Zintro is a reliable source – Regent Group

Regent Group, based in Washington, DC, is an international research and analysis firm that provides business, investment, strategic, and industry research services. It specializes in innovative research techniques to ensure the complete identification and verification of data.

Recently, Tom Thompson of Regent Group turned to Zintro to seek experts who could help enlighten research in two areas: entertainment lighting and ethylene products. Thompson sent inquiries into the Zintro network to get proposals for phone consults. The inquiries were quite specific.

Entertainment lighting: We are looking for an industry expert to help us understand the competitive environment for large-scale lighting, e.g. concerts, sports venues, theater. This inquiry went out to experts with knowledge of entertainment lighting, large-scale lighting, and lighting.

Ethylene Producers: We need to be able to identify major players in the industry, worldwide, that are long on ethylene and possibly interested in moving downstream. This inquiry was seeking experts with knowledge of ethylene producers, ethylene, chemical industry, specialty chemicals.

The two inquiries couldn’t have been more different, which is what made Zintro such a valuable and efficient resource. “I found Zintro to be a reliable source to quickly find industry experts in a wide variety of areas,” says Thompson. “I appreciate the rapid back-office support whenever there’s been a scheduling issue.”

Zintro has experts in every industry sector, across every job function, in every geographic region.  Recently, some of the following topics have seen a inquiry activity:

• Biosignal processing consultant
• Biochemistry consultant
• Biotech diagnosis consulting
• Genetic engineering experts
• Mvno consulting
• Biometrics expert
• Reservoir management consultants

James Neu: “Zintro lets me be as efficient as possible with my time.”

After spending nearly 20 years as an expert in the nutritional supplement industry, James Neu had recently shifted into a new industry, the beer industry, but still wanted to use his extensive knowledge to help people. He decided to sign up as a Zintro expert. He received an inquiry from a company in Asia looking for help in setting up a distribution network to sell food ingredients and chemical agents in the United States. He responded, and the proposal was accepted.

Neu says he is working with a client that is one of Asia’s largest manufacturers of lactic acid products. “They were looking for someone to help them gauge the pros and cons of setting up their own distribution versus using an existing distributor network,” he says. “From my experience, we were able to discuss what it would take to set up a distribution network for the client and properly service the market. The client decided to evaluate existing distributors and was able to come to the decision quickly based on my input. The project then shifted, and I was able to help them gather information on market pricing and on potential distributors.”

Neu identified what distributors would be looking for in a supplier, and vice versa, and was able to find information on pricing and three distributors who were interested in finding out more about the client’s products, including one who requested samples. The client is happy with the work provided and is looking to continue working with Neu.

“As an independent consultant, Zintro gives me far more exposure to potential clients and projects than I could possibly find on my own,” says Neu. “I can easily and quickly review and respond to client requests that are within my areas of expertise. Using zNotes, I can respond to inquiries with a few clarifying questions to determine how I can help a potential client. Zintro lets me be as efficient as possible with my time, allowing me to match my availability for consulting with my schedule.”

Do you have a Zintro success story? We would like to hear about it. Email us at  admin@zintro.com. Try tapping into Zintro’s expert-base with an Inquiry. It’s free. And, sign up as a Zintro expert to start generating free leads for your business.

Thoughts on chemical industry consolidation

By Maureen Aylward

Recently, Lonza announced its acquisition of Arch Chemicals, which prompted us to wonder if the chemical industry will see further consolidation. We asked our Zintro experts to comment on this.

Richard Woodward, PhD, a business executive and industrial research scientist, believes that additional consolidation will occur. “The current recession has seriously damaged a number of otherwise solid companies,” he says. “This provides opportunities for the larger, more financially secure companies such as Lonza, DSM, and the like to expand their portfolios and capabilities by acquiring companies that have fallen upon hard times. I personally believe that a number of the smaller pharma chemical companies will be acquired. In particular, companies with specific capabilities will be purchased by other companies looking to expand their range of services.”

Alan Henderson, PhD, a consultant to the chemical industry, is looking closely at recent REACH activity, the EU chemicals legislation. “There have been a staggering number of pre-registrations of chemical substances; that is some 143,000 PRs from about 65,000 registrants,” Henderson explains. “Although some thousand substances or more were made by non-producers seeking to make money out of missed pre-registrations, the sheer number of substances and suppliers suggest that there is a lot of room for consolidation within Europe.”

Henderson says there are about 15 major suppliers that meet over 95 percent of demand for chemicals. It is estimated that nearly 4,500 chemical companies operate in Europe, but what most of them do is not accurately known. “Given the increased regulatory pressure, I can see compliance becoming one factor in the consolidation process along with the normal economies of scale, synergies, and so on,” Henderson says. “Another consolidation factor could be the formation of some kind of trade exchange because chemicals made by one company in a particular EU country may be shipped to another country where it is then shipped to another country and so on. This creates staggering costs for the production and shipping of chemicals.” Henderson goes on to say that as the number of suppliers dwindle he will be watching the co-dependent distributors that may also have to consolidate.

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Innovation in the polymer industry: Part 2

By Maureen Aylward

The polymer industry is vast and has wide-reaching application, everything from medical devices to home products. But change is happening in the industry, and we asked our Zintro experts to give us an overview of new innovations, materials that show the most promise, and where we might see these innovations applied.

Joe Bonem, a chemical engineer and consultant, sees the future for polymeric material from a number of perspectives:

• From a product application angle, medical devices and medical uses will become even more important than they are now. “Uses might include body parts, wound closures or surgical instruments,” says Bonem. “This will require polymers that will meet exact specifications that will be qualitative in end users language rather than in terms of typical ASTM polymer test procedures.”
• From a cost standpoint, the area of polymers production that still has a high cost component is the post-polymerization area. “Many producers are using the extrusion section to tailor polymers by changing the molecular weight distribution, removing volatiles, or putting the polymer into a denser state. This is usually at the cost of one to two cents per pound,” says Bonem.
• From a growth angle, scale-up will become more important. “As higher value products are produced in small bench scale batch equipment, the need for an exact scale up to larger continuous equipment will be important,” says Bonem. “An example of this might be a polymer used for wound closure that is produced in a one liter batch reactor. It might be desirable to scale this product up to an 100 gallon reactor and operate in a continuous mode.”

Polymer Expert, a polymer scientist, says that the last 10 years has seen an increased focus on designing polymeric materials that mimic natural tissue. “Hydrogels, or multi-phase hydrophilic constructs, represent a promising material class for permanent natural tissue replacement” says Polymer Expert. “Comprised of between 50 to 90 percent water and capable of being formulated with non-isotropic properties, hydrogels find use in soft-tissue bulking and are being considered for load-bearing applications in the hip, knee, shoulder, and spine.” Polymer Expert says that the native tissue these constructs would replace are themselves hydrogels (cartilage, nucleus pulposus, vitrious humour); hence, synthetic hydrogels offer a good opportunity to match the viscoelastic properties of these natural tissues along with their lubricious nature.

Maurice Collins, a research fellow at the Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Ireland, says the latest innovations in the polymer industry center around new, smart polymers that can be easily and cheaply processed. “Two of the most exciting areas include organic electronics and regenerative medicine,” says Collins. He explains that in organic electronics, the research focus is on the structure/property relationships of thin polymeric films and the control of the interfacial properties to achieve high efficiencies, lower operating voltages, and longer device lifetimes. In regenerative medicine, research is concentrating on the creation of stimuli responsive polymer-based scaffolds with controlled biodegradation behavior coupled with the ability to deliver drug systems. “Advanced cross-linking strategies are being employed to control mechanical and degradation properties of these materials. The use of these materials will reduce the future demand on organ donors,” says Collins.

Conjugated polymers show the most promise for organic electronics. “Current research is looking at how these polymers can replace silicon semiconductors in the making of solar cells. This would lead to a reduction in the cost of solar energy,” Collins points out. “The materials showing the most promise for regenerative medicine are natural polymers and hydrogels produced from natural polymers such as Hyaluronic acid and Collagen. They are both biodegradable and biocompatible and contain functional groups that allow for structure/property tailoring. And, they are bioactive and can interact with cells and growth factors.”

Collins says that the first products using organic electronics have already been introduced: organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Cell phones and personal digital assistants are beginning to incorporate OLED displays, and within the next couple of years flexible OLED displays may be incorporated into laptop computers and home video applications. In addition, thin film transistors provide a range of low cost electronics.

“The outlook for regenerative technologies is bright, and they have the potential to revolutionize the delivery of medical care. Polymeric materials play a fundamental part in this,” says Collins. “Potential products range from scaffolds for soft and hard tissue replacement and wound healing to blood vessels made entirely from natural polymers. In the future, polymeric materials that can self repair will be key in ensuring the longevity of implants. Such materials may eventually replace the more traditional choices, such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE).”

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