Foam Expo, North America’s largest trade show and conference devoted to foam products and manufacturing, is returning for its seventh edition from June 25 to 27, 2024, in Novi, MI. Attendees also will have access to the co-located Adhesives & Bonding Expo taking place in the same hall. A diverse range of foam products, raw materials, manufacturing machinery, and service providers will be featured under one roof. Manufacturing and processing…
Extrusion specialist Entek will showcase its new twin-screw technology at NPE2024 in Orlando, FL, in May, as well as material-handling equipment and expanded offerings from its new Wear Parts Division. Launched in February, Entek’s Wear Parts Division is an extension of the company’s growing replacement wear parts business. To meet demand, the company has added manufacturing shifts to increase inventory and reduce delivery times of its made-in-the-USA parts — all guaranteed…
There are really only a handful of things that motivate humanity to act. Greed and fear are certainly close to the top of that list. Neither of those are inherently bad or evil motivations. In general we have a fiduciary obligation to maximize profits while minimizing costs — what Buckminster Fuller termed ephemeralization. Likewise fear is the perfectly legitimate desire not to perish, nor kill one’s descendants. Those motivators create cultural…
BASF CEO Michael Heinz will be one of two keynote speakers at NPE2024, the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) announced today. His presentation, titled “Our Plastics Journey: The Road to a Sustainable Future,” will address challenges facing the industry, the importance of collaboration along the value chain, and prospects for sustainability, PLASTICS said. “I am honored to be part of the largest plastics industry trade show in the Americas,” said Heinz.…
Source One Plastics, a joint venture between 23 Oaks Investments and chemicals company LyondellBasell, announced today the successful launch of its plastic waste sorting and recycling facility in Eicklingen, Germany. The new unit processes difficult-to-recycle post-consumer plastic waste such as mixed plastic packaging and flexible polyolefins that would otherwise be incinerated, the company said. The facility has a processing capacity of 70,000 metric tons, which is approximately the amount of…
Automotive manufacturers and the broader automotive value chain are increasingly searching for lightweight and sustainable materials to perform crucial functions and applications for a variety of reasons. First, governments and regional authorities are tightening up rules and passing laws to mandate the use of recycled content in vehicles as they seek to transition to net zero economies and societies. For example, new EU regulation proposals on circular vehicle design and…
A 35-year veteran of the plastics industry, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag CEO Gerd Liebig has announced that he is retiring effective Sept. 1. He is not completely stepping away from the industry nor shared aspirations, however. Liebig took over the reins of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag in 2017, after a circular career path that took him from Demag Plastics Group, where he spent 15 years in lead marketing positions, until leaving to…
German researchers have replicated the chemical structure of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), a development that holds great promise for sustainable alternatives to one of the most widely used plastics. A team at the University of Bayreuth led by Dr. Rhett Kempe of the Sustainable Chemistry Centre has introduced a new chemically recyclable, highly branched polyolefin material with built-in “recycling points.” That means the polymer can be chemically broken into smaller fragments…
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have designed a closed-loop path for synthesizing an exceptionally tough carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), and later recovering all of its starting materials. CFRP is useful for reducing weight and increasing fuel efficiency of automobiles, airplanes, and spacecraft. However, conventional CFRPs are difficult to recycle. Most have been single-use materials, so their carbon footprint is significant. By contrast, ORNL’s closed-loop technology,…
Contract design and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Freudenberg Medical is set to expand its technological footprint in a big way. Company officials have broken ground on a $25 million facility that’s expected to begin operation in Costa Rica in early 2025. The 100,000-square-foot building, which will be built over three years during two construction phases, reportedly will be dedicated to the assembly of high-volume minimally invasive catheters for electrophysiology, vascular, and…