Back in 2015, we published a blog post on the futuristic concept of prefabricated plastic roads. At that time, Dutch organization VolkerWessels was preparing to conduct a pilot project in Rotterdam. The idea was that prefabricated, rigid road sections, would be built and assembled in place. The resulting road would last much longer, could include conduits for pipes and other utilities, and could even be heated from below to melt snow and ice. However, as we noted in that blog post, the costs of such roads would be much higher than that of traditional roads, and specialized equipment would need ..read more

The idea of a plastic material that is also magnetic sounds far-fetched. Traditional magnets depend on the alignment of electron spins; such an alignment can typically only be achieved using metallic elements. These magnets, although powerful, have several disadvantages – they are heavy, they are expensive, and they are subject to corrosion. That’s why developing a magnetic plastic material has long been the dream of many materials scientists, including members of a team at University of Durham led by head researcher Naveed Zaidi. In 2004, that team became the first to successfully produce a m ..read more

In recent years, private companies have begun to take more responsibility for social and environmental issues outside the realm of pure business. To companies in many industries, voluntary agreements are considered preferable to government regulation. In the case of the problems posed by plastics wastes, which extend beyond borders, voluntary agreements are the best, and possibly the only way forward. That’s why those who are concerned about the environmental impacts of the plastics industry should be excited about the “New Plastics Economy Global Commitment”. This initiative, which is being l ..read more

Every year, Canada, the one of the world’s largest wood products producers, harvests about 155 million cubic meters of wood. Ninety percent of that wood comes from public lands, which are required to be managed sustainably to ensure continued production and maintenance of the important ecosystem services provided by forests. According to the Forest Products Associated of Canada, 96% of the volume of each tree harvested is used to make some kind of end-product. Any manager of a natural-resource-based or agricultural company would be proud to have such a high use rate. At the same time, a savvy ..read more

Electric vehicles are the future. Currently, only one out of 250 cars being driven today are electric. Although forecasts vary, most experts are sure that electric cars will come to dominate the market, whether that happens in the near future (consulting company Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts 30% of vehicles will be electric by 2040) or in the distant future (Exxon and other oil companies predict that only 15% of vehicles will be electric by that date). Whenever the electrification of our car fleets comes to pass, one thing is clear – the plastics industry, and especially the engineerin ..read more

Over the past few years, we’ve covered most of the common techniques for manufacturing plastics products. These include injection moulding, additive manufacturing, spin moulding, and 3d printing. However, to date we haven’t written about a technique that is becoming increasingly important to the medical device industry: thermoforming. Thermoforming was first pioneered as early as the 1870’s by John Westley Hyatt, a mechanical engineer who some in the industry refer to as the father of modern plastics processing. Hyatt was trying to find innovative ways to use two newly available materials – ce ..read more

Traditional disposable plastic beverage containers have many benefits – they are cheap to produce, light in weight, and strong and durable. Compared to glass, plastic bottles provide a much greater level of convenience. The incredible versatility of disposable plastic bottles can be seen in the astonishing size of the market for such containers. According to market research firm Fact.MR, the global disposable plastic bottle industry was expected to exceed $8.3 billion USD in value by the end of 2018. Despite the popularity of traditional disposable bottles, they have some downsides. Although t ..read more

Many people think of mundane applications when it comes to plastic products – food packaging and construction may be the first things that come to mind for many plastics consumers. Despite this conception, many of the most innovative uses of plastic today are occurring in the transportation sector. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most valuable market for plastics in the transportation sector is in automobile manufacturing. The automotive plastics industry is expected to attain a value exceeding $68 billion USD by 2025. Plastics help manufacturers design and produce vehicles that are 25-75% lighter ..read more

Given the importance of plastics to our modern way of life, it’s no surprise that the petrochemical industry is predicted to exceed $1 trillion USD in value by 2023. Petrochemicals – organic compounds created by “cracking” oil and other raw hydrocarbons, are the primary material input to the traditional plastics industry. Of the two types of petrochemicals, olefins and aromatics, olefins, which include ethylene and propylene, are of the greatest importance to the industry. With the growth of the plastics industry in recent years, you might assume that the petrochemical industry, the primary pr ..read more

Many consumers take today’s powerful computers and electronics for granted. Since most consumer electronics are enclosed in attractive plastic cases, it’s easy to ignore the amount of engineering that goes into developing these incredible devices. While much attention is given to the development of new software and cloud-based systems, the entire consumer electronics industry depends on the existence of incredibly fast processors. And the challenges associated with developing them don’t lie only in the realm of designing circuits and microchips. In fact, one of the greatest challenges facing t ..read more