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Kia uses fungus root, ocean trash in eco-friendly EV interiors

Kia uses fungus root, ocean trash in eco-friendly EV interiorsThe Kia EV4's interiorYEOJU, South Korea — Kia's upcoming line of affordable electric vehicles will have interiors that are funky and even — quite literally — fungal.In a bid to go environment-friendly, Kia designers have high hopes for incorporating mycelium, the white hairlike gunk of mushroom root, into vehicle interiors. The substance can be grown and molded into all manner of shapes and sizes to create materials for furnishing tomorrow's EV cockpits.Mushroom root is just one of the out-of-the-box ideas Kia Corp. has for spicing up its vehicle interiors.Kia's EV4 sedanThe South Korean automaker displayed the new approach this month at its EV Day presentation, where executives unveiled three new all-electric vehicles. The EV5 crossover and concept versions of a smaller EV3 crossover and EV4 sedan all showcased innovative cabins.Organic dies, recycled cotton, paneling made from hemp and flax fiber, 3D knitted seats and, of course, mycelium mushroom root are all part of Kia's new nature-embracing strategy. Down the road, the automaker also plans to use plastic from recycled ocean trash.The unusual materials augment new design features meant to modernize Kia's cabins for the EV era. Features include hideaway buttons, sliding console tables, mood lighting, slim seating, unique rotating pin-style air vents and a wide horizontal dashboard layout for an open and airy ambiance.A look at the EV4's wide-open entry.Kia's focus on earth-easy interiors kicks off with the EV9 crossover, which goes on sale in the U.S. by the end of this year. The EV9 will introduce what the company calls its 10 must-have materials for a greener, plant-based, leather-free ride.Mushroom matterThe electric crossover makes extensive use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate and bioplastics, even incorporating discarded fishing nets to create some of its fabrics and carpets."We've said we're not going to use leather anymore," Kia design director Karim Habib said. "The replacement, in my view, is fabric. We're not trying to achieve an opulent, plush luxury. We're trying to be more modern."The EV4's profileKia intends to make eco-conscious material choices core to its brand identity, and the EVs unveiled this month here outside Seoul preview its next steps.The EV3 and EV4 use natural fibers in place of carbon-based synthetic ones to enable lighter, slimmer seating, while some materials in the seats and consoles are derived from flax fiber. Lightweight, durable hemp is used to make the console table, which offers a flat working surface that slides forward and back for access in the front seats and the rear.The inside of the console table was grown, rather than manufactured, Kia notes. That's because it is made of mycelium mushroom root, which combines strength with a soft-touch finish.Kia's EV3 crossoverMycelium appears in the cushion covers of the EV4's rear seat as well.Ocean trashKia's designers also incorporated 3D knit technology, which is used for athletic shirts and running shoes, in the seat materials to achieve a distinct wavy texture while reducing the need for stitching and joins. That, in turn, achieves zero waste material.The earth-toned "sandy terracotta" interior of the EV4 is derived from organic pigments found in madder root and walnut shell.The crossover's interior is fully viewable when the doors are open.Down the road, Kia hopes to recycle ocean trash into such items as key fobs and carpets. The automaker has partnered with The Ocean Cleanup of the Netherlands to gather plastic from various ocean garbage patches, where currents collect tons of refuse.Last summer, Kia received 55 tons of plastic from the Pacific Ocean's great garbage patch. The company is assessing how it can be recycled and used in vehicles. Its goal is to repurpose the material in components starting in 2026, helping offset the 440 pounds of plastic currently used in the average Kia vehicle.A look at the EV3's cockpitThere are challenges. The plastic recovered and recycled from ocean trash is considerably more expensive than even traditional recycled plastic. And the quality varies wildly.Furthermore, the environmental impact will be small, almost imperceptible, at least at first. Kia's pilot program is working with those 55 tons of sea trash from the Pacific. But by The Ocean Cleanup's own reckoning, about 1.1 million tons of new plastic trash goes into the world's oceans every year.source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/automotive/kias-future-evs-use-fungus-ocean-trash-eco-friendly-interiorsedit : handler

editor 2023-11-05

Chemical industry slides into summer lull as demand collapse persists

According to Will Beacham, Deputy Editor, ICIS Chemical Business, chemical markets around the world are reeling from collapsed demand conditions in what would, traditionally, be the strongest quarter of the year for many markets.Persistently high inflation is sucking money out of consumers’ pockets as wage increases have failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living. At the same time, central banks’ determination to bring inflation under control is driving them push up interest rates despite the current recessionary macroeconomic conditions.Hopes were pinned on a post zero-COVID rebound in China. But that has failed to materialize as a construction sector bubble bursts, export markets stagnate and demographics drag on growth, stated Beacham.China is mired in a manufacturing recession with latest official purchasing manager (PMI) index May slipping further into contraction, though the private Caixan index suggested mild expansion. PMIs for Europe and the US are also in negative territory.Demand has been falling since the second half of last year as Russia’s war in Ukraine disrupted global energy markets and pressurized the global economy just as a nascent post-pandemic recovery was getting underway.Destocking has been underway throughout this year as customer sectors offload inventories they had built up when a “just in time” strategy gave way to “just in case.”Poor demand across most sectors, regionsThe lack of demand is being felt across almost all of the chemical groups and geographies which ICIS reports on. A new survey of all the ICIS news markets analysis published from 24-31 May shows that 47 out of the 48 articles published were negative on demand conditions, with one neutral.The articles cover a wide range of chemical markets in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. There are multiple reports of operating rate cuts, extended plant turnarounds, falling prices and poor margins.The impact of poor demand and excess supply on chemical companies has been severe with many suffering steep falls in margins and profitability as Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 financial results demonstrated. Many market participants are now pinning their hopes on a rebound in 2024 as there are no signs of improvement for the second half of this year.Overcapacity driven by ChinaOn the other side of the coin, supply is rising spectacularly in 2023 and 2024 driven by China. Since the financial crisis of 2008/9, China has embarked on a drive for self-sufficiency in petrochemicals, planning and building a massive wave of capacity expansions which will culminate in an astonishing 232.5m tonnes/year of new projects coming onstream in 2023 and 2024.Speaking on the ICIS Think Tank podcast, ICIS senior consultant for Asia, John Richardson, said, “The pivotal change in China was 2014 when the government went for petrochemical self-sufficiency in a big way. In polyester fibers, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film and bottle grade and purified terephthalate acid (PTA) China has gone from being the world's biggest net importer to the world's biggest net exporter.”He added that China's net imports of polypropylene (PP) and styrene are likely to fall significantly this year.Demographics dent demandAging populations dent demand for manufactured goods because older people spend less on big ticket items such as cars and electronics. Also speaking on the ICIS Think Tank podcast, Paul Hodges, chairman of New Normal Consulting, said, “The demographics are incredibly wrong, because if you take nine of the top ten economies in the world, the only growth in population now is in the low-spending over 55s. So you've built all this new capacity, but there isn't any demand for it.”He believes that all the excess capacity being added in China and elsewhere will eventually lead to deflation. “Inflation is really causing a major cost of living increase but as and when the Ukraine war comes to an end, we will then pivot into major, long-lasting deflation because of so much oversupply.”Longer term there are hopes that chemical industry growth may be driven more by the vast investments required along industrial value chains in the transition to net zero carbon. In that scenario the sector would no longer rely so heavily on the traditional economy to fuel its future.source : https://www.adsalecprj.com/web/news/article_details?id=62337&lang=1edit : handler

Editor 2023-07-21

Suppliers changing how, where they make parts in EV era

Suppliers changing how, where they make parts in EV eraThe supply chain is in for a major overhaul as longtime suppliers look to maintain their positions in the EV era.Nashville — A host of startups and newcomers to the auto industry are shaking up the automotive supply chain, but established companies aren't standing pat.Indeed, the supply chain is in for a major overhaul as longtime suppliers look to maintain their positions in the electric vehicle era, manufacturing executives said during a panel at the Automotive News Congress here.Take, for example, Denso Corp., the world's second-largest auto supplier by annual global sales to automakers. As the supplier giant looks to become "more agile and more flexible" in the EV era, it is investing in 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, to help it to build spare parts and cooling systems, for instance."Materials and manufacturing processes continue to evolve to help us to do things lighter and faster," said Andrew Clemence, Denso International America's electrification business unit leader. "We really believe this is going to unlock a new era of product design because it takes away the constraints that you have with traditional manufacturing today."Likewise, Novelis, a major supplier of aluminum to the auto industry, is developing manufacturing technologies to help provide additional value and uses for automakers, said Jamie Zinser, Novelis vice president of global sales and marketing."We do realize that aluminum is at a disadvantage" to steel when it comes to cost, she said. But she added that the material is going to prove to be "very critical" for automakers as they look to keep EV weights down.Manufacturers are changing not just how they build parts, but also where they make them. For example, South Korean tire maker Hankook Tire entered the U.S. manufacturing space by opening a plant in Clarksville, Tenn., in 2017.Building tires locally for the North American market positions Hankook to benefit as automakers invest billions of dollars in EV production in the region, said Curtis Brison, president of Hankook Tire America Corp."We're investing heavily in electric vehicles," Brison said. "When you look at it from the dynamics of a tire, these vehicles are heavier, there's more power and torque. They're a lot quieter in the interior. We're challenging ourselves to be the very best in that world."Register for the second Automotive News Congress event, June 16 in Washington, D.C., which will cover industry regulation.source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/automotive/suppliers-changing-how-where-they-make-parts-ev-eraedit : handler

Editor 2022-06-24

Inflation, supply chain kinks keep pressure on auto suppliers

Inflation, supply chain kinks keep pressure on auto suppliersInflation and production volatility are squeezing the revenue, income and margins of major automotive suppliers that had been hoping for some relief by now from the financial headwinds of the past two years.Quarterly earnings reports from many of those companies out this week show that those pressures have continued — and in some cases worsened.For example, Southfield-based seating and electronics supplier Lear Corp. said it has cut global headcount by 7,700 in the past year and is looking to restructure its footprint as its first-quarter adjusted net income was sliced in half from last year. Plymouth-based seat maker Adient plc took an $81 million loss, Auburn Hills-based BorgWarner Inc.'s adjusted operating income dropped 16 percent and Southfield-based Superior Industries Inc. saw net income slip by 23 percent.All of them pointed to the same challenges.This story was originally published in Crain's Detroit Business."I've been in the industry 20 years now, and it's worse than I've seen and it is sustaining," Nik Endrud, executive vice president for Forvia North America, told Crain's in an interview. "There's lot of downstream impacts to the stop-and-go concept on everybody, on automakers, too. ... Certainly, we see their profit margins. We know how they're running their business and we see supplier profit margins."Forvia is the new name for the company combining molder Faurecia and lighting supplier Hella.Endrud's point being that automakers have been able to tune their mix around availability of microchips, focus on selling higher-end vehicles, increase sticker prices and turn healthy profits as highlighted in their earnings reports. Suppliers do not have that strategy available."You can't have this massive margin compression and not have distress," said Steven Wybo, senior managing director and restructuring expert at Riveron, a financial consulting firm in Birmingham. "It's keeping their head above water, but you can only do that so long. They do need to be able pass some of this inflation on."Wybo said the financial pressure on suppliers is worse than it was at this point last year, even though the microchip shortage has eased slightly. Sustained inflation and Russia's war on Ukraine have deepened the problems for a supply chain trying to recover.As a result, vehicle production has not bounced back as quickly as many analysts predicted even as demand remains strong with higher vehicle prices.Moody's Investors Service last month revised its growth expectation for global light vehicle sales in 2022 to 3.3 percent, down nearly half from its previous projection of 6.2 percent."The automotive sector environment remains challenging, and the recovery of global light vehicle sales from the 2020 trough is more protracted than Moody's had initially expected," the credit rating researcher said in a report.One key difference from a year ago is that automakers know they have to offer some pricing relief if they want to keep their suppliers afloat and cars coming down the line, said Dan Sharkey, co-founder and member at Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco PLLC in Birmingham who specializes in supply chain litigation."If you're making a little part and it's 10 bucks, and your labor goes up 20 percent, and inflation goes up 8 percent, all the sudden you go to making a little profit, maybe 10 percent, to losing 10 percent," Sharkey said. "You're literally taping money to the box every time you make a part, so you have no choice but to run to your customer and say I got to have a price increase."Sharkey said automakers are coming to the table, albeit "through gritted teeth and under protest," but most are offering lump sum "get well" injections of cash, rather than structural increases. Some automakers are threatening to withhold future contract awards to suppliers asking for increases, Sharkey said."If there hadn't been all this economic relief from customers, we would have had widespread financial failure of suppliers, and the OEMs know that, and that's what they want to avoid," he said.Even automakers with poor reputations for how they treat suppliers, such as Stellantis, understand they must share some of the pain, Sharkey said, but it's not without a fight.Stellantis Chief Operating Officer Mark Stewart said the automaker is working with suppliers through the headwinds."We continue to work on efficiency programs together of how to altogether get the costs out of the operations so everybody can be profitable and everybody can win in this environment," Stewart told reporters after an event this week at a new supplier plant in Detroit.Still, the general approach of the automaker, whose North American headquarters is in Auburn Hills, with suppliers remains hard-line and the mantra is reducing prices."So, we continue to work with the supplier base again to get that cost out," Stewart said. "Consumers can only take a certain level before things become unaffordable. The end customer is who is in mind ... because that's how we all live across our ecosystem."While financial pressure has yet to ease up, suppliers still see the light at the end of the tunnel, said Luke Junk, a Milwaukee-based senior analyst of vehicle technology and mobility at global financial advisory firm Baird.Junk said steel, aluminum and other commodity prices are expected to normalize eventually, as are freight and logistic snarls. That will lead to the more predictable production cadence the automotive industry thrives on."There's definitely going to be relief going forward," Junk said.Until that happens, though, suppliers will have to keep fighting for price increases to protect their business and investors while automakers do the same for theirs by pushing for price downs.Wybo said he would expect to see at least a handful of major supplier bankruptcies or restructurings by the end of the year. Rapidly rising interest rates and the fear of a global recession are also cause for worry."Once we get through the pent-up demand, we have a longer-term issue with demand for vehicles," Wybo added.source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/inflation-supply-chain-kinks-keep-pressure-auto-suppliersedit : handler

Editor 2022-05-16

Supply chain crisis shifts power balance between automakers, suppliers

Supply chain crisis shifts power balance between automakers, suppliersA brutal year for automotive suppliers has had an unexpected upside.The same problems that have pummeled their business, from soaring commodity costs to supply chain issues, have also given them a newfound power at the negotiating table with their automaker customers.While automakers have maximized on a surge in demand by converting low vehicle inventory into record sticker prices and strong profits, suppliers have suffered the brunt of financial losses. But, the supply chain crisis has laid bare the interdependency of each tier from top to bottom and underscored the importance of players big and small.Suppliers have arguably never had as much negotiating power with automakers, experts say. Now they are using that leverage to change the way they do business with OEMs, which are feeling the pressure to acquiesce if they want to keep getting parts to make cars, according to industry executives and observers."Historically, the automakers have had an enormous amount of leverage and have exerted it over the supply base," said Thomas Walters, commercial litigator at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP who represents tier one, tier two and medium-size suppliers. "I think the OEMs are in a position where they have no choice but to share in the pain with everybody else that's in the same circumstance."Push to share the painAutomakers have been reluctant to absorb the increased cost of parts, but over the past few months, suppliers have been turning up the call for relief. Companies including Cooper Standard Automotive Inc. have been asking customers to renegotiate contracts to recoup losses. Further down the supply chain, those requests have turned to demands as the supply crisis drags on and smaller companies fight to survive.Prices for raw materials in the broader manufacturing sector increased 14.5 percent since the end of 2020, according to the Institute for Supply Management's Semiannual Economic Forecast, released this month. Prices are expected to increase 8.1 percent next year.Companies have had some success in passing along those increases to customers, as indicated by the trade association's survey of about 900 industry members. Around 64 percent of manufacturing executives said they have been able to pass through price increases. Just less than half said they expect business conditions to improve next year.Most contracts between automakers and suppliers are for the production life of a part, which can range from a few years to 10 years or more. Many deals were signed well before the COVID-19 pandemic began and the ensuing supply crisis. The general rule has been to supply the customer at all cost — unless the cost is financial ruin."You've got these insanely exorbitant increases on one end of the supply chain. On the other end of the supply chain, you have the automakers charging higher prices. In the middle you have all the suppliers," said Dan Sharkey, co-founder and member at Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco PLLC who specializes in supply chain litigation.Unexpected production suspensions, from Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 and Explorer to the Stellantis Jeep Cherokee, have taken big bites out of suppliers' revenue.Capacity utilization for light duty automobiles in North America has fallen steadily and then stagnated since the second half of 2020 when plants were brought back on line after COVID-19 shutdowns. Capacity utilization was just above 60 percent in the third quarter of this year, compared with nearly 80 percent at the same period last year, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis."The smaller companies tend to be more nimble and more aggressive because they have less to lose, right — the ma and pa's saying, 'Hey, I just lost money last month, and if I don't get a price increase next month, I'm not shipping parts,'" Sharkey said.That resembles the language of dozens of letters sent recently to Livonia-based AlphaUSA, which supplies fastener assemblies and stampings to major automakers and has been outspoken about the unprecedented rise of steel prices. Nearly all of AlphaUSA's suppliers have given the company an ultimatum: Pay more or stop receiving material, said David Lawrence, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the company.AlphaUSA's only choice is to pay the increase, Lawrence said."That's their method of survival," he said of smaller suppliers. "They are going to have to demand prices to cover their cost. There's no other way for them to survive."In turn, AlphaUSA is looking to pass those costs up the supply chain to mitigate its losses. "Tough luck" was the response from customers initially, but the tone has begun to change."Our customers have reluctantly started to talk to us," Lawrence said. "At this point, we have no customers standing their ground, but we have no customers that have come up with a solution yet."New territoryThe supply chain friction has kept Sharkey and Walters and others like them plenty busy. As it happens, the business of supply chain litigation has never been better.In Sharkey's nearly three decades of work in the field, he said he has never handled so many commercial disputes at once, not even in the 2008-09 financial crisis. Walters, who's been in the business for around the same length of time, said he doesn't see the situation improving anytime soon."I would say that this is definitely new territory," Walters said. "It's certainly fair to say that many suppliers have been financially stressed and may not last through this pandemic and global supply chain catastrophe."One of them is Battle Creek-based Stewart Industries LLC, a 20-year-old, minority-owned company that supplies assemblies to the automotive industry, including major customer Denso Corp. Just before Thanksgiving, Stewart Industries sent an email to clients informing them that the business would be closing and parts would stop shipping."Today, we are not ashamed to be deeply emotional as we write to inform you that Stewart Industries LLC, being burdened with a historic financial crisis, is discontinuing our business," said the letter obtained by Crain's Detroit Business, signed by CEO Joseph Stewart and President Erick Stewart.The company could not be reached for comment. Denso, through a spokesman, declined to comment.There will likely be more suppliers that will succumb to financial troubles, as industry analysts predict the gummed-up supply chain and microchip famine will persist at least into the first half of next year. Losing a supplier unexpectedly is a headache for purchasing departments in normal times — amid a supply crisis, it could be a major blow."There are lessons to be learned from the '08-'09 situation and the decimation of the supply base that resulted because of that, and I think OEMs are looking at this particular situation differently as a result," Walters said.All in this togetherBoth Walters and Sharkey said they have also never seen automakers so willing to come to the table on deal restructuring that does not favor them. Talks have included potential concessions previously unheard of, including retroactive price increases, acceleration of payment terms, longer-term contracts, raw material price indexes and the general sharing of volatility associated with production costs.Typically, the only shakeup would come from automakers putting pressure on suppliers to cut costs."It's been amazing," Sharkey said. "Some have taken a surprisingly generous view and they've been actually giving price increases. Now, there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny, but I've actually been surprised that some of the OEs are actually giving price increases because right now everyone's having trouble getting supply, so they want to be the supplier's favorite customer."The lack of supply chain-related lawsuits also indicates a desire by companies to resolve disputes before litigation. Earlier this year, Stellantis NV supplier JVIS-USA made headlines when it sued NXP Semiconductors, alleging that the chip maker's failure to ship semiconductors would cause a shutdown of the Jeep plant in Detroit. The gush of similar lawsuits predicted by some has not happened.Some OEMs are more willing to renegotiate than others, just as some suppliers have different breaking points before asking customers for concessions. Sharkey and Walters declined to name clients.Stellantis and General Motors Co. declined to make anyone available to interview for this story. Ford did not respond to requests for comment.Automakers keep purchasing strategies close to the vest, but whether and how they decide to help their suppliers absorb costs has an impact on their bottom lines, about which they must answer to investors."Obviously, I'm not going to go into any detail on any conversations that we're having across our supply base, but what I would say is the singular focus is making sure that we have consistency and reduce some of the volatility that we've seen in the supply chain, whether it's due to logistics or semiconductors, etc.," GM CFO Paul Jacobson said during an October call with investors.During a call with investors last month, Toyota executives briefly discussed the topic of price negotiations with suppliers and emphasized the need to accommodate both sides."With regard to relations with suppliers, well, we would like to coexist with our suppliers so that we can reduce cost and enhance the competitiveness together," Kenta Kon, operating officer at Toyota, said during the call. "We would like to enhance competitiveness of suppliers, and we would like to reap the achievements fairly, together."Several big suppliers have echoed the all-in-this-together sentiment. Robert Lee, president of Automotive Technologies Continental North America, told Crain's in a recent interview that the company is having "constructive dialogue" with customers regarding new supply deals."It's not a situation where there's no appetite to entertain any of this type of discussion. It's not like that at all," Lee said. "We're having those discussions, and I would say that we as an industry have to recognize that everyone needs to have value creation and make sure that there is a fair distribution of the value that's coming out of the industry."Being able to pass price increases up the supply chain is a win for suppliers. Not so much for the consumer, who the industry is ultimately counting on to absorb the final cost."The most likely scenario is automakers at least sharing in these costs, and then there's going to be a need [for costs] to be passed on somewhere else," Lawrence said. "Most likely, I think it means significant increases to vehicles' sticker prices."source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/supply-chain-crisis-shifts-power-balance-between-automakers-suppliersedit : handler

Editor 2022-02-22

Automation suppliers help meet demand for COVID-19 testing kits

Automation suppliers help meet demand for COVID-19 testing kitsAs the need for in-home COVID-19 testing balloons because of the highly contagious omicron variant, automation suppliers are responding with technology to help producers keep up with demand.At about one to two parts per second, Lanco Integrated conservatively estimates its seven medical diagnostics manufacturer customers are assembling about 700 million COVID diagnostics tests annually, Kevin Herbig, account manager at Lanco Integrated, told Plastics News.Lanco's existing customers have asked for duplicate machines for diagnostics tests "as soon as they can get it," Herbig said."We've continued to see growth because some of those customers have scaled their production and, like any investment, they're trying to see oversupply," he said.The customers, facing labor shortages, also needed automated processes so their operators wouldn't have to manually process kits at an impossibly fast cycle time.Lanco is also working to offer its customers "flexible" machine investments with additional part types that can diagnose different conditions when the pandemic finally wanes, he said."There will always be a need to test for something," Herbig said. While the products being assembled remain the same, such as lateral flows, membranes and swabs, the core component in the machine will change to allow for new variable data, lot numbers and marketing on the products.The company has also seen an increase in demand for lab automation machines that can "take a sample with a barcode on it, scan it, put into some type of test and get the reading," Herbig said. Manual transmission of information can sometimes be "unreliable," he said, as "people make mistakes."Lanco's Westbrook, Maine, facility is hiring to keep up with high demand for the machines and additional components, he added.The company has been able to avoid some supply chain constraints by making "strategic buys within components we use as standards," Herbig said. "We have the ability to make changes, not only to enter the marketplace but also with what [materials] the supply chain can give us."Since most of its customers are developing new products to market, the end product is typically still in final development phases when Lanco is finalizing the machine, he said. "Since it's a custom piece of equipment, it's easier to give the customers [another] option.""The U.S. federal government plans to distribute 500 million at-home COVID testing devices, and medical device manufacturers are stepping up to meet this significant demand," Vernon Murray, president of Branson assembly and welding at Emerson, said in an emailed statement.Emerson is ramping up production of its ultrasonic and laser welding technologies to meet its customers' demand for assembly of COVID testing devices "as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible," Murray said."Ultrasonic welding is very quick and economic," Didier Perret, medical business development manager at Branson assembly and welding at Emerson, told PN in an interview. "It's able to work with very low force, and in many cases those medical device assembly are delicate."The "housing" portion of an at-home diagnostics test starts as two halves that are welded together, Perret said.Laser welding "is becoming the process of choice," Perret said, to produce microfluidic paths, also used in in-vitro diagnostic systems, human drug-delivery systems or implantable medical devices."A high-growth area in these products are in point-of-care and in-home analyzers," he said.The welding machines also have software to digitalize production data from the shop floor "from the molding machine to the packaging machine, all included in one controller," he said.The software connects "the different steps of production and have an online view of … the process … and what to do in order to avoid producing scrap," Perret added. It also holds fully automated records of standards of production of the medical devices it assembles "removing human error," he said.Emerson's customers are shifting away from using PVC in medical devices, which is used to make tubing and IV bags, masks, breast-pump kits and catheters, over concerns about dioxin and some phthalate plasticizers that are endocrine-disrupting compounds, Perret said.The ultrasonic welding machines will help customers "adapt to new materials," he said, like polyethylene and polypropylene, which "don't have the same processing characteristic."As Emerson has seen what Perret expects is a short-term increase in diagnostics demand, it has also seen a decrease in demand for kidney dialysis product assembly machines."Many people with dialysis, because they are so weak, if they get hit with COVID, they die," he said.Because those customers had less to produce, it was an opportune time to change their production from polycarbonate to alternative materials like polypropylene.Emerson has several of the machines in trial with customers, he said, and some machines already running in full assembly.source : Automation suppliers help meet demand for COVID-19 testing kits | Plastics Newsedit : plastic handler http://www.ihandler.co.kr

Editor 2022-02-22

PET recycling rates take a pandemic-related punch

PET recycling rates take a pandemic-related punchCOVID-19 impacts are disrupting domestic recycled PET supplies at a time when the market is clamoring for more of the material.PET bottle recycling slipped in 2020 to 26.6 percent in the United States, new numbers just released by the National Association for PET Container Resources show, down from 27.9 percent in 2019.With recycled PET demand soaring and supply falling, that meant the country had to rely on imports from Canada and Mexico to bridge the gap. Demand for the material increased by 10 percent year over year."Obviously, COVID during 2020 had tremendous impact on the closure of redemption centers, the shutdown of curbside collection, all of which certainly has impacted the supply," said Darrel Collier, executive director of NAPCOR. "Unfortunately, that meant we went down in the recycling rate slightly in 2020."The recycling rate tracks the percentage of PET containers that are captured for recycling. In this case, 26.6 percent of those bottles were recovered for recycling in 2020. The numbers can get confusing, but the drop in the recycling rate equates to an overall 2.3 percent decrease in the actual weight of recycled PET recovered in the United States.Collier said he is actually surprised that the amount of recycled PET only fell by 2.3 percent, considering the challenges brought on by the pandemic."I've got to say I was surprised it was as good as it was," he said. "The redemption centers, curbside, were closed a lot more than just 2 percent of the year. I think that's an indication that the demand is so strong that people found a way to continue."PET recycling volumes during different parts of 2020 show that while people were limited in their recycling abilities at certain points during the year, many did stockpile their PET until they were able to recycle the material."It's just an indicator that people are trying to do the right thing," he said.Demand for recycled PET continues to be strong and unabated, as brand owners have publicly committed to increasing their recycled content in packaging. Many have come out with 2025 or 2030 goals seeking to increase recycled content, which is creating a strong market for recycled PET even as prices have risen."The brand houses in the packaging area obviously are living up to some commitments that they have made, their sustainability commitments around content," he said. "That's evidenced by the demand despite the price premium."He said recycled PET is about 20 percent more expensive than virgin material.PET recyclers have increased consumption from about 1 billion pounds in 2010 to about 1.8 billion pounds in 2020, NAPCOR reports."Just like every plastic has its own unique properties that distinguishes itself in whatever packaging process they apply, they all have a little bit different supply-demand scenario in the recycled supply chains," Collier said. "Yes, some plastics do not have enough market demand. That is not the problem with the most recycled plastic in the world, which is PET. We have a supply problem, not a demand problem. I think that's the real message," he said.NAPCOR, in 2020, came out in support of bottle bills as a way to help increase the supply of used PET to recycle. This decision came after years of essentially stagnant recycling rates. While use of PET has grown over the years, the recycling rate has hovered around 30 percent, give or take, in recent years. Until the impact of COVID-19, that is.NAPCOR, which does not lobby, sees more of the same without a fundamental change."States with bottle deposit legislation have significantly higher collection rates than those without. I think brands and other folks are coming around to that if they are not already there. But that's the only way we're going to meet [recycled] PET content commitments we already have," Collier said.PET needs to achieve a recycling rate of 50-55 percent, about double of today's numbers, to satisfy recycled-content commitments made by companies, Collier said."I believe policy has to be a central component to that. That's not in our control. That's in the legislative control. We've had a decade of being at that 30 percent, plus or minus 2. We've essentially had a decade of no change," he said.A total of 10 states currently have deposit legislation and PET recycling rates could increase through more states adopting similar programs, or the potential for national legislation that would create uniform standards.Collier was careful in choosing his words regarding the idea of a national bottle bill, instead directing the conversation to the idea of more states getting on board to increase the overall supply."I tell you, a couple of good states in the process gets a long way towards that goal. We're all about increasing that supply," he said. "We're pointing out a problem."Strength of bottle-to-bottle PET recycling, fundamental in many brand owner sustainability campaigns, also is having an impact on how recycled PET is being used.For the first time ever, bottle applications for recycled PET outpaced fiber usage in 2020, NAPCOR said. But that's not to say that the fiber demands for products such as carpeting and textiles is waning. Bottle demand for recycled PET was up 32 percent in just one year, according to the latest numbers.NAPCOR, also for the first time, created a separate analysis of post-consumer PET thermoformed packaging in the latest report."It is very encouraging that we're seeing the growth of PET thermoforming," NAPCOR Communications Director Laura Stewart said. "It's been significant growth over the last several years."NAPCOR said PET thermoform recycling grew by 6.2 percent in 2020 to 134.1 million pounds in the United States and Canada. That's a 63 percent increase since 2017, the group said.The group now plans to include PET thermoform information in each year's report.source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/pandemic-impacts-pet-container-recycling-demand-increasesedit : handler

관리자 2021-11-24

Global 3D printing industry revenue to hit US$40.8bn by 2024

Global 3D printing industry revenue to hit US$40.8bn by 2024Constantly evolving value chains, market innovations, and cutting-edge technology developments are pushing 3D printing into the mainstream market. The global 3D printing industry revenue is expected to continue its surge 155% hitting US$40.8 billion in value by 2024, according to data gathered by LearnBonds. 3D printing enables the production of complex shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods, which is why it is widely used for small production runs, prototyping, small business, and educational use.In 2020, the global 3D printing industry is expected to be worth US$16 billion, revealed Wohlers Associates Annual Report on the State of 3D Printing. In the next two years, the market revenue is forecast to touch $25.5 billion. Statistics indicate the strong upward trend is set to continue in the following years, with the market revenue growing by a compound annual growth rate of 26.4% between 2020 and 2024.The State of 3D Printing Report by Sculpteo also revealed that in 2020, the most popular use case of 3D printing was prototyping among 68% of those asked, a 34% rise compared to 2017 figures. Another 59% of companies and businesses used the technology for proof of concept purposes, 36% more than three years ago.Statistics show that 49% of companies used 3D printing in production, a 27% rise on 2017. Research & education and creation of mechanical & spare parts follow with 42% and 40% of respondents, respectively.The survey also showed that 41% of those asked said that speeding up product development is one of the main reasons they use 3D. Offering customized products and limited series ranked as the second most-important reason for using the process. Increasing production flexibility was third among 12% of respondents.source : http://www.adsalecprj.com/en/news_show-69160.htmledit : HANDLER

editor 2021-04-21