API announces best paper winners.

The Alliance for the Polyurethanes Industry (API) announced winners of the Polyurethanes 2006 Technical Conference Best Paper Presentation and Best Poster awards. A total of 19 paper awards and four poster awards was presented at the conference, held September 25-27 in Salt Lake City, UT.

More than 900 attendees from 40 countries took in 83 technical paper presentations and had the opportunity to view 41 poster presentations during the three-day conference. Paper and poster judge panels included industry veterans, subject matter experts and members of the media.

Technical paper judging criteria included originality and relevance of the technology, effectiveness of the speaker, as well as clarity of the presentation. Posters were judged on both technical and artistic merits.

Technical papers award winners (preceded by their subject) included the following:

Polyols--"Impact--the next generation of polyol technology: Unique kinetics," Jose F. Pazos, Ken McDaniel, Edward Browne and Karl Haider, Bayer MaterialScience LLC.

EH&S--"ISOPA product stewardship program--walk the talk," Rosella Bronzi, Dow Italia; Denis Hicks, Huntsman; and Mike Jells, ISOPA.

Construction 1--"Effect of formulation parameters on performance of polyisocyanurate laminate boardstock insulation," Sachchida N. Singh, Jody Fife, Sheila Dubs and Paul D. Coleman, Huntsman Advanced Technology Center.

Processing innovations--"Case-specific developments in PU spray equipment," Bruce Spivey and Steffen Bauer, Kraus-Maffei.

Elastomers--"Polycarbonate based polyurethanes for medical devices," Anthony Walder, Noveon.

Renewable content polyols--"Seed oil based polyester polyols for coating applications," John Argyropolous, Debkumar Bhattacharjee and William Koonce, Dow Chemical.

Appliance--"Investigation of blowing agent emissions from appliance insulating foam," Robert W. Johnson, RWJ Consulting; and Lawrence R. Wethje, AHAM.

CASE 1--"Novel solvent-free polyurethane dispersions for wood coating," Friederike Stollmaier and Michael Elwell, Dow Deutschland Anlagen GmbH; and Debkumar Bhattacharjee, Dow Chemical.

Footwear 1--"Material combinations in the footwear industry," Bjoern Dormann and Christian Decker, Desma.

VOC reductions--"New tertiary amines for low VOC molded foams," Ernie Rister, Gabor Felber, Robert Grigsby, Don Ridgway, Richard Romero and Gene Wiltz, Huntsman International LLC.

Chemistry--"New diamine curatives," Paul Wiggins, Judith Orgad and Bill Brown, Albemarle.

Furnishings--"Greener, non-fugitive blocking agent for flexible polyurethane foam," Jane G. Kniss, James D. Tobias and Reno Plaumann, Air Products & Chemicals.

Construction 2--"Antimicrobial performance variability in polyurethane substrates," T.E. Robitaille and Robert C. Hire, Arch Chemicals.

Footwear 2--"Expanded thermoplastic polyurethanes: An innovation in the production of high performance, high quality soling components," Rafael E. Camargo and Daniel Rosenvasser, Huntsman Polyurethanes.

Automotive--"Hardness test methods comparison and correlation with H-point measurement," G.R. Blair, Woodbridge Foam; Mark Weierstall, Woodbridge Group; James McEvoy, Johnson Controls; and Asad Ali, Lear.

Blowing agents--"Continued research in the determination of blowing agent content in polyurethane foam," Mary Bogdan, Rajesh Dubey and John Welch, Honeywell International.

FR and combustability (two papers tied)--"New phosphorous-based flame retardant for flexible PUR foams for automotive applications," John Sawaya, Lanxess; and Heiko Tebbe, Lanxess Deutschland GmbH; and "CPSC's new open-flame mattress flammability standard," Ryan Trainer, International Sleep Products Association.

CASE 2--Improving a bowling ball: Developing subjective structure-property relationships," J. Jourdan, D. Peters and H. Plaumann, BASK and T. Duever, University of Waterloo.

Poster award winners (preceded by their subject) included the following: Automotive--"Forecasting the growth of polyurethane skin use in automobile interiors," Todd Green and Heinz Plaumann, BASF.

CASE--"Thermoset polyurethane rotomolding systems," Dubravko Primer and Theodore Chatman, T.A. Davies.

Chemistry--"Substituting polyether with soybean-based polyol in polyurethane flexible foams," Ling Zhang, Hyun K. Jeon and Christopher W. Macosko, University of Minnesota; Jeff Malsam, Cargill; and Ron Herrington, Ron Herrington Consultancy.

Processing innovations--"Mold release application techniques to improve finished part quality of molded polyurethane," Bryan Kusiak and Bryce Bergethon, Huron Technologies.

Copies of the winning papers, conference proceedings and information on future API meetings are available on the organization's web site (www.polyurethanes.org).