The Urethane Blog

Everchem Updates

VOLUME XXI

September 14, 2023

Everchem’s Closers Only Club

Everchem’s exclusive Closers Only Club is reserved for only the highest caliber brass-baller salesmen in the chemical industry. Watch the hype video and be introduced to the top of the league: — read more

February 20, 2019

Trucking Issues

 

This Thomas Index Report is sponsored by TOP Worldwide, a leading full-service 3PL provider for distribution, manufacturing, and fulfillment centers.

Hello. In this week’s Thomas Index Report, we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Trucking Services by users of the Thomasnet.com platform. Our data shows that over the past 12 weeks, sourcing activity for this category is up 9% over its historical average.

Our firmographic buyer data shows that three of the top industries driving this trend are Food & Beverage, Transportation & Logistics, and Wholesale Trade.

For nearly a quarter of a century, our country has been dealing with a growing shortage of long-haul truck drivers — a situation that is reaching critical mass as unemployment numbers are at their lowest point in nearly 50 years, and the baby boom generation retires in record numbers.

This comes as trucking demands are increasing due in large part to the huge growth in online sales. According to DAT Solutions, the problem is so severe that in 2018, just one truck was available for every 12 loads that needed to be moved. Companies are sweetening the pot in a bid to attract new drivers; in fact, according to MarketWatch, Walmart is hiring drivers that can make upwards of $90,000 per year.

In a high-tech approach to solving the problem, companies such as Daimler, GM, Volvo, and Tesla are working on autonomous — or self-driving — semi trucks. While widespread use of this technology is still a ways off, driverless trucks are on the road today.

In fact, back in 2016, an Uber self-driving truck made its first commercial delivery, bringing 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer 120 miles from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs. Self-driving trucks developed by Google sister company Waymo have been delivering freight for Google’s data centers since early 2018, and Amazon is hauling cargo in autonomous trucks developed by the company Embark. With technology companies and truck manufacturers racing to perfect this technology, and with the federal government taking a light touch on regulating autonomous vehicles, this is a very interesting category to keep an eye on.

In addition to Trucking Services, our data shows that sourcing activity is also up as much as 17% in the freight-related categories of Containers, Wood Crates, and Pallets.

https://news.thomasnet.com/featured/as-online-sales-continue-to-grow-demand-for-trucking-services-increases?utm_content=featuredvideo&utm_position=&channel=email&campaign_type=thomas_industry_update&campaign_name=190219&utm_campaign=190219&utm_medium=email&utm_source=thomas_industry_update&tinid=220515551

February 20, 2019

Trucking Issues

 

This Thomas Index Report is sponsored by TOP Worldwide, a leading full-service 3PL provider for distribution, manufacturing, and fulfillment centers.

Hello. In this week’s Thomas Index Report, we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Trucking Services by users of the Thomasnet.com platform. Our data shows that over the past 12 weeks, sourcing activity for this category is up 9% over its historical average.

Our firmographic buyer data shows that three of the top industries driving this trend are Food & Beverage, Transportation & Logistics, and Wholesale Trade.

For nearly a quarter of a century, our country has been dealing with a growing shortage of long-haul truck drivers — a situation that is reaching critical mass as unemployment numbers are at their lowest point in nearly 50 years, and the baby boom generation retires in record numbers.

This comes as trucking demands are increasing due in large part to the huge growth in online sales. According to DAT Solutions, the problem is so severe that in 2018, just one truck was available for every 12 loads that needed to be moved. Companies are sweetening the pot in a bid to attract new drivers; in fact, according to MarketWatch, Walmart is hiring drivers that can make upwards of $90,000 per year.

In a high-tech approach to solving the problem, companies such as Daimler, GM, Volvo, and Tesla are working on autonomous — or self-driving — semi trucks. While widespread use of this technology is still a ways off, driverless trucks are on the road today.

In fact, back in 2016, an Uber self-driving truck made its first commercial delivery, bringing 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer 120 miles from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs. Self-driving trucks developed by Google sister company Waymo have been delivering freight for Google’s data centers since early 2018, and Amazon is hauling cargo in autonomous trucks developed by the company Embark. With technology companies and truck manufacturers racing to perfect this technology, and with the federal government taking a light touch on regulating autonomous vehicles, this is a very interesting category to keep an eye on.

In addition to Trucking Services, our data shows that sourcing activity is also up as much as 17% in the freight-related categories of Containers, Wood Crates, and Pallets.

https://news.thomasnet.com/featured/as-online-sales-continue-to-grow-demand-for-trucking-services-increases?utm_content=featuredvideo&utm_position=&channel=email&campaign_type=thomas_industry_update&campaign_name=190219&utm_campaign=190219&utm_medium=email&utm_source=thomas_industry_update&tinid=220515551

February 19, 2019

Speed

Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner Hits 801 MPH Over Pennsylvania, Thanks to Jet Stream

Nothing like a little breeze at your airliner’s back to make it look like you’re going supersonic.

By Will Sabel CourtneyFebruary 19, 2019
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Who needs the Concorde, anyway? On Monday, somewhere over norther Pennsylvania, a Virgin Atlantic-flown Boeing 787 Dreamliner traveling from Los Angeles to London managed to go where few commercial planes have gone before: to a speed of 801 miles per hour.

As The Washington Post brought to light, pilots and aviation nerds were a-twitter about the Boeing‘s speed last night, taking to journalism’s favorite social medium to broadcast their delight at seeing the giant numbers appear.

Paul Deanno

✔ @PaulKPIX

 ·

758 MPH: The jet stream is so strong over the US right now… that @VirginAtlantic Flight 8 from LAX to London is whipping above Kansas at a ground speed of 758 miles an hour. That’s almost the speed of sound… @KPIXtv

Peter James @jetpeter1

Almost 800 mph now never ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot !! (200 mph tailwind ) pic.twitter.com/0XGTkEP9EB

58

Twitter Ads info and privacy

There is, of course, a catch: that 801-mph Vmax was the plane’s ground speed, or the rate at which it was passing over the chilly landscape of PA below.  As far as the 787 was concerned, however, it was still well within the performance envelope it was designed for, zipping along close to its established cruising speed of around 560 miles per hour.

How? It’s a matter of airspeed versus groundspeed, of course.

Groundspeed, as it sounds like, is how fast a plane appears to be traveling from the vantage point of an observer on the solid, unmoving ground below. If you were the Flash and wanted to keep pace with the 787 above you yesterday, you’d have to be running along at 801 miles per hour to match it. Airspeed, on the other hand, is how fast a plane is traveling compared to the air around it—for example, how fast it might look to a balloon floating along in the same air. In the case of yesterday’s speeding Dreamliner, that wind was a jet stream current flowing from west to east at faster-than-normal speeds; as The Washington Post pointed out, a weather balloon lofted from central Long Island’s Upton, New York clocked the jet stream yesterday at a record 231 miles per hour. With wind that strong at the aircraft’s back, even a 225-ton 787-9 can pick up a nice speed boost—in this case, enough to push it to speeds never before seen for its type, at least from the ground.

Flight Aware

Data captured from the Boeing’s moment of glory.

So from the perspective of the FAA’s ground-based tracking systems, the Virgin Boeing would seem to be going supersonic over the Northeast, while the passengers and crew would have felt as though their plane was cruising along at a nice happy Mach 0.85 or so. Until, that is, they landed at London Heathrow‘s Terminal 3 at 8:22am local time Tuesday, 48 minutes ahead of schedule.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/26559/virgin-atlantic-boeing-787-dreamliner-hits-801-mph-over-pennsylvania-thanks-to-jet-stream-tailwind

February 19, 2019

Speed

Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner Hits 801 MPH Over Pennsylvania, Thanks to Jet Stream

Nothing like a little breeze at your airliner’s back to make it look like you’re going supersonic.

By Will Sabel CourtneyFebruary 19, 2019
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Who needs the Concorde, anyway? On Monday, somewhere over norther Pennsylvania, a Virgin Atlantic-flown Boeing 787 Dreamliner traveling from Los Angeles to London managed to go where few commercial planes have gone before: to a speed of 801 miles per hour.

As The Washington Post brought to light, pilots and aviation nerds were a-twitter about the Boeing‘s speed last night, taking to journalism’s favorite social medium to broadcast their delight at seeing the giant numbers appear.

Paul Deanno

✔ @PaulKPIX

 ·

758 MPH: The jet stream is so strong over the US right now… that @VirginAtlantic Flight 8 from LAX to London is whipping above Kansas at a ground speed of 758 miles an hour. That’s almost the speed of sound… @KPIXtv

Peter James @jetpeter1

Almost 800 mph now never ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot !! (200 mph tailwind ) pic.twitter.com/0XGTkEP9EB

58

Twitter Ads info and privacy

There is, of course, a catch: that 801-mph Vmax was the plane’s ground speed, or the rate at which it was passing over the chilly landscape of PA below.  As far as the 787 was concerned, however, it was still well within the performance envelope it was designed for, zipping along close to its established cruising speed of around 560 miles per hour.

How? It’s a matter of airspeed versus groundspeed, of course.

Groundspeed, as it sounds like, is how fast a plane appears to be traveling from the vantage point of an observer on the solid, unmoving ground below. If you were the Flash and wanted to keep pace with the 787 above you yesterday, you’d have to be running along at 801 miles per hour to match it. Airspeed, on the other hand, is how fast a plane is traveling compared to the air around it—for example, how fast it might look to a balloon floating along in the same air. In the case of yesterday’s speeding Dreamliner, that wind was a jet stream current flowing from west to east at faster-than-normal speeds; as The Washington Post pointed out, a weather balloon lofted from central Long Island’s Upton, New York clocked the jet stream yesterday at a record 231 miles per hour. With wind that strong at the aircraft’s back, even a 225-ton 787-9 can pick up a nice speed boost—in this case, enough to push it to speeds never before seen for its type, at least from the ground.

Flight Aware

Data captured from the Boeing’s moment of glory.

So from the perspective of the FAA’s ground-based tracking systems, the Virgin Boeing would seem to be going supersonic over the Northeast, while the passengers and crew would have felt as though their plane was cruising along at a nice happy Mach 0.85 or so. Until, that is, they landed at London Heathrow‘s Terminal 3 at 8:22am local time Tuesday, 48 minutes ahead of schedule.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/26559/virgin-atlantic-boeing-787-dreamliner-hits-801-mph-over-pennsylvania-thanks-to-jet-stream-tailwind

February 19, 2019

Recticel Divests 75% of ProSeat

Recticel
Press Release of Recticel – 19 February 2019
Recticel confirms the closing of its divestment of the Proseat joint venture
 

Recticel is pleased to announce the closing of the transactions whereby Sekisui Plastics Co., Ltd. ( “Sekisui”) acquires 75% in the European moulded seat cushion specialist Proseat. Recticel maintains 25% in Proseat with the option to sell this remaining participation no later than January 1st, 2022.