Cast Polymer Radio

On this episode, we feature all of our conversations from day 2 at CAMX 2026 in Atlanta, GA. These include interviews with:

• Matthew Hartman of Loop Technology
• Gil Cooper of Plataine
• Marcy Offner of WCI
• Eimear O'Carroll of Lios
• Yves Cordeau of Avient Corporation
• Tom Sharrock of James Cropper
• Daniel Neumann of ACMA
• Paul Zwicklhuber of ENGEL

On this episode, we'll be featuring all of our conversations from Day 1 at CAMX 2026 in Atlanta, GA. There was a huge turnout at the show this year, bringing together over 500 exhibitors and roughly 7,000 industry professionals spanning aerospace, automotive, marine, and construction sectors.

Graphene has been called one of the most extraordinary materials ever discovered. It's exceptionally strong, lightweight, electrically conductive, and thermally conductive. But more than a decade after capturing the world's attention, one major question remains: why hasn't it transformed manufacturing the way so many people predicted?

On this episode, Brad Larschan and Kevin Wyss of Avadain join the show to discuss the past bottlenecks with graphene production and what their company is doing to change this. Avadain is an advanced-materials company commercializing patented technology for producing what it calls Large, Thin, Defect-Free, or LTDF, graphene flakes.

On this episode, we'll talk about why all graphene isn't created equal, what Avadain believes it has solved on the manufacturing side, and, especially for our audience, what large-scale availability of high-quality graphene could mean for composites and advanced materials.

You can learn more about their company by visiting avadaingraphene.com.

On this episode, Dr. Yasmeen S. Alfaraj discusses the next generation of thermoset composites. She is the founder and CEO of NextSet Materials, a company developing a new generation of reprocessable thermoset materials. Through NextSet Materials, Yasmeen is addressing one of the composites industry's most persistent challenges: how to recover valuable fibers and other materials from durable thermoset structures that were never designed to be taken apart.

The company's technology incorporates cleavable additives into existing resin formulations, creating a controlled pathway for deconstructing the cured polymer and recovering materials for reuse—without requiring manufacturers to completely replace their established processes.

We'll be discussing the chemistry behind this technology, its potential applications in aerospace, wind energy, automotive manufacturing and electronics, and what it could mean for the future of truly circular composite materials. You can learn more about the company at https://nextset.net.

On this episode, Gus Perez of Marble-Lite joins the podcast to share how he's using Claude Code to help run his business. Marble-Lite is our featured manufacturing member in the upcoming Summer issue of Cast Polymer Connection (coming out next week).

On this episode, Chris Hurdleston joins the show to talk about the 2026 Composites Fly-In up in Washington D.C.

Industry leaders had the opportunity to meet directly with Members of Congress, federal agencies, and key decision-makers who influence the policies shaping our industry's future.

On this episode, Kyle Jordan joins the show to share some updates on the ACMA's Certified Composites Technician programs. Kyle is Director of Certifications with the ACMA. He'll be discussing some of the new digital training options launched over the last couple of months, including those for CCT recertification.

You can learn more about these CCT training programs by visiting https://acmanet.org/education/certified-composites-technician-program.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is sending shockwaves through global supply chains—particularly across petrochemicals, resins, and other composite manufacturing materials.

Joining the podcast this week is Dawn Hersey, Ph.D., a combat veteran and subject matter expert in resilience, stability, and conflict. She owns Ferndon Consulting, an Intelligence firm. Her expertise is in international conflict, geopolitical dynamics, and predictive analytics. She works with manufacturers regarding supply chain considerations.

On this episode, Marty Johnson, VP of Product and Technical Fellow at 3D Systems, joins the show to take a clear-eyed look at additive manufacturing materials—what they can do, what they can't, and what engineers should realistically expect when composites and filled materials enter the 3D-printing conversation.

On this episode, we feature a previous interview with Derek Hill, VP of Syn-Mar Products, Inc. In this interview, Derek shares how he's built a meaningful social media presence for their family-owned business using a smartphone, a $6-per-month editing app, and about an hour a day.