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Product category: Engineering Conferences
News Release from: Smithers Rapra
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 31 May 2004

International audience for latex
conference

Some 80 delegates from Europe, Asia and North America gathered in Hamburg, Germany for Latex 2004.

Some 80 delegates from Europe, Asia and North America gathered in Hamburg, Germany for Latex 2004, the third international conference dedicated to synthetic emulsions, natural latex and latex based products, organised by Rapra Technology In this atmosphere of openness and exchange, topics such as economics of the industry and its future prospects, advances in production and processing technologies and environmental toxicity solutions were debated between delegates representing the full spectrum of the latex community

Speakers presented a wide range of papers from the latex production industry and leading processors of latex as well as research organisations.

A lively debate followed the presentations.

The latex industry has gone through some major upheavals in the last few years.

It is facing technical and economic challenges and companies in the sector have undergone considerable restructuring.

However, it is evident from this conference that considerable progress that has been made in addressing many of these challenges and the prospects for the latex sector were generally reported to be positive.

Water-based technologies like latex will continue to offer safer alternatives to traditional solvent-based adhesives, sealants and coatings as increasing worldwide regulatory pressures demand that manufacturers remove flammable and toxic solvents from their products.

Presentations addressed the fact that, despite recent negative publicity concerning allergic reactions, natural rubber latex continues to be a very desirable, naturally biodegradable product, both from a performance point of view and from an environmental perspective, where the huge acreage of rubber plantations provide a significant counter-effect to the greenhouse effect by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Synthetic latexes, which constitute nearly 90% of all latex demand, are a somewhat higher cost alternative to natural latex but continue to make steady inroads into the glove market and also maintain their strong positions in the coatings, textiles and paper industries.

Dock No of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) examined the trends in consumption and production of natural rubber latex at the country, regional and global level.

The paper showed how the AIDS epidemic and other factors have resulted in a sharp rise in natural rubber latex consumption and prices as world demand for surgical and medical latex gloves expanded strongly.

Richard Beswick and Dr Dave Dunn of BMS, concluded that despite recent challenging times for the industry, the future prospects for latex are very positive.

Global demand for latex exceeds 9 billion dry tons and is spread across a wide range of both industrial and consumer markets.

Demand for latex in medical gloves, condoms and foamed products, water based paints, paper and other markets will continue to fuel the market growth of both natural and synthetic latex.

Clara Petri of Schill and Seilacher Struktol opened the scientific presentations with a report on the technical advances that are occurring in the formulation of latex products.

Breakthroughs have been made in replacement of conventional preservatives and stabilisers with new versions, exhibiting improved toxicological and environmental profiles combined with high performance.

Dr Wolfram Keller of PRTM argued the importance of applying rigorous and advanced technology management to the innovation process in the polymer sector.

Carrie Webster of RT.

Vanderbilt presented an antioxidant synergist, ZMTI, only recently available for latex applications.

Bernd Unterweger of Biomontan presented a new environmentally friendly biocide, with the potential to offer significant savings in microbial protection to latex processors.

Roger Couchman and Dr Khirud Chakraborty of Robinson Brothers described three safer accelerators that have been developed, which offer the possibility to substantially improve the toxicity profiles of this category of essential processing additives.

Dr Volker Erb of Polymer Latex introduced the session on latex processing technology with a comprehensive review of the latest automated synthetic latex production facilities that are now operating on an industrial scale.

Papers on advances in latex processing equipment in the area of de-aeration and grinding technologies were presented by Netzsch Feinmmahltechnik.

Ray Russell Fell continued the debate on processing, outlining techniques for chemical stability measurements, as well as suggesting methods for corrections to some common dipped product production problems.

David Hill of SSL International focused on quality aspects of condom manufacturing in the 21st century and highlighted critical manufacturing processes, as well as the influence of raw material characteristics on manufacturing.

Dr Ong of the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council presented experimental evidence on the extractable protein content of condoms and illustrated the strong improvements in reducing allergenic protein levels that have been made in the last few years.

Gunter Lottmann of Pica de Hule reported on development work on novel latex stabilisers being tried in the nascent rubber industry in Guatemala.

Professor Jose Miguel Martin-Martinez of the University of Alicante presented the work of his research team on new halogen surface treatments to improve vulcanised latex adhesion in relation to footwear applications.

Dr Siby Varghese from the Rubber Research Institute of India introduced the subject of nanotechnology in the rubber sector with his report on the morphology and mechanical properties of layered silicate reinforced natural and polyurethane rubber blends produced by latex compounding.

Dr Harris Goldberg of InMat presented breakthrough advances by his company in the field of nanocomposite barrier coatings of polymers.

Dr Steffan Bodemeier of CPR Produktions und Vertriebs, compared the requirements for aging and shelf life of natural rubber products set forth in international standards with the results of real time aging studies.

He pointed out the importance of using fully validated test methods as the basis for standards measurements.

Ian Butcher of Kline introduced a model of inter-materials competition between synthetic lattices in the context of China and Japan, showing how fluctuations in price and many other issues interact to bring about potential switches in material choices among latex processors in such industries as paint, paper coating and adhesives.

The proceedings of Latex 2004 retail at GBP 150 (plus postage and packaging) and are available from Rapra Technology.

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