More Than a Compounder: They Have the Science to Create New Custom Materials

A 360-degree look at resin conveying systems: types, operation, economics, design, installation, components and controls.

This Knowledge Center provides an overview of resin moisture and the drying process, including information on the best drying practices for your manufacturing facility. Meat Packaging Materials

More Than a Compounder: They Have the Science to Create New Custom Materials | Plastics Technology

Everything you need to know about plastics compounding technology—from feeding solutions to application profiles and expert advice.

Combat the skilled labor shortage using this comprehensive resource to train your own plastics processing experts.

Deep dive into the basics of blending versus dosing, controls, maintenance, process integration and more.

This Knowledge Center provides an overview of the considerations needed to understand the purchase, operation, and maintenance of a process cooling system.

Learn about sustainable scrap reprocessing—this resource offers a deep dive into everything from granulator types and options, to service tips, videos and technical articles.

Flat-to-downward trajectory for at least this month.

A mixed bag, though prices likely to be down if not flat for all this month.

Trajectory is generally flat-to-down for all commodity resins.

Flat-to-down trajectory underway for fourth quarter for commodity resins.

Generally, a bottoming-out appears to be the projected pricing trajectory.

PS prices to see significant drop, with some potential for a modest downward path for others.

Resin drying is a crucial, but often-misunderstood area. This collection includes details on why and what you need to dry, how to specify a dryer, and best practices.

Take a deep dive into all of the various aspects of part quoting to ensure you’ve got all the bases—as in costs—covered before preparing your customer’s quote for services.

In this collection of articles, two of the industry’s foremost authorities on screw design — Jim Frankand and Mark Spalding — offer their sage advice on screw design...what works, what doesn’t, and what to look for when things start going wrong.

In this collection, which is part one of a series representing some of John’s finest work, we present you with five articles that we think you will refer to time and again as you look to solve problems, cut cycle times and improve the quality of the parts you mold.

Gifted with extraordinary technical know how and an authoritative yet plain English writing style, in this collection of articles Fattori offers his insights on a variety of molding-related topics that are bound to make your days on the production floor go a little bit better.

In this three-part collection, veteran molder and moldmaker Jim Fattori brings to bear his 40+ years of on-the-job experience and provides molders his “from the trenches” perspective on on the why, where and how of venting injection molds. Take the trial-and-error out of the molding venting process.

Mike Sepe has authored more than 25 ANTEC papers and more than 250 articles illustrating the importance of this interdisciplanary approach. In this collection, we present some of his best work during the years he has been contributing for Plastics Technology Magazine.

In this collection of content, we provide expert advice on welding from some of the leading authorities in the field, with tips on such matters as controls, as well as insights on how to solve common problems in welding.

Mold maintenance is critical, and with this collection of content we’ve bundled some of the very best advice we’ve published on repairing, maintaining, evaluating and even hanging molds on injection molding machines.

Thousands of people visit our Supplier Guide every day to source equipment and materials. Get in front of them with a free company profile.

The global plastics industry has been navigating through what is arguably the most volatile period in decades. Unprecedented amounts of new production capacity are scheduled to start in North America, Europe, and China in the near term and compete for demand during a period of economic challenges. How will trade flows shift? Will this lead to regional cost disparities and rationalization? Energy transition and sustainability targets continue transforming the plastics market and increasing the competitive landscape. As the market evolves, what impact will new technology, policy, regulation, the growing role of chemicals versus fuel and other factors have on industry restructuring and business models? At GPS 2024, leading global experts will come together to discuss pivotal impacts and initiatives shaping the plastics industry. Join us and participants from across the globe to gain the latest insight and deep analysis as you connect with your peers and industry professionals. This year’s conference will explore the theme Disruptive Global Dynamics Reshaping Plastics and include a full day workshop focused on the Global Plastics Business and Plastics Transition to Circularity, 1.5 days of expert content and numerous networking functions.

Every three years, leaders from almost every major industry gather at NPE to advance their businesses through innovations in plastics. The largest plastics trade show in the Americas, NPE offers six technology zones, keynote speakers, workshops and opportunities to build partnerships.

The 3D Printing Workshop @ NPE2024 – The Plastics Show, is an immersive, half-day workshop focused on the emerging possibilities for part production via 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Presented by Additive Manufacturing Media, Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology, the 3D Printing Workshop will build upon a successful model first introduced at IMTS 2014. Attendees will benefit from a program focused on practical applications of 3D technologies related to plastics processing. This event will conclude with a 3D Printing Industry Reception sponsored by Additive Manufacturing Media.

The Society Plastics Engineers (SPE) Extrusion Division and the SPE Eastern New England Section will co-host the Screw Design Conference-Topcon on June 19-20, 2024 @ UMass Lowell in Lowell, MA. This highly technical program will focus upon screw design principles for single and twin screw extruders with wide ranging topics relating to screw designs for feeding, melting, mixing, venting and pumping plastics products and parts. Areas of focus will include screw designs for melt temperature and gel management, gel minimization, bioplastics, recycled materials and foaming. In addition to the technical sessions, a tour of the UMass Lowel Plastics Processing Laboratories will be integrated into Day 2 of the event. This program is not just for screw designers, but to help anyone responsible for any type of extrusion operation to evaluate existing extrusion equipment; and also to prepare for future projects. Price to attend: Less than $1000! Registrations will be accepted in early 2024. Call for papers – To be considered to give a presentation, please submit a talk title and abstract on or before December 15 to: Technical Chair: Eldridge M. Mount III, e-mail emmount@msn.com Corporate sponsorships - A limited # of corporate sponsorships (15) are available on a 1st come basis. Included is a 6’ tabletop display (must fit on table), denotation in all promotional activities, and 1 no charge registration. To become a sponsor contact: Charlie Martin, Leistritz Extrusion, e-mail cmartin@leistritz-extrusion.com, cell 973-650 3137 General information: A reception on Day 1 and a tabletop display area will allow the attendees to meet and discuss state-of-the-art screw technologies with industry experts. The SPE Extrusion Division will issue a “Screw Design Certificate” to all participants who have attended the program. Students are encouraged to attend and will receive a discounted rate. For additional information contact: Program Chair: Karen Xiao, Macro Engineering, KXiao@macroeng.com

Debuting in 2010, the Parts Cleaning Conference is the leading and most trusted manufacturing and industrial parts cleaning forum focused solely on delivering quality technical information in the specialized field of machined parts cleansing. Providing guidance and training to understand the recognized sets of standards for industrial cleaning, every year the Conference showcases industry experts who present educational sessions on the latest and most pressing topics affecting manufacturing facilities today. Discover all that the 2022 Parts Cleaning Conference has to offer!

Presented by Additive Manufacturing Media, Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology, the 3D Printing Workshop at IMTS 2024 is a chance for job shops to learn the emerging possibilities for part production via 3D printing and additive manufacturing. First introduced at IMTS 2014, this workshop has helped hundreds of manufacturing professionals expand their additive capabilities.

In today's manufacturing environment, robust processes that meet strict industry and regulatory standards are essential. With the advent of servo-driven ultrasonic welding technology, enhancing product quality and maintaining consistency has become remarkably effortless. Discover the fundamentals of ultrasonic welding, delve into vital components within these systems, explore how servo-driven ultrasonic welding enhances weld quality via advanced control features and gain insights into optimizing your assemblies for welding in these high-performing machines. Join Dukane to unlock the potential of ultrasonic welding in modern manufacturing for plastic devices and components. Agenda: Fundamentals of ultrasonic welding Key components in an ultrasonic welding system Using servo-driven ultrasonic systems to control your welding process Designing your parts and components for servo-controlled ultrasonic welding

This webinar will help you make informed decisions to confirm the equipment access stairs in your facility are OSHA compliant and meet the highest standards of safety and ergonomics. Agenda: Identifying opportunities to increase safety in the work place Utilizing space saving stairways Ensuring code compliance for equipment access

4.0, EUROMAP, OPC, OLE, QC, DSN, SQL, VNC, MES, ERP, FTP, CMS, SPI — are you confused by all buzzwords being tossed around in the plastics industry? Not convinced the data collection is necessary? Or are you unsure of how it could be implemented and improve your molding processes? Wittmann has been on the cutting edge of the data collection push for nearly 20 years. In this webinar, take a step back from the idea of the manufacturing facility of the future and discuss what you can do today to improve your process. Using readily-available technology, Wittmann can help reduce downtime, limit scrap and wasted material, and predict required maintenance. Let the experts at Wittmann help you understand: what data can be collected, what that data can be used for, what systems are used, and how to implement them. Agenda: Demystifying the terminology Tracking the material flow and lot information through the material handling system The data available from various auxiliary equipment, such as: dryers, blenders, mold temperature controls and robots Automating the process through changes in the data collected at the machines during production Adding visualization to increase productivity

Learn how targeted, modular, dosing and blending solutions — covering powders, granules, regrinds and liquids — provide plastics processors of all kinds with best-in-class accurate dosing while delivering significant raw material savings and ensuring highest quality. Agenda: Introduction to Movacolor Blending in plastics applications Movacolor feeding and dosing technology Hybrid blending to combine high material throughput and dosing accuracy

This presentation will explore the in-situ polyurethane (PU) overmolding of injection-molded and composite parts, allowing for direct out-of-mold class "A" surfaces. KraussMaffei will review the process and equipment required. It will also discuss tooling types currently available for PU systems for this process. KraussMaffei will compare the pros and cons of this technology over currently-available coating and painting systems. Agenda: Introduction and evolution of the ColorForm technology Overview of the ColorForm process Equipment required Tooling and PU systems Benefits of the system compared to typical spray-applied coatings Pros and cons of the technology

Consistent quality is paramount within the production of pipe and tubing applications. Additionally, significant material savings can be obtained by tightly controlling product dimensions with the correct process equipment. In this webinar, Conair will cover gravimetric control of an extruder and production line speed to ensure optimal quality and cost savings are achieved in your product run. A detailed discussion of the upstream material handling system includes: blending resins upstream of the feed throat, detection of the extruder rate at the throat, control of the extruder rpm and control of the product itself in feet per min — all accomplished with a simple recipe configuration which includes product weight per length desired and production line speed.

Medical-component specialist LightningCath has carved a niche meeting the needs of small to medium-sized entrepreneurs with complex catheter designs … quickly.

Fast Track service from BPM can repair every brand of rotor in two weeks or fewer.

Adds 52,000 square feet to Lebanon plant.

Nextpoint announced a $2 million investment, part of a $7.7 million raise for PlantSwitch, which uses agricultural waste to manufacture plastic.

Life cycle analysis of production at four plants in Mexico and Germany was conducted by C7-consult.

Tahara’s new eight-head, double-sided coex machine has many new mechanical and electronic features.

Topping five other entries in voting by fellow molders, the Ultradent team talks about their Hot Shots sweep.

Serendipitous Learning Opportunities at PTXPO Underscore the Value of Being Present.

Introduced by Zeiger and Spark Industries at the PTXPO, the nozzle is designed for maximum heat transfer and uniformity with a continuous taper for self cleaning.

Ultradent's entry of its Umbrella cheek retractor took home the awards for Technical Sophistication and Achievement in Economics and Efficiency at PTXPO.

technotrans says climate protection, energy efficiency and customization will be key discussion topics at PTXPO as it displays its protemp flow 6 ultrasonic eco and the teco cs 90t 9.1 TCUs.

Shibaura discusses the upcoming Plastics Technology Expo (PTXPO) March 28-30

Ahead of the first NPE since 2018, PLASTICS announced that its triennial show will stay in Orlando and early May for ’27, ’30 and ’33.

New features of NPE2024 aim to “bring the whole plastics ecosystem together to innovate, collaborate and share findings.”

Hundreds of tons of demonstration products will be created at NPE2024 next spring. Commercial Plastics Recycling strives to recycle all of it.

After what will be a 6-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, registration is open for the triennial show, which will take place May 6-10, 2023, in Orlando, Florida.

The Plastics Industry Association has hired from within, elevating Matt Seaholm to CEO and Glenn Anderson to COO.

Long-time leaders hailing from the U.S., Japan, Germany and Austria and across the entire supply chain, from machinery and materials to training and moldmaking, will be inducted.

Mixed in among thought leaders from leading suppliers to injection molders and mold makers at the 2023 Molding and MoldMaking conferences will be molders and toolmakers themselves.

After successfully introducing a combined conference for moldmakers and injection molders in 2022, Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology are once again joining forces for a tooling/molding two-for-one.

Multiple speakers at Molding 2023 will address the ways simulation can impact material substitution decisions, process profitability and simplification of mold design.

When, how, what and why to automate — leading robotics suppliers and forward-thinking moldmakers will share their insights on automating manufacturing at collocated event.

As self-imposed and government-issued sustainability mandates approach, injection molders reimagine their operations.

August 29-30 in Minneapolis all things injection molding and moldmaking will be happening at the Hyatt Regency — check out who’s speaking on what topics today.

Get your clicking finger in shape and sign up for all that we have in store for you in 2023.

Molding 2023 to take place Aug. 29-30 in Minnesota; Extrusion 2023 slated for Oct. 10-12 in Indiana.

Key technologies — such as multicolor molding, film molding and PUR overmolding for both exterior and interior applications — are at the forefront of this transformation. Join this webinar to explore the vast potential of eMobility in molding large components — including those with fiber reinforcements — thereby driving the need for large injection molding cells with a clamping force of up to 11,000 tons. You will also gain insight into Engel's innovative two-stage process, a solution for future recycling processes. This webinar will provide an in-depth overview of challenging applications, production concepts and best practices, including: BMW iX front panel production cell Smart rear panels concept based on IMD and 2C molding Sustainability concepts based on two-stage process Large tonnage equipment for battery moldings

Fast facts SPE International Polyolefins Conference 2024: The Preeminent Polymer Conference in the World dedicated to Polyolefins since 1975 The conference will in-person and virtual The powerful software platform for the conference will allow access to all papers on-demand, even several months after the conference, access to the program, access to virtual exhibitor/sponsor booths, and easy communication with speakers and other participants In-person participants can download a mobile or web app for the conference to access all the features of the software platform for the conference We anticipate over 900 people from around the globe to participate in-person or virtually The improved layout of the exhibit floor offers easy access and flow for the 60+ companies that we anticipate to exhibit Over 20 sponsors expected 150+ Technical papers, Sunday afternoon Tutorial Student Poster Competition 2 Networking Socials Meeting rooms available for rent to meet with customers and suppliers Exhibits from Monday through Wednesday until noon The Conference is organized by the SPE South Texas Section, the SPE Polymer Modifiers and Additives Division, the Thermoplastic Materials and Foams Division, the Engineering Properties and Structures Division, the Building and Infrastructure Division, and the Flexible Packaging Division.

Insight Polymers & Compounders leverages its expertise in polymer chemistry to develop next-generation materials.

A.J. Pasquale and Jeremy Lizotte go back a ways. They finished their doctoral studies in polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech in the early 2000s and followed the path laid by many 20-something graduate students before and since: They went to work for big materials companies. Pasquale got a job at DuPont in 2002, starting in Parkersburg, W.Va., in its Teflon fluoropolymers business (which is Chemours now). Some 18 months later, he relocated to Wilmington, Del., to work in DuPont’s hydrogen fuel-cell research group. Around the same time, Lizotte finished his studies and went to work for Eastman’s polyester business in Kingsport, Tenn. In 2005, Pasquale joined Lizotte at Eastman, working in the adhesives business.

Today, the two college classmates and veterans of big polymer companies run Insight Polymers & Compounding, an up-and-coming enterprise they started in 2018 in Northeast Tennessee. Insight focuses on fully formulated systems, product-development services and proprietary masterbatches. Pasquale serves as the company’s director of operations, Lizotte as director of innovation. Together with Tony Helton, Insight’s extrusion manager, they combine nearly 100 years of polymer materials know-how, including formulated adhesives and coatings, thermoplastics, elastomers and polymer processing.

In launching Insight Polymers, the two partners saw an opportunity to meet a need for highly customized materials in a market where they felt the pace of true polymer innovation had slowed. Pasquale puts it this way. “Our experience had been with companies making polymers in big reactors. And really, the last major new polymer family to be introduced was probably polycarbonate in the 1960s. So, our thinking was that since there’s probably not going to be a whole lot of innovation with new polymer structures, there was an opportunity for a company with know-how on using additive science to add functionality to existing polymers. That’s how we see the future.”

He continues, “The impetus behind Insight Polymers goes all the way back to our graduate school days, but it really began to crystallize later in our professional careers. Working for big polymer companies was a great experience for us both. In our jobs we were regularly involved with working with smaller companies to help them innovate with our materials while helping our company commercialize new products.”

At one point in his career at Eastman, Lizotte worked in applications development, tweaking some of the polyesters the company had developed with various additives. In one case, he worked closely with a group of three entrepreneurs to develop a proprietary extrusion-coating process. “They were looking to develop a relationship with a material supplier and somebody who could develop a material specific for their application and their process. We delivered, and from those experiences I guess you can say we got bitten by the entrepreneur bug. Getting that foundational understanding of the issues with a new process and implementing a new material in a new process has been very helpful to us.”

Insight Polymers & Compounding co-founders A.J. Pasquale (l.) and Jeremy Lizotte. (Photos: Insight Polymers & Compounding)

Adds Pasquale, “Both Jeremy and I have a bias for action, for creating. At bigger companies, there are a lot of people involved in decision making, and sometimes this slows things down. It was a great environment because we both had so many experts we worked with. But we had an interest in seeing whether we could take the parts of the polymer business that we really enjoyed — the innovation — to bring new advanced materials to market and do it on our own.”

States Lizotte, “Our experience has given us the opportunity to develop advanced materials without having to build a chemical plant. With a compounding operation, we were able to rent a small space, buy a couple of used extruders and get them running. Then you can do a lot of innovation by just combining materials that already exist in different new ways, adding that functionality.”

At Eastman, the two had a standing lunch every week to develop a business plan, and left their positions in the spring of 2018, settling on a 6000 ft2 facility in which they continue to operate. They bought two used 16-mm (Haake) and 27-mm (Leistritz) twin-screw extruders, some previously owned auxiliary equipment, and a new chilling system. “And then we started to put together a laboratory,” Lizotte says. “We started with a differential scanning calorimeter and a rheometer. In short order we added impact testing and melt-indexing technology. Last year, we bought a small injection molding machine so that we could mold our own test samples.”

“Our experience has given us the opportunity to develop advanced materials without having to build a chemical plant.”

Within a year from launch and primarily through word of mouth, Insight Polymers attracted about 20 customers, many of which it still maintains. “It was then, and still is, a fairly diverse group,” Pasquale says. “One of our very first customers was a small injection molder that needed 5 lb of a color concentrate.” At the start, Insight Polymers also worked with a few larger compounders to take on some of the shorter runs the bigger firms might not be set up to run. Notes Pasquale, “So, our customers have ranged from this type of small, independent, one- or two-person molding shop to large chemical companies that might have new polymers or new additives that they need tested, and they either don’t have the small-scale compounding equipment or it’s tied up with other projects.”

That first year also saw Insight do some consulting work to get the business up and running, again tapping into the co-founders’ extensive polymer science and processing expertise. “We’d have customers pay us to come to their facility,” Pasquale recalls. “They had an extruder, but they didn’t really know how to run it, and they had a project that they needed to work on. So, they paid us to come to their plant and work with their scientists for a week to make some products to test.

Leistritz helped Insight get this 27-mm twin-screw extruder up and running in 2018. The compounder bought it at auction, sight unseen.

“Another customer wanted to run carbon-fiber filled nylon and PETG, and we went out and determined what carbon fiber to buy and what grades of nylon or PETG they needed. Then we made them products and sent them for testing. They liked the results, and now they buy a few thousand pounds of material every few months. And we’re hoping to grow those products that we’ve been making on small scale on the larger line we just bought.”

Insight today works with a wide range of materials: engineering resins such as nylon, PEEK, PPS, and PETG, as well as TPEs and functional olefins and exotic fillers. It considers its expertise falling in these four buckets:

Of course, starting a new business from scratch did not come without a learning curve. Says Pasquale, “We started Insight Polymers with a lot of experience in polymer chemistry, but we also had history working with salespeople and customers; we both had had a lot of customer interaction. Some of the other matters involved in running a business we’ve learned on the fly. We never had to worry about price negotiations and following up on getting paid. All of the transactional aspects of running a business were new, but Jeremy and I work well together and divided some of those responsibilities.

Adds Lizotte, “We both had done R&D on lab and pilot-scale equipment, but we never had to fix it when it broke down. We were used to having a maintenance department when something failed, but over time we have been able to pick up the necessary skills.”

The two also give kudos to Leistritz for helping it get their business off and running. The used 27-mm twin-screw they bought in 2018 — sight unseen at an auction — came with a manual, which unfortunately for them was written in German. (Leistritz’s U.S. operation is in Somerville, N.J., but its global headquarters is in Nuremberg, Germany.) They used Google Translate to help with that problem, but Leistritz in New Jersey assisted the new company with repairs and spare parts, some of which were hard to come by.

Late last year, Insight Polymers added a Leistritz ZSE 40-MAXX twin-screw to support what Pasquale calls “specialized services that keep pace with our customers’ needs in the advanced polymer compounding areas — in particular for additive manufacturing and conductive polymer applications.” Adds Lizotte, “This new capability supports our ability not only to extend the range of composite materials with higher concentrations and better dispersion of reinforcements and functional additives, but it also extends our ability to do reactive processing and mechanochemistry, which we see as essential to meet new performance criteria.”

Recently installed 40-mm twin-screw will allow Insight to support customers who have ramped up their demand for customized compounds.

The need for a new 40-mm twin came about in part because of Insight’s initial successes in developing new formulations for customers that now need bigger orders. Explains Pasquale, “We’ve got a few customers ordering only 500 to 2000 lb, maybe once a quarter or twice a year. But other customers we’ve been working with are now getting to the point where they might scale up to 10,000 or 20,000 lb orders. The new line will allow us to bridge into ‘medium-scale’ production. Now, if these customers get up to the point where they’re needing millions of pounds a year, then we would still probably work with a partner, and we’ve got actually one.”

Insight engineered a conveying system to complement the new line. “With the smaller extruders we’ve had a very manual process,” Lizotte says. “But with the new line we’re trying to automate it more, which makes sense if you’re running several hundred pounds an hour.”

Both Pasquale and Lizotte believe their backgrounds in polymer chemistry position them to help grow the business and help their customers develop new material solutions. “I don’t think I’d characterize a lot of the companies we helped as being materials-development companies themselves,” Pasquale explains. “Sometimes they have a new additive that they’re looking to understand. Or maybe they have a formulation concept, and idea of what they want the product to do from the standpoint of properties. We’ve consulted with customers that were focused on properties, but did not fully appreciate structural property chemistry, chemical interactions. We can bring that aspect too, that deep knowledge of chemistry.”

Lizotte continues, “Most of the people in this industry are engineers. We bring a different perspective with our experience in polymer chemistry. We can help them refine their ideas and create solutions. And I think when we start talking about developing new materials, either the attachment of molecules to polymer backbones or the building up of unique polymers using the extruder as the reactor, those are ways to develop new materials in the future that maybe we haven't looked at through compounding.”

Over the past several years, significant innovations have occurred in the area of polypropylene nucleation.

Here’s what you need to know to safely and efficiently remove, clean, restage, and reinstall your twin-screw extruder screw set.

There are many techniques known to operators and plant engineers for increasing the performance of a twin-screw compounding extruder.

Start by assessing the status quo, as well as defining future needs. Develop a five-year projection of materials and required capacities. Short-term solutions very often prove to be more expensive and less satisfactory after a period of time. Most of all, know your options.

Coverage of single-use plastics can be both misleading and demoralizing. Here are 10 tips for changing the perception of the plastics industry at your company and in your community.

Implementing a production monitoring system as the foundation of a ‘smart factory’ is about integrating people with new technology as much as it is about integrating machines and computers. Here are tips from a company that has gone through the process.

Intermediate To High Viscosity Plastics Technology covers technical and business Information for Plastics Processors in Injection Molding, Extrusion, Blow Molding, Plastic Additives, Compounding, Plastic Materials, and Resin Pricing. Learn More

More Than a Compounder: They Have the Science to Create New Custom Materials | Plastics Technology