Sustainability initiatives are becoming an expectation across all industries, especially construction. In fact, homebuilders report that, by 2020, more than 60% of their projects will incorporate green building materials.

The global healthcare industry is experiencing an increase in wearable technology development, which can help improve the health of patients and lower health care costs. Wearable patches, despite still being in the early stages, hold enormous potential for the future.

Heraeus recently announced that, in collaboration with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), it has developed an improved mass-manufacturing process for its Clevios™-based films used in touch panels and sensors for a variety of electronics devices. This process will reportedly enable companies to use Clevios-based films to produce touchscreens with greater functionality, including the ability to be flexible, curved, 3-D or wearable.

Downtime—both planned and unplanned—can have a pronounced impact on packing line efficiency and throughput. This downtime, caused by film roll changes, registration errors, catastrophic film failures, bottlenecks, and more, is costly and may seem impossible to avoid. Taking appropriate steps to streamline processes wherever possible can help to mitigate the repercussions of downtime, improving overall line efficiency and thus profitability.

Below are the year’s most-viewed market trends stories on the ASI website (posted and viewed from 1/1/15 to date).

Solvay Specialty Polymers, a global supplier of high-performance thermoplastics, recently announced that S+P Samson GmbH, a manufacturer of specialty labels for industrial applications, has selected Radel® polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) film for the inlay of its new Structobond® labels for medical instrument and device applications.