Branded Organic Baby Food - New Developments, Global Industry And Market Analysis
The markets for organic baby foods are strongly driven by environmental sustainability and environmental friendliness, concerns about long-term health benefits, and food safety. A preliminary research and literature search confirm that there is a large amount of latent unsatisfied demand for organic foods. The key constraining factors to industry growth are a lack of availability of suitable quality food on a year-round basis, the lack of critical mass to develop strong organic supply chains, and the premium prices being commanded. As availability improves and organics become more affordable, the supply chains will improve, and the market will grow exponentially. more...

Flexible Thin Film Batteries - A Global Technology
Flexible thin-film batteries are ideally suited for a variety of applications where small power sources are needed. They can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes, as required by the customer. By using the available space within a device, the battery can provide the required power while occupying otherwise wasted space and adding negligible mass. more...

Micro Fuel Cells For Handheld Consumer Electronic Products
A micro fuel cell (MFC) is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of fuel, such as hydrogen or methanol or some patented fuel, into electrical energy. Unlike batteries, which require recharging, fuel cells can continuously produce electricity as long as there is a constant fuel supply. Though no universally accepted definition exists for micro fuel cells, the term typically describes small fuel-cell systems that provide less than 50 watts of power. more...

Automotive Electric Products
This study focuses on key automotive electric products, and provides data about the size and growth of the automotive electric products market, company profiles and industry trends. Also, the goal of this report is to provide a detailed and comprehensive multi-client study of the market in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea and the rest of the world (ROW) for automotive electric products and potential business opportunities in the future. more...

Piezoelectric Crystals And Crystal Devices - Types, Materials, Applications, New Developments, Industry Structure And Global Markets
The global piezoelectric crystal industry has gone through several boom-and-bust cycles. However, in the last five years, several applications have emerged for piezoelectric materials because of the new revolution in wireless and wire line communications. Markets have boomed in these areas especially for piezoelectric crystals. In addition, new developments in piezoelectric ceramics and ceramic/polymer composites have evolved new applications and markets. However, piezoelectric quartz crystals and crystal devices still hold a large market segment, and with the boom in the wireless industry, the average market growth rate reached double digits in the last five years.more...

Silicon MEMS Oscillators - A Global Technology, Industry and Market Analysis
Quartz crystals are currently used for most high performance systems, but they are not economical when used with system integrated circuits (ICs) due to costly hermetic packaging requirements. With micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), vibrating mechanical devices and wafer-level vacuum packages can be manufactured with conventional semiconductor technologies. This development highlights the shift from quartz to MEMS and illustrates how designers optimize products to save time and money.more...

Piezoelectric Ceramic, Polymer And Ceramic/Polymer Composite Devices - Types, Materials, Apllications, New Developments, Industry Structure And Global Markets
A primary objective of this report is thorough coverage of underlying economic issues driving the piezoelectric ceramic and polymer devices business, as well as assessments of new, advanced piezoelectric devices that are being developed. Another important objective is to provide realistic market data and forecasts for piezoelectric devices. This study provides the most thorough and up-to-date assessment that can be found anywhere on the subject. The study also provides extensive quantification of the many important facets of market development in piezoelectric devices in the world. This, in turn, contributes to a determination of the kinds of strategic responses companies may adopt in order to compete in these dynamic markets.more...

Electro-active Polymer Actuators--Types, Applications, New Developments, Industry Structure and Global Markets
Electro-active polymers (or EAPs) are polymeric materials whose shapes are modified when a voltage is applied to them. They can be used as actuators or sensors. As actuators, they are characterized by the fact that they can undergo a large amount of deformation while sustaining large forces. Due to the similarities with biological tissues in terms of achievable stress and force, they are often called artificial muscles, and have the potential for application in the field of robotics, where large linear movement is often needed.more...

MEMS Microphones - A Global Technology
Most handheld consumer products requiring microphones, such as cellular phones and portable tape recorders, use the electret condenser microphone (ECM) invented at Bell Laboratories in the 1960s. These microphones are preferred for their acoustical properties and low price, usually less than $1. In these devices, a vibrating membrane picks up the sound wave, and electronic circuitry converts the vibration into an electrical signal. Traditional ECMs, while they have reached smaller sizes, are approaching the limits of the technology and are unlikely to shrink much further or provide significant new innovations. New microphone technology is needed that provides smaller microphones with both greater ease-of-use and more design flexibility.more...

Ultracapacitors
This study focuses on key ultracapacitor products and provides data about the size and growth of the ultracapacitors markets, company profiles and industry trends. Also, the goal of this report is to provide a detailed and comprehensive multi-client study of the markets in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea and the rest of the world (ROW) for ultracapacitors as well as potential business opportunities in the future. more...

Piezoelectric Operated Actuators and Motors
This study focuses on key piezoelectric operated actuators and motors and provides data about the size and growth of the piezoelectric operated actuators and motors markets, company profiles and industry trends. The goal of this report is to provide a detailed and comprehensive multi-client study of the markets in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Korea and the rest of the world (ROW) for piezoelectric operated actuators and motors as well as potential business opportunities in the future. more...

Globalization: Implications for the US Plastics industry
The U.S. plastics industry, like all other manufacturing industries around the world, confronts the forces of globalization, and it struggles to comprehend this process and adjust its business models accordingly. This is no easy task since globalization is a phenomenon of vast complexity and scope, embracing issues of a cultural, economic, environmental, geopolitical and social nature. It has been unfolding for several centuries, yet recently this process has clearly accelerated. more...

Industrial Blow Molding: Changing Industry Structure and Growth Dynamics
PCRS has studied the North American industrial blow molding business periodically over the past decade. In our previous analysis (2001) we determined that following strong growth in the second half of the 1990s, marked by average annual growth of 11% in value terms and 6.5% in volume terms, there was a growth pause in 2000. more...

An Economic Analysis of Plastic Pipe Business
As the North American economy recovers from the adverse economic conditions confronted in 2000-2001 the demand for pipe made from all materials of construction has surged. There is eternal competition between pipe made from "traditional" materials (i.e., cast iron, concrete, copper, ductile iron, carbon and stainless steel) and pipe made from plastics (thermoplastic and thermoset). The ideal is to be able to design and develop pipe in a wide range of diameters that is light-weight yet durable, rigid or flexible, abrasion- and corrosion-resistant, and long-lived.more...

New Growth Dynamics in Compression Molding
Compression molding was one of the original plastics processing methods developed at the dawn of the commercial plastics industry. The objective was to produce light-weight, structurally strong, creatively designed plastic parts that could replace parts made from the traditional engineering materials - metals (steel, aluminum et al.), wood, ceramics and porcelain.more...

Recent Patterns of Growth and Technological Change in the Bottle Blow Molding Business
On the surface the North American bottle blow molding business has enjoyed buoyant growth over the past few years. The volume of consumption of plastic material has been growing at an average annual rate of 6%, reaching 10.8 billion lbs. by 2004. In the same way the value of output has been growing at an average annual rate of 8.75%, reaching $14.3 billion by 2004.more...

The Industrial Thermoforming Business: Review and Outlook
In 1995 PCRS researched and published its seminal study of the North American industrial thermoforming business. We updated that analysis in 1998 and again in 2001. We determined from these three analyses that the regional industrial thermoforming business was growing at an average annual rate of 6%. The overall value of this business as of 2000 was $2.3 billion, and it accounted for over 1 billion lbs. of plastic material consumption.more...

The Profile Extrusion Business:Review and Outlook
Many sectors of the North American plastics processing business have experienced difficult market conditions over the past few years stemming from the U.S. recession in the first half of 2001, the terrorist attacks in the second half of 2001, and the surge of imports from Asian countries in 2002 and 2003. Yet the companies with custom, proprietary and captive profile extrusion operations have managed to come through this period with sales growth reasonably close to their long-term trend line.more...