Industry

50th SPE Auto Innovation Awards highlight the indelible impact of plastics on component development

Winning parts in annual thermoforming competition highlight advances in process capabilities and materials  Ten parts representing a range of applications won awards at the SPE Thermoforming Division’s annual conference in Grand Rapids, Mich., last fall.   The event lived up to…

The U.S. has ample access to affordable food. Much of this is due to plastics packaging, which has made more foods available, long-lasting, economical and safe. Americans, however, discard millions of tons of good food every year. Discarded food ends…

Extruder manufacturer Bausano of Turin, Italy (North American office is in Houston), offers electromagnetic induction heating on its machines as an option to conventional ceramic band resistance heaters. Called the Smart Energy System (SES), benefits include the ability to reach…

Goal is for all packages to meet environmental standards and to significantly reduce virgin plastics use PepsiCo Inc. continues to strive to move “beyond the bag and beyond the bottle” in the quest to minimize the impact of its packaging…

UC San Diego researchers use SEBS copolymer to develop a wearable ultrasound patch Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), are using a styrene-based triblock copolymer to help enable the development of a wearable ultrasound patch that could…

Industry icon Glenn Beall stamps an indelible legacy on the growth of plastics and of SPE Recently, I had the privilege of spending a day with Glenn Beall, who joined SPE in 1960 and is the Society’s oldest active member.…

Sal Monte continues to challenge conventional thinking about coupling agents and catalysts.

A November government oversight report found what it calls deficiencies, and recommends changes, in how the Food and Drug Administration regulates food-contact substances. Plastics are front-and-center in the report, which is titled “Food Safety: FDA Oversight of Substances Used in…

AVK, the Frankfurt, Germany-based Federation of Reinforced Plastics, named sensXPERT winner of its 2022 Innovation award for the Digital Mold process sensor system it developed. The company is part of Netzsch Process Intelligence GmbH, of Selb, Germany. (U.S. office is…

Industry turns to monomaterial packaging for circular economy needs.

Milliken & Co. will begin production at its new clarifier plant soon in Blacksburg, S.C. The facility will increase capacity for Millad NX 8000 polypropylene clarifier by more than 50 percent and address strong global demand for clarified plastics products.  …