Consumer goods

A newly developed latching device maintains balance and stability and helps prevent falls for wheelchair users.

Transfer Solutions (Galesburg, IL) applied for a patent on the device, which secures a wheelchair to a fixed object like a bed, toilet, or shower during transfer.

Two new grades of polypropylene incorporating encapsulating starch particles will be released to the market by Cereplast, Inc. (El Segundo, CA) during the first half of 2012 in the United States and Europe.

Shell Chemicals (London) is moving forward in its efforts to commercialize a new process for the polycarbonate feedstock. The company has decided to invest in a 500-tonnes/year demonstration unit to manufacture the chemical intermediate diphenyl carbonate (DPC).

The unit will be located at Shell's chemical plant in Singapore's petrochemical hub on Jurong Island. It will manufacture sufficient volumes of DPC via a proprietary process to supply selected customers in the polycarbonate industry for their evaluation and acceptance.

ATW Companies (Warwick, RI) continues to invest in equipment at Parmatech to boost its profile in the metal injection molding business, company officials told PlasticsToday.com in an interview.  One goal is to continue expansion in medical and defense markets, which each make up about 40% of the company's total revenues.

The argument that PVC is getting greener and belongs in healthcare applications is getting a boost from the rapid development of potential new bioplasticizers.

In one of  the biggest developments, BioAmber and Mitsubishi Chemicals are teaming up to build a world-scale biosuccinic acid plant in Sarnia, Ontario next year.

In a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Nov. 10, BioAmber estimates the  addressable market for plasticizers made from biosuccinic acid at more than $1 billion.

Vacuum coating of plastic substrates using conventional batch process machinery requires a significant investment on the part of the processor as well as high labor requirements for manual loading/unloading of parts. By moving this process in-line and machine-side, The Japan Steel Works (JSW, Tokyo) reckons it has a lower cost and more flexible solution.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has been a major target of the environmental activist group Greenpeace for at least 20 years, dating to activism by chemist Michael Braungart. The focal point of Greenpeace was dioxins. The Vinyl Institute was formed in 1982 because of health-related attacks on PVC pipe by the steel industry.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) last week unanimously passed a resolution urging reduced use of polyvinyl chloride in facilities such as hospitals and schools.

The 10-page resolution listed a number of studies indicating problems with PVC and was the latest and strongest move by the association against PVC.

Globally active contract manufacturer Flextronics, with 200,000 employees and its headquarters in Singapore, has a new weapon to add to its arsenal in the form of a license from RocTool, a small company in France with a big development in heating and cooling technology for injection molds. Flextronics has taken a production license agreement from RocTool to use that company's injection mold heating and cooling technology for the next five years.

A new plastic device hopes to help remedy vision problems, a significant disability affecting the learning potential of children.

A patent-pending technology developed by PediaVision (Lake Mary, FL) assesses a child's vision, eliminating subjective analysis that results from many of today's vision screening tools.