“Does your company want to increase profits?  What about cut costs?”

Sounds like lines from the beginning of some cheesy radio ad or TV infomercial, huh?  But if you answered “yes” to either or both questions (and I know you did), then my next question is: Did you know that there is a manufacturing program that has been around for almost two decades whose mission is to support, strengthen, and grow U.S. manufacturing and in turn help companies increase profits and cut costs?

Facilitated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a national network of 59 centers across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, with more than 350 locations across the country, providing technical assistance and business support services to America’s manufacturers.  They have worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.44 billion in cost savings annually and $10.5 billion in increased or retained sales in one year.

MEP center specialists provide an array of services to companies, from initial assessments prioritizing opportunities for improvement, to implementation projects guiding companies through process improvements, productivity increases, and growth. Centers provide companies with access to training resources as well as specific project assistance. Some engagements are short-term classes or basic projects. Other companies engage in multiple projects with their local field specialist—as one improvement project often leads to several others.

Overall, MEP’s range of services includes:

• Programs in lean manufacturing
• Energy and environmental services
• Information technology to address continuity of service issues
• Programs addressing manufacturers concerns related to innovation, technology deployment and business growth.

If you want to see some of the plastics industry success stories (including SPI member Fabri-Kal, ) go to the “client successes” section of the MEP site and read through all of the great projects MEP has worked on with various plastics companies.

Ok, so you are interested, right?  To get started and to take advantage of the MEP program, first identify the MEP center closest to you.  Then pick up the phone and call the MEP center contact provided.  Once you have an initial discussion, a representative from the center will plan to meet with you and talk in more detail about the project(s) your company is interested in working on with the MEP.

This is no cheesy infomercial.  Don’t miss this great opportunity for your company.

“Plastics to Oil” —  That was the headline of a recent article in the Washington Post and it certainly grabbed my attention.  Come to find out, on September 16th, an Envion oil generator was scheduled for an official unveiling.  Converting plastic waste to synthetic oil, it is to be run as a pilot project until the end of October at the Montgomery County, Md. solid waste transfer station. Envion is a privately held company in the DC area.   

The generator, about three stories high, can convert plastic waste to synthetic oil that can then be converted into fuel for a truck or airplane.   The pilot generator has a capacity for handling more than 6,000 tons of plastic a year.  The company plans to scale up in the future.

According to the article, the “far-infrared ray” technology works by melting plastic in an oxygen free environment to separate the hydrocarbons headed for the oil end product from the additives used to make the original plastic container.  Any type of plastic can be fed into the generator.  The output volume depends on the type of plastic reclaimed.  Envionsays it cost about $10 to convert the plastic waste into a barrel’s worth of synthetic oil.  This is pretty neat stuff and intriguing technology.

A few days later I read another article about this project in Plastics News in which Envion’s CEO, Michael Han, said his uncle, a Korean businessman, developed the technology in the 1990s but needed capital to get it off the ground.  The article also states that Polyflow Corp. (Akron, OH) has been working to commercialize a similar technolology.

On the surface it seems a great way to “recycle” those plastic items that are in low-demand by commercial recyclers or that municipalities don’t accept. I can’t say I view this new technology as a silver bullet because I don’t know enough about it yet.  I am trying to think of the pros and cons  from a public perspective: 

• Could this process complement traditional recycling methods of sorting and baling  post-consumer plastics for which there is a demand ( i.e. plastic bottles)? What’s not in demand could be processed to oil by one of these generators.   
• Is this process more efficient than others? 
• Is it more cost-effective than other processes? 
• Does this process leave a smaller footprint than others?   

What do you think? I’m thinking it just might be worth a drive up the road to Maryland to see this thing in action.

I have many fond memories of going to aquariums as a child. From Baltimore to Monterey Bay to Chicago, I’ve been to a few. There’s nothing quite like seeing a sea anemone swaying to and fro with the current or watching a beluga whale swimming just a few feet away. What I love about aquariums is that without them, I would have to be a deep-sea or SCUBA diver, traveling around the world in order to glimpse even a fraction of everything that you can see at an aquarium. Aquariums bring the beauty and awesomeness of the ocean to the non-swimmers and land-lovers of this world.

My favorite feature about aquariums are the floor-to-ceiling windows that allow you to see a full panoramic view of life under water.  One of the largest viewing windows is found at the Kuroshio Sea exhibit at Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan. More than 32 feet deep, almost 115 feet wide, and 88 feet long, the tank is a home to 80 species of fish, including a few whale sharks. This wide array of sea-life can be viewed through a huge acrylic (plexiglass) viewing window.

With close to 2 million gallons of water in the tank, it was critical to select a material that could withstand a large amount of water pressure being placed on the window.  Many aquarium windows are made from Poly(methyl methacrylate) or PMMA, which is known for it’s strength and clarity. This window was constructed by gluing seven sheets of acrylic-resin together, creating a window that measures about 27 feet tall, 74 feet wide and almost 2 feet thick.

In addition to aquarium viewing windows, PMMA is also used for submarine windows, such as the Alicia Submarine, which offers panoramic, underwater ocean views thanks to it’s spherical, acrylic hull.  Acrylic truly creates windows into the sea, allowing us to peek into an underwater world.

While the passing of Labor Day marks the formal end of summer, in Washington it also brings to conclusion a summer institution – the August Congressional recess.   As a seeming testament to Congress’ constitutional place as a co-equal branch of our government, and perhaps to the scope of its power and reach into the fabric of American life, D.C.’s commuters can mark the return of Congress by the uptick in traffic on roads and congestion in metro stations.

In the advocacy business, August is usually quiet in Washington… but this August was anything but typical.  The sheer number of major policy issues faced by the business community – and the plastics industry in particular – combined to make this August much, much different.  SPI spent the month communicating with its members on key issues  — from health care reform (and the burden of escalating employee health care costs for companies) to the impact that current climate change legislative proposals would have on manufacturing. (SPI President Bill Carteaux’s mid-month electronic letter to members detailed theses and others.)

And even though Members of Congress were back in their home states — where SPI members met with several, we were up on Capitol Hill, meeting with senior legislative staffers and talking about our industry’s priorities heading into the fall.  As one Congressman put it upon returning to D.C. this month, “my constituents are awake!”  With so many fundamental issues in play, we all are.

Transforming the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy that can be harnessed for practical use into utility power lines requires huge, utility-scale wind turbines. [The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has plenty to read about wind energy and how it works.]  Low-weight, low-cost, high-strength and fatigue-resistant materials are required for the huge rotors needed for today’s commercial wind turbines. These traits make plastics the material of choice. In fact, most wind turbine rotor blades are built from carbon filament-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP).  And demand in the U.S. is certainly growing.

As he raged against America’s dependence on foreign oil, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens made many headlines in 2008 (as well as a TV commercial) as he put his money and enthusiasm squarely behind wind power. One of the key pillars of the Pickens Plan is to “create millions of new jobs by building out the capacity to generate up to 22 percent of our electricity from wind.”

A July 2008 U.S. Department of Energy report examined the challenges, needs and outcomes associated with a stated goal to provide 20% of U.S. electricity via wind power by 2030.

Last month, the DOE selected 28 new wind energy projects for up to $13.8 million in funding and Energy Secretary Steven Chu released the Department’s 2008 Wind Technologies Market Report that details the $16 billion in investment in wind projects made in the U.S. in 2008. According to the report, this makes the U.S. the leader in annual wind energy capacity growth. “Wind energy will be a critical factor in achieving the President’s goals for clean energy, while supporting news jobs,” said Chu.

Bayer MaterialScience LLC, an SPI member company, was one of  the 28 recipients selected last month by DOE, receiving a $750,000 grant to support development and testing of advanced composite technologies and resin infusion processes for larger, more efficient and more powerful 1.5+ megawatt wind turbine blades. According to a company press release, the project, “Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polyurethane Composites for Wind Turbine Blades,” is an initiative to help accelerate development of advanced wind turbines, with a focus on overcoming technology barriers to broader application.

Just last week, on September 2nd, the U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Energy jointly announced $502 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act cash assistance to energy companies in lieu of earned federal tax credits.  Ten out of the 12 grants were for wind projects in Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas.

AWEA reports that the share of domestically manufactured wind turbine components has grown from less than 30% in 2005 to roughly 50% in 2008. That’s good for the environment, the energy crisis and plastics.