SPI rebrands itself as Plastics Industry Association
New medical grade materials to be unveiled at PLASTEC West
Weekly Resin Report: PE prices continue to slide
Of Cheap Oil and Fracking
A new geological survey performed in Texas has revealed the largest oil discovery in US history. An area that encompasses Lubbock and Midland Texas is now estimated to have 20 billion barrels of oil and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas according to CNN. This discovery of shale oil is 3 times larger than the discovery in North Dakota that lead to the oil boom there that started in 2006 and ended in 2015.
You might think that this discovery is really good news for the United States. But there is one problem.
News Digest 12/5/2016
Vegan Automotive Interiors?
Recently, the former front-man of the band The Smiths and well known vegan activist, Morrissey, sent a letter to GM CEO, Mary Barra, suggesting that General Motors offer a vegan interior option in their two electric vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt and Bolt.
This got me to thinking. Are automakers missing out on a market by not offering specific animal product-free vehicle option packages? The only auto company that currently offers a package like this is Tesla. The now defunct soon to be reborn Fiskar used to offer a vegan interior with their “Ecochic” option package in their car which was called the Karma.
News Digest 11/27/2016
Happy Thanksgiving from The Weekly Pellet
Helping Your Customer Pick A Color
Editors note: This article is not sponsored by Pantone LLC®.
What do you do when you have customers that are trying to pick colors for a new product? You can send them to the website of a color concentrate manufacturer to look at the stock colors that they make but that won’t provide many options.
I would suggest that you have them look at Pantone® colors. If you are not familiar with Pantone colors, let me explain.
News Digest 11/21/2016
Solvay’s Ryton PPS used in new racing electric coolant pump
A. Schulman makes cuts to it’s middle management staff
New Alliance of North American plastic recyclers
New lock out rules for Michigan injection molders begins January 1, 2017 Also here
Weekly Resin Report: Election results rattle resin export market
Solvay launches new nylon materials with improved heat performance
Elix Polymers introducing new lower density PC/ABS grades
News Digest 11/14/2016
Nylon replaces steel for transmission oil pan
A. Schulman posts big loss for 4th quarter 2016
LG Chemical to double ABS production at Chinese plant
BASF to invest in plastic additives business
Global medical plastics market continues to see growth
Weekly resin report: PE, PP price decreases anticipated
All About ABS
While everyone reading this has at least some familiarity with ABS, I wanted to take a more in depth look at ABS and how it’s made. As it turns out, there are several methods for making this commonly used material and knowing how it’s made might help you recommend the right material to your customer.
