• Performance meets lifestyle
• Superior stiffness and rigidity meet aesthetic surface quality
• Innovative styrenics based composite helps to protect lives

INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, announced the selection of its StyLight composite by CASCO for the production of safety helmets for bicyclists and skiers.

The German company CASCO is a leading designer and manufacturer of quality safety helmets and glasses. The company offers a broad portfolio of solutions for bicyclists, skiers, skaters, riders and rescue teams like fire brigade, police and others.

The company decided to base their latest designs for bicyclists and skiers on INEOS Styrolution’s innovative StyLight composite. StyLight became popular as the first styrenics based thermoplastic composite delivering an amazing surface quality in combination with superior stiffness and rigidity.

CASCO selected the carbon composite StyLight Hybrid S as the material of choice for their new designs offering customers not only protection in most demanding environments, but also giving them a product that addresses their lifestyle.

Manfred Krauter, CEO at CASCO International GmbH, comments: “Our company tries to stay at the forefront of innovation. The performance of this new material fits exactly our needs and we appreciate the support from INEOS Styrolution. We are confident that our customers will like the new StyLight helmets.”

Pierre Juan, VP Future Business and Innovation at INEOS Styrolution, adds: “I very much like the entrepreneurial spirit of CASCO and I look forward to a long collaboration with the company.”

www.ineos-styrolution.com

• THERMEC S can replace sintered carbon in submersible pump thrust bearings applications
• The enhanced polymer offers outstanding abrasion and wear resistance properties to improve tool life
• The solution delivers on high compressive strength and temperature resistance

DOMO Chemicals has expanded its THERMEC range of enhanced polymers, with the introduction of a new solution for the replacement of sintered carbon in submersible pump thrust bearings applications. THERMEC S is a glass and mineral filled, lubricated polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) based material that offers outstanding abrasion and wear resistance properties to improve tool life. The product is not only cost-effective, but also offers excellent performance benefits, when compared to sintered carbon. Due to its excellent processability, it is suitable for both injection moulding and extrusion applications.

“Sintered carbon thrust bearings have a long tradition of use within submersible pumps, but there is a risk of easy breakage during handling,” says Tushar Parida, Country manager. “THERMEC S overcomes these issues by delivering on high compressive strength and temperature resistance, while also offering excellent mechanical performance, and low creep. It’s an excellent addition to the THERMEC portfolio.”

Submersible pumps, which are predominantly used for agricultural irrigation purposes, are typically placed at several meters below the earth’s surface for water extraction. Thrust bearings are highly critical to the life and performance of these pumps. Since these bearings undergo continuous rotation, they will rub against sand, mud, and the metal stationary surface of the bearing housing. This causes a rise in temperature during operations. Furthermore, due to the very high underground pressure (1 bar per meter), these parts are also subjected to high temperature and pressure conditions while in operation.

Sintered carbon thrust bearings are one of the best available non-metal products for submersible pumps, due to their outstanding wear performance at elevated temperatures, and cost performance ratio. However, the drawback of this material is its brittleness, which means that parts containing it are often fragile. The processing of these solutions is also not easy, which can mean longer dwell times, cooling temperatures, and resultantly low productivity.

DOMO’s THERMEC S is designed to replace sintered carbons in submersible pumps that are exposed to continuous application temperatures of up to 200°C. Combining PPS, glass, mineral fillers and lubricating additives, results in a synergistic effect that brings excellent abrasion resistance. This delivers a final product with higher mechanical properties than sintered carbon samples.

DOMO plays a strong role in the higher performance polymers market. The extensive THERMEC product range has been developed to meet the demands of specific application requirements. The enhanced polymers solution range features new solutions based on polyphthalamide (PPA): THERMEC N; polyphenylene sulfide (PPS): THERMEC S; and polyether ether ketone (PEEK): THERMEC K).

www.domochemicals.com

PP 400 requires no additives and offers a 50% elongation of break

Developed in conjunction with Braskem, a market leader in polypropylene production

Polypropylene powder sets the stage for a line of custom materials for specific client use cases

Advanced Laser Materials (ALM), an EOS company and leader in materials development for industrial 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM), has released its new polypropylene powder for use in selective laser sintering (SLS) AM: PP 400.

PP 400 offers superior mechanical properties in comparison to other options currently available on the market. Particularly, this material offers a 50% elongation of break, providing better impact resistance for use in dynamic environments. In addition, no additives, such as absorbers, are required for use, allowing the material to retain the pure chemical component of the polymer as well as its performance. The powder also has high recyclability enabling low cost-per-part manufacturing.

Additional benefits of PP 400 include strong chemical resistance against acids, bases, salts, and more, enhanced processing stability, good recyclability, and excellent performance in objects requiring living hinges. Ideal applications include fluid systems, tanks and containers, piping, interior components on automobiles, and anything that comes in contact with corrosive fluids.

“Developing our own polypropylene was less about just getting to market and more about getting to market with the right product that meets the demands of our customers and partners,” said Cary Baur, Manager, R&D and Applications Development – Polymers for EOS. “We wanted to create the best base material possible that would be successful on its own, but could also serve as a jumping off point for producing customized composites based on customer applications and needs – and we accomplished that with this material.”

According to Baur, ALM has a strong track record working directly with clients to understand their desired outcomes and then create custom composite materials based on their needs.

ALM’s polypropylene powder was developed in partnership with Braskem, the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and the leading producer of biopolymers in the world. This is the first commercial product launched under that partnership, which began in 2018.

The material is now available for third-party industrial 3D printers and will soon be available for EOS machines as well.

www.alm-llc.com

New technology enables the sorting of black plastic packaging for recycling

Toyo Ink Europe Specialty Chemicals S.A.S. (TIESC), a member of the Toyo Ink Group, has developed a whole new range of Lioplax black plastic masterbatch for near-infrared (NIR) sorting and subsequent material recovery. The new packaging masterbatch supports the recyclability of black plastic waste that is currently destined for landfill, thus helping our customers in closing the loop on the circular economy.

Presently, plastic waste sorting is based on automatic optical sorting methods with the majority of sorting equipment relying on the reflectance of NIR wavelengths. Standard black masterbatches are typically produced with carbon black pigments. Since carbon black absorbs infrared light, identification by optical sensors is impossible. This results in undetected black or dark-coloured packaging waste being sent to landfill or incineration. Addressing the recycling issue, TIESC developed a new alternative to standard carbon black masterbatch.

“Toyo Ink Europe Specialty Chemicals has successfully brought to market a sustainable alternative enabling your packaging to integrate the recycling loop,” commented Dr. Xavier André, Technical & Research Manager of Toyo Ink Europe Specialty Chemicals. “Packaging using a new Lioplax black masterbatch can be detected by NIR sensors during the sorting stage at material recovery centres. This allows dark-colour packaging to be sorted and integrated back into the value chain as a reusable raw material through recycling. Our NIR black colorants have been certified according to the Cotrep recyclability test protocol and have received positive results at both Pellenc and Tomra testing centers.”

The Lioplax series of NIR-sorting black masterbatches are specially formulated for use in PP trays, PET preforms, films, bottles and other packaging applications. Different grades are available in varying black color shades, grades of resins (polyolefin, PET) and processing compatibility such as injection, extrusion and blow moulding. The advantage for brand owners is that they can keep their black packaging market product codes whilst becoming more sustainable.

https://www.toyoink-europe.com/en/ / https://schd.toyoinkgroup.com/en/

• Partnership paves the way for closed loop recycling to keep polystyrene out of landfills

Styrolution and AmSty, two of the largest global producers of polystyrene, announce plans to construct a joint 100 ton per day facility in Channahon, Illinois, that will utilize the Agilyx advanced recycling technology to recycle post-use polystyrene products back into virgin-equivalent styrene monomer.

“Discarded single-use items like polystyrene foam cups and yogurt cups can now go right back to the same applications over and over at the same purity and performance with no need to landfill,” said Greg Fordyce, President Americas for INEOS Styrolution. “We are excited to join forces with AmSty on this ambitious project, which we expect will elevate polystyrene as a sustainable material of choice. In particular, this facility will dramatically increase recycling rates in the greater Chicago area.”

In 2018, AmSty and Agilyx formed their Regenyx joint venture to advance the development of a similar facility in Tigard, Oregon, using Agilyx’s breakthrough pyrolysis technology. The Channahon facility will be engineered on a larger scale in cooperation with Agilyx to represent the next generation of advanced recycling technology.

“Polystyrene products can offer sustainability advantages where less material is required (e.g. a polystyrene foam cup is 95% air),” said Tim Barnette, Vice President – Polymers and Sustainability at AmSty. “Polystyrene is particularly advantageous for advanced recycling because it can be “unzipped” back to its original liquid form, styrene monomer. Other plastics can also be converted into useful intermediates, but polystyrene offers a truly circular solution. Polystyrene remains the best option for a range of applications such as food and beverage containers. We view polystyrene waste products as valuable feedstock for circular recycling. Keeping plastics out of the landfills not only makes sense from an environmental standpoint, but it makes economic sense as well.”

“Advanced recycling technologies are key to creating a circular economy for plastics,” said Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx. “Agilyx’s technology for converting waste polystyrene is proven at scale, having been operational for several years now in Oregon. This new facility in Illinois will be the largest of its type in the world, and will meet the growing demand from brand owners who want more recycled plastic, allowing them not only the possibility of recycling food grade material back to the same products but also for the upcycling of lower quality non-food grade products to meet food grade usage requirements.”

Agilyx will also source and supply plastic waste feedstock for the facility through its recently formed Cyclyx subsidiary. “In addition to the technology, we have developed a feedstock management system, which is just as important as the technology in developing the supply chain for this new market,” said Joe Vaillancourt, Cyclyx’s President. “The overarching goal of Cyclyx is to dramatically increase the recyclability of post-use plastics with a priority for fully circular pathways, as well as assisting in the development of new supply chains that will aggregate and preprocess larger volumes of post-use plastics than current systems.”

Engineering design for the Channahon facility is under way, with construction and commissioning as the expected next phases.

www.ineos-styrolution.com / www.agilyx.com

• JDA intends to accelerate the introduction of circularity for one of the most recyclable polymers, polystyrene
• JDA targets advancements in all technical aspects to enable scaled investment in advanced commercial recycling solutions

To accelerate driving the circular economy for styrenics forward, three of the world’s leading polystyrene producers, AmSty, INEOS Styrolution and Trinseo signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to jointly explore recycling options for polystyrene.

AmSty, INEOS Styrolution and Trinseo are committed to a circular economy for polystyrene. This JDA represents the first global combined effort to explore advanced recycling technologies, optimize them for commercial use and call for all contributors along the value chain to make circularity of polystyrene a reality. The three companies are aiming at an economy where post-consumer polystyrene waste does not end up in landfills but is recognized as a valuable resource for the development of new materials for future use.

Polystyrene is a unique polymer suitable for multiple advanced recycling solutions like depolymerization. Its properties make it ideal for a circular economy – even enabling food contact compliancy of the recycled material, often considered the holy grail of polymer recycling.

All three companies have done their own independent research and have invested in various projects to further the commercialization of advanced recycling capacity. This new joint effort allows all participants to share best practices and optimize recycling technologies for large-scale commercial use.

Dr. Randy Pogue, President and Chief Executive Officer, AmSty: “I am thrilled to see the industry coming together globally to work on a common goal to realize true circularity for styrenics. This is a true win-win for all participants in this joint effort and finally for our customers, for consumers and for society.”

Alexander Glück, President EMEA, INEOS Styrolution, adds: “Polystyrene has all it takes to make it a star in a circular economy. Enhanced recycling technologies even offer recycled polystyrene at food contact quality. Which other polymer can do that?”

“This marks another milestone in our industry’s commitment towards a circular economy where we can continue to enjoy all the benefits of Polystyrene whilst solving the environmental challenges at the same time. I am looking forward to see other members of the value chain joining us to make our vision become a reality in the very near future,” summarizes Nicolas Joly, Vice President Plastics & Feedstocks, Trinseo. 

www.amsty.com / www.ineos-styrolution.com / www.trinseo.com