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Blogroll
Author Archives: Jan Schut
The New World of ‘Fractal Structuring’
By Jan H. Schut At ANTEC 2013 in Cincinnati in April (see blog May 10, 2013), plenary speaker Han Meijer from Eindhoven Technical University in the Netherlands (www.mate.tue.nl), startled his audience with the first presentation anywhere of tooling that makes … Continue reading
Trolling for New Technology: ANTEC 2013
By Jan H. Schut New technologies at ANTEC 2013, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Annual Technical Conference in Cincinnati, OH, April 21-24 include the first “fractal structuring” of co-injected polymers not just into layers, but into geometric patterns of … Continue reading
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Tagged ANTEC, compounding, Injection molding, shape memory polymers
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Simply Brilliant
By Jan H. Schut Imagine molding plastic with no energy cost – zero, zip, nadda, as the saying goes. Karl von Kries, CEO of startup LightManufacturing LLC (www.lightmanufacturingsystems.com) in Pismo Beach, CA, has done just that. He’s invented the world’s … Continue reading
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Tagged polylactic acid, rotational molding, Solar power, SPE GPEC, starch
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How Shale Gas Is Changing Propylene
By Jan H. Schut North American shale gas is reshaping petrochemicals. Two plenary speakers at the Society of Plastics Engineers’ International Polyolefins Conference 2013 in Houston, TX, in February describe some of the impacts. Tim Roberts, vice president at LyondellBasell … Continue reading
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Tagged gas, petrochemicals, plastics engineering, propylene, thermoplastics polyolefins
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When the Going Gets Tough…
By Jan H. Schut Here’s what some companies in the plastics industry are doing to keep going. We asked senior executives from a dozen companies, including processors, machine builders, and material suppliers, to share their strategies for survival and even … Continue reading
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Tagged Conair Group, DuPont, economy, expansion, Farrel, Maguire, Prent, productivity
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New Technologies in Stretching and Touching
By Jan H. Schut New technologies appearing at the 2013 SPE International Polyolefins Conference February 24-27 in Houston (www.spe-stx.org/conference.php), include a developmental 77-nanolayer polyethylene shrink film with an extremely high stretch ratio and the first full conference session devoted to … Continue reading
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Tagged Film, haptics, product development, thermoplastics polyolefins
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Can Lowly Algae Save the Planet?
By Jan H. Schut May be yes. May be no. They’re already grown on an industrial scale to make anti-aging pharmaceuticals and nutrients. But can algae also clean up industrial waste water and polluted fish farms? Convert CO2 emissions from … Continue reading
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Tagged algae, bioplastic, CO2 conversion, fuel, plastics engineering
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Rumplestiltskin Wanted
By Jan H. Schut Someone to spin straw into gold, or in this case lignin into plastic. Government money pours into public universities and research centers in places with forestry industries in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the northern U.S.—including … Continue reading
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New Possibilities for Automotive Surfaces
By Jan H. Schut Three new materials are being introduced at the SPE’s Automotive TPO Engineered Polyolefins Conference September 30 to October 3, 2012, in Troy, Mich. (speautomotive.com/tpo) that offer intriguing new surface options for thermoformed automotive parts. Two are … Continue reading
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Tagged Automotive industry, Polymers, thermoplastics polyolefins
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Creating New Thermoplastics ‘On the Fly’
By Jan H. Schut Three unusual new reactive thermoplastic technologies are being introduced at two Society of Plastics Engineers (www.4spe.org) conferences in September. Two make fiber composites by wetting fibers out with liquid monomer, then polymerizing during extrusion or injection … Continue reading
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