An optical sorting technology and two approaches to PET recycling are among the items we detail in this month’s look at industry-related patents.
Patent No. 9,296,882, awarded to Allentown, Penn.-based Zzyzx Polymers LLC, concerns a method of making composite plastics from disparate recovered resins.
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals developed a recycled crumb rubber coating and was given Patent No. 9,296,913.
A joint project of Doha-based Qatar University and Great Britain’s University of Sheffield was given Patent No. 9,309,392 for a method of making reinforced composite polymers from recovered plastic materials.
Patent No. 9,309,609, concerning a method of processing post-consumer PET, was awarded to the Omaha, Neb.-based Columbia Insurance Company.
An optical sortation device, developed by Plessisville, Quebec’s Machinex Industries Inc., is the subject of Patent No. 9,316,596.
Titan Umreifungstechnik GMBH & Co., based in Schwelm, Germany, developed strapping made from recovered PET and was given Patent No. 9,321,916.
Higgins Research & Development, LLC, headquartered in LaGrange, Ga., has developed a “universal backing” for carpeting to allow for easier and greater recycling of that material and given Patent No. 9,339,136.
For more information on these or any patents, please consult the U.S. Patent Office database at patft.uspto.gov.