Plastics News Show Daily - April 5, 2012 - (Page 24)
24 PLASTICS NEWS, April 5, 2012
Would you like chicken with your polymer?
Virginia company uses poultry feathers in plastic
By Steve Toloken
PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
ORLANDO, FLA. — Virginia compounder
Eastern Bioplastics LLC
has found a new, untapped raw
material source — poultry feathers.
The Harrisonburg, Va., startup
is about to commercialize technology
to mix plastics with some
of the 3 billion pounds of leftover
chicken and other poultry feathers
in the United States to make
what it says will be a cheaper,
lower carbon footprint material
for a range of applications.
“It’s a byproduct, and unlike
some other bio-resins that are
out there on the market, ours is
the only one that doesn’t belong
in the food chain,” said President
and majority shareholder Sonny
Meyerhoeffer. “Nowhere in the
food chain is it used other than
for animal feed or pet food, and
it’s currently being pulled back
from in the pet food industry.”
Eastern recently took delivery
on its first commercial scale extrusion
line, an Omega 95 twin-screw
extruder from Bangalore, Indiabased
Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd.
(Booth 5762), which helped it develop
the process. It currently has
a lab scale machine.
The new material will mix
polypropylene or polyethylene
with poultry feathers, with up to
50 percent feathers by weight, he
said in an interview at Steer’s
booth at the NPE show.
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Unlike some wood
fibers, the feathers
bind well to plastic
because they are a
keratin protein, similar
to hair or nails,
and can potentially
produce a stronger
and lighter material,
the company said.
Meyerhoeffer said
the material can be
used in automotive
parts, office furniture
and simpler products,
such as plastic
buckets. It’s also
seeking approval
from the Food and
Drug Administration
to use its compounds,
which would significantly
broaden its potential
markets, he
said.
Eastern Bioplastics President Sonny Meyerhoeffer, left, with SteerAmerica President
Wayne Stagner at NPE2012
“It’s a wide range of things it
will be used for, anything that is
hard and durable that is injection
molded,” he said.
Eastern has some injection
molding machines in-house, but
plans to manufacture the material
and sell it to injection molding
companies. The company is also
interested in licensing the technology,
and is looking globally,
Meyerhoeffer said.
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“We’ve had interest from all
over the world, not only the resin
side but in the licensing technology
side, as well,” he said. “Our
business model is you won’t have
one big resin factory but you’ll
have little factories following the
poultry business.”
Meyerhoeffer said he started
Eastern after being approached
by Justin Barone, who at the time
was a researcher at the United
States Department of Agriculture
and is now a minority shareholder
in the company.
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Barone was on a USDA team
that had done the initial research
idea, but he had been unsuccessful
in three tries working with
other companies to commercialize
it before an acquaintance connected
the two men in 2007.
Meyerhoeffer said he was intrigued
by the research. He had a
background in the poultry industry,
starting a company, the Virginia
Poultry Growers Association,
in Hinton, Va., as a venture
to save 130 turkey growers and a
processing plant with 500 jobs,
and served as president of that
group for three years.
In 2008, he put together a business
plan and formed Eastern
Bioplastics. Today, the company
has 10 employees.
One of the challenges was creating
a process that both cleans
the feathers, which are obtained
from poultry processing plants,
and that can operate in a continuous,
as opposed to batch, manufacturing
process that is compatible
with extrusion.
Another challenge was to make
it economical and energy efficient,
“going at it in an economically
viable sense so you weren’t
putting more energy in than what
you’re getting out,” he said.
“You have to end up at an energy-plus
situation or you haven’t
accomplished anything,” Meyerhoeffer
said.
The company has done some
in-house life cycle analysis and is
now commissioning independent
LCA studies, but it believes the
material can have a carbon footprint
up to 30 percent less than
traditional petrochemical-based
plastics.
“That is huge for somebody
looking at a building material and
picking up LEED credits for energy
efficient buildings,” he said.
Schneider introduces
latest robotic systems
PLASTICS NEWS REPORT
ORLANDO, FLA. — Schneider
Packaging Equipment Co. Inc.,
which designs and builds automation
systems using Fanuc robots,
is introducing its line of robotic
systems for high-speed bulk
packaging at NPE’s International
Showcase (Booth 390).
Equipped with a Fanuc Robotics
articulating arm robot, these
palletizers handle a wide range of
unstable bulk products. The robot
is ideal for most bulk prod-
ucts, including empty plastic or
glass bottles and cans.
Systems can be fully automated,
with slip- and tier-sheet dispensing,
product and pallet transport
conveyor, stretch wrapping
and labeling.
Also this week, Schneider introduces
its line of high-speed,
continuous motion laners,
which maintain a continuous
flow of product, eliminating the
need for accumulation or
start/stop operations of intermittent
motion.
Die-Sep touts mold aid
By Hamish Champ
PRW
ORLANDO, FLA. — Die-Sep (Booth
61059) said its custom-built mold
separation and tipping machines
can pay for themselves within 12
months.
Opening the mold within the machine’s
frame is done by means of
magnets that connect with the
mold’s platens, whereupon hydraulics
open, tip and close the
molds “effortlessly,” according to
the Burlington, Wis.-based firm.
Die-Sep’s Louis Bowler said the
machines make mold rooms safer
and make the job of attending to
problems within a mold much
more straightforward.
“With this kit, you can open, tip
and close a standard mold in
three minutes. Larger molds may
take up to five minutes,” he said.
The machines can cater for
stack molds and eliminate mold
jamming and tipping hazards.
Space in a tool room also can be
saved by using the device’s tabletop
as a workbench.
The firm has sold nearly 100
machines, Bowler said.
Plastics Newsphoto by By Steve Toloken
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