Join R.D. Abbott's Tom Jenkins and Dow's Jake Steinbrecher for a concise overview on optical and aging performance benefits of Dow’s next-generation moldable optical silicones.Dow’s SILASTIC™ Moldable Optical Silicones are designed for high light transmittance in longer path-length applications. These products provide improved durability with higher hardness and reduced surface tackiness, meeting the demanding conditions of high-powered LED lights for a wide variety of applications. This session will be followed by live Q&A.

SPEAKERS: 

Tom Jenkins, Executive Director of Business Development, R.D. Abbott Co., Inc.

Jake Steinbrecher, Associate Technical Service & Development Scientist, Dow Silicones

The silicones industry has experienced a tumultuous series of ups and downs over the past few years.  This presentation will review how the market has changed in recent years, and what we can expect in the future.  In particular, the presentation will examine at how the economic landscape is affecting the silicones market, and also take a closer look at the LSR market.  The impact of COVID-19, the Coronavirus, on the industry will also be considered.

SPEAKER: Kent Furst, Manager, Polymers & Materials, The Freedonia Group

Alexandra Rinehart, the Chairperson of the SEHSC Regulatory and Public Affairs committee will be presenting on state, national, and international silicone strategic updates with a focus on EU regulations, restrictions, and the challenges resulting from them.

SPEAKER: Alexandra Rinehart, Environmental and Regulatory Supervisor, Americas, Shin-Etsu Silicones of America

Shin-Etsu is the world leader in developing self-adhesive liquid silicone rubber for multi-component overmolding onto thermoplastic substrates. This Ask the Expert session will include a presentation that will review recent technical advancements that will increase productivity and expand the library of compatible thermoplastic resins.

SPEAKER: Eric Bishop, North American Marketing Manager, Shin-Etsu

Silicone is a significant biomaterial for a variety of medical device industries due to its biocompatibility, resistance to chemical and oxidative attacks, and facile methods of manufacturing. Philips Respironics (PRI) designs and manufactures Class I and Class II medical devices for use in the sleep and respiratory field and utilizes a variety of silicone grades. These devices need to demonstrate compliance to the relevant international biocompatibility standards for medical devices, which include ISO 10993-1:2018 and in certain instances ISO 18562-1:2017, which is specific to respiratory devices. Changes in silicone synthesis, grade, and formulation need to be considered by medical device manufacturers and suppliers alike, as this affects the downstream chemical identification and toxicological risk analysis of the extractables and leachables (E/L) and the volatile organic compound (VOC) profile. This talk will highlight the biocompatibility standards that are pertinent to these types of products, the typical biocompatibility results of various silicones used, and the medical device industry needs of silicone from a respiratory specific application. 

SPEAKER: Laura Bering, Ph.D. Biosafety & Verification Engineer-QR V& V Systems, Philips Respironics

Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) is considered to be a functionally inert material. It has gained favor within the medical device industry for this amongst other advantageous properties. Standard thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, and related materials undergo ageing processes and tend to have susceptibilities based on fluid chemistry. LSR avoids many of these pitfalls. With all of this in mind, regulatory submissions for medical devices are not devoid of challenges related to LSR. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are present in all materials including LSR. The balance between processing, performance, and economics is a delicate mix. VOCs are not visible to the eye. The effect of subtle process changes can create large VOC shifts that can cause regulatory hurdles. This talk introduces the delicate balance of material-process-testing LSR for VOCs.

SPEAKER: Matthew Heidecker, Ph.D., Vice President, Plastic Services Network

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that frequently affects the fingers and results in swollen and/or painful joints. Total joint replacement surgery is commonly required, in which a silicone elastomer prosthetic is implanted to restore patient hand/finger function and alleviate pain. Design qualification requirements specify that the prosthetic must endure at least 10 million cycles in which the finger joint is flexed through 90 degrees, which is typically determined and verified through a battery of costly physical testing routines. However, physics-based simulation is becoming a commonly used method as an enhancement or replacement to physical testing by medical device companies to save time and money when submitting a device for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA). The workflow presented here describes why and how to leverage patient-specific anatomical data, non-linear structural simulation, fatigue simulation and shape optimization to generate a customized simulation workflow to enhance device design of a total finger joint replacement. This presentation will discuss software that is used to assure durability when designing silicone rubber medical implants. 

SPEAKER: Will Mars - Speaker Ph.D., Founder and President, Endurica LLC

Mark Stevens, CEO of CRI-SIL, will discuss the Silicone industry, how it shaped him as a supplier, and what he sees for the industry’s future. Stevens has a unique perspective, based on 45 years of leadership positions in manufacturing, marketing, sales, and general management within the silicone industry. He has been with companies such as General Electric Silicones, J-Sil Silicones, and Dow Corning. He also held the position of President/CEO of IMMIX Technologies, LLC, a company in the plastics, silicones, and fluorocarbon elastomers industries. Prior to founding CRI-SIL, LLC in 1994, Steven’s was the President and CEO of Woodgate Industries, Inc, an all silicone materials manufacturer’s representative and distribution agency. Please join us for this discussion of achieving success in a competitive industry and look ahead to the future.

SPEAKER: Mark Stevens, CEO, CRI-SIL, LLC

Join Steve Hersey as he discusses Growing a Team in a Difficult Environment. Learn what conditions are necessary for teams to grow. Steve's presentation will be followed by a lively Q&A

SPEAKER: Steve Hersey, General Manager, HEXPOL

Silicones (polysiloxane polymers) find widespread use in the Transmission & Distribution (T & D) industry. The advantages of silicone make it a prime material for the use in middle, high and ultrahigh voltage applications. As a result, the industry has seen a clear trend towards replacing older technologies like glass and ceramic with high-consistency and liquid silicone rubber.1,2 Another type of application in the electrical field is the use of silicone for the fabrication of fire safety cable. Ceramifiable silicone elastomers offer a true alternative to the incumbent technology for fire safety cable that uses mineral-insulated cable. Silicone elastomers offer key advantages to the cable industry that range from excellent flexibility and high-speed productivity on the fabricator end all the way to ease of handling and installation on the end user side.

SPEAKER: Detlef Klingberg, Ph.D., Technical Manager, Wacker Chemical Corp.

Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) is a very unique material - exciting and challenging to work with. Designing a “Cold-Deck” Mold for an LSR material is difficult, given the temperature differences between the cold deck and the hot tool side. In this study, fluctuations in the temperature changes are studied in the mold using insulation and water management. Impact of pin movement on temperature fluctuations during the molding cycle is studied. Actual movement of the valve pin is incorporated in simulations to study temperature variations, minimize process challenges and help improve part quality. Secondly, the effect of compressibility of the material in the barrel is simulated and analyzed in full, true 3D.

SPEAKER: Anand Bora, Customer Success Account Manager, Moldex3D NA

Safety wire and cable for silicone HCR has been around for many years. Not only has it evolved overtime, but it has also brought innovations to the wire and cable industry due to its fast processing, ease of use and added safety benefits, which will be explored in this presentation. Today we will look into an in-depth study done on self-ceramifying silicone. Self-ceramifying silicone is designed to form a ceramic outer shell, covering and protecting vital conductors from harm, adding much needed valuable time in disastrous situations. In total, three different self-ceramifying silicones will be looked at as well as a control. All three samples and control were tested for basic mechanical, electrical, ageing and thermal resistance. In addition, all samples had their ceramic states analyzed after undergoing sinterization in a KSL-1100X furnace. After sintering, the ceramics were studied under a SEM for a surface analysis and also had their torsional strength tested via a 3-point test in order to determine if these silicones can be engineered to meet UL, IEC and DIN standards for both Fire Resistance and System Circuit Integrity.

SPEAKER: Nicolas Lugo, Technical Manager, HEXPOL Silicones

There are still more questions than answers, but some clues about the next cyclical recovery are emerging. There has been a lot of speculation about whether we get a V-shape, U-shape, L-shape, W-shape, etc. What is implied by these shapes, and what are some of the markers or indicators that mean one shape is more probable than another? What about the reconfiguration of supply chains? Has the market perception of Chinese products changed? What happens to sustainability? Recycling? Materials prices? The price of virgin material made from fossil fuels has dropped, and many resins producers have scaled back production. At the same time, the transition back to the "new normal" is starting with a huge set of new regulations (PPE for workers, social distancing for customers, masks and hand sanitizer requirements, etc.). Will the recent surge in demand for medical supplies and sterilized packaging continue?

SPEAKER: Bill Wood, Founder and President, Mountaintop Economics & Research Inc.

The state of the art is to produce foamed thermoplastic components using an injection moulding process. To date, there is no reliable injection moulding process for liquid injection moulding to foam components made by silicone. In this lecture, a process and additives will be presented with which it is possible to produce foamed components reliably. Water or additives modified with water are used as foaming agents.Results show density reductions of up to 40 % with still good mechanical properties, e.g. compression set and stress at 100 % elongation. The cell distribution of the foam structure is also shown as a function of the additive content and the process settings.Co-authors: M. Hartung, K. Klier, S. Marl, A. Rueppel

SPEAKER: Ralf-Urs Giesen, Ph.D., Managing Director, UNIpace / University of Kassel

Join Norman Riley of Wacker as he discusses Liquid Silicone Rubber: Application-Specific Products and Technologies. This Ask the Expert session will be followed by live Q&A.

SPEAKER: Norman Riley, Technical Manager, Healthcare and Rubber Fabricators

Toby Samples is a mechanical polymer engineer with a passion for polymers. Samples grew up in the rubber industry as the son of ARDL, Inc.'s founder, Bob Samples. As a child he remembers strolling through the lab: smelling, stretching, and chewing on rheometer buttons from the waste pile. Samples spent afterschool hours in the predictive testing department and gained an excitement for simulation of polymers at an early age. Today, he focuses on custom test procedures, custom test apparatus design and manufacture, data analysis automation, product validation testing, and product simulation. Samples most enjoys the collaborative problem solving element between him and the customer.

SPEAKER: Toby Samples, Staff Engineer, Akron Rubber Development Laboratory

R.D. Abbott presents an innovative Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) third-stream technology with a customized approach. Typically, these streams are used to add colorants to the LSR and NovationSi is a key supplier of color dispersions for that purpose. Considering that LSR pumping systems have advanced in delivery accuracy of third-, fourth-, and even fifth-stream additive injection, there are opportunities to customize LSR properties in-situ of the Liquid Injection Molding (LIM) process. These additives also enhance HCR (gum stocks) for other fabrication processes.

R.D. Abbott’s model of APPLIED CURIOSITY for superior technical service, and NovationSi’ customized approach to third-stream and additive technologies, can unlock the potential of LSR or HCR in ways you may not have known. As one example, NovaSperse™ Antistatic additives stop static-cling between cured parts and to other surfaces and also provide a “silky feel”. The additive permanently defeats the triboelectric effect and is helpful in demolding and automatic assembly. In another example, NovaSperse™ Antimicrobial additives can minimize the spread of certain diseases, including Sars-Cov-2 virus. Then we would like to feature a new patented (pending), ground breaking technology in nano-technology additives in silicones that bring non-invasive, neuromodulation therapies to medical use and cleared by the FDA.

SPEAKER: Rick Ziebell, Technical Fellow, R.D. Abbott