Elastomers

Emerging plastic fabrication methods optimize footwear stiffness, durability, and mass production through additive manufacturing, sprayed thermoplastics, and reinforced midsoles.

Functional polymer coatings can improve microplastic removal from wastewater by enhancing particle capture, membrane performance, and selective filtration.

Many medical devices rely on fluoropolymers, and evolving PFAS regulations are creating new compliance and supply-chain challenges.

A double-layer liquid crystal polymer film reduces ghost images in automotive AR-HUDs while improving reflectivity and maintaining windshield transparency.

Engineers optimize ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and silicone thermoplastic vulcanizates to combine high elasticity with efficient thermoplastic processing for industrial applications.

Real-time resin diagnostics help processors monitor melt behavior, manage recycled-content variability, and improve plastics quality control.

Healthcare foams face growing pressure from PCR adoption, PFAS restrictions, EPR policies, and circularity goals across medical supply chains.

Researchers are addressing polymer data scarcity through AI, high-throughput experiments, simulations, literature mining, and standardized databases.

Early plastics recycling succeeded with clean, single-resin streams but struggled with contamination, weak markets, and systems not designed for scale.

Just-in-time plastics processing improves efficiency, but additives, recycled content, regulatory requirements, and supply risks now necessitate selective buffering.