Columns

RSS

Innovation comes from many places. From the vantage point of a scientist or engineer, nature provides many examples to emulate. 

Lightweighting of structures is most often associated with automotive structures. However, lightweighting is a challenge across the transportation sector, including trucks, trailers, buses, passenger rail cars, and even heavy earth-moving equipment and cranes.

A new restriction on diisocyanates adopted by the European authorities under REACH on August 4, 2020, specifies the need for training and labelling requirements for industrial or professional users of diisocyanates with a monomeric concentration greater than 0.1 % by weight.

According to the 2022 Specialty Chemicals Industry Census+, SOCMA members and industry colleagues are placing particular emphasis on supporting their current customers while simultaneously dealing with supply chain disruption and logistics challenges.

The global supply chain is out of alignment with no simple or quick fix to re-balance and right size it. However, successful inventory management can help companies grow and thrive during these challenging times.

After two years of postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 437 people gathered May 2-5, 2022, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., for the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council’s (PSTC) inaugural Tape Week.

Homeowners, DIYers, renovators, house flippers, contractors, and all building and construction pros alike can benefit from the properties of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape. Tape is effective for a broad range of applications.

The European Commission’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) could fundamentally change the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation by extending the application of the generic approach to risk management to professional uses and new hazard classes. This extension of the generic approach to cover not only consumers but also professional workers, including those in the construction sector, will have a significant impact.

With the host of diverse biomaterials produced by an estimated 6.5 million species on land and 2.2 million species in the oceans, the biomimicry toolkit that man has to play with is, for all practical purposes, limitless. The superior designs discovered in nature have inspired many research programs from around the world, both at the university and commercial levels. The gecko, sandcastle worm, caddisfly, mussel, and sea cucumber are all species that have inspired new chemical approaches to creating adhesives with unique performance features.

For both specialty chemicals and adhesives and sealants, quality training is paramount. Ensuring the safety of employees and their ability to successfully operate equipment is the number-one priority. In these unprecedented times, workforce development issues seem to compound each other, making onboarding new operators and training long-term employees a necessary and integral part of a chemical plant’s success—in safety and in business.