‘Tis the season to go ice skating. If you fall on the ice at Rockerfeller Center in New York, you will likely need some hot chocolate to warm up. But if you are skating on polymer “ice,” then you may not. From California to Florida, and even in Canada, holiday skating rinks are being set [...]
Canned Soup Makes BPA Levels Jump
November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Bisphenol A (BPA) levels in people can rise by 1,221% after eating canned soup compared with fresh soup, according to a first-of-its-kind study. BPA has been used since the 1950s to make polymer products including liners for food cans, drinking containers, thermal register receipts, DVDs, and car parts. Only recently have researchers raised questions about [...]
Equipment and Applications Take Off for 3D Printing
November 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
“In 40 years, we’ll have a hard time explaining to our grandchildren how we lived without one.” That is what Hod Lipson, director of the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell University, told Lauren Wolfe at Chemical & Engineering News. He was talking about 3D printers. 3D Printers, also known as additive manufacturers, are robotic machines [...]
New Thermoset Plastic Is Remoldable, Repairable, and Recyclable
November 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
Chemists in France have reported a new lightweight plastic material that marries the desirable and eschews the unfavorable properties of thermoset plastics and silica glass into a new material. It can be remolded, repaired, and recycled using heat, while retaining its mechanical properties. Thermoset plastics such as Bakelite are resistant to solvents and extreme temperatures. [...]
Copper Kills More Bacteria Than Plastic on Hospital Surfaces
November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Because infection rates are rising in hospitals, various antimicrobial treatments have cropped up frequently at the U.S. medical conferences this year. One study shows that the inherent microbial properties of copper are more effective at killing bacteria on surfaces in operating rooms and other medical environments than plastic, writes Doug Smock for PlasticsToday. Smock writes [...]
China Tightens Regulations on Imported Plastic Scrap
November 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
China relies on imports for more than half of its plastic scrap recycling industry. On August 1, China’s government began to enforce a new regulation on solid waste imports at its Guangzhou Customs. Kevin Huang reports for Plastics News that imports have since dropped by 80%, and the industry fears “a radical shakeup” will occur [...]
Introducing a Wireless Heart Pacemaker
November 21, 2011 By 1 Comment
Artificial heart pacemakers have helped restore a normal heartbeat to millions of people. As described in the video above, traditional pacemakers have two parts: an electrical generator and multiple leads that surgeons must painstakingly thread through a vein and into the heart. However, a new wireless pacemaker could make surgery simpler, cut down on surgical [...]
Sales Surge for Wireless Monitoring Devices
November 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
The growth of wireless patient monitors has outpaced other medical devices such as defibrillators and catheters to become the fastest growing medical device segment in terms of revenue, writes Pamela Lewis Dolan in American Medical News. The growth is attributed to increased use of electronic medical records, according to Dolan, who quotes in her story [...]
Cotton Transistors Advance Wearable Electronics
November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Imagine carpets that could count people walking on them. Or a T-shirt that can alert medics when a soldier has been wounded. Katherine Bourzac reports in New Scientist that transistors made from polymer-coated cotton may soon make these ideas for wearable electronics into reality. Previous attempts have not been appealing. Shirts on the market that [...]
Lightweight Auto Plastic Reduces CO2 Emissions
November 16, 2011 By 1 Comment
The European Commission has set a goal to improve fuel efficiency standards by cutting emissions from cars by 2012 through technology improvements. One way to do that is to rethink the car’s materials. Plastics & Rubber Weekly reports that one European company has developed a lightweight polypropylene material that will not compromise on performance or [...]
