CALGARY, ALBERTA - Novacor Chemicals Ltd. of Calgary will spend C$200,000 (US$142,000) a year for five years as the sole industrial supporter of an industrial research chair in polyolefin and catalyst technology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. The university and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council also are helping finance the chair.
The chair holder, Scott Collins, is widely recognized for his work in synthetic chemistry, especially in polymerization and catalysis.
Connecticut starts job training effort
ANSONIA, CONN. - A new Connecticut job training effort is focusing on plastics processing.
Under a two-year pilot program, the Ansonia-based Naugatuck Valley Deployment Research Program has set up night courses at three vocational schools: Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College in Waterbury; Connecticut Central University Community College's Institute for Industrial and Engineering Technology in New Britain; and Emmett O'Brien Technical High School in Ansonia.
A $500,000 state grant funds the program, which is supported by 14 Connecticut manufacturing companies.
The plastics-specific courses cover such topics as injection molding, part and mold design, auxiliary equipment, inspection, secondary finishing, and blueprint reading. The courses, which began in January, are aimed at adults, said NVDRP Director Roy Wirth.
One 10-week series of courses is designed to teach basic industrial work skills to unemployed people.
But Wirth also would like to extend the effort to high school students in Naugatuck Valley as a way to attract young people to the plastics industry.
The Connecticut plastics companies would like to form a cooperative group similar to the Berkshire Plastics Network in Pittsfield, Mass., Wirth said.
Connecticut's plastics industry employs 15,200, including 4,200 at captive processors and 1,200 in film and sheet, according to the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. The state's 344 plastics industry establishments have total shipments of $2.7 billion.
The 1991 numbers are from SPI's report, Contribution of Plastics to the U.S. Economy, by Probe Economics Inc. of Millwood, N.Y.
Wirth works for the education program's prime contractor, Connecticut Technology Associates in Farmington.
Stevens to create research center
HOBOKEN, N.J. - Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken will build a $2.3 million, 11,500-square-foot center for three plastics organizations, including a new one for life cycle analysis.
A July groundbreaking is scheduled for the center, which will develop ecologically sound plastics manufacturing and new technologies to reuse plastics and other materials.
The building should be completed in August 1996.
The facility will house three programs: the Polymer Processing Institute, the Center for Environmental Engineering and the Center for Product Lifecycle Management.
Like other Stevens programs, the Center for Product Lifecycle Management will focus on reaching out to local manufacturers. Typically, small and mid-sized companies do not have resources for lifecycle analysis, according to Steve Wythe, CPLM interim director. Students at Stevens also will begin to receive instruction in the discipline.
``This is brand new, so we don't have personnel and we don't have programs yet, but we've got plans,'' Wythe said.
The Polymer Processing Institute is an independent nonprofit corporation that does research and development. The Center for Environmental Engineering also does R&D.
One CEE project studies locating recyclers next to landfills, which would be mined for waste plastic.
The new building is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Authority. The New Jersey Council on Higher Education Trust Fund provided another $700,000 in matching funds.
Firms make pledge to packaging group
WASHINGTON - National Starch and Chemical Co. of Bridgewater, N.J., through its philanthropic foundation, has contributed $50,000 to the Flexible Packaging Education Foundation, in the first installment of a three-year, $100,000 pledge.
Dow Chemical Co. of Midland, Mich., also contributed $50,000.
The Flexible Packaging Association of Washington started FPEF in 1994 to develop educational programs about the function of packaging and its role in waste management.
NSF gives grant for polymer research
DAYTON, OHIO - The National Science Foundation is funding research into new heat-resistant plastics that could be formed, through stereolithography, into prototype test molds for injection molding.
NSF has given a three-year grant of $1.05 million to University of Dayton Research Institute.
UDRI, known for its rapid prototyping laboratory, will work with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and several industries.
The new materials are needed, said Bob Rajkovich, past president of the Society of Plastics Engineers' Miami Valley Section.
``If you can make a plastic part in days, you're literally weeks and weeks ahead of someone cutting a steel tool,'' said Rajkovich, salesman for Gem City Plastic Machinery Inc. in Dayton.
Researchers will try to create a high-temperature rigid plastic that will not shrink or sag during use over extended time periods at elevated temperatures.
The plastic should remain rigid at about 390§ F, said Richard Chartoff, UDRI senior research engineer and the project's principal investigator.
Resource institute opens for teachers
STEVENS POINT, WIS. - The Macromolecular Teacher Resource Institute has opened at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The institute helps primary school teachers become more familiar with polymers so they can link science and technology subjects with the real world.
More than $700,000 has been committed for the institute, including a $546,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
The institute offers newsletters, year-round networking between teachers and summer training workshops.
The first workshop, for high school teachers, is scheduled for July 9-29. For information, write to John P. Droske, director, MaTR Institute, in care of Polyed National Information Center for Polymer Education, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Stevens Point, Wis. 54481; tel. (715) 346-3703.
The institute expands upon teacher recognition efforts by the Intersociety Polymer Education Council. IPEC, which linked several professional scientific associations, is best known for its Polymer Ambassadors program of national awards to high school teachers.
Briefly. . .
The Packaging Education Forum in Herndon, Va., has issued its 1995 awards, $59,000 in scholarship checks, to 68 students at nine universities. ... The Western Section and Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. donated $4,000 to student scholarships in plastics engineering technology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.