Press Release
BROADVIEW, IL (June 28, 2013) – One of America's top 5 developers and manufacturers of Thermoplastic Elastomers or TPEs, as they are commonly known, is celebrating its 20 th year in business. TPEs are soft, colored or black and white, rubbery plastic materials used on hundreds of thousands of products ranging from kitchen utensils, sporting equipment and power tool grips to hundreds of automotive products to footwear, pet toys, children's toys, electrical and electronic equipment to writing instruments and thousands more applications. Increasing demands and new applications for this product segment has kept it nearly totally recession proof.
Star Thermoplastic Alloys & Rubbers, Inc. (STAR), with headquarters in Broadview, IL (near Chicago) was founded in 1993 by Thomas A. Dieschbourg, who started his career in sales and marketing with another leading TPE producer. From humble beginnings in a Chicago building which was originally used to manufacture automobiles in the 1920s, today the expansive newer expansive facility just west of Chicago has 70,000 square feet and more than 35 employees. STAR has worked its way up the sales ladder to become one of the top 5 TPE producers in North America, with ownership and production on U.S. shores.
According to STAR President Tom Dieschbourg, "Everyone stands to gain with products that use TPEs, both from a profit standpoint for those who make the compounds/materials to those who design, mold and sell the end products. Nearly any product that has a soft, tactile surface or grip is most likely a candidate for TPEs. Perhaps the most familiar line of products that use TPEs are power tools, pens, toothbrushes and shaving razors – practically everything consumers touch or feel have TPE have at least part of the product made with
a TPE. Because of the versatility of TPEs," continues the STAR president, "this industry segment has never experienced a turndown or recession. Applications are almost unlimited."
Over the past 10 years, the industry – with 5-7 major "players" and dozens more smaller firms – has grown at a rate of 8% or more annually. TPEs are considered the most versatile and most used polymer products found anywhere and have been found to be excellent materials replacements for rubber. Of note is that TPEs are recyclable.
TPEs, first discovered in the 1960s by technicians at Shell in Houston, became an instant, and very profitable, hit for both manufacturers and TPE customers. They are blends of special plastics and rubber which enable molders to make products that are colorful, grippy if needed, chemical resistant and durable. The material blends or compounds, some off-the-shelf and some proprietary, are manufactured on plastics blenders and extruders, then shipped in pellet form to companies that injection mold, extrude, blow mold or thermoform the materials into end products. Some TPEs are what is termed overmolded or molded over a second plastic material without requiring any gluing or additional manufacturing process.
STAR, founded in 1993, is a leading provider of thermoplastic elastomers with many production lines to fill both large and small orders, a full-service laboratory and trained sales and technical support personnel across the continent. Company products are sold under the trade names StarFlex™, StarPrene®, StarMed™, StarTuff™, StarXtrude™, StarLexar™, StarPet®, StarBond®, StarClear®, and StarGrip-X®. With its newly enhanced chemicals laboratory, STAR has the ability to duplicate any existing TPE with improved formulations and at better prices.
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