Woodstock, IL, the filming location of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, is home to Dordan Manufacturing, a 60-year old a privately held, custom thermoforming company located 60 miles northwest of Chicago. The facility feels like a second home to Daniel Slavin, CEO and president, who grew up in the company, taking over when his father retired as did his father before him. We made an on-site visit to the…
After a two-year hiatus, Graham Engineering announced the Spotlight™ Medical Extrusion & Secondary Operations Conference to be held September 27-28, in York, Pennsylvania.
Jabil is on a roll when it comes to MedAccred accreditation for plastics injection molding. Earlier this year in March, we reported that the contract manufacturer was the first injection molder in Mexico to achieve MedAccred accreditation. Now, Jabil’s Puerto Rican operation, Jabil Cayey, announces that it has met the program’s requirements, making it the first company in Puerto Rico to achieve certification. MedAccred audit and accreditation ensures that critical…
K 2019 wrapped up on Oct. 23, having hosted 3327 exhibitors from 63 countries covering more than 177,000 m2 of space. Some 141 days later on March 12, K show organizer and host Messe Düsseldorf announced the cancellation of all events until April 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. This June, the fair organizer hosted more than 60 members of the international plastics trade press from 25 countries, in…
If your PVC or PVC-based product comes from China, you might want to reconsider your supply chain. At the end of last year, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) that effectively blocks the importation of any products made in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China unless the importer can prove that the products were not made with forced labor. As reported recently by the International Association of…
In this week’s Material Insights, Frank Esposito explains how the Superfund excise tax will affect resin pricing, plus the impact of gasoline demand on polystyrene and polypropylene resin pricing. Also, Steve Toloken explains how California’s new toughest-in-the-world extended producer responsibility law will impact plastics.
Mitsui Chemicals has developed an environment-friendly grade of Milastomer thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) that employs recycled polyolefin as a principal component. Samples of the new grade are already being sent out to customers. The TPV builds on the material science capabilities of the Mitsui Chemicals Group (MCI Group), tapping into quality control and other know-how that has been developed through the production of compounds. Leveraging these resources has allowed Mitsui Chemicals…
“Hey, baby, it’s the Fourth of July, Hey, baby, take a walk outside, It’s the Fourth of July.” Hope you enjoy this great American rock song by Los Angeles’ own X as you celebrate Independence Day. We’ll be back with all the plastics news that matters on July 5.
Now that pandemic restrictions have eased, many of you are back on the road visiting customers to help solve their problems and talk about new technology. Some of you may even be involved with planning your company’s exhibit at K 2022. Many have called or emailed me asking to for more time to submit your title and abstract for the Extrusion 2022 Conference. Owing to these factors, we have extended the…
As electric vehicle (EV) production ramps up and developing charging infrastructures make longer journeys more feasible, the onus is on automakers to further reduce vehicle mass. One of the remaining relatively untapped applications is the battery housing. Several alliances and individual companies are vying to develop commercial solutions. Lanxess and Kautex Textron, for example, are experimenting with direct long-fiber thermoplastic (D-LFT) and polyamide 6 (PA 6) resins in a feasibility study.…