive polymers - Technical Paper
Synthetic materials capable of responses to external or internal stimuli represent one of the most exciting and emerging areas of scientific interest...

Mar 08, 2010 - Environmental impacts of conventional and bio-based carrier bags - Technical Paper
The use of bio-based products as carrier bags, packaging materials, and many other applications has been increasingly replacing conventional polymer...

Mar 05, 2010 - Design of biodegradable polymer systems for tissue engineering - Technical Paper
A vast majority of biodegradable polymers studied belongs to the polyester family which includes polyglycolides and polylactides. Some disadvantages...

Mar 04, 2010 - Light emitting display - Patent
This invention provides a method for the manufacture of a light-emissive display by providing a substrate consisting of an electrode layer and a bank... (1 Member Reaction)

Mar 03, 2010 - Morphology and physical properties of polyurethane foams - Technical Paper
Polyurethane foams (PUFs) were prepared by mixing poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) and isocyanates in...

Mar 02, 2010 - Modified atmosphere packaging of fresh produce: Current status and future needs - Technical Paper
Fresh produce is more susceptible to disease organisms because of increase in the respiration rate after harvesting. The respiration of fresh fruits...

Mar 01, 2010 - New non-migrating PVC plasticizer - Technical Paper
This article reveals a new approach to making PVC flexible with zero plasticizer migration! The technology involves compounding a thiol functional... (1 Member Reaction)

Mar 01, 2010 - Sustainable carbon based materials - Technical Paper
The production of functional nanostructured materials starting from cheap natural precursors using environmentally friendly processes is a highly...

Feb 26, 2010 - Transparent nanocomposite flexible thin films provide UV protection - Technical Paper
This article describes the preparation and performance of flexible ZnO-PS nanocomposite thin films which were highly transparent in the visible region... (1 Member Reaction)

Feb 25, 2010 - Breakthrough material for low gloss and abrasion resistance with molded-in-color automotive interior components - Conference
The luxury impression of a vehicle's interior is strongly dependent upon the surface quality of the plastic interior trim parts. In higher level...

Feb 24, 2010 - Color matched wood-grained component for automobile interior - Patent
This invention claims a process for manufacture of automotive interior components comprising a plastic substrate having 1 flat surface with 1 adjacent...

Feb 23, 2010 - Life cycle assessment and eco-efficiency analysis of drinking cups used at public events - Technical Paper
At the request of the Public Waste Agency for the Flemish Region, the Flemish Institute for Technology Research performed a life cycle assessment...

Feb 22, 2010 - Effects of cross section design and testing conditions on the flexural properties of wood/PVC composite beams - Technical Paper
Highly filled wood/PVC (WPVC) composites were manufactured in five different cross sections by using an industrial-scale twin-screw extruder. The...

Feb 22, 2010 - Effects of cross-section design and loading direction on the creep and fatigue properties of wood/PVC composite beams - Technical Paper
The creep and fatigue properties of two wood/poly(vinyl chloride) (WPVC) composite beams were studied. The effects of cross-section design and load...

Feb 19, 2010 - Polyvinyl chloride-free polymer compositions and films - Patent
Currently PVC is the predominant material for use in outdoor applications because of its superior weatherability. There is a desire to replace PVC... (1 Member Reaction)

Feb 18, 2010 - Multilayer structures comprising a microlayer sequence - Patent
This patent application claims multi-layer structures particularly suitable for thermoforming applications. The inventive materials are made by...

Feb 17, 2010 - Carbon nanotube-polymer composites: Chemistry, processing, mechanical and electrical properties - Technical Paper
Carbon nanotubes have long been recognized as the stiffest and strongest man-made material known to date. In addition, their high electrical...

Feb 16, 2010 - Encapsulation Using Hyperbranched Polymers: New Applications - Technical Paper
Dendritic polymers, such as hyperbranched polymers, are increasingly being studied in the context of encapsulation. The intensive research on...

Feb 15, 2010 - Fatigue and fracture toughness of epoxy nanocomposites - Technical Paper
The fatigue and failure mechanisms of epoxy composites have been researched extensively because of their commercial importance in fields demanding...

Feb 12, 2010 - Materials and Methods for Hydrogen Storage - Technical Paper
Hydrogen is important as a new source of energy for automotive applications. It is clear that the key challenge in developing this technology is...

Feb 11, 2010 - Emerging applications of stimuli-responsive polymer materials - Technical Paper
Responsive polymer materials can adapt to surrounding environments, regulate transport of ions and molecules, change wettability and adhesion of... (1 Member Reaction)

Feb 10, 2010 - Nanocomposites in food packaging - Technical Paper
The development of nanocomposites is a new strategy to improve physical properties of polymers, including mechanical strength, thermal stability, and...

Feb 09, 2010 - Improved process for production of polymer nanocomposites - Patent
The big challenge in the production of nanocomposites is exfoliation of the clay particles to obtain uniformly dispersed nanoparticles. The more...

Feb 08, 2010 - Lightweight materials for the automotive sector - Technical Paper
Automotive is a sector where energy consumption during the use phase prevails over the production and the end-of-life phases. Therefore, a lot of...

Feb 05, 2010 - Trends in polymer foams - Conference
In recent years, concerns over environmental issues have led to many new regulations which have had a significant impact on the foams businesses in...

Feb 04, 2010 - Active and responsive polymer surfaces - Technical Paper
A central challenge in polymer science today is creating materials that dynamically alter their structures and properties on demand, or in response to...

Feb 03, 2010 - Environmentally friendly composite materials useful for retail and/or shipping packages - Patent
This patent application desribes composite materials having at least one of the following desirable properties: rigidity, printability,...

Feb 02, 2010 - Polypropylene-cup conversion from injection molding to thermoforming - Conference
Food containers can be made by injection molding (IM) or thermoforming (TF). Typical materials are HDPE, PP and HIPS. For many years the preferred... (4 Member Reactions)

Feb 01, 2010 - Microwave food packaging - Technical Paper
This book comprehensively reviews: 1) the principles of microwave heating and ovens assessing the effect of food dielectric properties on heating...

Jan 29, 2010 - Effects of rheology and foaming behavior of amorphous polymers - Technical Paper
The influence of rheological properties, especially melt strength, on foam structures, such as cell size, cell density and cell size distribution, of...

Jan 28, 2010 - Influence of additives on the laser welding of PC - Technical Paper
In laser welding of thermoplastics the optical properties of the joining parts determine the quality of the welding. The scattering of laser...

Jan 27, 2010 - Tailored additive release rates in extruded plastic films produced with smart blending machines - Technical Paper
Smart blenders controllably form multi-component polymer melts into a wide variety of fine-scale structural arrangements that can be retained in...

Jan 26, 2010 - The future of electronic products: conductive 3D printing? - Conference
This paper describes a curved-layer additive manufacturing technology that has the potential to print plastic components with integral conductive... (1 Member Reaction)

Jan 25, 2010 - Simultaneous injection blow molding and beverage container filling - Patent
This invention provides a method and a device for delivering a beverage into a thermoplastic container formed from a heated preform positioned in a... (1 Member Reaction)

Jan 22, 2010 - Polymer Solar Cells: Recent Approaches and Achievements - Technical Paper
Polymer solar cells have gained wide interest in the past few years for their potential in the field of large-area and low-cost photovoltaic devices. ...

Jan 21, 2010 - Designer Biomaterials for Nanomedicine - Technical Paper
Nanotechnology has had tremendous impact on medical science and has resulted in phenomenal progress in the field of drug delivery and diagnostics. A...

Jan 19, 2010 - Structures for energy dissipation in safety protection systems - Technical Paper
Several recent patents on energy dissipation structures for building and vehicle safety systems are reviewed and summarized. The safety of buildings...

Jan 18, 2010 - Injection moldings in hybrid molds - Conference
Hybrid molds with moldings blocks made with epoxy composites are being used in injection moldings of precision parts. The epoxy composites are vacuum... (1 Member Reaction)

Jan 15, 2010 - New developments in nanocomposites - Technical Paper
Reflecting the exceptional growth in recent years in the use of nanostructured materials for an increasing range of industrial applications, Polymer...

Jan 14, 2010 - Surface modification of polymer membranes - Technical Paper
This article reviews recent developments in the area of surface modification of polymeric synthetic membranes. Surface modification greatly improves...

Jan 13, 2010 - Optimization of Residual Stresses in the Surface Regions of Injection Moldings - Technical Paper
This article focuses on the optimization of the injection molding process parameters to minimize thermal residual stresses in the surface regions of...

Jan 12, 2010 - Effects of PP-g-MAH on the properties of PP / ABS blends - Technical Paper
Maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH) was evaluated as a compatibilizer for PP / ABS) blends using a twin screw extruder. The impact,... (8 Member Reactions)

Jan 11, 2010 - Effects of repeated processing cycles on ABS - Technical Paper
ABS was subjected to five subsequent extrusion cycles and the effect of prolonged exposure to heat and shear stresses on its structural performance...

Jan 08, 2010 - Multifunctional nanomaterial-enabled membranes for water treatment - Conference
The recent progress in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials has provided new methods and building blocks for the design of membranes. ...

Jan 07, 2010 - The chemical recycling of polyurethanes - Technical Paper
This paper reviews the ways to reduce polyurethanes of various types to oligomers and monomers as well as suitable products for processing them to new...

Jan 06, 2010 - Nanotechnology-based membranes for water purification - Conference
This article provides a critical review of protein-polymer biomimetic membranes, aligned-carbon nanotube membranes, and thin film nanocomposite...

Jan 05, 2010 - Materials design and engineering for high performance polymer solar cells - Technical Paper
This paper explores the challenging issues encountered in the technology development for organic photovoltaics. The key achievements in this field of...

Jan 04, 2010 - Food-packaging interactions - Technical Paper
Sensory changes in food products result from intentional or unintentional interactions with plastic packaging materials and from failure of materials...

Dec 31, 2009 - Dynamic mechanical polymer nanocomposites - Patent
This patent application describes novel Polymer nanocomposites which exhibit a reversible change in stiffness and strength in response to a stimulus. ...

Dec 30, 2009 - Novel processing additives for rotational molding of polyethylene - Technical Paper
Over 85% of the articles manufactured via rotational molding employ PE resins. PE resins used for rotomolding have usually particle sizes less than...

Dec 29, 2009 - Micropatterned Polymer Films by Vapor-Induced Phase Separation using Permeable Molds - Technical Paper
Microstructured polymeric films are fabricated by a novel replication method. A polymer solution is applied and contained between two substrates, of...

Dec 28, 2009 - Energy-efficient smart window - Patent
This invention is a dynamically controllable optoelectronic smart window which utilizes a diffraction grating for selective transmission or rejection...

Dec 25, 2009 - Brittleness of materials - Technical Paper
Brittleness of materials, whether it occurs naturally or with aging; affects significantly performance and manifests itself in various properties. In...

Dec 24, 2009 - Enhancing the performance of PLA - Patent
This invention is a multilayer film consisting of a curl resistant outer layer to protect PLA from hydrolytic degradation. The protective layer has a... (1 Member Reaction)

Dec 23, 2009 - Temperature activated films - Patent
This invention discloses a multilayer dielectric optically transparent film where one of the optical layers in the multilayer structure shows an...

Dec 22, 2009 - PP-based multilayer shrink films - Patent
This invention is a novel shrink sleeve film consisting of at least one core layer, one skin layer, and optionally one tie layer between the two. The...

Dec 21, 2009 - Improving the processability of polyethylenes - Technical Paper
It is well know that long chain branching (LCB) in PE greatly improves its melt properties. Normally LCB in polyethylenes are controlled during and by...

Dec 18, 2009 - Polymer nanocomposites: from carbon nanotubes to clay nanoplatelets - Technical Paper
Highly ordered polymer nanocomposites are complex materials that display a rich morphological behavior owing to variations in composition, structure,... (2 Member Reactions)

Dec 17, 2009 - Biodegradable PHB nanocomposite - Technical Paper
This article explores blends and composites of PHB and PE (widely used in packaging films) with colloidal nano- silica. The mixtures were prepared by... (2 Member Reactions)

Dec 16, 2009 - Biodegradable nanocomposite elastomers - Technical Paper
Biodegradable nanocomposite elastomers were produced from natural rubber latex, starch, and montmorillonite clay. The rubber/starch/clay blends were...

Dec 15, 2009 - Biodegradable nanocomposites based on epoxidized soybean oil - Technical Paper
The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of epoxide content (24-88 mole %) on the mechanical properties and characteristics of...

Dec 14, 2009 - Process for manufacturing ultrathin plastic films - Patent
This invention discloses a novel process for manufacturing ultrathin (e.g., 10 micron) freestanding polymeric films with the steps of supplying a... (1 Member Reaction)

Dec 11, 2009 - Synthesis, design, and applications of dendrimers - Technical Paper
Dendrimers are very unique nanomaterials. This article provides an excellent review of the architectural design of dendrimers, their various synthetic...

Dec 10, 2009 - Sonochemical preparation of polymer nanocomposites - Technical Paper
This article reviews sonochemical fabrication of polymer nanocomposites. In addition to its application to the synthesis of various polymeric...

Dec 09, 2009 - New structures and materials by combining nanoparticles with polymers - Technical Paper
From size considerations alone, polymers and nanoparticles should be natural partners for the preparation of composite materials. However, this...

Dec 08, 2009 - Trends for fuel cell membrane development - Technical Paper
Fuel cells are considered a promising energy conversion technology of the future owing to inherent advantages of electrochemical conversion over...

Dec 07, 2009 - Biocomposites based on plasticized starch - Technical Paper
The potential of biodegradable polymers, and more particularly that of polymers obtained from agro resources, such as polysaccharides like starch, has...

Dec 04, 2009 - Recycling of vinyl polymers - Technical Paper
Recycling is a viable alternative in getting back some of the energy in the case of some polymers. The most commonly recycled materials are PET and... (1 Member Reaction)

Dec 03, 2009 - New high heat resistant weatherable composite - Patent
The new composite formulation in this invention consists of a weatherable acrylic top layer coextruded onto a substrate consisting of a blend of CPVC... (1 Member Reaction)

Dec 02, 2009 - TPU with improved abrasion resistance and decreased coefficient of friction - Patent
TPUs can be used in a variety of products and are known in the art for toughness, low temperature flexibility, strength, abrasion resistance,...

Dec 01, 2009 - Novel biodegradable thermoplastic compositions - Patent
The thermoplastic compositions of this invention contain (a) 10-80% polyhydroxyalkanoate polyester, (b) 10-80% conventional polymer having melting...