Kickstart: Making more US beds

The bed-in-a-box mattress business continues to grow, with an Arizona-based mattress company breaking ground for a new manufacturing and corporate headquarters site.

Brooklyn Bedding will triple production capacity at its $72 million, 650,000-square-foot site in Glendale, Ariz. (The company, now based in Phoenix, is named for the founder's daughter, not the borough in New York City.)

With the expansion, the company will be almost 100 percent vertically integrated, CEO John Merwin said.

The company, like other bed-in-a-box makers, sells directly to customers. It produces beds with polyurethane foam, some of them made with inner springs. The company began as a reseller of overstocked mattresses, then built up its own in-house production when it had problems sourcing some mattress sizes.

The expansion for Brooklyn Bedding comes as other competitors such as Purple Innovation Inc. and Milly-brand mattress maker Healthcare Company Ltd. have also expanded production.

Catharine Kavanaugh has a story on improving the recycling stream and sustainability story for PVC in the construction industry.

One of the award-winning efforts she mentions is Sika Sarnafil's work in recycling (and replacing) the vinyl membrane covering the massive retractable roof for Toronto's Rogers Centre (formerly the Toronto Skydome).

The roof had stood up to hard use for 30 years with Sika's PVC roof, and when it needed to be replaced it was because a "massive chunk of ice" from a nearby skyscraper fell and punched its way through the steel deck, not because there was a problem with the membrane.

That led to a massive project in 2019 to completely replace the roof. The membrane was removed with all 460,000 square feet of it recycled through Sika Sarnafil to become the backing for future roof projects.

Click through to find more about the project along with a video of the replacement, although with a note that those who don't like heights make want to avert their eyes.

The Society of Plastics Engineers' auto division is opening nominations for its regular innovation awards, with plans in place to mark the awards' 50th anniversary.

SPE is accepting nominations through Sept. 15, with an awards ceremony set for Nov. 10.

The awards are for any vehicle available for consumer purchase as of Nov. 1, so no prototype parts. Categories include environmental innovations, materials, processing, safety and — for the first time — additive manufacturing. Find more information and a link to the nomination form here.