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plastic extrusion tools go all-electric
It’s a good guess that energy will never be cheap again, and power
consumption will loom larger in machine-buying decisions.
plastic extrusion tools article
Odds are that energy efficiency will spur greater use of all-electric blow
molding machines, bets the firm, president of said plastics, UK. While only
a handful of machine manufacturers make them now, all-electrics will
proliferate as energy concerns take center stage. “In the past, we sort of
ignored energy costs,” says Belcher. “But the future holds real challenges
in energy cost and availability, and suppliers will respond with
all-electric machines and ways to control maximum power factor.”
Biopolymer revolution for plastic extrusion tools arrives
Use of renewable natural resources to produce plastics will explode over the
next half-century as oil and other energy sources become scarcer and more
costly. Plastics based on cornstarch—poly lactic acid (PLA) and starch-based
resins—are already on the market, as are thermoset polyesters and urethane
polyols based on soybean oil. A key challenge will be the development of a
cost-efficient infrastructure to convert natural materials into resins.
plastic extrusion tools cost gap
Great strides already have been made in narrowing the cost gap. Since the
early 1990s, the cost differential in manufacturing biopolymers versus
petrochemical-derived plastics has been cut from 35:1 down to 5:1. As
technology is refined and bigger plants come on-line, economies of scale
similar to oil-based plastics will be realized, according to industry
observers. Europe and the Far East will move faster to utilize biopolymers
due to pressing environmental regulations such as the Kyoto Protocol, which
requires a reduction in greenhouse gases.
plastic extrusion tools engineering
A tougher task will be to attain engineering-resin-type performance.
Biopolymers based on agricultural resources can go only so far in terms of
property profile, according to Dr. Donald Rosato, plastics engineer and
consultant in Concord, Mass. The new frontier in biopolymers will focus on
genetic engineering of microbes to maximize their production of useful
substances. Instead of relying on farming, biopolymer production would be
based on fermentation “plastic extrusion tools.” Poly lactic acid (PLA)
biopolymer made by bacterial fermentation has already been used in Japan to
make notebook computer housings, pipes, and prototype cellphones—so why not
car parts? Toyota in Japan unveiled the Raum SUV in 2003, which had floor
mats and a spare-tire cover made from
plastic extrusion tools
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