A unique new additive that causes
polyvinyl chloride to break down in landfills is one of 10 products that will
receive a 2010 Environmental Stewardship Award from The Plastics Environmental
Div. of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) at the Global Plastics Environmental Conference March 8-10 in Orlando, FL.
BIOtech Products of Randolph,
NJ is being recognized for
development of organometallic additives that are said to render PVC and some
other plastics biodegradable in biologically active landfills, while retaining
or improving normal service life and processing of the plastic materials.
Other winners are:
Arkema Inc. of Philadelphia, PA
for Pebax RNew, which is
described as the first engineering thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) made from
renewable resources.
Eco Research Institute Ltd. of Tokyo for a new
technology that pulverizes paper into powders as minute as 50 µm for use as a
plastics compounding material.
VAST Enterprises of Minneapolis,
MN for production of composite
pavers made from a proprietary blend of up to 95 percent recycled car tires and
plastic containers.
AMWAY of Ada, MI
for development of the eSpring System, a
water purifier that incorporates a sustainable design based on life-cycle assessment.
Associated Packaging Technologies of Chadds Ford, PA,
which is making a range of thermoformed crystalline PET (CPET) trays that are
said to have smaller environmental impacts than traditional CPET products.
Mannington Mills of Salem,
NJ for expanding a program for
recycling post-consumer carpet to include recycling vinyl composition tile.
Mack Molding Co. of
Arlington, VT and BigBelly Solar of Needham,
MA for production of a
solar-powered compacting trash receptacle for large scale,
low-cost municipal waste collection. Mack injection molds the solar bubble,
fabricates the back panel and door, procures more than 150 unique parts, and
totally assembles the compactor and optional recycler for direct shipment to
BigBelly Solar's customers all over the world.
Nicos Polymers Group of Nazareth, PA
for a proprietary process for the removal of continuous fiber reinforcement
from flexible composites, making possible the cleanest recovery of the polymer
substrate.
Delta Plastics of the South of Little Rock, AR for having
achieved a goal of reclaiming and recycling virtually 100 percent of its used
manufactured LLDPE irrigation tubing.
The GPEC conference takes place at The Florida Hotel & Conference Center
in Orlando. The
awards will be presented at a banquet on the evening of Tuesday, March 9.
Starter motors with automatic starting capabilities will hit the auto market in a big way in 2012. Within 15 years, every new vehicle could offer "start-stop."
Branching out from its CAM software roots, PartMaker is adding a 3D CAD modeling component to its PartMaker portfolio, acknowledging that machinists need better tools for working with 3D models.
Environmental stress cracking is a common failure mode for plastics, and you may need to do your own testing to make sure that the plastic you plan to use will not crack.
The tray table that folds in half for stowage in the armrest of an airline seat is something admired for its design ingenuity, but long cursed for its operational opaqueness and flimsiness.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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