One is a surgical instrument that cleans laparoscope lenses in situ during minimally-invasive surgeries—with a handle made of a blend of Eastman’s Ecdel copolyester TPE and its Eastar PETG.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: A new application of proprietary Tritan copolyester from Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., has been developed by Baltimore-based Pevco, a manufacturer of hospital pneumatic-tube delivery systems used to transport patient-critical materials between labs, pharmacies, blood banks, operating rooms, and emergency rooms.   The new Pevco TEC-6 pneumatic tube carrier was designed specifically to be made with Tritan, according to Pevco’s director of product development and marketing Steve Dahl.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Aspira One, a new amorphous PET from Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., reportedly provides an optimal balance of recyclability, product performance, processability, and aesthetics compared to existing PET resins used in extrusion blow molded handleware and large bottles.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Winchester, Va., has introduced a new line of commercial and institutional kitchen foodservice products made of BPA-free Tritan copolyester from Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn.

PCC (Plastics Color Corp.), Calumet City, Ill., a maker of color and additive concentrates and compounds, has acquired Polysource LLC and its Pinnacle Color subsidiary in Tempe, Ariz.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., has reported two commercial applications in renal-care devices for a special grade of its proprietary Tritan copolyester that was developed specifically for this market.

Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., will no longer offer diethyl phthlalate (DEP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) plasticizers as of the end of this year.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Three more suppliers at MD&M West brought out clear, hard plastic grades for medical uses.

Last month, DAK Americas LLC, Charlotte, N.C., completed its purchase of the integrated PET and PTA business of Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn.

On Feb. 1, DAK Americas LLC, Charlotte, N.C., announced the completion of its purchase of the integrated PET and PTA business of Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: In the past month, three deals were announced to transfer ownership of materials businesses.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Tritan copolyester is new competition for polycarbonate in tough, clear face masks, shields, and visors for medical, military, industrial, sports, and motorcycle uses.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., last month launched a new resin and a new trade name for a family of copolyesters aimed at high-clarity, multi-serve beverage, spirit, and dairy packaging.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Eastman Chemical Co.,Kingsport, Tenn., recently added a new medical grade to its Tritan copolyester line.

Lots of new thermoplastic blends made news at the recent NPE show in Chicago.

WEB EXCLUSIVE Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., has opened a new development center to use its portfolio of resins and additives to help compounders, component manufacturers, and OEMs develop new applications for TPEs.

A new, clear copolyester from Eastman Chemical Products, Inc., Kingsport, Tenn., continues to broaden its range of applications.

Plaskolite Inc., Columbus, Ohio, is now offering thermoformable sheet of Eastman Chemical’s new proprietary Tritan copolyester for signage.

This first of two articles on directions in TPE development focuses on styrenic, copolyester, polyamide, and TP urethane elastomers. The following article covers olefinics—TPOs, TPVs, and POEs.

In consumer goods markets, there are countless applications for clear plastics such as copolyesters, acrylic, SAN, amorphous nylon, and polycarbonate.

The last two months have seen several resin capacity announcements: BASF Corp., Engineering Plastics, Wyandotte, Mich., opened what it calls the world’s largest plant for nylon 6 in Freeport, Texas.

A new-generation PET copolyester with higher heat resistance was unveiled last month by Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn., at the K 2007 show in Dusseldorf.

Clear handled bottles got a kick start earlier this year when nationally recognized Simply Orange Juice Co., Apopka, Fla., an affiliate of the Minute Maid division of The Coca-Cola Co., decided to bottle its orange juice in extrusion blow molded 89-oz copolyester containers.

In December, we reported on a new generation of super-clear, ultra-pure PET bottle resins that will be launched in this quarter by Eastman Chemical Co., Performance Polymers, Kingsport, Tenn.

A new copolyester resin designed to produce shrink-film body labels for packaged consumer goods boasts the highest ultimate shrinkage in the marketplace-over 75%-together with low shrink force.

Eastman Chemical Co.’s new 770-million-lb/yr PET plant is starting up at Columbia, S.C., and will be fully operational in the first quarter of 2007.

A new brilliantly clear copolyester boasts excellent impact strength together with chemical resistance, dimensional stability, and low shrinkage-properties suitable for medical applications such as injection molded drug delivery devices.

When printing images on sheet to be thermoformed into signs, retail displays, packaging, or consumer products, graphic designers must take into account the optical distortion that will occur when the flat printed image is formed into a 3D surface.

Wood-plastic composites, or WPCs, are already a 1.3-billion-lb market and are growing at 20% annually.

There’s more to TP polyesters than you think. You may know PET, PBT, and PETG—but what about PCT, PCTG, PCTA, and PTT? If you’re not sure what they are, how their properties compare, and who sells them, we have the answers—and lots of new developments to report.

At this year’s NPE, new processes to put wood flour into plastic were virtually everywhere—several even start with undried flour.

NPE 2000 offered up new HMW-MDPE and HMW-HDPE film and molding resins with enhanced mechanical properties, plus new VLDPE resins, a hexene LLDPE with improved stiffness/ strength balance, and an LDPE for high-speed extrusion lamination.

The U.S. is catching up with Europe and Asia in exploring the potential of biodegradable polyesters in flexible and rigid packaging. Because of their cost, these resins often find use in blends with other degradable materials.

Heinz, Nestle, Dannon, Tropicana, and other packagers have discovered an eye-catching way to launch new food products: They design a shapely blow molded bottle, then totally envelop it with a brightly colored shrink or stretch label. This marketing concept could launch tens of billions of plastic bottles in the next few years.

Perpetually in its infancy, PET foam sheet has been a hard sell for packaging producers over nearly a decade. It found successful niches in thermoformed ovenable bakery trays, meat trays, and reheatable dinner trays for home delivery to disabled persons.

New octene and hexene LLDPEs, as well as HDPEs based on new metallocene and non-metallocene catalysts, will make their debut in Chicago next month. Among them will be the first metallocene HDPE film resin in North America.

New octene and hexene LLDPEs, as well as HDPEs based on new metallocene and non-metallocene catalysts, will make their debut in Chicago next month. Among them will be the first metallocene HDPE film resin in North America.

PET bottle makers learned about two developmental exterior coatings that provide both barrier and bottle-decoration options at the recent Nova-Pack Americas 2000 Conference in Orlando, Fla. Other highlights of the meeting included two new barrier technologies for multi-layer preforms and two new tooling advances.

Three hundred billion beer bottles a year worldwide is a mighty tempting target for the plastics industry. So it’s no surprise that 13 of 24 papers focused on beer packaging at the recent Nova-Pack Europe ’99 Conference, held in Germany by Schotland Business Research, Skillman, N.J.

From auto parts to barrier packaging, the race is on to commercialize nano-clay thermoplastic composites. Just a pinch of these infinitesimally small particles can dramatically raise mechanical, thermal, barrier, and flame-retardant properties.

Process simulation for thermoforming is still new and far from perfected. Yet a small but growing band of processors are discarding trial-and-error methods in favor of simulation as a shortcut to optimizing quality.

Coinjection, overmolding, barrier coatings, resin blends--all are being tested in the race to capture a swig of the mega-market for beer bottles.

If you're looking for a film resin with the outstanding heat-sealability of metallocene plastomers but with higher stiffness for easier converting, you may want to try the new Mxsten CV family of linear hexene copolymers resins from Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport, Tenn.