Names in the News: PPE Inc., CertiPUR-US and PortolaNames in the News: PPE Inc., CertiPUR-US and Portola

Plastics Process Equipment Inc. (PPE; Macedonia, OH), which claims to offer "the world's largest variety of accessories for the plastics industry", has moved to its new West Coast facility in Las Vegas, NV, from its former facility in Chino, CA. The Chino facility occupied 24,000 square feet whereas the new Vegas site offers almost double that-47,000 square feet-which PPE says will help it deliver products even faster. UPS shipping is overnight back to the Chino/Los Angeles area.

The CertiPUR-US certification program for flexible polyurethane (PUR) foam announced that Douglas Sullivan has been named its executive director. Sullivan succeeds Bob Luedeka, who was appointed to serve as interim executive director until the program reached a level of success that allowed for the hiring of a permanent director. Sullivan's career in the flexible PUR foam industry spans more than three decades. 

"This feels a little like sending off a child to college," quipped Luedeka, who serves as the executive director of the Polyurethane Foam Association (PFA), the organization that initiated the CertiPUR-US program. 

The PFA says there has been significant interest in the CertiPUR-US program by manufacturers and retailers who see the foam product certification program as an effective way to address consumer's health, safety and environmental concerns. CertiPUR-US is a voluntary testing, analysis and certification program developed by the global flexible polyurethane foam industry. Flexible polyurethane foams that carry the CertiPUR-US label met testing standards in independent laboratories and are certified to be low emission for indoor air quality and made without ozone-depleters, formaldehyde, PBDEs, prohibited phthalates, lead, mercury and other materials of concern.  Products also must meet certain physical performance and durability standards.

And at plastics packaging processor Portola (Naperville, IL), the company is celebrating award of Safe Quality Food (SQF) Institute certification recently for its three U.S. closure manufacturing facilities: one each in Batavia, IL, Kingsport, TN, and Tolleson, AZ.

Portola says it was the first closure manufacturer to achieve the SQF 2000 Level 2 certification. This means that the company successfully demonstrated how its operations comply with federal food safety legislation, including certified Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP), and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The certification process took 6-8 months to complete and each facility received a rating of "excellent."