This year marked the 65th year milestone for the Polyurethanes Technical Conference. With more than 750 attendees from across the value chain, the conference had 14 technical sessions, 21 posters, 47 exhibitors and more than 65 presentations. Sustainability expert Debbie Mielewski returned as the keynote speaker, and she presented her thoughts on the roadblocks to achieving sustainability goals and shared examples of progress and success since she last spoke to the group in 2019.
2023 PolyCon Wrap-up
Wanhua Chemical (America) Co., Ltd Announced as Winner of Prestigious 2023 Polyurethane Innovation Award
Top CPI Award Presented at Polyurethanes Technical Conference in San Antonio, TX.
The competition for the 2023 Polyurethane Innovation Award highlighted the latest innovations and technologies within the industry over the past two years. Each finalist made a presentation at the Opening Session, after which the audience cast their vote for their favorite innovation.
CPI is proud of our industry’s continued leadership in innovative solutions and advances in technology. Each year, CPI sponsors the Polyurethane Innovation Award program, which highlights the role that innovation plays in the polyurethane industry and recognizes companies and individuals whose vision and perseverance bring new products, technologies, and initiatives to the marketplace.
Finalists:
Sika: “SikaForce®-840 L07 is the next evolution of the ‘Curing By Design’ technology. It is a flexible, structural two-component polyurethane adhesive, which cures at room temperature. It is designed for bonding composite or coated metal components with stable properties over a large temperature span. The adhesive is characterized by fast curing and strength build-up. While uncured, it has very good non-sag and compressibility behavior. SikaForce®-840 L07 is suitable for structural elastic bonding of composites (e.g., CFRP, GFRP) or coated metals in transportation and general industry.”
Wanhua Chemical (America) Co., Ltd: “WANNATE® 9131FC is a specially designed binder based on polymeric methylene diphenylene diisocyanate (pMDI). It is used for fabrication of molded wood pallets. The use of WANNATE® 9131FC as the binder to fabricate molded wood pallets allows for increased production output, improved product performance such as mechanical strength, water-resistance, and decreased energy consumption. WANNATE® 9131FC allows the use of raw materials such as processing wood waste (vs. virgin or new wood) to fabricate wood pallets with a reduced carbon footprint, and a formaldehyde-free process.”
2023 Paper & Poster Winners
Each year, CPI recognizes the best technical paper presentations and posters presented at the Polyurethanes Technical Conference. The list of winners is announced at the Awards Ceremony during the Awards Luncheon. This year, 12 technical papers and 4 posters were selected by our judges as the best of their session or category.
Best Paper Winners:
- Appliance – Blowing Agents: Brandon Parks of Covestro LLC for Improved Thermal Insulation of Closed Cell, Rigid Polyurethane Foams Using High Efficiency HCFO Technology
- Automotive – Composites: Ali Zolali of BASF Corporation for Evaluating the High Temperature Performance of Polyurethane Systems in HP-RTM for Composite Manufacturing
- Automotive – Sustainability: Todd Bates of Huntsman Corporation for Sustainable Polyester Polyol-Based Systems for Flexible Molded Polyurethane Foams in Automotive Applications
- CASE – Coatings: Steven Reinstadtler of Covestro LLC for Polyurethane and Polyurea Coatings - A primer on the Nomenclature, Technology, Properties, and In-Market Use
- CASE – Elastomers, Binders & Adhesives: Adam Cowell of Ingevity for A Structure-Property Study of the Use Caprolactone Technology in Reactive Hot Melt Adhesives
- Circular Economy – Recycling: Divya Iyer of University of California for Enabling Cleaner Feedstock of Post-Consumer-Use Mattress Foams for Recycling
- Circular Economy – Renewable: Felicia Seyedkalal and Josh Wimble of Huntsman Corporation for Key Considerations for Improving the Sustainability of Automotive Flexible Foams
- Flexible Foam: Ana Nunez of Dow for Modeling of Foam Composition and Properties for Viscoelastic Technology Development
- Global Regulatory Round Table: Ian Choiniere of American Chemistry Council for HFC Phasedowns, PFAS legislation, and Their Impact on Foam Blowing Agents
- Rigid Foam: Yun-Shan Liu of Huntsman for An HFO-Stable Catalyst for Polyurethane Foam
- Spray Foam: Ganapathy Viswanathan of Bakelite Synthetics for Effect of Introducing the Novel Aromatic Triazine Polyol in Spray Foam
- Sustainability: Taylor Scicchitano of COIM USA for New Polyester Polyol Dispersion for VOC-Compliant 2-Component Waterborne Coatings: Comparison of High-Performance Near-Zero-VOC Aliphatic Polyurethane/urea Floor Coating Technologies
Best Poster Winners:
- CASE: Hanna Henderson and Raymond Quiroz of PPG Industries for Investigating the Role of Phase Segregation and Thermal Conductivity in Polyurethane Thermally Conductive Adhesives
- Flexible Foam: Patrick Evans of Galata Chemicals for Novel High Efficiency Catalysts for Slabstock Foam
- Rigid Foam: Niloofar Ketabi of NanoXplore Inc. for Graphene; An Affordable Solution for Polyurethane Foams
- Sustainability: Subeen Kim of Northwestern University for Foam-to-Foam Recycling Process of Thermoset Polyurethane by Exploiting Covalent Adaptable Networks