Oil holds near 2012 low

The price of oil is holding near the lowest levels of the year. Benchmark U.S. crude added 34 cents to $91 per barrel in New York while Brent crude rose by 38 cents to $106.93 per barrel in London.

Both crude varieties have tumbled this month on forecasts of weaker world demand and higher supplies. U.S. crude closed Wednesday at $89.90, its lowest close since October.

The economies of the two biggest oil consumers — the U.S. and China — appear to be slowing down. And many analysts are betting that the European Union will fall into a recession as it struggles with massive government debts. Meanwhile, some of the world’s largest oil producing countries have been exporting more crude this year, boosting supplies.

Iran also appears to be interested in defusing tensions over its nuclear program. Tough talk between Iran and the West pushed oil prices higher earlier this year. The U.S. and other world leaders fear Iran is building a nuclear weapon, a charge the oil-rich country denies. Negotiators for the two side made little progress this week but agreed to further talks, which analysts consider a promising sign.

In the U.S., retail gasoline prices fell by a penny to $3.666 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded has declined by 27 cents since the first week of April, giving motorists some last-minute relief at the pump before Memorial Day weekend.

In other futures trading, natural gas fell by 8.1 cents, or 3 percent, to $2.566 per 1,000 cubic feet. Analysts say natural gas prices are falling after government weather forecasts showed temperatures next week would be lower than previously expected. If the weather is cool, fewer people will use their air conditioners, and that will lower demand for natural gas-generated electricity.

Heating oil and wholesale gasoline both added nearly a penny a piece to $2.8312 and $2.8839 per gallon, respectively.

Source : http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UVQUB00.htm

]]> http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/oil-holds-near-2012-low/feed/ 0 http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/oil-holds-near-2012-low/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=oil-holds-near-2012-low http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PlasticsNewsPlasticsJobsPlasticsPricesUsedPlasticsMachinesPolymersPlasticsinfomartcom/~3/e4jaxqVvl54/ http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/sabic-adding-multiwall-pc-sheet-extrusion-in-india/#comments Sat, 26 May 2012 06:49:01 +0000 Plasticsinfomart Team http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/?p=4708

Sabic adding multiwall PC sheet extrusion in India

Sabic Innovative Plastics has started up a line making multiwall polycarbonate sheet at its plant in Vadodara, India.

The new line is needed to meet rising consumer demand in the region for Lexan Thermoclear-brand multiwall PC sheet for use in roofing and glazing in construction and greenhouse markets, officials said in a May 25 news release. Pittsfield, Mass.-based Sabic IP made the announcement at the Roof India 2012 trade show in Chennai, India.

The line “showcases how Sabic delivers its broad portfolio to virtually all regions of the world, so customers can benefit from faster lead times and expanded supplies,” South Asia sheet and film business leader Sanjiv Vasudeva said in the release.

The expansion comes two years after Sabic IP installed two lines in Vadodara to make PC sheet for industrial roofing and metro-rail seating, for local customers in India. The Vadodara sheet operation is next to a Sabic IP compounding plant there.

Sabic IP ranks as one of the world’s largest makers of PC and other engineering resins. The firm is a unit of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The parent firm is one of the world’s largest petrochemicals makers with annual sales of almost $8 billion.

Source : http://plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=25552

Sumitomo plans TPO, EVA production in Saudi Arabia

Sumitomo Chemical’s joint venture in Saudi Arabia—Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh)—has received the green light from its owners to construct new production assets in the Gulf, including plants for thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and low-density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate (LDPE/EVA).

The plants that have received the go-ahead should be on-stream beginning the first half of 2016. Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo) and its local partner The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) are also mulling the production of nylon 6 resin at the site. The partners are investing a total of $7 billion in the new production assets, which also include superabsorbent polymer (SAP) and petrochemicals such as polyols,

The Petro Rabigh joint venture is already a major player in plastics supply in Asia and elsewhere, with polypropylene, linear low-density polyethylene and high-density polyethylene plants operating commercially since September 2009. —mpweditorial@ubm.com

Source : http://www.plasticstoday.com/articles/sumitomo-plans-tpo-eva-production-saudi-arabia-ldpe-nylon-120525a

SOLVAY OPENS A MAJOR INNOVATION CENTRE IN INDIA

Solvay is today inaugurating its new Research, Development and Technology Centre at Savli, Gujarat State, India. The Centre will focus its efforts mainly on the development of high-performance polymers, organic chemistry, nano composites and green chemistry. Housed in a new and high-performance sustainable building, it will employ over 200 researchers when fully operational.

The RD&T Centre will tap the country’s huge innovation talent potential and carry out open innovation in collaboration with premier institutes in India. The Centre has also established three fellowships for research in sustainable chemistry, nano technology and polymer science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. The collaboration between university, research institutes and business organizations is essential to foster breakthrough innovation, speeding up the design process and the launch of new products in the market.

“I am convinced that India offers to Solvay significant growth opporunities and this Center will be a key contributor to implement our strategy in the country”, said Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Solvay during the inauguration ceremony.

“We will focus on customer-tailored innovation for the region by leveraging the various strengths of the Group and the innovation potential of the regional academic world,” added Sanjay Charati, Head of the Research, Development and Technology Centre in India.

The Solvay Group has been active in India since 2000. With 7 production sites and about 900 employees in the country, it principally manufactures specialty polymers, engineering plastics, surfactants and special chemicals. The Group generated EUR 180 million of net sales in India last year and has the ambition to double its sales in the country within the next 3 years.

SOLVAY is an international chemical Group committed to sustainable development with a clear focus on innovation and operational excellence. It generates over 90% of its sales in markets where it is among the top three leaders. Solvay offers a broad range of products that contribute to improving the quality of life and the performance of its customers in markets such as consumer goods, construction, automotive, energy, water and environment, and electronics. The Group is headquartered in Brussels, employs about 29,000 people in 55 countries and generated EUR 12.7 billion in net sales in 2011. Solvay SA (SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg: SOLB.BB – Reuters: SOLBt.BR).

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/25/idUS49942+25-May-2012+HUG20120525

Max India Q4 net loss narrows at Rs 1.39 crore

NEW DELHI: Diversified business group Max India today reported a narrowing of net loss at Rs 1.39 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 driven by robust growth in speciality plastic products business.

The company had posted a net loss of Rs 13.47 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal, Max India said in a filing to BSE.

Total income of the company for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2012, however, rose to Rs 194.43 crore from Rs 129.16 crore for the same period a year ago.

During the quarter, the company’s specialty plastics business recorded revenue of Rs 173.72 crore as against Rs 117.08 crore in the year-ago period, it said.

The company further said it paid an advance sum of Rs 24.05 crore against equity investment in its subsidiary, Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd during the period under review.

Subsequently on May 1, 2012 the company has been allotted the shares for the said amount, Max India said.

The company on March 28 this year acquired 7,142,857 equity shares of Rs 10 each of its subsidiary Max Healthcare Institute Ltd from S&G Investments at an acquisition price of Rs 50 per equity share aggregating Rs 35.71 crore, it added.

For the year ended March 31, 2012 net loss of the company stood at Rs 15.44 crore. It was Rs 42.10 crore in the previous fiscal.

Total income of the company for the year ended March 31, 2012 rose to Rs 747 crore from Rs 462.95 crore in the previous year fiscal.

Shares of Max India were trading at Rs 192.55 apiece in the afternoon trade on BSE, up 1.58 per cent from its previous close.

Source : http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-24/news/31840249_1_total-income-equity-share-aggregating-max-healthcare-institute

Metallic glass inserts eyed for 'lab-on-chip' microfluidics

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have been in the news because of Apple’s research into their potential in consumer electronics devices such as iPads.

They also have significant potential to create injection mold inserts with nano-scale features.

In an article published in Materials Today, Michael Gilchrist, David Browne and colleagues at University College Dublin describe the potential for BMGs, which were discovered at CalTech about thirty years ago. They are a sophisticated brew of exotic metals which–if processed very carefully–form amorphous structures. Most metals have crystalline structures.

The amorphous structure means that BMGs can be injection molded like plastics and they can be machined with microscopic precision below the grain size of conventional metals. They also retain the strength and durability of normal metals.

Gilchrist and his colleagues showed how microscopic features can be machined on to the surface of a BMG. The tool steel typically used in molds cannot be machined with better than 10 micrometer precision because of its crystalline grain structure.

“Our technology is a new process for mass producing high-value polymer components, on the micrometer and nanometer-scale,” says Gilchrist. “This is a process by which high-volume quantities of plastic components can be mass produced with one hundred times more precision, for costs that are at least ten times cheaper than currently possible.”

Plastics components can have surface features of a similar size to mammalian cells at 10 micrometers or even the smallest viruses at less than 100 nanometers. The new manufacturing process could thus allow “lab-on-a-chip” devices to be constructed that could handle and test samples containing single cells and viruses or large biomolecules including DNA and proteins.

“These precision plastic parts are the high value components of microfluidic devices, lab-on-chip diagnostic devices, micro implantable components and MEMS sensors,” Gilchrist adds.

Once the technology is extended to the tens of nanometers length scale, the team suggests that it could be used to make high-volume, low-cost, information storage systems. The team is currently optimizing their technology with this goal in mind.

The research team concludes, “The worldwide trend of miniaturization means that these devices and components are getting progressively smaller and smaller; the problem faced by today’s technologies is that they will soon be unable to manufacture at these smaller dimensions at competitive prices. If you just consider the microfluidic devices market without the biological content: this is forecast to reach $5 billion by 2016.”

Source : http://www.plasticstoday.com/articles/metallic-glass-inserts-eyed-lab-chip-microfluidics0524201201

]]> http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/metallic-glass-inserts-eyed-for-lab-on-chip-microfluidics/feed/ 0 http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/metallic-glass-inserts-eyed-for-lab-on-chip-microfluidics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metallic-glass-inserts-eyed-for-lab-on-chip-microfluidics http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PlasticsNewsPlasticsJobsPlasticsPricesUsedPlasticsMachinesPolymersPlasticsinfomartcom/~3/OG_HTFaCL9E/ http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/plastics-industry-gagged-when-it-comes-to-publicising-olympic-success/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 06:13:21 +0000 Plasticsinfomart Team http://www.plasticsinfomart.com/?p=4688

Plastics industry gagged when it comes to publicising Olympic success

At the British Plastics Federation’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, 23rd May, Philip Watkins, President of the British Plastics Federation expressed astonishment that due to LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympics Games)) onerous restrictions on publicity he could not, 66 days away from the Olympics opening ceremony list BPF members success in supplying products to the London Olympics.

Mr Watkins said: “The Prime Minister says the Games will “generate at least £1bn for British business. But it’s not much good if we can’t talk about our successes.”

“LOCOG seems to have been given unprecedented powers by the last Government. What the BPF have been pushing for since early April is for LOCOG to release immediately all suppliers and sub suppliers from their contract clauses preventing any publicity or communication.”

Briefed by the BPF, Lord Haskel asked in the House of Lords Olympics debate on Monday, “Will the Government make good their rhetoric and take steps to allow British businesses to use the Olympics as a shop window for all the wonderful materials and products they have supplied?”

Baroness Gardener of Frognal, replying on behalf of the Government, offered no comfort that they could do so before the Olympics take place. She agreed with Lord Moynihan Chairman of the British Olympics Association that this might only be possible when LOCOG returns the rights to the British Olympics Association at the end of the year.

“This is useless for our members,” Mr Watkins commented. “The London Olympics will be past history by then. The World would have moved on and our role in contributing to the Games design, innovation and sustainability will be forgotten. An opportunity lost. We will continue to press for the ban to be lifted.”

Source : http://www.britishplastics.co.uk/x/guideArchiveArticle.html?id=34704

LED lighting concept proven through prototyped acrylic light pipe

A prototype of a light pipe that illuminates an integral subassembly for the 2013 Dodge Dart center console cup holder was taken from tool design to finished parts in the space of three and a half weeks by Urgent Plastic Services (UPS), part of rapid prototyping and low-volume specialist 3-Dimensional Services Group (Rochester Hills, MI).

“Complicating the task was the fact that these light pipes weren’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill lighting fixtures, but rather, part of a bold new concept in automotive interior lighting,” says Steve Kelly, senior sales engineer with the 3-Dimensional Services Group. “Fed by two LED light sources, the color and intensity of the light at each point in the light pipe is the same as at every other point,” Kelly explains. “In other words, there is no drop off in intensity or color as the light travels away from its source. This is an example of homogenous lighting, a concept which opens the door for a single LED light source to supply light to multiple devices.”

At first glance the light pipe design is a simple one: a thin acrylic tube that approximates a figure eight in shape, with two tabs, one on each side, into which the LEDs project the light but appearance in this case is deceiving. “These plain looking plastic parts actually incorporate precision optics,” says Kelly. Creating those optics requires superior accuracy in production along with a high degree of cleanliness in the manufacturing process. This is because any flaw, or any piece of foreign matter in the pipe, can hinder or even halt the flow of light through the pipe.

The steel mold for the light pipe was cut on a Makino V56 high-speed vertical machining center. In most cases, tools machined on the V56 require relatively little hand polishing because of their superior surface finishes. In this case, however, intensive hand polishing was needed to achieve the exceptional level of surface finish required to provide the homogenous lighting color and intensity all around the light pipe.

Further, the light pipe’s precision optics consisted in large part of minute optical prisms imparted to it by the tool. These ensure continuous transference of the light throughput the light pipe and were cut into the mold in part by the machining center but some smaller, more delicate features required EDMing. These procedures were followed by “graining,” which is the physical acid etching of the mold designed to ensure the homogenous spread of light throughout the pipe. This is a manual operation requiring high precision.

Tool fabrication was followed by molding on a Cincinnati 220-ton injection machine. Here, too, attention to detail was a must. “The acrylic raw material had to be pure,” says Kelly, “and the work area kept scrupulously clean.”

Despite all this effort, and with the project’s deadline fast approaching, the results weren’t exactly what Federal Mogul had envisioned. UPS engineers joined with the Federal Mogul team to scrutinize the design and ended up making changes to the design of the tabs on either side of the pipe through which LED light is injected into the pipe in order to facilitate the entry of light and its correct spread throughout the pipe.

The auto sector is turning to LED light sources to replace traditional incandescent light bulb whose energy efficiency is only 2-5% and service life around 1,000 hours. LEDs on the other hand, use 80 percent less energy to provide the same amount of light, and last between 25,000 and 50,000 hours. Further, they do not contain toxic metals or gases found in incandescent bulbs. Energy to power lighting is ultimately provided by the vehicle’s engine so any reductions in consumption impact fuel efficiency.-mpweditorial@ubm.com

Source : http://www.plasticstoday.com/articles/led-lighting-concept-proven-through-prototyped-acrylic-light-pipe-20120524a

Loughborough's AstraZeneca site is sold to plastics firm Jayplas

The huge AstraZeneca site in Loughborough has been sold to a plastics recycling business, it was revealed today.

The 69-acre former pharmaceutical complex has been empty since December after AstraZeneca closed it with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

The research plant has been bought by J&A Young, of Northamptonshire. The company is expected to take over the site in July.

J&A Young, which trades as Jayplas, already has sites in Weldon Road and Cotton Way in the town.

Last year, the Weldon Road site was destroyed by a huge fire which continued for three days and took around 100 firefighters to bring under control.

It is not yet known what will happen to the Cotton Way plant.

AstraZeneca said it had spent the past 18 months after announcing the Bakewell Road site’s closure looking for a life science occupier, but had been unable to find one.

Jayplas has an annual turnover of £43 million and employs 160 staff at its five sites, including Corby and Oakham.

*For full story and reaction see tomorrow’s Leicester Mercury.

Source : http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Loughborough-s-AstraZeneca-site-sold-plastics/story-16174162-detail/story.html

How to bring more women into the manufacturing workforce?

Kudos to Susan Feyder for her article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune asking why more women aren’t entering the manufacturing workforce…

Feyder says that, overall, women account for less than one-third of Minnesota’s manufacturing workforce. That number includes nonproduction jobs, though, which means the actual number of women working on factory floors may be even lower.

The irony is that manufacturing is a far more skilled, high-tech profession than is commonly perceived. But overcoming such misinformation takes time.

Feyder cites the work of the Tapani sisters– co-presidents of Wyoming Machine Inc. in Stacy, Minnesota. The sisters have been trying to bring more women into the manufacturing sector, especially as manufacturing seems to be adding jobs in the past two years.

To draw more women into challenging manufacturing work, though, the Tapani’s say that they need to overcome some stereotypical views that manufacturing is “dirty and dull,” and “not at all a suitable career for a woman.”

However, the opportunities may be there. Some factories report difficulty in finding qualified workers, particularly for positions as welders, skilled machinists, and engineers. Additionally, it’s projected that demand for skilled factory workers will increase with the gradual departure of the Baby Boom generation from the workforce.

All of this presents a potentially new workforce challenge for manufacturing, and one that women seeking good-paying careers may be able to fill.

Source : http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/how-bring-more-women-manufacturing-workforce