Materials

Engineering Resins 24 Sep 2008

SPI Starts Bioplastics Special Interest Group

Last month, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI), Washington, D.C., launched the Bioplastics Council to provide a forum for resin and additive suppliers, processors, and equipment makers to promote the development of bioplastics.

Film Extrusion 1 Sep 2008

Investing in Planet-Friendly Packaging

Clear Lam Packaging Inc. is a mid-sized, family-owned packaging company with an enviable growth rate of over 20%/yr, unusual at a time when many mid-sized packaging companies are being bought out and disappearing. The secret, Clear Lam believes, has been its aggressive investment in R&D.

polyolefins 1 Aug 2008

Prices Hit Scarey Levels

The athletes in Beijing aren’t the only ones taking record leaps this summer.

nanocomposites 28 Jul 2008

New Biopolymers Find Commercial Use

Two promising new biopolymers are finding some initial commercial applications.

polyolefins 1 Jul 2008

Feedstocks Drive Up Prices

Prices of all sorts of commodity and engineering thermoplastics and thermosets are rising by leaps and bounds, reacting to equally strong increases in feedstock costs. PE PRICES UP SHARPLYPE prices moved up 3¢/lb in May, after a 3¢ increase in April.

Additives 1 Jul 2008

Composites Embrace Mass Production

The focus this year at the international JEC Composites Show in Paris was not so much on brand-new processes as on adapting existing processes and materials for mass production, especially of large parts with critical structural demands. Attracting the most attention was wind energy, where composite material usage is growing more than 17%/yr, according to Gurit (formerly SP Systems), a Swiss-based global prepreg supplier with U.S. operations.

nanocomposites 1 Jul 2008

Enhancing Biopolymers: Additives Are Needed for Toughness, Heat Resistance & Processability

Plastics are going “green,” but they will need some help to get there. Biodegradable polymers derived from renewable resources are attracting lots of interest and publicity, but that enthusiasm is counterbalanced by persistent questions of availability, cost, performance, and processability. All these issues are inter-related: Increasing demand will lead to more capacity, which will presumably lead to lower prices. But the foundation is market demand, which ultimately depends on whether biopolymers will have the performance properties and processability to compete with existing non-renewable plastics.

nanocomposites 24 Jun 2008