Page 300 – Modern Plastics Bangladesh

KRAIBURG TPE Automotive Application Breakthrough

Nora Szabó

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April 5, 2022

KRAIBURG TPE Automotive Application Breakthrough

KRAIBURG TPE has developed an innovative material technology that enables the production of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) that is fitting for various application in the automotive market including the low density TPE for extremely weight-saving components.

The automotive industry sets the pace being the most important consumer of TPEs. The flexibility of TPE materials helps manufacturers and designers meet performance, design and sustainability target they desire in the automotive applications.

Design, Comfort and Vibrant Interior Finishing KRAIBURG TPE’s THERMOLAST® TPE compounds offer many material advantages such as abrasion chemical and scratch resistance and soft touch elements in automotive interior applications. Some of the TPE compounds consist of soft touch as well as design functional elements. Also, the TPE compounds reduce annoying ratting and creaking noises when used for damping elements.

With the ability to render precise material color matching, the TPE compounds ensure vibrant hues for vehicle interiors, meeting color-fast requirements to ensure colors will not fade easily.

The TPE exhibit good adhesion with PP, ABS, ABS/PC and PMMA through both injection molding and extrusion.

Typical automotive interior application including floor mats, cup holders, door sill panels, cable sleeves, thumb wheels, air conditioner flap and more.

High Quality Exterior Surface & Weather Resistance KRAIBURG TPE compounds offer outstanding benefits for automotive exterior. The TPE compounds feature good weathering and UV resistance as well as thermal stability which is required in for exterior applications that are exposed to harsh weather and heat. The TPE compound has passed weathering tests such as the Kalahari and Florida test.

It displays excellent adhesion with a broad range of thermoplastics including PP, PP+30% glass fiber, SAN, ASA, PMMA, PC/ABS, and nylon, allowing for design innovation and flexibility of parts processing with multi-component injection molding.

The compound’s high surface quality and excellent flow properties make it ideal for automotive exterior applications like window encapsulation, water deflector, side mirror gasket and sealing for brake lights.

Lightweight TPE
The selective series of lightweight properties are ideal for diverse automotive applications like door sealing systems, cowl sealings, anti-rattle seals, window encapsulations, roof rail mats and more.

The lightweight TPE, possessing a density of <0.8g/cm³, has excellent compression set as well as smooth and uniform surface.

It also exhibits good weathering resistance, having passed weathering tests such as the Kalahari and Florida tests.

The TPE compounds exhibits good adhesion with polyolefins materials (PP/PE, TPS, TPV) through injection molding and coextrusion.

Westminster Tool Teams Up with Foster and Mantle for Medical Device Case Study

Nora Szabó

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April 5, 2022

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Westminster Tool Teams Up with Foster and Mantle for Medical Device Case Study

We’re proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Mantle Inc. and Foster Corp. in researching some groundbreaking technology for the medical device manufacturing industry. Following the success of our previous studies on applying Mantle’s Technology, our latest project set out to create medical-grade forceps while testing the design, material, manufacturing, and injection molding process with metal 3D printed cavities.

Results from our research will be revealed at the upcoming PTXPO show in Rosemont, IL, on Wednesday, March 30 at the Moldmaking Technology Tech Talk Theater. Attendees are welcome to visit Westminster Tool and Mantle side by side at Booth 1317 and 1319, where they can also see the cavities and surgical forceps up close.

Using Foster’s latest polymer from Arkema, we worked with Mantle to design and produce metal 3D-printed cavities for research and development. We met with Foster in December of 2021 to discuss their supply of the new material, known commercially as Rilsan® FKZM 65 O TD MED, a glass-filled, advanced bio-based polymer designed for medical devices. The material was developed specifically with surgical instruments in mind. Not only does the material offer high performance but emphasizes sustainability, being devised from castor oil.

Considering our shared experience within the medical industry, Foster CEO, Larry Acquarulo and Westminster Tool President, Ray Coombs, discussed running the material with Mantle printed cavities. The idea is that we could create a high quality prototype tool quickly, and Foster would get real-world medical device examples for potential customers.

The material’s high-density glass filling meant it was highly abrasive and would likely pose challenges in a traditional aluminum prototype tool. As a result, metal 3D-printed cavities from Mantle became a popular prospect early on. Mantle’s printed cavities in this situation not only allow for the use of a subgate to mold thousands of parts without worrying about eroding the gates, but they also enable us to put in cooling lines and more effectively control the cavity temperature, which is critical to molding this particular material.

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Eating plastic makes for smaller mussels

Nora Szabó

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April 1, 2022

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Eating plastic makes for smaller mussels

Study lead author Dr. Charlene Trestrail said mussels ingest microscopic pieces of plastic used in cosmetics, affecting their ability to grow and reproduce.

The microplastics travel from our bathroom sinks to the ocean, where they are easily confused with algae or seaweeds.

Because mussels cannot tell the difference, they take in the plastic along with their normal diet of algae.

Trials on mussels collected from Newport, Victoria were conducted in the water of varying microplastic levels.

Trestrail said the plastics affected the action of four of the invertebrates’ key digestive enzymes, which means they struggle to break down starch into the simple sugars they need to survive.

“We don’t think the plastic affects mussels directly, but it does reduce their ability to digest the real food in their gut, which means they miss out on energy and nutrients,” Trestrail, who conducted the work with RMIT’s Ecotoxicology Research group, said.

If they can’t digest food effectively, the mussels can struggle to grow, so they end up smaller overall.

Trestrail said mussels also need the energy to mate and reproduce, which could have serious ramifications for biodiversity in the bay.

“Besides being a tasty treat for humans, mussels play an important role in keeping marine ecosystems healthy,” Trestrail said.

“Because plastic can affect their ability to breed, we could see a drop in mussel populations in Port Phillip Bay, with knock-on effects for other marine wildlife.”

Environmental campaigners have worked hard to reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans from easily visible things like shopping bags and packaging.

But Trestrail said it’s time to highlight the lesser-known impact of microbeads and other hidden plastics in products like toothpaste and bath scrubs.

Her study, which she published last year as part of her Ph.D. at RMIT University, was one of the first to investigate how tiny plastics affect a common marine mussels’ digestion.

“We know lots about how plastics affect animals externally – we’ve all seen photos of birds and turtles entangled in plastic – but now we know more about what plastics do internally,” Trestrail said.

“We found tiny pieces of plastic had a big impact on mussels’ digestion, hampering their ability to get energy out of their food.”

There has been a push in recent years for new legislation to reduce microplastic pollution, from microbeads in bathroom products to fibres in synthetic fabrics.

Previous research by Trestrail and RMIT’s Ecotoxicology Research group showed that plastic water-absorbing green floral foam used by florists can be ingested by a range of freshwater and marine animals.

But while the federal government has supported the cosmetics industry to start phasing out microbeads, the 2021 National Plastics Plan stopped short of banning or regulating their use.

Trestrail said we need to take pollution from microplastics and microbeads more seriously.

“Because they’re so small, once they’re in the ecosystem they are almost impossible to remove. The only solution is not to use them in the first place,” she said.

https://www.rmit.edu.au/

#Eating plastic #smaller mussels #Trestrail and RMIT’s Ecotoxicology Research group

Truiem Names Robert Veghte Kennedy as CEO

Nora Szabó

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April 1, 2022

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Truiem Names Robert Veghte Kennedy as CEO

Truiem, a leader in monitoring the digital experience of its customers’ remote Contact Center agents, critical employees, and their real-time interaction with end-users, announced the appointment of Robert Veghte Kennedy as the company’s Chairman and CEO to fuel the next phase of the company’s growth.

Today’s complex digital environment often leaves remote workers operating outside the traditional boundaries of a fully managed IT infrastructure. These critical resources must receive and consistently provide the highest level of customer service. The Truiem TruExperience platform provides Business and IT Operational teams a secure and scalable solution to measure and report user experience across what are often unmanaged technologies and 3^rd party provided services.

TruExperience helps customers better understand the interactions with their clients and employees in real-time and adjust work assignments and technical resources to maximize those interactions.

“I’m very excited to be able to lead this experienced team of professionals with such an innovative service solution focused on today’s distributed work environment,” said Kennedy. “It’s absolutely the right time and technology given the intensity of society’s remote interactions using complex digital mediums.”

“Kennedy’s experience working with software platforms and services that have monitored and managed the world’s largest service providers, enterprises, and government agencies, is the perfect fit to help propel our organization’s growth and direction,” said Scott Kimmelman, COO, and founder.

Kennedy joins Truiem having served as CEO and COO of several companies ranging from startups to over 14,000 employees. Having served as the operating officer at TPI International and then a founder of NetSpeak Corporation, Kennedy has been at the forefront of telecommunications and in the development of the VoIP and IP based call centers including leading the company awarded the patent for inventing and bringing to market the world’s first IP based contact center.

Most recently, Kennedy led ShoreGroup from its early stages to having its CaseSentry platform monitor and manage the world’s largest and most sophisticated networks and then through its sale to Francisco Partners, a private equity firm.

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#Robert Veghte Kennedy #CEO #Truiem

Eating plastic makes for smaller mussels

Nora Szabó

-

April 1, 2022

0

Eating plastic makes for smaller mussels

Study lead author Dr. Charlene Trestrail said mussels ingest microscopic pieces of plastic used in cosmetics, affecting their ability to grow and reproduce.

The microplastics travel from our bathroom sinks to the ocean, where they are easily confused with algae or seaweeds.

Because mussels cannot tell the difference, they take in the plastic along with their normal diet of algae.

Trials on mussels collected from Newport, Victoria were conducted in water of varying microplastic levels.