DBusiness Daily Update: TriMas Packaging Launches Fully-recyclable Dispenser Pumps, Highland Park Opens Priority Health Fitness Court at Midland Field, and More

Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies, including updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
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TriMas Packaging group has commercialized the fully recyclable Mono-2e dispenser pump. // Courtesy of TriMas Packaging
TriMas Packaging group has commercialized the fully recyclable Mono-2e dispenser pump. // Courtesy of TriMas Packaging

Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies, including updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.

TriMas Packaging Launches Fully-recyclable, Single-material Dispenser Pumps

Rieke, part of the Bloomfield Hills-based TriMas Packaging group, has commercialized the patented and fully recyclable Mono-2e dispenser pump.

The dispenser, which is currently in production, was the first dispenser pump on the market made from one polymer grade resin, making it more easily recycled, without sorting or separation. After proving production robustness, it became commercially available and ready for advanced design applications for customers serving the beauty, personal care, and other end markets.

“Our commitment to sustainable practices has been long-standing at TriMas, as it exemplifies our core values of integrity and respect for the environment and the communities in which we operate,” says Thomas Amato, president and CEO of TriMas. “TriMas’ Packaging group leads the way with innovative, sustainable products, and is continuing to design and develop new products to meet customers’ and consumers’ evolving sustainability goals.”

Mono-2e was recognized as a 2020 finalist of the Sustainability Packaging Coalition Innovator Awards for its single-polymer design, as the patented pump features six parts, all made from one polymer. It is 100 percent recyclable and designed to reduce its carbon footprint. In addition, the Mono-2e is e-commerce ready, minimizing the risk of leakage during shipping, and is Amazon ISTA 6 compliant.

“Our goal was to deliver a dispensing pump designed to facilitate the recycling process, making it easy for consumers by eliminating the metal spring and reducing the number of materials used,” explains Fabio Salik, president of TriMas Packaging. “We are also working on developing additional dispensing products made from a single-material without compromising quality, aesthetics, performance or formula compatibility. We look forward to launching our newest pump that is currently in advanced stages of testing, under the brand Singolo.”

Highland Park Opens Priority Health Fitness Court at Midland Field 

Priority Health and the National Fitness Campaign at 4 p.m. today will unveil an outdoor Priority Health Fitness Court in Highland Park at the Midland Field off Pitkin Street. The launch is a result of the partnership between Priority Health and NFC to expand free access to high quality workouts and create equitable access to exercise for communities around the state.

The new Fitness Court is an open-air wellness center that allows users to leverage their own body weight to get a complete workout. Created with adults of all ages in mind, the Fitness Court is adaptable for all fitness levels. New can also can download the free Fitness Court App — a coach-in-your-pocket style platform — that transforms the outdoor gym into a digitally supported wellness ecosystem. The Fitness Court App is available for iOS and Android.

Highland Park is the second outdoor court in a series of up to 20 Priority Health Fitness Courts that will be constructed in public spaces through 2022.

“The unique part of this project is the community engagement aspect, which is why we are very excited to bring this program and equipment to the residents of Highland Park,” says Hubert Yopp, mayor of Highland Park. “National Fitness looks for ambassadors within the community to be trained to run free classes at the site. This helps to facilitate the growth of a healthy Highland Park. This project would not be possible without the generosity of sponsors at Wayne County Parks.”

NFC launched the pilot program in Michigan when Priority Health assisted with funding a Fitness Court on the campus of Oakland University in 2019. It also has granted Fitness Court funding in Grand Rapids, Redford, Kalamazoo, and Lansing.

“We are pleased to join Highland Park and the National Fitness Campaign to officially launch another Priority Health Fitness Court in Southeast Michigan,” says Praveen Thadani, president of Priority Health. “We believe all people deserve the opportunity to live a healthy life and that’s why we’re committed to supporting this partnership to reduce the barriers to free fitness and improve wellness for the neighbors of Highland Park.”

Gerber Collision to Deploy Opus IVS Diagnostic Scanning

Gerber Collision & Glass, which has more than 20 locations in metro Detroit, will begin using the Opus IVS collision scanning solution at all of its facilities.

Gerber worked will Opus IVS to create an efficient workflow process on its DriveSafe platform, allowing shops to improve cycle time while performing pre-scan, post-scan, OE scanning, flash programming, and ADAS calibrations. The solution is fully integrated with CCC ONE software in the United States, giving locations one consistent easy-to-use solution.

“Incorporating the combination of OE and non-OE scanning software is key to effectively and efficiently assessing in-vehicle technology and enables proper repair research that is required for a complete repair,” says Mark Miller, vice president of OEM and quality at Boyd Group Services, which operates Gerber Collision. “The CCC integration with OPUS IVS adds the scan reports to the CCC Repair Order enhancing our workflow and file documentation.”

Community Brings Fresh Spin to Detroit Alleyways

One alleyway on Detroit’s northwest side is being staged to power lights through rainwater harvesting as part of a plan to make more of the city’s more than 9,000 alleys functional and sustainable.

The test installation project has brought together community leaders with University of Michigan researchers and students to build on the city’s large-scale program to clear alleys of debris and overgrown vegetation. The alleys were, at one time, a network for resident’s trash bins and utilities, but have not served a real function for many years.

After clearing these alleys, it’s up to neighborhood associations to maintain them.

The rainwater harvesting project led by Paul Draus, professor of sociology at UM-Dearborn, is looking into ways these alleys can be connected to the neighborhoods in ways that reflect local history, current needs, and multiple sustainability goals.

The pilot project aims to produce a working model of a net-zero alley that also is a neighborhood-owned oasis. It will include the design of an off-grid clean energy source made from upcycled materials. The work is designed to aid decision-makers by showcasing appropriate technology in context and serving as a model for other neighborhoods across the city.

“A lot of these neighborhoods have been geographically and socially cut off for years, at least from what’s going on in places like downtown,” Draus says. “I was really interested in how he would talk about the alleys as these spaces of possibility.”

Draus partnered with the Neighborhood Association, a neighborhood that’s well established west of the Lodge Freeway between Outer Drive and McNichols. It already had begun work on improving the alleyways with its own resources and was interested in doing some raised-bed gardening, composting, and installing rain barrels.

Those barrels will be networked with a solar wind hybrid micro-grid energy system to create a closed loop of water energy inside of an alleyway to show that it can be done. The rain barrel installation also will include Detroit windmills made by Carlos Nieblock, founder and president of C.A.N. Art Handworks, to generate energy to power the lights and smart rain barrels.

Olympia Entertainment to Host Virtual Tent Sale

Olympia Entertainment is hosting its second virtual tent sale in as many years to benefit the Detroit Red Wings Foundation.

The sale will start at noon on Friday, July 23 and includes one-of-a-kind Red Wings memorabilia, autographed merchandise, and more for prices as low as $2. Available items include autographed equipment from current and former Red Wings players, Hockey Fights Cancer and Military Appreciation apparel, Hockeytown items like beanies, autographed pucks, photos, mini sticks, and more,

For more information, visit here.

Holocaust Memorial Center Announces New Exhibit

A new exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills — “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Łódź Ghetto” — opens July 29.

The exhibit, shown in cooperation with the Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków, Poland, will be on display through Dec. 30.

In 1945, a Soviet doctor found a school notebook in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. It was a diary written by Rywka Lipszyc, a teenager in the Łódź Ghetto, between October 1943 and April 1944. The contents were the testament of a Jewish girl who lost her siblings and parents, but never lost hope despite moments of doubt. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated from Polish, supplemented with commentaries, and published in book form.

Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódź Ghetto, is the starting point for this exhibition. Selected excerpts of the diary are supplemented by expert commentary from historians, doctors, psychologists, and rabbis. These commentaries help to understand the context of the times and events Rywka refers to in her diary.

“Rywka’s Holocaust experience is a compelling story because it gives us insight into the individual experiences of so many others,” says Ruth Bergman, education director at the Holocaust Memorial Center. “Her daily struggles, interests, and fears allow us to get to know Rywka as a person, not a statistic. We are very fortunate to have this exhibit on display at our museum.”

The exhibition also includes unique historical artifacts and documents from museums in Poland, the United States, Israel, Germany, and Belgium. Historical objects from the Łódź Ghetto and Chełmno (Kulmhof) Death Camp are on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. These provide a testament documenting the personal dimensions of the Holocaust.

“Objects like this are especially important as the years continue to pass,” says Derek Hastings, an associate professor of history at Oakland University. “They remind us once again that despite the massive scope of the Holocaust, the individual victims were anything but faceless. Rywka’s deeply personal reflections — especially regarding her faith — are poignant and moving.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 1, Hastings will speak about the time in history when Rywka penned her diary. His lecture, titled “A Girl Lost, A Diary Found: Life in the Łódź Ghetto,” gives an up-close and historical perspective on the brutal conditions of the Łódź ghetto. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. at the Holocaust Memorial Center, which is located at 28123 Orchard Lake Rd. in Farmington Hills.

The program also will be streamed live on the Holocaust Memorial Center website. To register to attend the lecture in-person or virtually via Zoom, visit here.

A3 Hosting New Automate Preview Series Starting Sept. 14

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) in Ann Arbor is hosting the new Automate Preview Series, a program of six executive webinars starting Sept. 14.

The series will outline some of the technologies and applications that will take center stage at Automate in Detroit, June 6-9, 2022.

Each Automate Preview webinar will feature a roundtable discussion with industry leaders, followed by presentations by innovative companies on the latest use cases, new technologies or emerging automation trends.

“We are seeing a growing awareness from companies recognizing a need to automate their processes, whether that means getting started or expanding their automation operations,” says Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “We know companies need practical information on automation solutions today. That’s why we’re launching this Automate Preview Series to educate them on leading-edge technology and innovations that will help them compete globally. Plus, they’ll be better prepared to make buying decisions when they visit Automate next year.”

Free registration is open now for all six webinars. For information about sponsoring an Automate Preview Series webinar, contact Jim Hamilton at 734-994-6088. The webinar schedule is as follows. All are from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:

  • Advances in Robot Picking, Grasping and Manipulation, Sept. 14.
  • Putting Motion Control to Work in Your Production, Nov. 2.
  • Collaboration and Robotics: The Latest Solutions, Nov. 9.
  • Industrial Cybersecurity: Is Your Facility Protected?, Feb. 15.
  • Smart Automation: How AI is Changing Industry Today, March 15.
  • Getting Started with Automation, May 17, 2022

Connect4Care Kids Expands Across Wayne County

Connect4Care Kids, the free, Detroit-based centralized resource designed to make it easier and less overwhelming for families with young children to find and understand options for early childhood education and care, has expanded across all of Wayne County.

“Especially as the world opens post-pandemic, access to early childhood learning and care are vital to helping children and families not only reacclimate, but thrive,” says Jeffrey D. Miles, senior director of Early Childhood Excellence for the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. “We know the benefits for early childhood learning on the child’s development and, as we’ve seen recently, it’s vital to parents returning to work. Connect4Care Kids is a comprehensive tool that will help parents match with care options. It empowers busy parents to search one site for care options from their phone in a matter of a few minutes.”

United Way for Southeastern Michigan and the city of Detroit launched Connect4Care Kids last year. The focus was originally on Detroit and is now being expanded throughout Wayne County as part of a regional growth strategy. While there has been a great deal of disruption in childcare this past year, hundreds of parents and caregivers have used Connect4Care Kids to start the application process.

The platform streamlines the process of searching for and finding care options, particularly connecting to programs that help parents and caregivers with childcare costs, including Early Head Start, Head Start, Great Start Readiness Program, and Michigan’s Child Care and Development subsidy. Hosted on United Way’s website, Connect4CareKids is another way for parents to connect to all of their early childhood services.

By visiting Connect4CareKids.org or texting KIDS to 42273, parents and caregivers can:

  • Search for care near home, work or school;
  • Check if their child is eligible for programs that help with childcare costs; and
  • Connect with programs matching the family’s need — helping them immediately start the application process online and to hear back from providers with openings.