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Flexible packaging enhances our daily lives by protecting the food and goods we buy However, as new trends emerge, sustainability remains crucial in film-layer packaging. Layering multiple materials - PE, [...]

Improvements in functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability are essential for pigments, as user experience emphasizes the importance of ensuring color. In plastic products, color is crucial in establishing identity and enhancing [...]

Advanced polymers give wearables performance and comfort for health and recreational needs A new wave of wearable devices broke front and center at the 2023 International Consumer Electronics Show in [...]

From automotive and infrastructure applications to packaging and communications, high-performance polyolefins continue to reshape applications to meet ever-more-demanding performance requirements. Newly engineered resins driven by market demands are turning in [...]

Industry 4.0 promises never-before-seen manufacturing efficiencies driven by digital connectivity and data-collecting innovations that let producers measure everything from mold and material behavior to optimal energy use by one machine [...]

The story of Len Hampton and his daughter, Lauren, in many ways represents the experiences shared between numerous parent and child members of SPE through the years. Len is national [...]

When industry veteran Len Czuba met then-student Nathan Rader-Edkin at an SPE CAD (Color & Appearance Division) TopCon event in 2018, they quickly bonded over a game of cards. Their [...]

Deftly adapting to ongoing COVID-era realities of health concerns and travel restrictions, the 33rd SPE International Polyolefins Conference (IPC) was conducted as a hybrid event, with total turnout numbering almost [...]

The explosion of wearable devices to track aspects of one's health and help users adopt healthier behaviors continues to drive demand for various plastics that enable the benefits of these [...]

Objetivo: Proponer indicadores y procedimientos para evaluar y predecir el comportamiento de la pandemia COVID-19 con el empleo de conocimientos elementales de matemática. Métodos y técnicas: Búsqueda de información sobre el comportamiento de la pandemia en diferentes escenarios y aplicación de métodos matemáticos y estadísticos. Principales resultados: Indicadores y procedimientos que contribuyen a evaluar la situación de la pandemia COVID-19 y hacer pronósticos en relación con el incremento de los contagios y defunciones para la toma de decisiones. Conclusiones: Los indicadores y procedimientos propuestos contribuyen a evaluar el comportamiento de la pandemia COVID-19 y a predecir en el corto y mediano plazos su comportamiento para la toma de decisiones sanitarias y gubernamentales.

While plastics and composites aren't replacing traditional building materials on a large scale, certain structural or protective applications are gaining steam, and with their benefits comes a great sustainability story. [...]

A nother tumultuous year is behind the plastics industry, with more uncertainties, pandemic, political, economic and otherwise, ahead. Yet, with impetus building to reimagine supply chains, reshore operations, adopt Industry [...]

A two-day training session by the American Injection Molding Institute (AIM) illustrated not only the pent-up demand for in-person education after the COVID-19 pandemic, but the urgent need for manufacturers [...]

More than 75 hours of online, on-demand presentations followed ANTEC 2022. These were presentations that didn't make the cut due to space limitations at the in-person event, but which were [...]

There's magic in the music and also plastics as artists and engineers seek the richest tones possible from innovative polymer instruments Since the heyday of jazz and rock 'n' roll, [...]

The ability of doctors and patients to monitor medical conditions remote from large healthcare facilities has become as much of a safety issue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a [...]

From stabilizers to odor reduction and aesthetics that appeal on multiple levels to consumers, developments in colors and additives have continued apace despite the pandemic--particularly the demand for germ- and [...]

Idealism often loses to self-interest when health and safety are at risk. Witness the COVID pandemic and calls for sustainability in plastics. As the world navigated through the pandemic last [...]

Objetivo: proponer indicadores y procedimientos para evaluar y predecir el comportamiento de la pandemia covid-19. Métodos y técnicas: búsqueda de información sobre el comportamiento de la pandemia en diferentes escenarios y aplicación de métodos matemáticos y estadísticos. Principales resultados: indicadores y procedimientos que contribuyen a evaluar la situación de la pandemia covid-19 y hacer pronósticos en relación con el incremento de los contagios y defunciones para la toma de decisiones. Conclusiones: los indicadores y procedimientos propuestos contribuyen evaluar el comportamiento de la pandemia covid-19 y a predecir en el corto y mediano plazos su comportamiento para la toma de decisiones sanitarias y gubernamentales.

Firms using corporate social responsibility assurance (or CSRA) recruit an external and independent third party to undertake assurance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) information that they disclose. From a theoretical perspective, CSRA may play a role within two distinct mechanisms: the signaling mechanism, whereby CSRA signals both the quality of the disclosed information and firms’ CSR performance, and the legitimizing mechanism, whereby CSRA is strategically used as a ‘sophisticated’ compliance exercise. Thus, while the signaling theory predicts that CSRA should provide the expected benefits for its intended users, studies based on the legitimacy theory question the effectiveness of CSRA. In an attempt to disentangle which mechanism is dominant, this study investigates how professional accountants, as assurance providers, perceive CSRA and its effectiveness. We use an online questionnaire survey involving a between-subjects experimental design with 104 French professional accountants as participants. The quantitative and qualitative results suggest, in line with legitimacy theory, that CSRA is used more as a compliance exercise than as an effective signal. We advance the idea that in the French setting, in which CSRA is mandatory, it is used by firms to create the illusion of transparency by complying with disclosure requirements. However, we offer an alternative interpretation by arguing that some professional accountants may in fact seek to resist the implementation of mandatory CSRA using a strategy of justification.

The inaugural Plastics Processing Conference of the Lehigh Valley and Palisades-New Jersey sections of SPE focused on ways of achieving and maintaining polymer performance and productivity during extrusion, injection molding [...]

The best use of light stabilizers, antistatic and antifogging surfactants, flame retardants (FRs) and food-safe pigments were among topics featured during the virtual Additives and Colors Academy: Trends and Training [...]

Whether featured in solar sails that loiter at a perfect vantage point indefinitely to study the sun or in massive science balloons that send impressive payloads of research equipment aloft, [...]

The surge in online ordering and at-home delivery spurred by the COVID pandemic has added impetus to the creation of a new generation of robust e-commerce packaging. Where traditional packaging [...]

The U.S. and global markets for polyolefins are poised for strong demand in the next several years, even as the industry navigates the many unknowns about the demands of sustainability, [...]

The diversity of 3D printing modalities coupled with the need to scale up printing of final parts or produce more cost-effective production tooling is driving development of the next generation [...]

The quest for more sophisticated, efficient and effective medical therapies is driving demand for functional biomaterials. Whether for use inside or outside the body, the arsenal of materials selected for [...]

From advances in conductive and insulating polymers to the increasing demand for plastics in the expanding 5G communications network, SPE's virtual Plastics in Electronics event focused on the extensive role [...]

Color line combines performance and compatibility, new sites speed product development and supply Masterbatch and color concentrates producer Penn Color Inc. recently unveiled the Astrad line of standard and custom [...]

Post-processing specialist provides vibrant colors for pale parts made on new Jet Fusion printer DyeMansion, a specialist in finishing techniques for 3D-printed parts, is working as a designated HP partner [...]

Whether it's being used in a university laboratory or a brand owner technical center, the right equipment makes all the difference in executing effective research on materials and processing. And, [...]

Improvements in functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability highlighted discussions of colorant advances during the virtual CAD RETEC conference in September presented by SPE's Colors and Appearance Division. The online event was [...]

The quest for more functional and aesthetically pleasing automotive surfaces is spurring a new generation of sleek structural designs with broad electronic capabilities, as well as more robust colors. Haptic [...]

The use of 3D-printed tooling for thermoformed parts is an emerging development in additive manufacturing that is paying significant dividends in terms of reduced tooling cost and time for prototype [...]

Hybrid solutions in additive manufacturing (AM) were a focus of the 3D printing track at ANTEC[R] 2020. Presentations included the use of glass bubbles to enhance polyamide (PA) 12, a [...]

Novel approaches to materials and additives were presented at ANTEC[R] 2020, held March 30 to May 5, running the gamut from self-healing polymers to antibacterial nanoparticles. Self-Repairing Polymers Expanding on [...]

While the COVID-19 pandemic is triggering significant discussion about manufacturing supply chains in multiple industries, many stakeholders throughout the plastics industry are rising to the challenge to keep their customers [...]

The circular economy in the plastics industry continues to grow, buoyed by a host of new collection projects and research and resin certification programs. Even the initial shock of China's [...]

While the traditional plastics industry gets well-deserved attention for its sustainability efforts, the world of 3D printing is also addressing material sourcing and reuse. From resins made with castor beans, [...]

The pandemic challenges processors to keep output and quality high despite worker shortages. One way to do this is with more automation. As plastics processors juggle the need to meet [...]

Twenty-twenty is being hailed as a potentially game-changing year for flexible packaging by at least one industry expert--but there is certainly caution amid the optimism. With chemical recycling emerging as [...]

With each passing year, additive manufacturing becomes less of a novelty and more business as usual. With continued innovations in machines, materials, and methods, products are being engineered more precisely [...]

Over the past 30 years, micro injection molding for the medical industry has experienced such a rate of innovation that parts about one-quarter the size of a human hair are [...]

The quest for serial production of 3D-printed plastic parts has spurred a new generation of machines geared to more high-volume output in automated workflows. One of those entrants--the Figure 4 [...]

It is customary in our final issue of the year to offer tips about how to shut down production for the winter holidays. However, as automation grows more prevalent and [...]

Whether relying primarily on either solid or liquid colorants, molders and converters should remain apprised of the traditional and emerging benefits and opportunities with both approaches. Pennsylvania-based industry leaders Penn [...]

The emerging niche of electric and hybrid vehicles is prompting new mechanical property requirements for multiple plastics. Of course, lightweighting continues to be a significant concern for the large batteries [...]