Military
and industrial demand for Spectra
is, well, spectacular. There
are so many applications
for the
high-performance fiber that
Honeywell
is running flat-out to keep up.
by
James A. Bacon
Dining at
the Cheesecake Factory, a national
chain of casual-but-upscale
restaurants, can be a pleasure, but
it wasn’t always easy working back
in the kitchens. Kurt Leisure,
director of risk services for the California
company, noticed that
food-preparation employees were
cutting themselves with some
frequency. The severity wasn’t a
concern, but the “soft-dollar
impact” was. “Anytime someone
cuts their finger, you stop what
you’re doing, discard the food,
and send ‘em down to the clinic to
get some stitches,” he says.
“It’s detrimental to the flow of
operations.” Not to mention
morale.
The
company had provided protective
gloves, Leisure says, but inquiries
showed that employees didn’t like
using them. The bulky gloves cut
down on their dexterity. Looking for
a solution, the Cheesecake Factory
turned to Double D Knitting,
manufacturer of cut-resistant gloves
laced with Spectra fiber which, on a
comparative weight basis, is 10
times stronger than steel.
Despite
some early reluctance, almost
everyone wears the gloves now.
“It’s really a thin material,”
Leisure says. “Our staff loves
it.” Lacerations are down by half.
Spectra
is best known as the super-fiber
used in the Small Arms Protective
Insert (SAPI) plates protecting
American soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Honeywell, Spectra’s developer,
cited booming demand from the United
States
military and law enforcement
agencies earlier this year as the
reason for a $20 million expansion
of its Spectra manufacturing
facilities in ChesterfieldCounty,
in the Richmond, Va., region.
But Spectra has numerous pacific
uses, too. Honeywell has found
diverse applications for the fiber
from safety gloves to sailing cloth,
dental floss to deep sea drilling
equipment.
One
of the most dynamic sectors in the
chemical industry today, super fibers enjoy
growing markets, attract significant
capital investment and inspire a
steady stream of new applications.
Intense global competition – among
Spectra’s rivals, DuPont’s
Kevlar is the best known but Twaron
and Zylon from Japan, Dyneema from
the Netherlands, and M5 in the
Richmond area are scrapping for
market share – keeps the pressure
on Honeywell to innovate
continually.
The
high-performance fiber operation in
the Richmond
region has been a star performer for
the New Jersey-based Honeywell. In
turn, the conglomerate has invested
heavily to expand Spectra
manufacturing capacity in recent
years and in R&D to keep the
product on the cutting edge -- or,
in the case of the Cheesecake
Factory, the cutting protection
edge.More.
Bend
Me, Shape Me,
Any
Way you Want Me
NanoSonic
has introduced Metal Rubber, its first
nano-tech product with broad commercial
potential. Look for more awesome
materials to come out of the Blacksburg
lab.
Editor's
Note: NanoSonics is based in Blacksburg,
but it was spun out of the College of
Engineering at Virginia Tech, which has
strong ties to Richmond-area companies
in the advanced materials sector.
A
drawback of having “nano” in the
name of your company, Jennifer Lalli of
NanoSonic, Inc., discovered not long
ago, is that you have to beat away
would-be investors with a stick. All it
took was an article in Popular
Science magazine about the
company’s new Metal Rubber product --
a square-foot tile of shimmering
electricity-conducting material that can
be bent, twisted, stomped upon and
stretched to several times its normal
size before snapping back to its
original shape – and the phone calls
started pouring in.
“We’ve
been getting five to 10 calls a day from
people wondering if we had stock [in the
company] to sell,” says Lalli, vice
president for business development.
Talk about a leap of faith. NanoSonic has
some ideas of how
Jennifer
Lalli with Rubber Metal
electronics
manufacturers, defense contractors and
others might use Metal Rubber, but no one
knows yet if they’re workable. Requests
for samples have been pouring in but the
Blacksburg
company can’t produce the nano-flubber
fast enough in its cramped lab space to
meet demand: only four square feet daily
of half inch-thick film. “Every day,”
says President Rick Claus, “I type a
dozen notes to people apologizing that our
capacity is not high enough, we’ll put
you on a waiting list.”
Even
so, the wanna-be investors may be on to
something: It’s an exciting time for the
six-year-old firm. After surviving mainly
on government- and corporate-funded
research contracts, NanoSonic has
developed an indisputably cool product
with apparent money-making potential.
Plus, there’s a lot more where Rubber
Metal came from. The bedrock technology,
known as electrostatic self-assembly,
allows NanoSonic to custom-design new
materials that exhibit desired properties
such as elasticity, rigidity, electrical
and thermal conductivity.More
News
Business
NewMarket Completes Reorganization
NewMarket
Corporation has completed its restructuring
as a holding company for the assets of the
old Ethyl Corporation. The two operating
companies, which will manage their own
assets and liabilities, Afton Chemical
Corporation, which focuses on petroleum
additive products; and Ethyl Corporation,
representing certain manufacturing
operations and the tetraethyl lead business
that inspired the original Ethyl name. Press
release, June
18, 2004.
Albemarle
Completes Catalysts Acquisition
Albemarlealso completed the acquisition of AKzo Nobel
N.V.’s catalyst business. Said CEO Mark C.
Rohr: “The addition of Akzo’s catalyst
business provides a new platform to broaden Albemarle’s
portfolio of specialty chemicals and service
solutions.” Press
release, August
2, 2004.
More.
Alloy
Polymers Expands
OhioProduction
Alloy
Polymers, Inc., a manufacturer of
performance compounds, is adding a sixth
extrusion line at its facility in Gahanna,
OhioCounting a new clean room and 15 million
pounds of new capacity added to the
company’s 200,000-square-foot Richmond
plant, Alloy will have spent about $20
million to grow the company since late 2001.
Plastics
News,
May
8, 2004. More.
Alloy
Polymers Launches CompoundersAlliance
Alloy
Polymers, Inc., is collaborating with
Kunststoffwerk Voerde, of Germany,
to form a global alliance of independent
plastic compounders. The goal is provide
customers with a global supply platform with
standardized, world-class technologies,
logistics services, expertise and high
flexibility at competitive costs. Press
Release, June
23, 2004.
More.
Tredegar
Acquires Chinese Film Manufacturer
Tredegar
Film Products Corporation has purchased
Shanghai Yaheng Perforated Film Material
Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of apertured
nonwovens used primarily in personal care
markets. Shanghai-based Yaheng has 40
employees. Said Thomas G. Cochran: “Yaheng
expands our technology base and product line
in apertured nonwovens for feminine hygiene
products and other potential applications in
personal and household care markets.”
Press release, July
21, 2004.
More.
Products
Carpenter
Unveils New Foam Technology
Carpenter
Co., a manufacturer of polyurethane foams, has introduced a new line of
polyurethane chemical systems that offer superior ozone protection and
produce foams with superior insulation properties. Typical applications
include insulation (walk-in and reach-in coolers/freezers), construction
(insulated panels and door fill), and transportation (refrigerated railcars
and truck bodies). Website, Summer 2004.
A
Payne in the Tooth
PP Payne, a manufacturer of packaging
tapes, has produced a printed tape featuring the Happy Tooth symbol,
recognized worldwide as the symbol of tooth-friendly products. The tear
tape, which is approved by Toothfriendly Sweets International, is being
supplied to confectionery manufacturers who are licensing the logo. Website,
August 2004. More.
