NSF grant aids state plastics industry

A project that partners students from across the state with UW–Madison professors and Wisconsin companies could help boost the state’s plastics industry in years to come.

In 2003, the University of Wisconsin received a two-year, $600,000 Partnership for Innovation grant from the National Science Foundation for a proposal titled “Innovation Networks for Collaborative Product Development in the Wisconsin Plastics Industry Cluster,” which was designed to foster economic growth in the state of Wisconsin.

Foreign countries can manufacture plastics at a lower unit cost, so innovation has become a key means by which Wisconsin’s plastics industry can compete with national and international competitors. In 2003, Wisconsin had the 10th highest number of employees in the plastics industry in the nation and the industry’s growth rate was the fifth-highest nationwide.

Recognizing the importance of the plastics industry to the state’s economic health, this NSF grant aims to create a network between university and state businesses, and among those businesses. This project will help keep Wisconsin at the forefront of the U.S. plastics industry by enabling innovative product development through research and technology transfer of new plastics materials and manufacturing processes and by fostering business collaboration and networking in the plastics industry supply chain.

For eight weeks during the summer of 2004, UW–Madison hosted three students-one each from Madison Area Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College and UW-Platteville-who worked with Professor Tim Osswald and Associate Professor Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng, co-directors of the UW Polymer Engineering Center.

Osswald and Turng serve as the co-principal investigators for the project and worked directly with the interns throughout the summer. Osswald worked primarily with liquid silicone rubber and bio polymers while Turng worked with microcellular nanocomposites. “These new polymer engineering innovations can help Wisconsin plastics manufacturers remain competitive within the offshore, low-wage, global economy, particularly through manufacturing of high-end-value, advanced polymer products for various industries,” says Professor Raj Veeramani, principal investigator for this NSF grant and director of the UW E-Business Institute.

The intern from UW-Platteville, Chantida Puaratana-Aroonkorn, did measurements for a company called Sonoco that makes spools for the paper industry. Randal Dusel of Milwaukee and Douglas Heideman of Madison worked on a high-pressure rheometer used for microcellular plastic processing.

The interns also worked on an additional research project and did measurements for Simtec Silicone Parts, a plastics company that uses a new technology developed at the UW Polymer Engineering Center with the help of graduate students and, indirectly, the interns who did testing and measurements. Simtec, a company that specializes in liquid silicone, relocated to Madison from Europe because of the UW Polymer Engineering Center.

“This PFI project is just one of many opportunities that the College of Engineering is pursuing to collaborate with tech colleges and state agencies to develop federal support for state industrial clusters in their efforts to become more innovative using advanced technology and create competitive products and processes,” comments Lawrence A. Casper, assistant dean for research and technology transfer in the College of Engineering.

“They have actually completely revolutionized the way one does silicone molding,” Osswald says of Simtec. “For them, it’s a big plus to get contract stuff from the larger companies, from the auto industry, from GE Medical and from companies like that because they have a technology that nobody else has in there as far as quality.”

“I’m glad that I was able to work with you and the engineering students,” Dusel wrote in an e-mail to Turng. “As for me, it was a very good experience and the time was well spent. It does make me want to keep up my education and to keep improving all aspects of my life.”

The plastics industry in Wisconsin is highly fragmented, with each business focusing on a specific aspect of the supply chain, such as molding or design and marketing. As a result of this project, some of the state’s businesses are collaborating with each other, according to Turng and Osswald. Cascade Asset Management LLC, for example, a company that recycles computers, televisions and other office equipment, is selling its plastics to Pro Ex Extrusion, Inc., a small Oshkosh-based company.

“Every month, they (Cascade) produce over 75,000 pounds of plastics that can be recycled, and right now they’re being sent to China at two cents a pound and now through this project, a company in Oshkosh (Pro Ex) is now working with them to actually see what they can do within the field, selling the raw materials here in Wisconsin,” Osswald says. “(Pro Ex) will actually play a higher premium to Cascade that will stay in the state.”

This PFI project exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea in that UW–Madison is spreading its leading-edge knowledge of polymers and the plastics industry around the state by interacting with state businesses and with students, who will enter the workforce with the knowledge they gained through this internship.

“This is a true university-industry partnership, involving active collaboration of faculty and students from multiple UW and technical college campuses and industry executives from across the state, resulting in new polymer technology and product innovation,” says Veeramani. “It is a true win-win university partnership.”