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Performance materials distributor Formerra announced at NPE2024 that it has earned approval to begin selling ISCC PLUS–certified materials for the mass balance process.  Formerra also will supply compostable products from AFC Ecoplastics to consumer and medical packaging customers across North America in answer to growing customer demand for sustainable alternatives and more stringent plastics regulations. The mass balance approach to making plastics combines alternative renewable or circular feedstock with fossil-based…

Polypropylene is a polymer seeing a lot of positive traction in food packaging including food cups. That’s due to PP’s material’s sustainability and recyclability back into food-grade resin. A new twist in packaging introduced at NPE2024 looks to get in on that action using tried-and-true PET. The innovation uses that most widely recycled polymer in a source-reduced, thin-wall cup that’s paired with a PET film applied via in-mold labeling (IML).…

Engel has announced that it will build a multi-faceted facility in Queretaro, Mexico, as part of its “close to the customer” corporate philosophy. The maker of injection molding equipment based in Schwertberg, Austria, with its US headquarters in York, PA, said it wants to establish “optimal sales, logistics, and production structures for each of the three major regions — Europe, Asia, and the Americas.” A place to find and develop…

Market demand for high-content post-consumer recycled (PCR) material is growing rapidly as industries step up efforts in pursuit of circularity and climate neutrality. Retaining performance and quality on a par with virgin resin, however, remains a common challenge.  Achieving a 90% PCR content polycarbonate (PC) requires both high-quality PCR feedstock and a robust formulation process, something that materials supplier Covestro claims to have achieved with its Makrolon PCR PC resin…

As you walk the NPE show floor, you might be hypnotized by the city-block-long injection molding machines ejecting plastic parts with metronomic precision, dazzled by blown film machines reaching to the sky, and entertained by robots performing their intricate choreography, to name a few of the main attractions. But you know as well as anyone that it takes a supporting cast of auxiliary equipment to keep your plastics processing operation…

Arburg set the initial course for its “local-to-local” activities back in 2020, with the opening of the Arburg Technology Factory (ATF) in Pinghu, China, near Shanghai. Initially, activities focused on adapting Allrounder machines to customer-specific requirements and implementing turnkey systems in cooperation with local suppliers of molds and peripheral equipment. This was followed in 2023 by the Flexlift linear robotic system and now the Allrounder Golden Electric EVO. Both product…

A project to convert passenger jets to cargo planes during the Covid pandemic, using thermoplastic window plugs instead of metal, will be on display at KraussMaffei’s booth at NPE2024 in Orlando, FL, from May 6 to 10. The two-year partnership between KraussMaffei and the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University used KraussMaffei’s FiberForm technology to  produce a 20% lighter alternative to the previous 590-gram metal plugs. Organosheet…

In a significant global expansion, Costa Rica–based CRDC Global Ltd. yesterday opened its first RESIN8 construction materials production facility in Australia. The firm’s patented, low-carbon technology uses shredded, mixed plastic waste as a component to make more sustainable concrete.  Founded six years ago by Canadian native Donald Thomson, CRDC (which initially stood for Center for Regenerative Design & Collaboration) uses a process that accepts any type of plastic waste (resins…