Plasticstrends

Many stories have been written on plastics and their relationship with automobiles. Statistics have been published and of course, will continue to appear as long as automobiles and plastics govern our everyday life. Recently, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine (June 2001) noted that more than 50 million new automobiles are made every year adding to the 700 million vehicles that are already running on the world’s roads. Not surprisingly, 500 millions of them are in North America & Europe. According to American Plastics Council (APC), the average 1999 North American car weighed about 1450 kgs and had 117 kgs of plastic. However, this is expected to rise to about 142 kgs by 2009.

What is startling though is the rate of car theft. Report suggests (Newcastle Herald, Aug. 01, 2001) that car theft causes Australia almost AU$1 billion annually only behind Britain. In another news Perth Sunday Times (Aug. 05, 2001) added that almost 70 BMWs – 40 of them from Sydney – have been stolen in the past 18 months. DataDot Technology, a Sydney based company has come up with a unique technology using polymeric adhesive that would reduce the rate of car rebirthing. In turn, cutting the car insurance premium. Typically, over 10,000 microscopic droplets of polyester adhesive, “Datadots” will be sprayed all over car’s parts e.g., exhaust, panels, engine, suspension, seats, door trims, under hood components, dashboard etc. except on the body. Each “Datadots”, is about the size of a sand grain that will be inscribed with Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Only one such dot needs to be identified to prove theft. Adhesive dots are invisible to the naked eye and when cured, they are impervious to acids & solvents, petrol, diesel, road salts, water or abrasives. Microdata, the adhesive supplier used an ultra-violet trace, which will glow under a “black” light. Included also, a “rare earth DNA” to protect against counterfeiting. Obviously, BMW Australia group has become the first in the world to use this “Datadots” with all its new cars manufactured from September 2001. Now, Porsche, Tickford, Mitsubishi and Ford have joined BMW and HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) to fight automobile theft.

In today's market, plastic pipes are used in many areas such as in water, gas, sewer, and other industrial applications. In the European pipe market, plastic pipes rank first among other materials and globally plastic pipes are used at about 54% of the total pipes used. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) takes the lion's share at around 62% of the global market. Polyethylene (PE) has 33.5%, while polypropylene (PP) takes about 4.5%¹.
Pipe demand in the U.S. is projected to grow 2.5% annually to 15.5 billion feet in 2007². It is not difficult to understand the projected demand. Every day in the US, 2.45 billion gallons of treated drinking water are reported as lost or unbilled, the majority of it lost to leaking pipes³. Obviously, water-pipe networks needs replacement. Europe is also facing similar situation due to its aged and leaking water-pipe networks. One can make pipes with different materials. But inherent structural characteristics of polymers make plastic pipes advantageous. The excellent service record, corrosion and leak free attributes, easy to join, require little or no maintenance coupled with continuously improved materials and technology that are providing plastic pipes clear-cut edge over traditional pipe materials. Recently, Utah State University (USU) researchers experimented with 6? (DR-18) PVC pressure pipes (AWWA C900). The pipes underwent 10 million cycles between 185 psi and 235 psi for 394 days without failing. While during the test period 6 pumps and 5 relief valves failed⁴. It is not surprising that the traditional materials are now competing with plastics pipes.

In Europe, 1.5 million tons of PVC were used in 2002 to make pipes⁵. Use of polyethylene and polypropylene is rising in specific application areas. For instance, 90% of the pipes used in natural gas main and service piping installations in US are made of polyethylene⁶. While pipe demand is growing, big opportunities are looming for plastic pipes.

REFERENCES

1. M. Raynaud, Proceedings Plastics Pipes XII, Milan, Italy April 19-22, 2004
2. S. Rahman, Proceedings Plastics Pipes XII, Milan, Italy April 19-22, 2004
3. Plastics News, Oct 27, 2003
4. PVC Pipe News, 27 (1), Spring 2004
5. T. Hülsmann and R.E. Nowack, Proceedings Plastics Pipes XII, Milan, Italy April 19-22, 2004
6. K. Ryan, J. American Gas Association, July 2003

Sometime in 1967, Mr. McGuire told Benjamin Braddock, a freshman, "I just want to say one word to you - just one word - Plastics". Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin in the film "The Graduate" was unaware at that time that plastics not only could change his life but the life of many. DNA sequencing or throughput screening of new pharmaceutical candidate compounds for medicine are currently active research areas and plastic is now taking over silicon and glass in several biotechnological applications.

Bio-tech researchers call them micro-fluidic systems where tiny fluid reservoirs are connected as networks (capillary size channels) providing quick response, minimum cross-contamination, small reagent volumes etc. to the experimentalists. Why plastics? They are cheap, can be manufactured in large volumes, processing technologies are well-developed (injection, casting or embossing) and various plastics are compatible with biological & chemical reagents. In fact, ACLARA BioSciences has developed many application specific plastic cards (size of a credit card) whose micro-channels are tens to hundreds of mm in depth & in width and of course, follow complex circuit-like paths. Reagents are fed into these channels via reservoirs that take only a total volume of reagents of 0.2-15 ml/reservoir. To know, how plastic is helping researchers in micro-fabrication over glass and silicon, read reference below.

Analytical Chemistry, Feb. 01, 2002, Vol. 74, Issue 3, pp. 78A-86A

You use it, I use it, and the world uses it; then why is 3M's popular transparent tape called "Scotch tape"?

In 1925, Richard Drew, a young researcher at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) felt that he could help auto painters to make two-tone paint with clear dividing line. Without knowing that he was going to invent the first masking tape that would become a brand name for every household, Richard Drew made a 2-inch wide strip of paper tape coated on the back with a rubber-based adhesive. To reduce the cost, he coated the tape one-quarter inch wide only along the edges and not in the middle portion. He brought a prototype tape to the St. Paul auto painter. Unfortunately, the tape failed to hold onto the body and fell off. Out of frustration and annoyance, the painter said to Richard, "Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!"

Now you know how Scotch got stuck to tape to become "Scotch tape".

Ref. http://www.3m.com/about3m/student/scotchbrand4/