Kickstart: This seems like an unnecessary use of carbon fiber

Visit an auto show, and you'll find carbon fiber used in spectacularly useless ways. I'm not talking about when it's used to reduce weight on sports cars or improve performance. No, I mean when it is used in thin sheets to make interior or exterior parts looks cool.

Welcome to the latest in ostentatious uses of carbon fiber: the $300,000 Bugatti pool table.

"Just like the hyper sports cars ... the Bugatti pool table is made of the highest-quality materials and even wears the famous Bugatti badge. The carbon-fiber finish of the pool table represents the sporting nature of the French luxury marque, while the strong frame of the table is underpinned by machined aluminum and titanium," according to Bugatti.

You can also buy accessories such as carbon-fiber pool cues, a carbon-fiber pool cue holder and a dimmable carbon-fiber LED light fixture.

Again ... why?

Oh, but don't worry. The company says an "optional servo-driven system deploys a gyroscopic sensor to level the table — in case of installation on board a yacht."

A yacht. Of course.

There are a lot of holding companies out there that own a wide range of manufacturing firms.

Hillenbrand Inc. may have one of the most unusual combinations of holdings, however. With its 2019 acquisition of Milacron Holdings Corp., Hillenbrand has a major focus on injection molding (as well as hot runners and mold making components) in one division, industrial equipment for materials and recycling companies in another unit and death care within its Batesville casket business.

As Catherine Kavanaugh writes, that mix of business units helps to balance out sales. So while its Advanced Process Solutions group, which manufactures industrial equipment, may have been down last quarter, its other two divisions saw sales climb.

And with materials companies investing in chemical recycling for the future, CEO Joe Raver said Hillenbrand can be patient for expected future growth.

"This is an exciting market that we expect to grow significantly across the globe in the coming years," he said.

When he was writing the Viewpoint for this week's print issue, Don Loepp noted that he was pretty sure some people wouldn't agree with him. (He was right.)

As he noted, wearing masks during the pandemic has created a whole new kind of social pushback. Advocating that employers should encourage their workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine — not mandate, but encourage — had the potential of stepping onto a hornet's nest.

But as he writes, the plastics industry knows the importance of safety on the shop floor, and vaccines are part of that safety in the current situation.

"I've talked with a few plastics company owners, and everyone seems reluctant to require vaccinations. That's understandable. But encouraging employees to get shots is the bare minimum," Don wrote.

He also lays out steps employers can take to support their workers in that decision. Check out the full column here.