event review | Compounding World Forum
Bernard Rzepka,
president and CEO of A.
Schulman, gave the keynote address on
strategies for success
cars have yet to take over, a surprising trend in Europe that fi ts this megatrend is electrically assisted bicycles, and A. Schulman has found success in co-innovating, with an OEM, an electric motor cover for these E-bikes. Rzepka recommended that companies think of different scenarios that could meet megatrend needs and embed multiple options in their plans. Compounders, whether large and global or small and
regionally focused, need to know their core competen- cies and identify how they can add value, said Duane Shooltz, president and COO of S&E Specialty Polymers. Growth can come through acquisition, organic growth, collaboration or new technologies, he explained.
Developing new markets The 3D printing market is a growth area that many are including in their strategies. It is being used to make low-volume commercial parts already, but whether it will be used for high-volume manufacturing is an open question, said Jeffrey Cernohous, general manager of the Stratasys Advanced Materials Center. One type of 3D printing is fused-deposition modelling (FDM), which uses two material types: modelling material for the fi nished piece and support material for the scaffolding. While the 3D printing market is growing at about 35% annually, global usage of polymer materials in FDM is less than 3 million lbs/year, most of which is neat PLA and ABS used as modelling materials. The FDM market for compounds is less than 500,000 lbs/yr, mostly for support material, said Cernohous. There will be opportunities for specialty compounds as the industrial side of 3D printing grows, he predicted. Other active material research areas include glass and carbon fi bre reinforcement and metal-thermoplastic-thermoset hybrid systems. Bioplastics still represent less than 1% of total
More than 300 people gathered in Philadelphia for the second Compounding World Forum
plastics usage, but continue to penetrate new markets and applications, said Edwin Tam, manager for new strategic initiatives at Teknor Apex. He discussed advances in biobased, non-biodegradable materials and reviewed some of the tweaks needed to fabricate parts using PLA in various processes.
A key market for thermoplastic compounds is substi-
tution for metals, and “smart compounding” can be used to successfully enhance the necessary properties, such as long-term heat stability or thermal conductivity, explained Dr Roland Hingmann, vice-president for structural materials processing at BASF. Work remains to be done in areas such as mixing of materials with largely different viscosities, reliable dosing and mixing of small fractions, and processing of formulations with a large number of components.
Focus on fi llers and fi bres Many types of functional fi llers and fi bres are used to enhance thermoplastic properties. Chris DeArmitt, business development manager for Polymers & Coatings at LKAB Minerals (formerly Minelco), brought some functional fi llers to the audience’s attention. Magnetite has a very high density of 5.2 g/cm3
, which is even higher
than barium sulphate. It has been used by automotive OEMs for sound and vibration dampening; it also can be used for various other applications, such as heat storage. LKAB’s phlogopite mica is specially milled to have a
very high aspect ratio (greater than 100:1), which, among other advantages, makes it very good at reducing warpage and retaining strength and modulus. LKAB’s new, pure huntite mineral, HyperCarb, has much higher temperature stability than huntite/ hydromagnesite products and thus can be used in
16
COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2015
www.compoundingworld.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88