Malaysia’s projected rubber glove export for this year has been revised down to 188 billion pieces from 195 billion pieces earlier due to the current labour shortage, said Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (MARGMA) president Denis Low Jau Foo. The figure is, however, slightly higher than the 172 billion pieces exported last year.

Croda announced that its Polymer Additives business is now part of Croda Smart Materials, offering its customers extensive polymer expertise and multiple technology platforms. At K 2019, the company is celebrating half a century of experience in amide production and the opening of its GBP 27 million amide manufacturing facility at its site in the United Kingdom.

More than half of the country’s 1.08 million hectares of areas planted with rubber trees have been abandoned due to the low price of the commodity. The latest official data showed that 661,080 ha or 61 % of the total 1.08 million hectares of areas planted with the commodity are untapped as owners struggled to get a decent return for their efforts. An industry insider said smallholders who own 96 % of the total areas planted with rubber trees, had fled the estate and sought more lucrative jobs. The older owners — who comprise up to 60 % of the smallholders — had abandoned the job due to old age.

This article describes a class of novel smart materials known as mechano-adaptive composites. Mechanical adaptability is realized by exploiting the polymorphic phase transition characteristics of certain abundantly available inorganic filler particles incorporated in the elastomer matrix.

Key new products of Wacker will be fire-resistant silicone elastomers, self-adhesive silicone rubber grades with extremely low-friction surfaces and ultra-thin silicone laminates for electroactive applications. The company announced that another focus will be on liquid silicone rubber grades that, thanks to their reduced volatiles content, do not necessarily require postcuring. In the field of 3D printing Wacker will show the new 3D silicone printer Aceo Imagine Series K2.

Uth GmbH from Fulda, Germany, will be presenting its extended product range at K 2019. In addition to the proven roll-ex gear pump technology and roll-ex fine mesh straining solutions, this includes current developments such as the TRP (Two-roll Plasticiser) for rework processing, polymer dosing system and roll-ex MDSE technology for silicone compounding.

For K 2019, Messe Düsseldorf, in cooperation with the elastomer specialists of DR. GUPTA VERLAGS GMBH have published again the official RUBBER & TPE POCKET GUIDE. It is a free of charge and neutral listing of suppliers of elastomer-specific products and services at K 2019.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH announced it will unveil its fastest, most energy efficient, sustainable, data driven integrated machine line-up at K 2019 by presenting five new machines under the motto “Precision. Power. Productivity”. In addition, the company will showcase its technical expertise in LSR moulding. The company said that a new preferred partnership in the LSR market will be unveiled by Sumitomo (SHI) Demag closer to the exhibition.

LWB Steinl, the manufacturer of rubber processing machines headquartered in Altdorf-Lands­hut, Germany, has emerged to a broad-based group of eight companies within the last eight years. Five of the eight companies will give a comprehensive overview of their expertise at K 2019 on the joint stand of the Steinl Group. Beyond elastomer injection moulding and rubber processing technology, these include, in particular, the adhesive and sealing technology, but also the development and application of fibre-reinforced biopolymers.

Together with seven other companies of the recently founded value balancing alliance e. V., based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, BASF intends to develop a standard to makes the value creation of companies for society measurable and comparable in environmental, human, social, and financial terms.