STADLER develops and builds new sorting systems for GAIA and IREN in Asti and Parma

Perstorp increases TMP production capacity

Perstorp, the world leader in the production of Trimethylolpropane (TMP), has ramped up the capacity to meet growing demand from the European market.

TMP is used to enhance the properties of numerous materials. Common applications include the use in saturated polyesters for coil coatings, polyurethanes for coatings and elastomers, acrylic acid esters for radiation curing, esters for synthetic lubricants, and for the surface treatment of pigments.

Filip Tauson, Global VP Polyols at Perstorp, commented: “The capacity expansion is fully in line with Perstorp’s ambition to further strengthen our position in the Polyols market. TMP is a key product in our Polyol portfolio, which is a core business within Perstorp.

This product line have been instrumental in the development of Perstorp as an international company and we are happy to expand our position further to be able to serve a strong demand from the market.”

The expansion development takes place in Vercelli, Italy.Perstorp’s own TMP production sites are located in China, Sweden, and the United States.

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Tetra Laval donates 10 million Euros to support UNICEF’s efforts in the global delivery of COVID-19 vaccines

Tetra Laval announced today a 10-million Euro contribution in support of UNICEF’s work to deliver COVID-19 vaccines globally. The donation will contribute to UNICEF’s efforts to strengthen global vaccine equity, especially in lower-income countries.

Since early 2021, UNICEF has delivered more than 700 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 144 countries around the world on behalf of the COVAX Facility. In addition, UNICEF has been providing in-country technical and financial support in over 130 countries to help turn vaccines into vaccinations, as well as working with partners, governments and communities to address the stark inequalities across the globe in accessing life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and protective equipment.

“The lives of millions of children have been put on hold in the past two years as the pandemic shuttered schools, disrupted health services, and kept children away from friends and extended family. Children want their lives back,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “Equal access to vaccines for all countries is the surest pathway out of the pandemic. We thank Tetra Laval and all our donors for sharing this belief and hope that their support inspires other organizations, businesses and individuals to be as generous.”

“Science tells us that we will only defeat the pandemic if we reach a sufficiently high vaccination coverage globally. Making funds available to UNICEF and COVAX is important to us as it will contribute to the health and safety of many people and hopefully speed up the return to the new normal,” said Lars Renström, Chairman of the Board of the Tetra Laval Group.

“We are a purpose led company, focusing on securing safe food distribution sustainably everywhere. We
know that UNICEF´s invaluable job to secure vaccination everywhere will work in the same direction.”

UNICEF recently launched its 2022 ACT-A Humanitarian Action for Children appeal (ACT-A HAC) calling for donors to support countries with the lowest vaccination rates, especially countries impacted by complex humanitarian crises.

Aside from funding the in-country delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, the ACT-A HAC is appealing for $933 million to support the delivery of diagnostics, tests and treatments for COVID-19 patients, the provision of personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, and the strengthening of health care systems to fight the
global pandemic in 2022.

As the world’s leading children’s agency, UNICEF relies primarily on voluntary contributions from governments and its private sector donors including companies, foundations and individuals to help ensure every child in the world is given an opportunity to reach its full potential.

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JBC Technologies Continues Growth Trajectory with Acquisition of Die Cut Technologies

JBC Technologies, a leading flexible materials converter, today announced the purchase of Die Cut Technologies, an ISO-9001, TS-16940, and MIL-I-45208A certified converter located in Denver, Colorado.  

The acquisition strategically expands JBC’s capabilities and geographic footprint, while adding additional market presence in the medical, electronics, automotive, and aerospace sectors.

“We are excited to welcome Die cut technology into the JBC family,” said JBC President, Brad Patt. “Former owner Scott Flores has built a strong team with a commitment to quality and responsiveness that meshes well with our continuous improvement culture at JBC. The unification of our teams, facilities and technologies will fuel our growth objectives and enable us to better serve our collective client base.” 

Bringing Die Cut Technologies under the JBC Technologies umbrella, augments JBC’s already vertically-integrated converting capabilities  by adding laser cutting, Class 100,000 cleanroom production, large format die cutting, and several digital die-less cutting technologies, extensive rapid prototyping capabilities and an additional 30,000 square foot of manufacturing space.  It also brings the benefit of JBC’s extensive laminating, slitting and rotary converting capabilities to the Die-Cut Technologies customer base.

“I’m confident that this new partnership will enhance not only the quality and services that our customers have relied on over the last 60 years, but will add new capabilities, technologies and engineering to provide our customers with a vertically integrated company able to meet all of their converting needs,” said Scott Flores, CEO Die Cut Technologies.

This is the second in a series of strategic moves that JBC Technologies has made in recent months. The Northeast Ohio based company recently expanded its satellite facility in Wisconsin. The new plant, which boasts 44,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing space is almost double the size of JBC’s previous Madison location.

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TraceLess Receives €2.42 million grant by European Innovation Council (EIC)

We are excited to share what is probably our biggest news so far: traceless receives a grant and equity investment from the European Innovation Council (EIC). The €2,42 million grant will allow us to scale up our technology quickly, and bring our novel naturally compostable biomaterial to market fast. With only 65 selected companies from 4.000 applicants in 2021, the EIC Accelerator programme is the most competitive public funding scheme for deep tech startups at the moment. What a great recognition of our invention – and a huge step forward on our mission to offer a solution for global plastic pollution!

“The proposed innovation represents a true breakthrough in the field of plastic materials as it combines a circular and sustainable approach, based upon agricultural waste, innovative transformation steps, and final characteristics of the materials, which are beyond the state of the art and will bring a fully biodegradable solution in many sectors. The combination of biodegradability with specific thermomechanical, barrier and compatibility properties, can generate relevant market opportunities, especially from the packaging industry.”

EIC evaluation committee about traceless’ application

We are proud and happy, as this is a great acknowledgement of all our achievements over the past year! Since our founding in september 2020, we have put all our motivation and ambition into moving traceless forward, and so much has already happened: we have successfully raised a seed investment, grown and established our team, started the development of several prototypes (e.g. an e-commerce shipping bag with OTTO), and built our first pilot production plant to realize first market pilots. The EIC funding is another amazing milestone, and we will use it to further accelerate our scale up. We plan to build a demonstration production plant, which will enable a first market entry for traceless materials. When hearing about the successsful application, our whole team was beyond excited and enthusiastic – we all can’t wait for this next step of our journey to start!

“Receiving the EIC Accelerator support is a clear recognition of the innovative nature and high potential of traceless’ technology, and the amazing work our team has done over the past year. The funding enables us to speed up our development even more, and bring traceless to market fast – so that we can make our contribution to solve global plastic pollution!”

Dr. Anne Lamp, CEO and founder of traceless

https://www.traceless.eu/

Global Plastics Ranking China, the U.S., and Germany Lead

The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) recently issued its 2021 Global Trend Report. This PLASTICS’ flagship publication takes a deep dive into the U.S. plastics trade with the rest of the world during the previous year and the first six months of the current year. It also provides a snapshot of the international plastics and rubber trade. Additionally, it includes a plastics trade forecast. Moreover, starting in 2018, the report began including PLASTICS’ Global Plastics Ranking™—a ranking of the top-100 countries in the global plastics trade as determined by trade volume. It is also a measure of plastics intensity in each nation’s economy. Countries’ exports and imports of plastics resin, products, machinery, and molds are used as proxies of their production and consumption of plastics.

 In 2020, China ranked first followed by the U.S. and Germany. These countries have retained the top three positions as the world’s leaders in global plastics since the Global Plastics Ranking™ began.  PLASTICS estimates China’s 2020 plastics trade volume at $180.2 billion. The plastics trade volume of the U.S. and Germany are estimated at $129.6 and $110.9 billion, respectively. The U.S., however, ranked third after Germany in 2018. But in the last two years, it has overtaken Germany.

Considering that plastics is a mature industry, its growth will track economic output growth measured in gross domestic product or GDP. For this reason, it is not unusual to see the world’s strongest economies as key players in the global plastics trade.

 As China’s economy expanded so did its industrial sector, which includes plastics. China’s GDP growth averaged 8.7% from 2001 to 2020. Over that period, the global share of China’s exports of plastics and products thereof—as broadly classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 39—has grown significantly from 4.0% in 2001 to 16% in 2020. With a growing middle class, it is expected that consumption would be a higher share of China’s GDP in the coming years. This means higher growth for production and imports of plastics. China’s share of world imports of plastics has increased from 8% in 2001 to 11% in 2020.

 While the U.S. economic growth between 2001 to 2020 averaged 1.7%, it remains the world’s largest consumer of goods manufactured from other countries. 70% of U.S. GDP is consumption. The U.S. share of world plastics imports (HTS 39) has remained stable at around 10% from 2001 to 2020. Its export share of plastics (HTS 39) decreased from 14% to 10% over the same period. As a $19.0 trillion-plus economy, it is expected that the U.S. will remain a key player in the global plastics industry.

 Germany’s role in the global plastics industry is anchored on innovations in plastics machinery and engineered resins. Its manufacturing sector is replete with opportunities for new products and new applications for plastics. For this reason, alongside a growing economy, Germany’s role in the global plastics trade will remain significant. PLASTICS estimates Germany’s 2020 plastics trade volume at $110.9 billion. Like the U.S., Germany’s share of global plastics exports decreased from 13% in 2001 to 11% in 2020.  Its share of global plastics imports has averaged 7.3% between 2001 and 2020 – with a high of 8.0% in 2008 and a low of 6.9% in 2004. Compared to the U.S., the percentage of consumption in Germany’s GDP is low at 49.5% in Q2 2021  and 50.9% for a  Q2 2020.

 In the global plastics trade, trade agreements matter for the U.S. Its largest plastics trade partners are Mexico and Canada. All three economies have benefited from U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreements, beginning in 1992 with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and now with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Last year, Mexico and Canada were up a notch from 2019 in the Global Plastics Ranking™. Both countries made it in the top ten with Mexico in the 9th and Canada in the 10th spot. We estimate the plastics trade volume in Mexico and Canada at $33.5 and $30.9 billion, respectively. The economies of USMCA partners are projected to improve this year and the next. Considering that the manufacturing value chains of these countries are linked, it can be expected that the plastics trade among the three free trade partners will rise.

 There are up-and-coming global players in Global Plastics Ranking™. One of which is Vietnam. In 2020, Vietnam was ranked 16th—up from 20th in 2019. Vietnam’s plastics trade volume rose to $22.4 billion as exports strengthened due to its labor cost advantage over other countries. India dropped to 19th from 16th in 2019. And Turkey completes the top-20 countries replacing Saudi Arabia.

 As discussed in the 2021 Global Trends Report, the key players in the global plastics trade will continue to face challenges on different fronts. But it is obvious from the rise of other countries into the global plastics ranking that global plastics demand has been and is expected to remain healthy considering its cost-advantages over other materials and many applications across manufacturing and service industries. For the plastics industry, the world is our market.

 The Global Plastics Ranking™ was trademarked by Perc Pineda, PhD for the Plastics Industry Association.

Covestro expands portfolio of circular TPU products

• Growing product portfolio based on alternative resources
• Production of mass-balanced thermoplastic polyurethanes with reduced carbon footprint planned
• Availability in Europe expected from early 2022, later also in Asia

As part of its program aimed at realizing the circular economy, Covestro is continuing to forge ahead with the expansion of its product portfolio based on alternative resources. As such, the company’s product range in Europe is to be expanded to include mass-balanced thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) from as early as the beginning of 2022, and in Asia at a later date.

The new products are produced using bioattributed raw materials and have a reduced carbon footprint in comparison to their fossil-based counterparts. At the same time, the mass-balanced products boast the same impressive quality and properties and can be integrated directly into manufacturing processes in downstream industries without technical modifications. In this context, the products are to be certified according to the ISCC-Plus standard.

“I am thrilled that we will soon be able to help our customers in the electronics, footwear, automotive and other industries reduce their carbon footprint with this drop-in solution,” said Dr. Andrea Maier-Richter, global head of the TPU business at Covestro. “With the ISCC-Plus certification, we aim to achieve more transparency from raw material purchasing to our production and distribution to customer use. This is an important step in achieving our vision of becoming fully circular.”

Extensive range of more sustainable TPU plastics

Covestro has already launched various TPU products based on alternative resources over the past few years, as more and more consumers prefer more sustainable products. Covestro is offering a webinar on this topic on October 28 as part of its CE Days event series. Outdoor outfitter VAUDE, for example, plans to use a foam midsole made partly from bio-based TPU in its new Lavik Eco hiking boot. Other product types contain a component that has been manufactured proportionately using CO2 instead of fossil raw materials. Covestro’s range of Desmopan® brand TPU plastics also includes a range of fully recycled products. They are used, for example, in smartphone cases from the Dutch manufacturer Fairphone.

Thermoplastic polyurethanes are very versatile plastics. They come in a variety of hardnesses, are flexible yet impact resistant, and are therefore highly suitable for a wide range of applications.

Mass balancing creates transparency

Supplying mass-balanced products is part of Covestro’s comprehensive global program designed to fully align itself with the circular economy. In doing so, the company is focusing on increasing the use of alternative resources such as bio-based materials, plastic waste and CO2, as well as renewable energies. The company is also collaborating with partners to develop innovative recycling technologies.

In mass balancing, fossil and alternative raw materials are mixed in production but treated separately in accounting. The chain-of-custody method enables materials to be tracked along the entire value chain and allows alternative resources, such as bioattributed components, to be allocated to selected end products. To date, a total of three Covestro production sites in Europe and Asia-Pacific have been certified in compliance with the ISCC Plus standard, with further sites to follow.

ISCC (“International Sustainability and Carbon Certification”) is an internationally recognized system for the sustainability certification of biomass and bioenergy. The standard applies to all stages of the value chain and is recognized worldwide.

URL : https://www.covestro.com/press/covestro-expands-portfolio-of-circular-tpu-products/

Write up – Indo German Business Forum – Strengthening Bi-lateral relations in the Engineering Sector

India and Germany marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in March this year. The relationship has progressed satisfactorily over the years. Germany is the seventh largest FDI provider in India since 2000. Cumulatively Germany has invested $12.39 billion in India since 2000, mainly in automotive, transportation, electrical equipment, metallurgy, insurance, services, chemicals, and construction and trading. 1,600 German companies are reportedly functioning in India, including 600 joint ventures.

In pursuit of the strengthening the networking and cooperation further among the VDMA members, Indo-German fraternity with the local manufacturing industry, VDMA India organised a symposium for the first time, on “Indo-German Business Forum: Strengthening Bi-lateral relation in the Engineering Sector” at Willamson Magor hall, Bengal Chamber Kolkata, on 15th December 2021.

In this day-long event, reputed speakers from VDMA members and other organisations deliberate on various topics starting from technology, automation and digitization – offerings to the engineering industry to compliance, regulatory affairs, ease of doing business and business opportunities for the local industry.

The event covered various representations and demonstrations ranging from simulation, machinery, processes, imaging products and materials. More than 85 delegates comprising of industry representatives, academia and media participated at the symposium. The knowledge partner of the event was Rödl Partner whereas VDMA members like Emerson, Automation Solutions, HARTING, Schmersal, SMS Group were the “Technology
Partners”.

The event started with the traditional lighting of the lamp by the Chief Guest – Mr. Manfred Auster, Consul General, Consulate General of the Federal republic of Germany, Kolkata, Guest of Honour – Mr. Abraham Stephanos, Managing Director, Tata Steel Downstream Products Limited, Mr. Indrajeet Sen, Managing Director, International Combustion Ltd.; Ms. Ritika Arora, Senior Associate, Rödl Partner and Mr. Rajesh Nath, Managing
Director, VDMA India.

Mr. Nath in his welcome address, discussed the challenges that the Indian engineering Industry has faced during the Covid 19 pandemic as well as future challenges that they face to achieve the goals and expectations that are present now and in the near future. He emphasised the significant recovery and drastic growth that these industries have achieved in 2021 and the new challenges that will arise after COP26 and the need for sustainable
development and integration of Industry 4.0 for a green initiative and advancement of the Indian Engineering Industry.

This was followed by an insightful address by Mr. Manfred Auster who mentioned the current change in the German Government and a brief overview of the agendas and goals set by each party of the three-part coalition government and how is might impact the Indo German Trade Relations and what changes to expect in the future interactions.

Mr. Abraham Stephanos shared a beautiful personal story to emphasize the exceptional craftsmanship and superior quality that German products who had always been regarded. He also touched upon various topics like sustainability efforts by TATA Group, Indo-German relations, constraints in supply chain, , data handling, and support of the government to spur demand.

In her presentation on” Ease of Doing Business in India-Emerging Trends and Developments in Indian Regulatory regime”, Ms. Ritika Arora from Rodl Partner, the Knowledge partner, and gave an in-depth knowledge of difficulties faced with International as well as Domestic Companies from commencement of a business and hassle-free operating of the business.

She shed light on different scheme and change in regime to facilitate the running of businesses and making it more convenient and easier to operate business. She also gave a brief overview of speculation of changes and merging of certain laws and what impact they will have on operating businesses in India and what it shall mean for foreign companies investing in India.

The post tea break session was devoted to technical presentations by the VDMA members. In the first presentation, Mr. Vijay Jawade, Director, Sales and Marketing, Fluid Control and Pneumatic, Emerson Automation Solutions gave a very comprehensive but easy to understand description of what his company does. He gave a detailed presentation on Safety and Risk Evaluation and spoke about Digital Dust and Pulse Technology and IIOT For Factory Automation and Energy Preservation.

The next speaker was Dr. Girish Rao, CEO and managing Director, Harting India Pvt. Ltd. who presented on Smart Solutions for Industry power cables. He spoke about customised and standard solutions for Power Data and Connection focussing process Industry, material handling/ conveying, Food Processing & Packaging industry.

This was followed by a presentation by Mr. Prashant Erande, Head- Industry Verticals, Schmersal India Pvt. Ltd. who elucidated upon the concept of Industry 4.0 and need for digitisation that has been expedited by the pandemic and how this digitisation occurs in respect of Conveyor Belt Systems and new and innovative development by Schmersal in the realm of Conveyor Belts.

The last presentation was done by Mr Atanu Dey, Vice President, Head COE Electrics/ Automation & COE Digital Solutions, and Mr. Sanjay Dasgupta, Vice President – Sales and Marketing India and Asia Pacific Region, SMS group. While Mr. Dey covered in digitisation of manufacturing and digital twins, Mr. Dasgupta laid emphasis on in-depth analysis of the change in metallurgy and steel production process with cost optimization and
the way forward to produce green steel by the user industry.

Mr. Sandip Roy, Regional Head-East, VDMA India moderated both the sessions and thanked all the participants for their gracious presence. The event concluded with a sumptuous networking Lunch which allowed guests to interact with the partners of the Symposium.

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