Factors and Trends Transforming the Chemical Industry…and How to Survive

This is an interesting read.
Speaker: Lee McMaster, Chemicals Business Group President Event: North American Chemical Distributors Annual Conference, Date: 12/04/2003

Lee McMaster's discusses:
Industry Summary: North America Chemical Distribution
Why is our industry in this state?
Chemical Industry is undergoing another historic and permanent shift
Where is the industry headed?
What will our industry look like in 10 years? The producer prospective
What will our industry look like in 10 years? The distributor perspective
How to Survive: Collectively reduce the total cost to serve
Our Future…Together

Lee indicates that "Distributors and producers need to move to a low cost-to-serve position. We will need to find ways to take advantage of those opportunities we mentioned before – improving capacity utilization...".

Shak Gohir

Cenamps secures funds for Plastic Electronic Technology Centre

ONE NorthEast today approved a £10m project that will put the region at the forefront of revolutionary plastic electronics technology. "Flexible" technology only previously seen in science fiction movies like Minority Report could soon be manufactured in the region with the creation of the Plastic Electronics Technology Centre (PETeC).

One NorthEast and County Durham Economic Partnership is investing a combined £6.2m with ERDF making up the rest of the investment for the facility, based at NETPark in County Durham and managed by Cenamps - a national centre for emerging small-scale technologies. The DTI is contributing a further £2.1m to be invested in the first platform installation in the Centre.

The centre, the first of its kind, will establish the region as a global leader in the application of plastic electronics research, making specialised facilities and expertise available to companies seeking to develop new products and services for use in a wide range of markets.
PETeC is a major facility that will provide hi-tech clean room, prototyping facilities and laboratories for a range of projects emerging from Newcastle Science City and for companies and universities carrying out pioneering work in the field of plastic electronics, a revolutionary new technology that independent forecasts predict will be a £30bn industry by 2015 and balloon to a £250bn industry by 2025.

PETeC also provides space-enabling companies to engage closely with the universities, conducting collaborative research as part of Science City.

The research and development facility will house scientists developing innovative printing technologies including "inkjet" and "screen printing" technology - techniques that enables electronics to be printed directly onto paper thin plastic sheets, which are manufactured locally by DuPont Teijin Films in the Tees Valley.

This technology will complement the work being carried out by the Centre for Process Industries (CPI) in the Tees Valley and form the basis of a new generation of thin flexible display monitors and televisions, the development of low energy organic lighting, large-area electronic displays, low cost flexible solar cells and even disposable small-scale technology for children's toys.

One NorthEast Director of Business and Industry, David Allison, said: "North East England is home to many established and growing advanced manufacturing companies in electronics, substrates, photonics and materials, and the creation of PETeC will add to the support provided to these businesses.

"This project ensures the region is a world leader in the research and development of plastic electronics. Exploring this exciting new technology for market-led research and development, and strengthening the regional skills and knowledge base through shared research and networking opportunities, are some of the key aims of One NorthEast."

The first phase of the project will involve the construction of a 3,000sqm facility at NETPark, Sedgefield, equipped with state of the art class 10 and 100 clean room, laboratories, offices and seminar rooms. The project will see the recruitment of a 10-strong staff to operate the facility and the creation a business development and planning team.

Chief Executive of Cenamps, Mike Pitkethly, said: "Identifying and supporting the development and adoption of new emerging technologies is one of the core activities of Cenamps, and plastic electronics is a technology that will revolutionize many aspects of peoples' lives.

"International interest in plastic electronics is growing rapidly and Cenamps is extremely pleased that the North East will now host the UK Centre for the prototyping and scale-up of the technology and have the opportunity to compete on the world stage."

Key partners with Cenamps in PETeC will be the CPI, another of One NorthEast's Centres of Excellence and the Universities of Durham and Newcastle.

Chief Executive of CPI, Nigel Perry, said: "This is an extremely important project for both the North East and UK Plc. The UK has a world-leading position in this technology, and PETeC will transform our ability to drive this exciting technology toward commercial exploitation. I am delighted that the Centre for Process Innovation is a partner in the project: our existing work has already achieved international renown in the industry and this project considerably enhances the ability for the North East to work with the industry".

The University of Durham plans to develop organic displays and lighting based contract research activities of the Photonics Materials Institute over to PETeC. Professor Andy Monkman, Director of Photonic Materials Institute, University of Durham, said: "As part of our growing activities in organic displays and lighting we are being asked more and more to provide state of the art measurement services for industry.

"These contract research activities would be ideally situated at PETeC and will add to the growing activities and metrology we plan to put in place to support research and development activities in organic displays at PETeC."

The centre will also provide a base for Newcastle University. Prof. Nick Wright, Dean of Business Development, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Agriculture, at Newcastle University, said: "PETeC provides an excellent opportunity to increase the interaction between Newcastle University's world-class research teams in electronics and industrial companies.
"There are many exciting research and commercialisation possibilities unlocked by the centre and the Newcastle University research teams are delighted to be involved in such a major way with this very exciting project."

Dr Roger Carline, Deputy Director of the UK MNT (Micro and Nanotechnology Network), said: "PETeC is an important strategic addition to the UK MNT infrastructure. Technology of this type will be seen in many consumer products on the high street as well as in medical and industrial systems within the next decade. This makes access to the capabilities unique to PETeC essential for UK companies to compete in the future."

The centre, which forms part of the DTI's Technology Strategy, will boast facilities to allow companies to develop prototypes and then "mini-manufacture" products to test manufacturing processes.

Cenamps Press Release
Shak Gohir