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FEBRUARY 2022 SUSTAINABILITY MORPHS CONSTRUCTION DNA DESIGNERS DEVELOP ECO-FRIENDLY RESIN KITS Focus is on circular benefits of materials PLUSINSIDE PLASTICS ENGINEERING VOLUME 78 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2022 14 Design Notes THINK POSITIVE A new type of sample kit for designers, engineers and product managers features only eco-friendly polymers. Sustainability INCREDIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE Polymers find growing use as construction materials, providing multiple benefits and sustainability. 20 26 GET YOUR OWN! Plastics Engineering keeps plastics industry professionals informed of the latest news and in-depth reporting on state-of-the-art and emerging technologies that impact the R&D and processing of plastics products. This is the magazine every plastics industry professional NEEDS to read. 4spe.org/Subscribe 4 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IS NEW Recovering and recycling plastics from buildings results in sustainable, circular products. COVER STORY www.plasticsengineering.org | FEBRUARY 2022 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 138 | As I See It PEACE MAKER Recycling is good, but plants can rouse local opposition. Brightmark CEO Bob Powell shares how to win support. 29 | Editor's Choice TESTS CONFIRM THE BENEFITS OF NEW PVC PLASTICIZER Research in Canada demonstrates that PCL-based additives are as effective as phthalate plasticizers, and green. 11 | Data Points Top 10 survey of internet tech articles highlights eight of interest for plastics. 12 | Black History Month RESPECT AND RECOGNITION SPE and DEI Advisory Board recognize and celebrate Black achievement. 47 | Calendar 48 | Ad/Editorial Index INSIDE PLASTICS ENGINEERING VOLUME 78 NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2022 41 | New Product News 36 5 | Set Point UAE slates trading platform for recycled plastics; advanced polymers fly with JWST. 40 | SPE News SURFACE ENHANCEMENT Plasma treatment is an established process that can add performance and value to polymer parts. 32 OPTIMIZE SCREW REPLACEMENT A custom design can improve the process quality and productivity of extrusion screws as well as processing costs. 2 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | FEBRUARY 2022 | www.plasticsengineering.orgPatrick Toensmeier Editor-in-Chief (203) 777-1474 ptoensmeier@4spe.org Michael Greskiewicz Director, Sales & Advertising (203) 740-5411 mgreskiewicz@4spe.org Ryan Foster Art Director (203) 740-5410 rfoster@4spe.org Sue Wojnicki Director of Communications (203) 740-5420 swojnicki@4spe.org Editorial & Publishing Staff President Jason Lyons CEO Patrick Farrey President-Elect Bruce Mulholland Vice President – Chapters & Secretary ScottEastman Vice President – Business & Finance / Treasurer James Waddell Vice President – Professional Development Pavan Valavala Vice President – Sustainability Conor Carlin Vice President – Member Engagement Lynzie Nebel Vice President – Publications Raymond Pearson Vice President at Large Paul Martin Past President Jaime Gómez SPE 2021-2022 Executive Board Contributing Editors NANCY D. LAMONTAGNE ndlamontagne@gmail.com Nancy D. Lamontagne reports on science, technology and engineering. Topics she covers for Plastics Engineering include thermoforming, blow molding, medical plastics, packaging, and education and career development. ROBERT GRACE bob@rcgrace.com Robert Grace has been in B2B journalism since 1980. He covers design and business for Plastics Engineering and is editor of SPE’s Journal of Blow Molding. Professional memberships include the Industrial Designers Society of America. JENNIFER MARKARIAN technicalwritingsolutions@comcast.net Jennifer Markarian focuses on technology. A chemical engineer, she began her career in product development with Mobil Chemical’s polyethylene group. She is also newsletter editor for SPE’s Palisades-New Jersey Section. CATHY NESTRICK Cathy Nestrick is the former vice president and general counsel of Berry Global Group Inc., a Fortune 500 manufacturer and marketer of plastics packaging and engineered materials. She is the founder and co-host of Parity Podcast, which focuses on accelerating gender equality. www.plasticsengineering.org | FEBRUARY 2022 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 3 PEGGY MALNATI peggy@malnatiandassociates.com Peggy Malnati has over 30 years’ experience covering plastics, composites and automotive. She has organized technical conferences for SPE and served as board member and communications chair for SPE’s Automotive Division. GEOFF GIORDANO geoffgio@verizon.net Geoff Giordano has been a contributor to Plastics Engineering since 2009, covering a range of topics, including additives, infrastructure, flexible electronics, design software, 3D printing and nanotechnology. FROM THE T here’s a curious thing about numbers: people usually do simple arithmetic well enough, but when minimally challenging calculations and the ability to put them in context are required, many prefer to avoid doing the math and thinking beyond the immediate numbers in front of them, relying instead on others, especially in the media, for information and interpretation. What could go wrong? Quite a lot. Issues that affect people’s lives and influence debates about policy, programs, and public and private initiatives can gain or lose support according to how readily digestible facts and especially figures are to politicians and their constituents, special interest groups and their audiences, and others with a stake in public debate. News stories occasionally illustrate the misleading information that numbers without context represent. In January, for example, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on the negative environmental impact of kitchen stoves that use natural gas for cooking. Methane, the reporter explained, is a major component of natural gas, and using gas as a fuel means that stoves emit methane, a more potent climate-warming gas than carbon dioxide. The stove emissions are in the range of 0.8 to 1.3 percent, according to a new study from PSE Healthy Energy of Oakland, Calif., a scientific and advocacy group, and Stanford University, and come from methane that is not burned during cooking and leaks into the atmosphere. But even when not in use, loose couplings and fittings between stoves and gas pipes generate leaks that are responsible for 80 percent of methane emissions, the study reported. This is a problem that affects new stoves as well as old ones and multiple brands, the study found. There are slightly more than 40 million U.S. households that use gas stoves. The study stated that collectively the amount of leaked methane they generate over one year has about the same climate change effect as the carbon dioxide from 500,000 gasoline-powered cars. This is an interesting and potentially important story. Certainly, no one wants to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions by cooking dinner or boiling water for coffee, much less by drying the wash or taking a hot shower. According to the NPR report, climate activists have been working to convince people to convert gas utilities in their home to electric power, and lines are being drawn between advocates of natural gas and those who want to phase out use of the fuel, as several major cities have done with recent building codes. In response, the NPR report said that 20 states have passed legislation to prevent cities from banning natural gas connections in new buildings, as the U.S. works toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 as mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement. The study’s data are accurate, no doubt—it was peer-reviewed— but only 53 natural gas stoves were sampled throughout California. With just over 40 million U.S. households having gas-powered stoves—one-third of all households in the country—a question should be raised as to whether the size of the sample is truly reflective of the emissions concerns cited for natural gas cooking. As for the finding that a year’s worth of methane emissions from gas stoves has the same impact on climate change as the carbon dioxide emissions of 500,000 cars, more context is needed. In 2020, the U.S. had 287 million cars on the roads. The 500,000 cars the study refers to with regards to eliminating carbon emissions represents a statistically insignificant 0.2 percent of the total. One can applaud efforts to reduce carbon emissions, but is 0.2 percent enough to justify the dislocation that bans or severe restrictions on natural gas would cause for industry personnel? Considering that just over 100,000 people are employed by natural gas distributors alone, probably not. Advocacy is important, studies are valuable, and a clean environment is of benefit to everyone. But living in a modern society inevitably has tradeoffs. These should be eliminated when possible. To strike the right balance, numbers, which are vital to informed decision-making, need to be presented and analyzed in context. PAT TOENSMEIER Editor-in-Chief ptoensmeier@4spe.org NUMBERS AND CONTEXT 4 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | FEBRUARY 2022 | www.plasticsengineering.orgSET POINT In a major development designed to facilitate the global trade of recycled plastics, the United Arab Emirates has announced plans to create a quality- assured trading platform for plastics feedstock. Dubbed the Rebound Plastic Exchange (www. reboundplasticexchange.com), this platform for certified recycled plastics aims to enable buyers, sellers and governments to efficiently trade plastics feedstock for recycling with trust and confidence. It is scheduled to open for trading by mid-2022. Its founders estimate that by 2025, Rebound will have traded 5 million tons of recycled plastics, which would be the carbon dioxide equivalent of removing emissions from 5 million cars. The multisector conglomerate International Holding Co. (IHC), which was founded in 1989 and is the largest company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, announced the plan to create the platform on Jan. 18. The new exchange says it will introduce globally recognized standards, certification, insurance and quality assurance into the supply chain for recycled plastics. The initiative aims to increase the efficiency of recycling plastics at scale, provide new economic opportunities and reduce the impact of plastics pollution on the planet, according to Doug Woodring, who conceived the project. The news takes on additional significance since more than 70 businesses—including major pack- aging firms such as Berry Global Group Inc., Am- cor Ltd., Alpla Inc. and Greiner AG, and global brands like Coca-Cola Co. and Walmart Inc.—issued a statement on Jan. 17 urging negotiators at the UN Environment Assembly session in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 28 to March 5, to start serious talks on a glob- al treaty aimed at cutting virgin plastics production. Woodring, a serial entrepreneur and founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance non-governmental organization in Hong Kong, said in a recent telephone interview that the timing is a “perfect storm” for this platform to be created. It is the big intervention needed to facilitate the creation of a global circular economy for plastics feedstock and to greatly improve recycling capacities. Additionally, he said, the UAE is the ideal partner to host this project, as it has the vision, leadership and long-term thinking for bringing about large-scale solutions from which the world will benefit. “Plastic pollution is one of the most complex environmental problems of our time,” says Maryam Al Mansoori, general manager of Rebound Ltd. “We’ve worked to develop a global trading solution that offers a large-scale opportunity to reduce some of the world’s plastic pollution via recycling. By capturing the value of plastic feedstock, we allow companies from all sectors, apparel to automotive, to access recycled content with confidence, while creating new opportunities for communities in the value chain to grow their economies.” “This is a breakthrough concept coming from the UAE to the world with significant potential,” says Syed Basar Shueb, IHC’s chief executive officer and managing director. “The availability of a reliable advanced recycling system will play an essential role in helping address plastic waste in the environment of many countries around the globe. We are confident our investment in Rebound Plastic Exchange will be another successful business for IHC, and we are evaluating wide-scale deployment, in other locations around the world.” Some 250 million metric tons of plastics waste are produced annually, with roughly a third of that going uncollected. And while nearly all plastics waste can be recycled, the global rate of plastics recycling sits at just 15 percent, according to leading global groups. This is because the existing market for recycled plastics is fragmented, complex and opaque, which makes sourcing good-quality product difficult. Uncollected waste often is burned, illegally dumped or leaked directly into the environment. IHC says the Rebound Plastic Exchange will fill a significant gap in the market, facilitating a circular economy as it creates a quality-assured platform to purchase and provide feedstock of recycled plastics to meet the growing demand from multinational companies and consumer sentiment. Facing increasing legislative pressure, consumer packaged goods companies and other types of global brands have been making public commitments to incorporate more post- consumer recycled plastics into their products and packaging. Many brands are aiming for 20 to 30 percent increases in their use of such materials. But the pipeline currently is nowhere near adequate to meet all that demand. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has predicted a shortfall of 6 million tons of recycled plastics by 2025, and there currently is no global supply chain to provide companies with the volume of quality material they need to meet these commitments. Additionally, other regional pledges will further exacerbate the demand gap for recycled plastics. For example, the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan proposes mandatory requirements for recycled content for plastics products and recycling rates of 50 percent by 2025 and 55 percent by 2030. In a major tipping point, as part of its “National Sword” policy, China on Jan. 1, 2018, banned the import of most plastics and other materials that had been destined for the country’s recyclers. Its decision to no longer be the dumping ground for the world’s recycled waste totally upended global waste management patterns. It was, Woodring noted, “the shock that needed to happen.” UAE TO LAUNCH RECYCLED PLASTICS TRADING EXCHANGE continued on p. 9 Maryam Al Mansoori, general manager, Rebound Ltd. Rebound film washing line. The venture plans to trade 5 million tons of plastics waste by 2025. All photos courtesy of Rebound Ltd. Doug Woodring, lead expert of Rebound Ltd. www.plasticsengineering.org | FEBRUARY 2022 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 5European companies continue to invest in recycling ventures aimed at plastics packaging. The latest is multinational environmental service provider PreZero, which started up a sorting plant for lightweight packaging on Jan. 12, in the Bavarian town of Eitting, in southeastern Germany. Up to 120,000 tons of “yellow sack” lightweight packaging are projected to be processed for recycling every year. Yellow sack refers to packaging waste that’s collected for recycling in the ubiquitous colored plastics sacks that resemble large trash bags. The content includes most plastics packaging, along with foamed polystyrene containers and composite packaging, and packages of tin and aluminum. The plant cost €40 million euros (about $45.2 million) to build, and can operate 24/7/365, to meet demand. PreZero has equipped the plant with the latest waste-sortation technology. Special black scanning systems, for example, identify black plastics that are difficult to sort in conventional plants. Sorting robots support employees in quality control and resorting operations. The plant operates with artificial intelligence and will reportedly surpass all sorting quotas prescribed by law under Germany’s Packaging Act (VerpackG) of 2019. VerpackG replaced an older ordinance and seeks to increase the level of recycling in Germany, while encouraging greater PREZERO STARTS PACKAGING RECYCLING PLANT IN GERMANY SET POINT Automaker BMW Group installed an Engel injection molding production unit at its Landshut, Germany, plant, where the iconic kidney-shaped badge for the electric BMW iX car is produced in a cleanroom. Once solely for the radiator grille of cars powered by internal combustion engines, this design feature of all BMW models is taking on a new role following the electrification of drivetrains on select models. The badge now protects the camera and sensors required for advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS), and eventually for autonomous driving. The ADAS camera and sensors are new functions that mean the design and manufacturing process for the badge had to fundamentally change. It is now an integrated process, in which a heated film is back-molded with polycarbonate and coated with polyurethane. Engel offers this process combination under the name “Clearmelt.“ With the technology already used for vehicle interiors, the kidney-shaped badges for new electric models represent the next step. This is the first time that a combined film/back- injection molding and polyurethane coating is used in series production of functional exterior components [at BMW], where they will be exposed to particularly high stress. The sensitive electronics—camera and sensors— are well protected under the scratch-resistant polyurethane surface. The high-gloss level and depth effect, which even a thin coating of polyurethane achieves on molded parts, convey an elegant impression. As system supplier for the project, Engel has responsibility for the production cell. In terms of process integration and automation, the cell had to meet high requirements. The cell integrates an Engel Duo Combi M injection machine with a horizontal rotary table, two large articulated robots for handling the films and molded parts, a film-cleaning system, inline quality- control station and peripheral units including for polyurethane technology. The injection machine’s clamping unit and the robot work areas cover a length of 6 meters (19.6 feet) and a height of more than 4 meters (13.1 feet) in the ISO Class 7 cleanroom. One special feature: above the injection molding machine, the cleanroom has a sliding ceiling which can be opened for mold changes and other work in the mold area. All work steps in the cleanroom are automated. The robots also unpack the films and pack the molded parts. PreZero executives at the new plant in Germany are (from left): Christian Kampmann, head of business unit sorting, Dietmar Böhm, chief operating officer, and Stephan Garvs, managing director of PreZero Dual. All photos courtesy of PreZero Packaging waste is collected for recycling in “yellow sacks,” which are transported to the NetZero plant. continued on p. 9 ENGEL MOLD CELL TAPPED FOR ICONIC BMW FEATURE High-speed sortation system separates plastics by material or color type. continued on p. 10 6 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | FEBRUARY 2022 | www.plasticsengineering.orgOn Christmas day, the joint mission between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency successfully launched the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from the ESA’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. After a decade of testing and finetuning, and an investment of $10 billion, the most complex and powerful telescope ever constructed was lofted to look deeper into space than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST, predictably, represents a diverse collection of advanced technology. From a plastics and composites perspective, two applications stand out. Materials from Toray Advanced Composites were specified for the structural design of the Optical Telescope Element, Integrated Science Instrument Module and Spacecraft Element. Ultrathin Kapton polyimide films from DuPont Electronics and Industrial are used to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the sun, enabling it to function properly in the harsh temperatures of space. Both types of material, along with some of the most sophisticated engineering and design ever put into a space vehicle or optical instrument, are expected to keep the JWST functioning for 20 years, as it flies off to probe what the universe looked like 250 million to as few—cosmologically speaking—as 100 million years after the Big Bang event, which occurred some 14 billion years ago. The 20-year estimate of mission life could prove to be way wide of the mark. The Hubble telescope, which the JWST replaces, was launched in 1990 and expected to last 15 years. It is still functioning and could continue on its mission until 2030 or 2040. The JWST is outfitted with Toray Advanced Composites’ high-modulus carbon-cyanate ester prepreg resin system. The material is engineered for precise strength and stiffness in mechanical performance and is lightweight, all of which benefits the mission in the extreme environment of space. Toray did not disclose details about the specific carbon fiber-reinforced cyanate ester prepreg used in the telescope, but a representative grade could be EX-1515, which according to Toray documentation, achieves extremely high cure conversion after a 121°C (250°F) cure. “This level of conversion provides optimal mechanical properties, high radiation resistance, low moisture absorption and low outgassing while retaining unparalleled toughness, a low 118°C (244°F) stress-free temperature and long out time,” the company reports. The resin system resists microcracking, even when subjected to thermal cycling and high levels of radiation. “EX-1515 … displays low dielectric and low loss values which [suits it] for radome and antenna applications. [The grade] can be post-cured, freestanding, to increase thermal performance for temperature-critical structures.” All these properties would of course be critical in meeting the demands of a multiyear—or multidecade—space mission. Toray Advanced Composites has been supplying materials and expertise for other space and planetary vehicles, including NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover, Mars Ingenuity Helicopter and Kepler Space Telescope. Space vehicles and upper-atmosphere balloons have for some time used film structures that combine strength, toughness and thinwall construction to resist the harsh conditions of their targets. “The excellent thermal and mechanical properties of Kapton polyimide film make it an ideal material for space applications,” says Tim Scott, business development leader, Aerospace and Defense, at DuPont Electronics and Industrial, in a statement marking DuPont’s latest collaboration with NASA on a space project. The JWST is the largest space telescope ever built and features a deployable mirror measuring more than 21 feet in diameter and made up of 18 hexagonal segments. The gold-plated beryllium mirror segments are more than 8 feet in diameter and will focus on four main areas: first light in the universe; assembly of galaxies in the early universe; birth of stars and protoplanetary systems; and planets (including looking for the origins of life). At the heart of the JWST is the Integrated Science Instrument Module, a suite of four instruments including a near-infrared camera, mid-infrared instrument, fine guidance sensor and two different near- infrared spectrographs. JWST’s deployable mirror is more than 21 feet in diameter, making it 100 times more powerful than Hubble. The JWST will operate near the Earth-Sun L2 (Lagrange point), approximately 1,500,000 km (930,000 miles) beyond Earth’s orbit. By way of comparison, Hubble orbits 550 km (340 miles) above Earth’s surface, and the Moon is roughly 400,000 km (250,000 miles) from Earth. As an infrared optimized telescope, it is imperative that Webb’s optics and sensors remain cold, and its sunshield is key for temperature regulation, NASA says. The sunshield separates the observatory into a warm side that always faces the Sun (thermal models show the maximum temperature of the outermost layer is 383 Kelvin, approximately 230°F or 110°C) and a cold side that always faces deep space (with the coldest layer having a modeled minimum temperature of 36K, around -394°F or -236°C). The five-layer sunshield that keeps sunlight and background heat from interfering with the Integrated Science Instrument Module is thus crucial to the Webb telescope’s success. The sunshield is a diamond-shaped system of five layers of Kapton polyimide film approximately 70 feet long and 47 feet wide. Each layer is coated with aluminum, and the sun-facing side of the two hottest layers (Layer 1 and Layer 2) also have ADVANCED POLYMERS FLY WITH JWST ON SPACE MISSION Technicians successfully perform a critical test on Webb’s 5-layer sunshield by fully deploying each of its uniquely sized layers to the same position they will have while orbiting the Sun a million miles from Earth. Courtesy of NASA The JWST arrives at the launch site cleanroom in French Guiana, where it is lifted from its packing container and raised to a vertical position. This is the same configuration Webb was in when launched by the Ariane 5 rocket. Courtesy of NASA continued on p. 10 www.plasticsengineering.org | FEBRUARY 2022 | PLASTICS ENGINEERING | 7Next >