Future-proof Businesses Through Digital Chemical Management

Calling all community advocates! Join us for a free webinar to help learn how you can help restaurants in your area ditch single-use plastic.

Most polymers contain many non-polymeric components intended to stabilize, toughen, color and lubricate the final product. Certain classes of these additives are capable of migrating to the surface. This additive migration can create a surface that has a composition very different from the bulk of the polymer. If the manufacturing process includes an interface between the polymer and an adhesive or paint, or in the case of a medical device, contact with human tissues, additive migration to the surface (blooming) can have serious consequences.

For most labs the main equipment responsible for proper ventilation is the chemical fume hood. This webinar will cover the design of major types of chemical fume hoods, their features, and functions. The program will cover key differences between hood types and how to properly set up and adjust them to maintain efficient flows and optimum performance. This presentation will focus on the important basic aspects of proper operation and use of fume hoods. OSHA standards and other applicable guidelines and regulations will be covered, including NFPA.

The new product-oriented chemical industry has three categories of products with different key characteristics. The first and most obvious category is commodities, the same products that used to dominate the chemical enterprise. The key for producing these products is their cost. The second and third categories of products may be less familiar. The second category involves molecules with molecular weights of 500 to 700 and with specific social benefits. The most obvious examples are pharmaceuticals. The key to their production is their time to market, i.e., the speed of their discovery and production. The third category includes products where the value is added by a specific microstructure. The key to these products is their function. For example, I don’t care why my shoes shine after I have applied polish; I only care that they do shine. Customers pay a premium for such a function.