Polymers companies involved

RAPRA free Internet search engine. The number of plastic-related web sites is increasing exponentially, yet searching for relevant information is often laborious and costly. During 1999 RAPRA Technology Ltd., the UK-based plastics and rubber consultancy, launched what is believed to be the first free Internet search engine focused exclusively in the plastics industry. It is called Polymer Search on the Internet (PSI). It is accessible at www.polymersearch.com. Companies involved in any plastic-related activity are invited to submit their web-site address for free inclusion on PSI. RAPRA Technology s USA office is in Charlotte, NC (tel. 704-571-4005). 

Michael J. Bowker studied chemistry and received his doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Leeds, UK. After 5 years working for a multinational polymer company, he moved to May Baker Ltd., a UK subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc Sante (now Sanoli-Aventis). He was a Director of Analytical Chemistry for about 15 years and, more recently. Director of Preformulation at Aventis Pharma Ltd. He has been intimately involved in preformulation and solid-state activities, on a worldwide basis for more than 15 years. He has published several research papers and one chapter for a book on pharmaceutical salts and is currently a Director of M. J. Bowker Consulting Limited, a small company undertaking consultancy in salt selection, polymorph selection and pharmaceutical preformulation. 

Compared with most other biodegradable plastics and/or bio-based plastics, PLA is by far the most important and promising one. The leading position of PLA is demonstrated by the current scale of the PLA industry, the number of pilot projects announced or under construction, the numerous products and applications of PLA in biodegradable and/or bio-based polymer markets, the number of polymer companies and converters involved with PLA, the news and attention created by PLA, the patents and publications related to PLA, etc. 

Electronics Design Engineers Material and Polymer Scientists The conference will also be of use to companies involved in the following sectors Photovoltaics and solar energy Displays... 

Alqemia is the new name for a group of companies involved with masterbatch production and additives. It was set up by the Israeli company Kafrit Industries following its pmchase of Constab Additive Polymers (UK) Ltd., Constab Polyolefin Additives GmbH and Areton International Plastics (UK) in late 2003. Alqemia has manufacturing operations in Israel, Germany and the UK. 

Industry and Business. The specific production methods of many common polymers and plastics are patented and are closely guarded industry secrets. These patents have values of many tens of millions of dollars to their owners, who are generally lai e corporations with the resources to research and develop polymer science and are often suppliers of polymers and plastics. Other companies involved in plastic engineering work at an intermediate level between the plastics producers and the industries that turn these materials into consumer products. They include the various molding manufacturers and the ancillary companies and services that support their work. 

Professor R. A. Pethrick, PhD, DSc, is currently a research professor and professor emeritus in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Glasglow, Scotland. He was Burmah Professor in Physical Chemistry and has been a member of the staff there since 1969. He has published over 400 papers and edited and written several books. Recently he has edited several publications concerned with the techniques for the characterization of the molar mass of polymers and also the study of their morphology. He currently holds a number of EPSRC grants and is involved with Knowledge Transfer Programmes involving three local companies involved in production of articles made out of polymeric materials. His current research involves AWE, and he has acted as a consultant for BAE Systems in the area of explosives as well as a company involved in the production of anticorrosive coatings. 

If the performance requirements for a design provide wide enough limits, materials from different companies can be used in the product. This is so because the manufacturing methods of different companies for producing the same basic polymers, as well as preparing the same basic polymer alloys, blends, and compounds, can produce different performance in properties and processing. The different companies involved can thus produce materials with varying property limits. 

The Eastman Chemical Company has pubHshed extensively in the patent Hterature (65—74) and the scientific Hterature (75—77) on processes for making poly(phenylene sulfide)- (9-(phenylene disulfide), and related copolymers. The Eastman process involves the reaction of elemental sulfur with Ndiiodobenzene to yield a phenylene sulfide polymer that also contains phenylene disulfide repeating units in the polymer. The fraction of repeating groups containing... 

It was estimated that in 1987 about 25 companies were involved in the development of liquid crystal polymers, but by 1995 only Hoechst and Amoco were sharing the 3000 t.p.a. global market in the ratio of about 70 30. 

Whilst the conductivity of these polymers is generally somewhat inferior to that of metals (for example, the electrical conductivity of polyacetylenes has reached more than 400 000 S/cm compared to values for copper of about 600 000 S/cm), when comparisons are made on the basis of equal mass the situation may be reversed. Unfortunately, most of the polymers also display other disadvantages such as improcessability, poor mechanical strength, poor stability under exposure to common environmental conditions, particularly at elevated temperatures, poor storage stability leading to a loss in conductivity and poor stability in the presence of electrolytes. In spite of the involvement of a number of important companies (e.g. Allied, BASF, IBM and Rohm and Haas) commercial development has been slow however, some uses have begun to emerge. It is therefore instructive to review briefly the potential for these materials. 

The photodegradation of PVCa solutions has been studied to determine a mechanism for the photodegradation process and identify the excited states involved. The polymer was secondary grade (Aldrich Chemical Company) that was further purified by reprecipitation three times from methylene chloride solution by the dropwise addition into methly alcohol. Solutions in methylene chloride were found to yellow rapidly in air upon exposure to 360 nm light, whereas solutions degassed by the freeze-pump-thaw technique showed little yellowing. 

The most stable resin for many of our purposes has proven to be a copolymer of ethyl methacrylate and methyl acrylate. This comes as little surprise the Rohm and Haas Company has for years sold a durable resin based on these two monomers, Acryloid B-72 (6,28). We have also prepared polymers of similar physical properties based on methyl methacrylate and ethyl acrylate and have found that their behavior is practically the same - the methyl and ethyl groups apparently do not become seriously involved in crosslinking. As reported elsewhere( 23), rather than crosslink, Acryloid B-72 tends to chain break under visible and near-ultraviolet radiation, although at a very slow rate. Polyvinylacetate is another polymer used in the care of museum objects that tends more to chain break than crosslink under these conditions(23), but it is not our purpose to discuss its properties at this time. 

In the late 1970s, Kirchhoff at Dow Chemical Company developed the use of benzocyclobutenes in polymer synthesis and modification. These efforts culminated in 1985 with the issuance of the first patent describing the use of benzocyclobutene in the synthesis of high-molecular-weight polymer.27 Similar work that involved a thermosetting system based on Diels-Alder cycloaddition between terminal benzocyclobutene and alkyne groups,28,29 was reported separately and independently by Tan and Arnold.28 Since these initial discoveries, the field of benzocyclobutene polymers has expanded rapidly and benzocyclobutene chemistry constitutes the basis of a new and versatile approach to the synthesis of high-performance polymers for applications in the electronics and aerospace industries.30... 

Other US companies chose to await expiration of the Whinfield and Dickson patent before entering the market. One of the earliest to become involved was Celanese Corporation, whose joint venture with ICI, named Fiber Industries Inc. (FII Fortrel), began construction of its first PET plant in 1959. Beaunit (Vycron) was also an early entrant, initially with a copolymer fibre that was arguably not covered by the basic patent, using polymer from Goodyear. 

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