The use of natural materials in combination with plastics is becoming increasingly popular, not only for environmental reasons, but also because these compounds offer real technical/economic benefits. The advantage of renewable raw materials is that they do not contribute to the production of greenhouse gases and their price is not closely linked to the ever increasing price of crude oil.
The market size for carbon nanotube composites is still small, yet a growing number of players believe that carbon nanotubes are at the forefront of technological development in the 21st century. More and more companies are developing products containing carbon nanotubes and carbon nanotubes with properties superior to those of conventional composites.
In addition to REACH, two other directives affect the development of compounds, masterbatches and additives. The European Union (EU) is working to reduce the use of hazardous substances and requires the recovery of materials from end-of-life electronic and electrical equipment.
The safety of electrical and electronic equipment in the EU is guaranteed by new laws. They ban the use of toxic substances, including highly effective halogenated flame retardants, while imposing strict requirements for fire safety. There is also room for improvement in the flammability testing and certification based on these tests. The results with a phosphine-based flame retardant from Clariant are encouraging.
Different wavelengths of radiation play an important role in the structural analysis of plastics, providing valuable information on both chemical structure and physical structure. The terahertz range (1011-1013 Hz) has been little used so far, although it has a wide range of applications in materials testing and quality assurance.
The increasing demand for packaging films has led to an increase in the use of multi-layer films (3-7), but equipment for blowing 9-layer films is also available in the USA and Europe. Production equipment is becoming more powerful, pulleys and nozzles are becoming more universal and the drive system is being upgraded. Without automation, it is no longer possible to produce a product of sufficient quality.
The production of films with 3-7 layers is now routine, but technically up to 11 layers can be blown. W&H has developed a blow mould for the production of 9-layer films and gave a demonstration to K'2007 visitors. The EDI company's muliplier technology can mould a film made up of 30 or more layers.
By foaming the inner layer of plastic products, they become lighter and many other properties are also improved. In injection moulding, the most widely used process for foaming the core is the MuCell process, which has many advantages but has the disadvantage that it does not produce a nice surface finish. This can be overcome partly by using suitable raw materials and partly by combining other technologies, e.g. gas back pressure. Newer technologies are also being developed to foam the core.
In the past, increasing productivity is now the main objective of plastics processing machine designers, but today it is energy saving. Plasticising consumes most of the energy, so new processes are being developed, particularly for forming the screw and heating the cylinder.
Plastic products with metal inserts have long been known. With this solution, it is important that the plastic and metal adhere well to each other. Today, metal/plastic hybrids can also be produced by coating the surface of the plastic with nano-sized metal particles to increase the strength of the plastic object.
The packaging industry is increasingly being asked to reduce the amount of materials and waste it uses. Much has already been done to improve the shelf-life and quality of food products, but there are still many ideas on the table. But there is no doubt that they can only be realised with the help of plastics.
Today, most of the products of agriculture and horticulture are not produced in open fields, if not in plastic tents covered with plastic film, but are used for many other purposes. These are subject to very stringent requirements which can only be met with a multi-layered product (usually 3-5 layers, but up to 11 or 30 layers in the case of moulded films). There is also a growing interest in biodegradable films.
In the automotive industry, depending on where the component is to be installed, a variety of surface qualities of cranes are required. The external components of trucks are subject to heavy stress. They are now manufactured from coloured TPO instead of the lacquer-coated elements used up to now.
So far, metals have played the main role in the load-bearing structures of rail vehicles. However, as a result of developments, the use of plastic structural foams is nowadays increasing in order to reduce weight and costs.
The dream of every plastics processing professional is to be able to select the optimum plastic material for the product they want to manufacture with just a few clicks of a button. Today, it is almost impossible to get an overview of the range of materials available by comparing traditional brochure data, which is why databases are becoming increasingly important. Two databases that are easy to use and free of charge are described below.
The market data for plastics processing machinery provide an indication of the development and expansion of the manufacturing industry. China is the main threat to the market leadership in machinery and accessories, but the real breakthrough is still to come. The Chinese data, both in terms of own production and consumption, highlight the huge size of the Chinese market.
The recycling of spent electronic equipment components is a complex and costly process due to the different types of materials involved. Recycling has been boosted by the European Union's directive on the collection of electrical and electronic waste. Recycling technologies for plastic waste can be used in other areas to produce higher quality products more economically.
Based on the frequency of their use and the quantity used, plastics can be classified according to the method commonly used in the literature into the so-called material pyramid.
