Plastic Fantastic News

Strength is in the jeans

Levi’s® and Dyneema® Form a Dynamic Duo with the New, Longer-lasting Stay-Strong Jeans. DSM, the producer of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMwPE), branded as Dyneema®, has joined forces with an American ‘icon of cool’ – Levi’s® 501® jeans – to create the perfect blend of strength, durability and style. Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™, protects law enforcement officers, protects hands of auto-workers in the metal industry from cuts and protects cyclists sliding on the road. And now this powerful fiber can be found in Levi’s® 501® Warrior and Trooper styles.

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BASF's designfabrik Presents Renewably Sourced PA Ultramid® S

Literally in a new light, the designfabrik at BASF is presenting its self with its latest project: the Winkel w127, a lamp designed by Dirk Winkel and produced by the renowned Swedish designer lamp manufacturer Wästberg.

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Biobased coatings and adhesives are hot! Purac.

Purac, a leading player in natural food preservation and biobased building blocks & chemicals, and Perstorp, a leading specialty chemicals company today announced a research and business development partnership for caprolactone lactide co-product, for amongst others coatings and adhesive markets.

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DSM and Novomer to develop first CO2-based resin for coatings

DSM and Novomer to develop first CO2-based resin for coatings. Royal DSM N.V. and Novomer Inc. announce that they develop a coating resin using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a raw material. This joint development project will benefit from the broad variety of DSM’s technologies and market access, in combination with the unique, efficient CO2 polymerization technology of Novomer. The chemistry and process technology for producing polymers from CO2 and propylene oxide (PO) will be developed by Novomer, while DSM will convert the polymers into resins and formulate them for target applications such as coatings, adhesives and graphic arts. Initial results are encouraging and lead to completely new and improved application properties in coatings. Given the fact that up to 50% by weight of CO2 is used as raw material, the production of these resins will result in an improved carbon footprint. The process is also expected to be highly efficient, enabling the replacement of conventional resins in a number of coating applications. Polycarbonate resins are widely known because of their superior performance and resistances and theoretically could find use in many types of coatings. Commercial use of conventional types has however always been limited due to their cost position and some weaknesses that are inherent in these products. The new CO2-based aliphatic polycarbonates to be developed by DSM and Novomer could potentially resolve these weaknesses.

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Tritan™ from EASTMAN is a bisphenol-A free plastic

Tritan™ from EASTMAN is a bisphenol-A free, copolyester material that’s tough enough to take on the dishwasher (will not dim their luster). It also has heat-resistance qualities that ensure sports bottles, and kitchenware can be manufactured in brilliant colors. Tritan™ is specified by the manufacturers of everything from reusable bottles to sippy cups. Popular in the housewares market, with blenders, coffee makers, clear plastic housings of vacuum cleaners, more lustrous finish and other products. Designers and process engineers are discovering that Tritan™ is more than a dishwasher-safe, bisphenol-A free option. They are appreciating the high-performance characteristics. For consumer electronics, the inherent toughness and chemical resistance makes it attractive for use in cell phones and media devices. The impact and chemical resistance makes it an ideal replacement for polycarbonate and glass in refrigerator ice bins and shelving. Washing machines and dryers can benefit from the same features as well as the material’s excellent heat resistance. And the allure of Tritan™ is not confined to designers and consumers. For design engineers, offers viable alternatives unrestricted by compromise. In many applications it can be a replacement for polycarbonate: no expensive retooling. Expanding this new plastic product, the possibilities available to designers and engineers.

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