Kickstart: Plastic pipe and college football playoffs

Plastic pipes are key to infrastructure projects. But can they help win a national championship?

The University of Alabama seems to think so. High density polyethylene pipes made by Prinsco Inc. have been placed beneath the turf at the football stadium that is home to Alabama's Crimson Tide to improve drainage and promote turf growth. Healthy turf, the university says, is important for a long football season that extends into playoff season. The project was honored as a top project of the year by the Plastic Pipe Institute Inc.

Wireless sensors within the pipe help stadium officials monitor conditions, which in turn can provide a better playing surface, PPI noted.

PPI also honored projects in New York, Louisiana and Texas. Plastics News reporter Catherine Kavanaugh covered the awards along with trends in siding, pipes and decks as part of a special report for PN's annual ranking of North American pipe, profile and tubing makers. Check out other PPT-related stories here.

Whirlpool Corp. will remain its own company, at least for now.

Germany's Robert Bosch — the world's biggest auto supplier in addition to making Bosch-brand kitchen products — was considering buying the U.S. appliance company, reports said earlier this summer. But on July 23 Bosch announced it would spend about $8 billion to buy the global HVAC solutions division for residential and light commercial properties from Johnson Controls Inc. and 100 percent of the Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning joint venture.

The acquisition is expected to close within 12 months. It will help Bosch diversify its customer base, the same reasoning behind reports of its interest in Whirlpool.

Reuters, which first reported the potential purchase of Whirlpool, said Bosch is no longer pursuing the deal because the JCI and Hitachi deal is more attractive.

That still leaves Whirlpool in the same spot it was in April, when it announced 1,000 job cuts to "reduce complexity and simplify our organizational model." In its annual report for 2023, executives said the company is in a "multiyear portfolio transformation journey, which we expect to transform the company into a higher-growth and higher-margin business." Sales dropped 1.4 percent in 2023 vs. 2022.

Next year's K show in Düsseldorf, Germany, will have a new managing director.

Erhard Wienkamp, who has worked for show organizer Messe Düsseldorf since 1993 and overseen its international trade shows for more than 20 years, retired at the end of July.

In addition to K, Wienkamp oversaw health and medical trade shows, the ProWein wine and spirits show, and the Drupa print show.

The 66-year-old has been replaced by Marius Berlemann, a 13-year veteran of Messe Düsseldorf who most recently served as general manager of Messe Düsseldorf Shanghai and Messe Düsseldorf China.

K 2025 will be held Oct. 8-15, 2025.