High-density polyethylene pipes in drinking water pipelines sometimes burst in much less time than their design life, leading to leaks and/or burst pipes. Failure can be caused by a number of factors, such as defects in pipe manufacture, inadequate antioxidant addition to the polyethylene base material, corrosion caused by chemicals used to disinfect drinking water, unintended mechanical stresses, and sometimes a combination of these.
After decades of dominance, thermoplastics are once again beginning to outperform thermosetting plastics. They are slightly more difficult to process, but much cheaper than high-performance thermoplastics. Machine manufacturers are trying to make processing easier with their products and raw material manufacturers are developing new types.
Carbon nanotubes were discovered 20 years ago, but their large-scale industrial use is still to come. However, the development of manufacturing technologies and applications continues unabated. Read below about these recent advances.
In injection moulding plants today, the main aim is to use energy as efficiently as possible and to increase productivity, i.e. to reduce the production cost per piece. The foundations for this must be laid at the pre-production stage, but there is always room for improvement in the production process. Machine manufacturers and raw material producers are also trying to meet the needs of plastics processors in this respect.
Demand for EVA films has increased significantly, mainly due to the growing popularity of solar panels. One of the leading machine manufacturers has responded by introducing new equipment to increase its film production capacity. Another innovation in film production is the production of micro-layer blown films.
By incorporating special nucleating additives, the proportion of polypropylene beta crystalline moduli in press-formable sheets can be dramatically increased, making them much easier and more productive to thermoform. Among the impact resistant polystyrene press-forming parameters, the temperature of the sheet, the temperature and shape of the preforming mandrel and the depth of preforming have a significant effect on the homogeneity of the wall thickness distribution of the product. However, the pressure of the press steam and the speed of the mandrel movement have no significant effect.
Powdered PVC and its powdered additives cannot be fed directly into the extruder when manufacturing rigid PVC profiles (e.g. window profiles), but must be previously mixed into a free-flowing, granular dry blend. This technology is as old as PVC itself, but its development - above all to improve its performance and reduce its energy consumption - is still relevant today. What is new, however, is the production of a PVC dry blend filled with wood pulp
A central element of the development of the world's leading packaging manufacturers is the creation of environmentally friendly packaging. This may involve reducing the weight of the product, increasing the proportion of recycled content or reducing the carbon footprint (i.e. the total amount of carbon dioxide produced during the manufacture and use of the product). The benefits of environmentally friendly packaging need to be properly communicated to both packaging industry players and end-user customers.
The recovery of plastic waste varies widely across European countries, but where recovery is high, it is also mainly incinerated and recovered for energy. The EU is aiming for a recovery rate of 100% by 2020 and an increase in the proportion of recycled waste.
Mariann Kollár1, Gabriella Zsoldos1, Imre Kállai1 1-University of Miskolc, Institute of Ceramics and Polymer Engineering, Department of Polymer Engineering, Miskolc University City, 3515
