Thermoforming Quarterly in 2012
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® Thermoforming ® Quarterly A JOURNAL OF THE THERMOFORMING DIVISION OF THE SOCIETY OF PLASTIC ENGINEERS SECOND QUARTER 2012 n VOLUME 31 n NUMBER 2 OPENING DOORS TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES Beta Nucleation to Improve Thermoforming Characteristics of Polypropylene page 6 INSIDE … Design Optimization for Improved Packaging Recyclability page 14 European Thermoforming Conference Parts Competition Winners page 32 WWW.THERMOFORMINGDIVISION.COM Thermoforming SECOND QUARTER 2012 Thermoforming Quarterly® VOLUME 31 n NUMBER 2 Quarterly® A JOURNAL PUBLISHED EACH Contents CALENDAR QUARTER BY THE n Departments THERMOFORMING DIVISION OF THE SOCIETY OF Chairman’s Corner x 2 PLASTICS ENGINEERS Thermoforming in the News x 4-5 Editor Page 2 Thermoforming and Sustainability x 14-18 Conor Carlin University News x 22-28 (617) 771-3321 [email protected] Sponsorships Laura Pichon (847) 829-8124 n Features Fax (815) 678-4248 [email protected] ANTEC Paper x 6-10 Recent Insights on the Use of Beta Nucleation to Improve the Conference Coordinator Thermoforming Characteristics of Polypropylene Gwen Mathis (706) 235-9298 Student Paper x 22-28 Fax (706) 295-4276 Comparison Between Thermoforming Tooling Materials HYTAC-C and MDF Board [email protected] Page 33 Thermoforming Quarterly® is pub- 8th European Conference Review x 32-33 lished four times annually as an infor- mational and educational bulletin to the members of the Society of Plastics Engineers, Thermoforming Division, Dispatches x 34 and the thermoforming industry. The By Ken Braney name, “Thermoforming Quarterly®” and its logotype, are registered trade- marks of the Thermoforming Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc. No part of this publication may be re- produced in any form or by any means 2012 without prior written permission of the publisher, copyright holder. Opinions n of the authors are their own, and the In This Issue ® publishers cannot be held responsible for opinions or representations of any 2012 Conference x 13 unsolicited material. Printed in the U.S.A. Council Summary x 30-31 Thermoforming Quarterly® is regis- tered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Sponsorships x 40 Thermoforming Today Office (Registration no. 2,229,747). x Page 13 Cover Artwork courtesy of Google Images and Renault SA www.thermoformingdivision.com All Rights Reserved 2012 THERMOFORMING QUARTERLY 1 Thermoforming Chairman’s Corner Quarterly® A New Vision Phil Barhouse industry and its customers. The The new and improved website continued growth of the Plastics contains the digital version Innovation and Resource Center of Thermoforming Quarterly (PIRC) at Penn College is a magazine, online forums and testament to the skills, dedication technical information on material, am very excited to be and collaboration of numerous machinery and process. Through servingI as Chairman of the educators, industry professionals the SPE Thermoforming Division Thermoforming Division for and students alike. As we have seen LinkedIn Subgroup, the Division the 2012-2014 term. In my first in these pages before, workforce now provides an active and letter as the Division Chairman, development continues to be a very lively discussion forum for all important topic for our industry. those challenging thermoforming I would like to thank Ken Griep The PIRC and, more specifically, questions. We encourage our for his enthusiasm and for the the Thermoforming Center of members to use these new tools, time and effort he devoted to Excellence, is making great strides to participate in the forums and to the division over the past two toward its goal of being a hub offer commentary and feedback. years. His dedication, together of thermoforming activity from with the effort of the other My vision for the next two years hands-on training to forming trials board members, has resulted in is to find better and more efficient for new materials to new product numerous recognitions for the ways of reaching out to everyone design and development. The Thermoforming Division including who is interested or involved in Center will host the 3rd Annual the 2012 SPE Gold Pinnacle Award thermoforming. The Grand Rapids Technical Workshop on June 25-27. Thermoforming Conference and Communications Excellence I invite all members to learn more Award. from September 23rd through about this wonderful asset and the September 25th will be one of The mission of the Thermoforming talented staff, including Director the most exciting and informative Division is to facilitate the Hank White and Program Manager conferences to date. I hope to hear advancement of thermoforming Christopher Gagliano. from many of you between now technologies through education, During this year’s NPE Show in and then, so please share your application, promotion and Orlando, the Division sponsored ideas, comments and feedback. research. Today, we are in the a Thermoforming Pavilion. Together we will continue to best position to accomplish this As a group, we were able to advance our industry through mission than we have been for showcase the art and science of inspiration, ideas and innovation. many years. By modernizing thermoforming to the entire plastics and streamlining the Division, industry. We also just launched we are becoming more efficient our new Division website – www. Phil Barhouse at engaging the thermoforming thermoformingdivision.com. Chairman 2 tHERMOFORMING QUARTERly thermoforming Achieve a sustainable balance of performance and cost. UPES® resin is NOVA Chemicals’ proprietary additive resin. When used with polyolefins, this product enables significant source reduction while increasing performance at no additional cost. YOUR SOLUTION. YOUR UPES® RESIN. Sustainability • Up to 20% material source reduction • More efficient machine usage translates to energy savings • Recyclable Benefit • Improved crush strength - by up to 140% • 33% faster forming rates • Better part definition • Shorter start-ups and reduced scrap rates Efficiency • Downgauge • Easy processability at loadings up to 20% by weight • Runs on existing equipment • Blends well with polyolefins www.upesresin.com • [email protected] • 1.724.770.6610 THERMOFORMING QUARTERLY 3 Thermoforming in the News Dart Buying Solo Dart CEO Robert Dart said in Peninsula Invests Cup for $1 Billion the release that because his firm $20 Million in New is privately held, it can take the By Lorene Yue, Plastics News Report time needed “to integrate Solo in Washington Plant Posted March 21, 2012 MASON, MI (10:00 p.m. ET) a thoughtful, analytical manner to By Brandi Shaffer, Plastics News Staff olo Cup Co. of Lake Forest, ensure lasting success.” Posted March 21, 2012 EXETER, CA (1:45 p.m. ET) IL, announced recently that S Dart’s foam beverage cup business eninsula Packaging Co. LLC it is being purchased by Dart took a potential blow when Pis expanding operations in Container Corp. McDonald’s Corp. said it might Yakima, WA just months after Solo and Mason, MI-based Dart have found a replacement for purchasing the agricultural said they have an agreement for polystyrene foam. thermoforming division of Solo to be sold in a $1 billion Packaging Plus LLC. About 2,000 of the company’s transaction. The deal is subject to That acquisition, which took regulatory approval and expected restaurants, mostly West Coast place in December 2011, resulted to close in the third quarter. Dart operations, will be testing a double- in an initial 80,000-square-foot is the country’s largest maker of walled fiber hot cup in an attempt facility in Yakima as well as a foam cups. to phase out the usually landfill- bound foam cups. McDonald’s said manufacturing and warehouse Robert Korzenski, Solo’s CEO, the objective is to assess customer facility in Hollister, CA. said in a news release that acceptance, operational impact and he believes he is “putting the Now, the Exeter, CA-based overall performance. company in the right hands company will move into a to succeed and grow going In addition to foam cups, Solo and larger 180,000-square-foot forward.” Dart are also major thermoformers facility previously occupied by Ace Hardware in Yakima. The The company has been struggling of foodservice products, including expansion has a price tag of $20 financially ever since it bought drink cups. Solo is the No. 2 million and will add 50 more to competitor Sweetheart in 2004 for thermoformer in North America, its current 50 employees in that $917.2 million. Solo was unable with estimated related sales of facility through this year. to efficiently integrate the two $790 million, according to Plastics companies and combined with News’ most recent ranking. The “We have some business in the an economic downturn, began to company had total corporate sales Washington area that we have been experience consecutive quarters of $1.582.9 million. manufacturing in California,” Ed of losses. Dart was the No. 3 thermoformer Byrne, CEO of Peninsula said. In 2007, Solo sold a portion of the in the ranking, with estimated “We put the new equipment in the firm to New York-based Vestar relevant sales of $480 million. new building and will start doing Capital Partners IV LP. Vestar The company has total corporate all our products for the Northwest Capital had helped finance Solo’s sales of $1.455 million. Even the in Yakima.” Sweetheart deal. Founder Leo combination of Solo and Dart That new equipment includes three Hulseman still maintains majority will be smaller than the No. 1 large bed thermoformers and a control of the papergoods and thermoformer, Lake Forest-based PET extrusion line. The line will container manufacturer. Pactiv Foodservice, with estimated be up and running within four Since then the company has sales of $3.2 billion. x weeks with the rest of the facility closed several plants and trimmed ready to go in the next three more than 1,000 jobs. months. 4 tHERMOFORMING QUARTERly In addition to Yakima, Exeter and Hollister, Peninsula has a facility in Wilson, NC, a distribution warehouse in Central Florida, and contract manufacturing and distribution centers in Tijuana and Guadalajara, Mexico.