July 2008 Issue
July 2008
Features
Featured articles from the latest issue of Plastics Technology
Market Outlook - July 2008
Mastio & Company’s most recent Injection Molding Markets Study predicts modest growth for injection molded automotive products in 2008.
Read MoreEconomic Outlook - July 2008
U.S. residential construction continues to languish in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage debacle, and it will be at least another year before activity starts to show consistent improvement.
Read MoreIt's All Relative ...
If you travel to Europe anytime soon, try not to gulp too hard when you look at the prices on a restaurant menu or in a shop-window display.
Read MoreFeedstocks Drive Up Prices
Prices of all sorts of commodity and engineering thermoplastics and thermosets are rising by leaps and bounds, reacting to equally strong increases in feedstock costs. PE PRICES UP SHARPLYPE prices moved up 3¢/lb in May, after a 3¢ increase in April.
Read MoreTraining Pays Off in Productivity
A skilled and efficient workforce provides a decisive edge against competition and improves the bottom line.
Read MoreFind the Source of Visual Defects
The appearance of visual defects on parts such as cracking, crazing, grooves, ripples, wave marks, and flaky brittleness often indicates more than an aesthetic problem.
Read MoreComposites Embrace Mass Production
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 production, especially of large parts with critical structural demands. Attracting the most attention was wind energy, where composite material usage is growing more than 17%/yr, according to Gurit (formerly SP Systems), a Swiss-based global prepreg supplier with U.S. operations.
Read MoreBlow Molders and Thermoformers Try Plastic Rapid Tooling
Rapid prototyping (RP) equipment is increasingly being used to manufacture prototype and short-run production molds for blow molded and thermoformed parts.
Read MoreEnhancing Biopolymers: Additives Are Needed for Toughness, Heat Resistance & Processability
Plastics are going “green,” but they will need some help to get there. Biodegradable polymers derived from renewable resources are attracting lots of interest and publicity, but that enthusiasm is counterbalanced by persistent questions of availability, cost, performance, and processability. All these issues are inter-related: Increasing demand will lead to more capacity, which will presumably lead to lower prices. But the foundation is market demand, which ultimately depends on whether biopolymers will have the performance properties and processability to compete with existing non-renewable plastics.
Read MoreWhy Mold-Maintenance Data Is Essential for Processing Technicians
When I was in the Navy, many different trades such as hydraulics, electrical, airframes, armament, and jet-engine mechanics worked side by side to get planes into the air, through their scheduled missions, returned to base, and turned around to do it all over again.
Read MoreNew Low-Pressure Process Molds Long Profiles On Small Presses
A new process that can produce long, thin-walled profiles and strips with functional or decorative geometries integrated in the part in a single step was developed by IB Steiner engineering consultants and Hybrid Composite Products GmbH, both in Spielberg, Austria.
Read MoreYour Business In Brief - July 2008
Clariant & Bayer Partners In Nanotube CompoundsTo take advantage of the electrical conductivity and mechanical strength afforded by carbon nanotubes (CNT), Bayer MaterialScience AG in Germany (U.S. office in Pittsburgh) and Clariant Masterbatches (U.S. office in Winchester, Va.) signed a long-term cooperation agreement for development, production, and sales of CNT/thermoplastic compounds and masterbatches.
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