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Two Southern California processors have boldly gone where no one has ever gone before. Peninsula Packaging and Global P.E.T. are recent entrepreneurial ventures whose owners believe that making recycled PET [...]

Extrusion machinery at the June NPE show in Chicago showed inventive ways to get more out of your floorspace and materials. One approach is to double output with conventional asynchronous [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This NPE show won't have a lot of extruders on the floor, either running or static. Instead, look for videos and announcements of new technology. You will also [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For thermoforming of both heavy-gauge sheet and thin-gauge packaging, the show will present new machines with unusual flexibility, able to form a wide variety of products and materials. [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Photovoltaic markets are growing explosively, and so are opportunities for specialty film producers. Solar cell and module production, which was forecasted to grow at 50% a year for [...]

Bioplastics were initially created for single-use applications like packaging and hotel key and gift cards. Their key benefit was that they wouldn't stick around long in the environment because of [...]

Up to now, the number-one biopolymer in commercial use, polylactic acid or PLA, has been available mainly from one supplier and in a limited range of varieties. But there appear [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Around three dozen, mostly European, processors are pushing commercial development of high-speed single-screw extrusion. They have installed more than 100 of the small hyper-drive machines whose screws turn [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Topping the raw-materials news at April's JEC composites show in Paris were three relatively inexpensive fibers that are said to match many of the properties of much costlier [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The focus this year at the international JEC Composites Show in Paris was not so much on brand-new processes as on adapting existing processes and materials for mass [...]

Many granulators on display at the K 2007 show in Dusseldorf last October were big models--150 to 200 hp--to enable higher throughputs or reclaiming larger parts and chunks. For example, [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New recycling plants accounted for plenty of buzz at both the K 2007 show in Germany, last October and at the Plastics Recycling 2008 conference in Jacksonville, Fla., [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EPS molding machine builders have been busy in R&D. The driver is strong growth in EPS shape molding, especially large parts like fish boxes and insulated concrete forms [...]

Major chemical companies are investing big bucks in new plants and technologies to produce plastics from annually renewable sources, not from petrochemicals. Some suppliers aim to produce today's conventional plastics [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dramatic production demonstrations of cast and blown film set throughput records on the show floor in Dusseldorf. More high-speed demos were hosted by several German OEMs' at their [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In addition to the news reported in our September K Show preview (see Learn More), previously unrevealed developments in Dusseldorf include several ingenious devices designed to save energy, [...]

Foamed food trays made of polylactic acid (PLA) resin, the corn-based biopolymer, have a commercial toehold in Europe and are undergoing market tests here. They are used to package meat [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chinese-built extruders are arriving here in small sizes and modest numbers. Most are bought one at a time by large, sophisticated processors who are sampling the Chinese market [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The future of vinyl siding may be more expensive, more wood-like, and painted. That prediction goes against the grain, so to speak, of what have been two of [...]

It's all about higher speeds and higher outputs at this year's 'K' show in Germany. The most unusual new phenomenon at the show is high-speed (high-rpm) extrusion of thin sheet, [...]

E-waste--today's term for discarded computers, monitors, hard drives, copiers, printers, fax machines, telephones of all types, and even televisions--is collected in large volumes in this country, but not always for [...]

Topping the raw-materials news at the big JEC international composites show in Paris last April, was increasing use of natural and thermoplastic fibers, 'hybrid' fiber combinations, small-diameter glass fibers, and [...]

News at the big JEC composites show in Paris in April was all about speed and automation. New technologies include faster tool building, faster fiber and tape winding (thermoplastic and [...]

* Recycling news from the Society of Plastics Engineers' Global Plastics Environmental Conference (GPEC) in Orlando, Fla., in March focused on PET, nylon, and waste plastics in electronics--in other words, [...]

Smaller diameters, thinner walls, and more complex structures--that's a short description of the latest in medical tubing, which was exhibited at February's MD&M West show in Anaheim, Calif. These micro-fine [...]

Typical Melt Flows PMMA 1.5 9 ABS 11 38.6 PC 11.4 17 Elastomer PE 0.9 6.1 PP 0.9 3.9 PS 1.8 9.1 EVOH 1.5 8 Nylon 4.5 13.9 HDPE 7.5 [...]

After years of hype and exaggeration, market demand for bioplastics made from renewable resources like corn or potatoes is no longer just an ecologist's dream. Most of the action is [...]

Cover Story Filler isn't a bad word in T-shirt bags and can liners any more. It's now another name for survival. With margins razor thin and resin prices high, processors [...]

Many of the resins and reinforcements introduced at JEC, the big international composites show in Paris this spring, are intended to make molding processes faster and more efficient, especially for [...]

History shows that wars drive plastics development, and the Iraq war is no exception. It's bringing among other things an urgent need to retrofit vehicles and buildings against bullets and [...]

NPE 2006 presented a bevy of features to make film, sheet, pipe, and profile extrusion more efficient. These included wider use of direct-drive, permanent-magnet, synchronous-torque motors, new automation devices, dies [...]

With resin prices so high, the NPE show in Chicago last month was an opportune time for processors to hear about more efficient, durable, and cost-effective equipment for putting scrap [...]

Throughput capacities are going up for compounding equipment of all types. Higher outputs generate more heat, so you'll also see lots of equipment with enhanced cooling. Above all, you'll see [...]