The Plastics Industry Trade Association (SPI) has announced that the NPE2012, the next edition of the triennial NPE international plastics exposition, will take place 1 – 5 April 2012 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, USA.

At this year’s Fakuma the VTC TPE Group once again co-exhibited with its German distributor, Nordmann Rassmann, Hamburg. The group showcased the latest developments in their three TPE brands: Mediprene for medical device applications Dryflex for industrial and consumer applications and Marfran for winter sports and footwear markets.

The European market for thermoplastic elastomers has suffered a setback, along with all other industry sectors. This was not only due to the overall economic downturn, but also to the continuing shift to Asia, of a number of applications.

Dow Chemical, Midland, MI, USA, is in the process of commercialising a new impact modifier for rigid thermoplastic olefins (TPOs) that will increase their flexural modulus without affecting low-temperature impact resistance, allowing designers to downgauge parts without sacrificing mechanical properties.

Visteon Corp. is slated to receive more than USD33 million in exchange for exiting its interiors business with Nissan North America Inc. Visteon plans to sell its four U.S. plants that supply cockpit modules, front-end modules and other interiors products to Nissan production in Smyrna, Tennessee and Canton, Mississippi to a holding company created by Nissan.

Steve Henderson has been appointed President of Dow Automotive Systems, replacing Peter Sykes who assumed the role of President Greater China for the holding company Dow Chemical. In addition, Sykes also served as President Japan & Korea for Dow based in Tokyo, Japan. He will relinquish this responsibility. Henderson will be responsible for the global profit and loss, business strategy and organisational health of the automotive division.

Hans Zweifel, Ralph-Dieter Maier, Michael Schiller (eds.), Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, 6th ed., 2009, 1,230 p., 300 fig., hardback, ISBN 978-3-446-40801-2, EUR 199.90

Anil K. Bhowmick (ed.), CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, 2008, 1,090 p., hardback, ISBN 978-0-8493-7317-6, USD 189.95

So. F. Ter Spa has launched a new range of antibacterial compounds characterised by high effectiveness and prolonged effect, according to the norm DIN EN ISO 846.

Plasmatreat has demonstrated at Fakuma how normally incompatible components in the injection moulding process can be joined by the use of Openair plasma-technology.