Petrochemicals Automotive Polymer 09-05-2020 - Arhive
Petrochemicals Automotive Polymer
-Covestro, Teknor Apex combine to make new TPU compounds
Materials firms Covestro AG and Teknor Apex Co. will work together on new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) compounds.
Covestro of Leverkusen, Germany, and Pawtucket, R.I.-based Teknor both have worked with TPU for many years, with Covestro making the resin and Teknor producing compounds. Officials said in a news release that formulating and compounding can create an additional value proposition.
“Together with Teknor Apex, we want to develop customized products to grow together with our existing and new customers,” Thorsten Dreier, Covestro global TPU business head, said in the release.
-Coronavirus pushes German manufacturers to their limit
Dr Martin Engelmann: ‘The manufacturers of packaging for food are working under high pressure’
Demand for food, pharmaceutical and medical products needed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic is pushing some plastics packaging manufacturers to their limit, a survey by the German association for plastics packaging and films has found.
But while some German manufacturers of “system-relevant” packaging for food, pharmaceutical and medical products were reaching capacity, suppliers to the automotive industry in particular had experienced a considerable drop in demand, the survey by IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen revealed.
-Alpla doubles rPET capacity in Poland
Starlinger supplies extrusion line to Austrian packaging firm’s rPET plant in Radomsko, Poland.
Austria-based Alpla has announced that a new rPET extrusion system will be going into operation in early May 2020 at its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling plant in Radomsko, Poland. The plant’s capacity to produce rPET regrind material will be doubled from 15,000 to 30,000 metric tons per year, says the firm.
A blog post by Alpla Head of Recycling Georg Lässer says the investment ties into the company’s signing of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment in 2018. That initiative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation “commits us to investing a total of €50 million ($54 million) in pursuit of this aim,” writes Lässer.
-Eurozone construction output slumps in April, sentiment collapses
Output in the chemicals-intensive construction sector across the eurozone collapsed in April as coronavirus-led lockdowns dampened logistics and sentiment, analysts at IHS Markit said on Thursday.
The Eurozone Construction PMI index for April fell to 15.1 points, down sharply from the March reading of 33.5 points.
A reading below 50.0 points shows economic contraction.
“[The data is] signalling an unprecedented month-to-month decline in construction activity across the eurozone,” said the analysts.
-Heimtextil 2021 now more than 95% booked
Home textiles trade fair will offer numerous events
Frankfurt, Germany – Despite disruption from the current coronavirus crisis, exhibitor registrations for next year’s Heimtextil expo are running strong.
The 2021 international home and contract textiles trade fair, which will take place Jan. 12-15, is now more than 95% of the space occupied in the 2020 fair has now been booked. The most recent event hosted 2,918 exhibitors from 64 countries.
-Why PepsiCo, L’Oreal and Nestle are banking on this French plastics recycling startup
That little recycling symbol on the bottom of a soda or shampoo bottle has a dirty secret. There’s only a 30 percent chance the PET plastic in the bottle will get turned into a new plastic product, and the chance it will become another soda or shampoo bottle is almost zero.
The French startup, Carbios, hopes to change that with a new enzyme — one that could usher in an entirely new way to recycle plastic, one that actually lives up to the arrows of the symbol.
As packaging professionals are well aware, most current recycling technology, which is thermo-mechanical in nature, reuses plastic by melting it and then reforming it into new products.
-Esterform to meet PET preform demand with bank loan
A UK supplier of PET preforms and containers plans to fulfil growing demand in the food and drink sector after securing a £26 million ($32m) loan from Shawbrook Bank.
Esterform Packaging, which has factories in Worcestershire and Leeds, said it had experienced a “substantial” increase in demand for preform packaging.
The company said the funds would allow it to refinance its debt, improve efficiencies and continue to invest in rPET production. Esterform opened a rPET facility in 2019.
Despite already claiming to be the UK’s largest independent producer of PET bottles and containers, Esterform managing director Mark Tyne said it was time for the company to “ramp up” manufacturing.
-Biodegradable Plastics Startup RWDC Raises US$133 Million
RWDC Industries Ltd will use the US$133 million series B funding to expand the production capacity by building a new facility in Athens, Georgia.
RWDC Industries Limited, a Singapore-based biotech start-up hoping to solve the world’s single-use plastic crisis, has secured US$133 million in Series B funding. “RWDC was founded by myself and [CEO] Dr. Daniel Carraway in 2015,” shared executive chairman Mr. Roland Wee. “After meeting, Carraway and I realized our shared vision of improving people’s lives while also lessening our impact on the environment.”
They decided to pursue their passion by providing safe, sustainable alternatives for single-use petroleum-based plastics. Specifically, RWDC develops innovative and cost-effective biopolymer material solutions—including polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHAs. PHAs are naturally produced by microbial fermentation of plant-based oils or sugar and are recognized as the only commercially viable biodegradable bioplastic.
-Italy : Complastic Srl and Negri Bossi join forces to produce glasses and facial shields
Complastic Srl and Negri Bossi have collaborated to produce glasses and facial shields to face COVID‐19.
In the Italian scenario, many companies are converting part of their production into devices to deal with the emergency and continuing to develop projects for the community that can improve situations of coexistence with Coronavirus.
Negri Bossi who since April 9, 2020 has been using two injection machines to produce masks for
the community through the help of the Lombard Civil Protection to counter the spread of COVID‐19.
With a strong know‐how in the plastic moulding sector, Complastic Srl is developing a project to produce glasses and a face shields due to an injection moulding machine delivered by Negri Bossi to the company in record time.
-When Fashion Meets Technology
Nanotechnology has helped revolutionise the concept of smart textiles with various offerings in terms of performance, comfortability, cleanliness and current needs. The market for nanotechnology-infused textiles has risen rapidly from $20.3 billion in 2008 and is projected to reach $205 billion by 2022, representing 16 per cent of the global textile industry by value.
Fashion and technology are inevitably a blend of art with each comprising its own advancements and developments. When Malaysian company NanoTextile launched the themes ‘When Fashion Meets Technology’ and ‘When Mighty Meets Nano’ in 2019, fashion companies were quick to pick up on the latest trends. It was the year when we realised that the fashionista and technologist have to collaborate more. NanoTextile did just that by expanding to everything from clothes and business models to innovations in functional products, technical offerings and production. Though clothing is a commodity industry, its future will be about more than just merely covering our bodies.
Petrochemicals Automotive Polymer