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I guess you could call it a gimmick, but Brandon Birchmeier is sticking with his beloved whiteboard. The 20-year veteran of the injection molding industry, and now head of a consultancy serving plastics processors, started a YouTube channel a few months ago. In the Injection Molding — The Whiteboard Sessions videos, Birchmeier addresses the latest technologies and trends from a processor’s perspective, illustrating his concepts on a whiteboard, of course.…

Sustainable practices slowly but surely are coming to the medical space. A proof-of-concept pilot project in the dialysis department at a major hospital in Belgium reportedly has shown that non-contaminated medical plastic waste can be converted to pyrolysis oil in an advanced recycling process to produce circular feedstock. In turn, the feedstock can be used to produce plastics that achieve the same levels of performance, purity, and physiological safety as…

Bpacks, a start-up operating in Europe and the United Kingdom, has developed a compostable bark-based material that integrates seamlessly with plastic-package manufacturing lines. The company’s technology enables production of bark-based pellets and sheets for use as a substitute for plastic. Bpacks can produce the bark-based material as well as finished rigid packaging at its 300-m2/3,230-sq-ft R&D center in Belgrade, Serbia. The production process for the material closely resembles that of…

March is an unpredictable month meteorologically for much of the country, with wearisome winter weather hanging on against the encroaching spring. From a plastics perspective, the last four weeks saw a notable amount of top-performing content rooted in contentious concerns. Problems included layoffs, questionable business practices by C-level managers, potentially constraining legislation, and more. Not all is doom and gloom. As with the gradual changeover to spring, March’s content also…

Wirthwein New Bern Corp. will lay off approximately 50 workers starting in May from a total workforce of 120 positions, according to a notification under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Based in New Bern, NC, Wirthwein is part of Germany’s Wirthwein Group, which provides injection molding, extrusion, and other plastics processing services to a range of industries. The New Bern location molds plastic parts for dishwashers, Samsung…

Covestro has completed its first industrial-scale polycarbonate (PC) copolymers plant at its site in Antwerp, Belgium. The new platform technology, which Covestro developed, is based on an innovative, solvent-free melt process in combination with a new reactor concept. This marks the start of commercial availability of PC with adjustable properties that has been developed and tested on a laboratory and pilot scale in recent years. The investment is in the…

Italian Tier I Marelli has unveiled its new Interior Innovation Center (IIC) in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, picking up on experiences garnered from its previous location in Miyahara. The new integrated facility will be strategic in fostering design-led innovation at speed for the creation of new vehicle interior solutions aimed at present and next-generation vehicles. Marelli established its foothold in Japan by absorbing the operations of Calsonic Kansei in 2019. “The establishment…

Germany’s Schott Pharma announced earlier this week that it will build a facility in North Carolina to manufacture prefillable polymer syringes that can withstand the deep-cold storage and transportation conditions required by mRNA medications. The site also will have the capability to produce glass prefillable syringes used in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. The project will add 401 jobs in the Wilson, NC, region and include a total investment of…

Munich-based E-Works Mobility, which specializes in the development and production of electrically powered vans, is pushing ahead with the evolution of the E-Works Heero, a high-performance e-transporter. The engineers recently focused on the complete redevelopment of a new battery box to replace the previous aluminum construction. The E-Works team found what they were looking for in the fiber-reinforced-plastics expert SGL Carbon. The company is now supplying the first battery boxes…

Certus, a professional training and certification platform that is a portfolio company of Ridgemont Equity Partners, announced today the acquisition of family-owned Paulson Training. Founded by Plastics Hall of Fame member Don Paulson in 1981, Paulson Training is well-known in the industry as a provider of technical training and certification for plastics manufacturing and scientific injection molding. Since Don’s retirement, the company has been led by his children. “We are…