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The wearable medical device market is growing at a little more than 27% annually and is forecast to reach a value of $174 billion by 2030, according to business intelligence firm Market Research Future. Given the potential of this technology to provide 24/7 health monitoring and diagnostics on an individual basis, its future growth may stretch well beyond even those numbers. The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is investigating shape-memory polymers (SMPs) and their role in medical applications under a rare agreement with South Korea’s TMD Lab. The joint research is expected to produce a DNA database of SMPs and foster development of SMPs for implantable devices that reduce the formation of biofilms caused by microbial infection. Established in 2018, TMD Lab develops implantable medical devices featuring SMPs that…

Have you checked out Plastics Technology’s upcoming Extrusion 2022 Conference? It’s going to be held Dec. 6-8 in Charlotte, N.C. at the Omni Charlotte Hotel in the downtown section of the city. This two-and-a-half day event is packed with presentations from more than 60 technical experts covering a wide range of subject areas. The morning sessions on each day will include presentations on “general” extrusion topics. During each afternoon there…

Photo Credit: VTT We recently heard from Finland’s VTT Technical Research Center regarding the newest development of it Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) toolbox ‘ProperTune’. Essentially the center’s team, led by research team leader Antti Puisto, has expanded the application of the ProperTune beyond hard materials like metals to now model and design soft materials like wood, polymers and plastics. A key contender for soft materials is bacteria. The team’s…

Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC, a subsidiary of Shell plc, has begun to operate its Pennsylvania chemical project called Shell Polymers Monaca (SPM). It’s the first major polyethylene manufacturing complex in the northeastern United States and has a designed output of 3.5 billion pounds (1.6 million tons) annually, which it expects to reach by the second half of 2023. Strategically located within a 700-mile radius of 70% of the US polyethylene…