During the week of May 7th the premier North American plastics event was held in Orlando, Florida. Nearly 60 000 people attended NPE 2018. pinfa-na had a booth at NPE (National Plastic Exposition) and sponsored the 7th ANTEC (Annual Technical Meeting of the Society of Plastics Engineers) 2018 “Non-Halogen FR” technical session organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers. Rudolph Pfaendner, Fraunhofer Institute, Germany, spoke on the latest developments concerning oxyimide flame retardant technology. Oxyimide based radical generators are active as single FR in PP and polyolefin films. Additionally, UL 94V0 can be achieved with low oxyimide loadings in combination with P-synergists. Maryline Desseix, Polyone, gave her perspective on the commercialization of NHFR technologies. One topic discussed was the task of balancing fire resistance (low levels of ignitability, smoke & heat) in combination with sustainability (environment, toxicity, recyclability). Gordon Nelson, Florida Institute of Technology, presented information concerning highly flame retardant flexible polyurethane foams developed for U.S. NASA. These foams have potential wider commercial applications. Nicholas Dempsey, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, spoke about the challenges for material and assemble designers in meeting international building code recognition of polymeric building materials. Mark Goulthorpe, MIT, spoke about a 21st century solution for global housing: the prospect of lightweight and thin-skin composite buildings. He made the case that environmental, logistical and economic benefits can be achieved. Jared Schwartz and Andrew Worthen of Exponent discussed the impact of the recent U.S. CPSC decision to initiate rulemaking concerning organohalogen flame retardants in selected consumer products. Guidance on this topic published in the U.S. Federal Register during September 2017 was also touched upon (see pinfa Newsletter n° 86). The final part of the afternoon program was a panel discussion, followed by a speaker/attendee networking reception sponsored by pinfa-na. The SPE NHFR SIG is now in the process of organizing a technical session for ANTEC 2019 in Detroit, Michigan with a focus on transportation.
NPE 2018 https://www.4spe.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3697
ANTEC 2019, 18-21 March Detroit https://www.4spe.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3697