Manufacturing Today Issue - 225 June 2024 | Page 57

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Beyond Plastic
the availability of specialty equipment and a lack of mandatory laws , cost is an issue . PHA is still in its infancy and as such , comes at a premium . Currently , these materials are marketed to manufacturers as a way to address the plastic waste challenge , rather than as a cost-saving exercise . That said , with greater adoption , which will inevitably come in the next few years , manufacturers will be able to enhance efficiency and output and therefore , reduce cost . With the right equipment and modifications , there ’ s no reason why manufacturers can ’ t run petrochemical and PHA plastics alongside each other as an interim solution ,” he elaborates .
Fred is a beverage industry expert and has worked extensively with co-polymers for extrusion systems and sensitive materials products , such as wines and fruit juices . From equipment review and recommendation to system layout and implementation , he specializes in new product line start up and provides cost effective technical solutions to get products on the shelf at the lowest possible cost .
“ We do much of the R & D work ourselves . Our PHA filament started out as a simple extrusion process , and mainly from a desire to understand the material ’ s properties and behaviors rather than to commercialize it . From there , we focused on refining our
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