Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CEO Issue
    • Diversity
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2022 winners
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
News
December 13, 2017 01:00 AM

China's Midea wants more ties with plastics industry

Hans He
Plastics News Correspondent
and Steve Toloken
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Midea
    Midea CEO Paul Fang with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Dec. 6 forum organized by Fortune magazine in Guangzhou, China.

    China's Midea Group, the world's largest maker of major home appliances, is calling for more cooperation with the plastics industry to develop next generation materials like those that can replace sensors or provide new kinds of foam insulation.

    That was message from Yuming Xiong, the director of Midea's materials research center, at a Dec. 7 technical conference in China organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers and the owner of the Chinaplas trade fair, Hong Kong-based Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd.

    "We pay more attention to material innovation in this area," Xiong said. "We are expecting some new materials can take the function of traditional sensors for our new products."

    Midea, which entered the home appliance market in the 1980s making low-tech house fans, said it's looking these days at decidedly higher tech multifunctional appliances, and defines smart materials as those that can react to environmental changes or do things like repair themselves.

    Specifically, the company said it's looking for innovation from its plastics suppliers in areas like new foam insulation, dust control, anti-fingerprinting and catalysts.

    "As a household appliance maker, we are hungry for new materials," Xiong said. "Unfortunately, most of the new materials are still in an experimental status, like super-hydrophilic material and super-hydrophobic material for easy clean purposes."

    Midea has been expanding into technology-intensive markets: it bought German robot maker Kuka AG in 2016, for example, seeing it as a way to get into factory automation and markets for industrial and medical robots.

    It said its innovation center, in its headquarters city of Foshan, can accommodate more than 10,000 R&D staff.

    The day-long SPE event in the manufacturing and development hub of Shenzhen, near Foshan, included a presentation by the Shenzhen Modern Materials Association on a new Chinese government funding mechanism to involve the insurance industry in financing material development.

    The program includes 129 different product categories, including advanced steel and non-ferrous metals, advanced chemicals and composite materials. The program is part of the country's Made in China 2025 initiative.

    The event also included presentations on Chinese developments in additive manufacturing, along with talks on the auto industry and research on composites mixing graphene with vinyl and other polymers.

    As well, a speaker from China's Kingfa Science and Technology Co. Ltd., China's largest plastics compounder, said it expects materials for smart appliances to be a key driver for research.

    All the talk of technology, however, prompted one speaker to urge the industry to remain focused on what the end consumer wants.

    File photo

    Kusuma

    David Kusuma, vice president of research and product innovation at Tupperware Brands Corp., told the conference that the company focuses on how its product can improve quality of life, and it increasingly targets product development at multifunctional products.

    "The idea has to be new, the product has to be aspirational since it's not cheap," he said.

    In an interview after his speech, he urged plastics researchers to keep the end consumer in mind.

    "The problem is first you can't focus on the technologies, you have to focus on your consumers' needs," he said. "Then you find those technologies that meet the needs. Because if you first focus too much on the technology... in the end, no one wants that. That's too much work."

    He also told the conference that consumers in emerging markets have become major growth drivers for the company. About 66 percent of Tupperware sales in 2016 came from emerging markets, he said, and it's projected that by 2020, more than half of the world's middle class will be in the Asia-Pacific region.

    "So this is extremely important for any company that wants to be global to really take into consideration and pay attention to," he said.

    The conference was the first jointly organized by Adsale and the Bethel, Conn.-based SPE in China, and Adsale Chairman Stanley Chu said the two organizations are looking at doing more joint events on an annual basis.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    One killed, two injured in shooting at WeatherTech facility
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Pandemic-prompted reshoring creates growth for medical injection molders
    2
    Lego to build $1B US molding plant
    3
    Boston Group consolidating, growing in Ohio
    4
    Atkore buys HDPE pipe maker United Poly, continuing M&A push
    5
    Numbers that Matter Live - June 2022
    SIGN UP FOR TO RECEIVE THESE EMAILS AND ENEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Diversity
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2022 winners
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
        • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified