Articles

• Moldmakers see NPE as the place to be
  Moldmakers seem to be flocking to NPE this year, resulting in a number of first-time exhibitors, including American Tool & Engineering Inc. (Greene, IA). The company manufactures molds for thermoforming (including twin-sheet forming), pressure and vacuum forming, and blowmolding. The company has exhibited at some of the smaller trade shows like the Society of Plastics Engineers Thermoforming Div. conference and had good success, notes Robert Hobson, general manager. The goal for American Tool is to make a lot of OEM contacts.


• Attend extrusion seminar in morning, see NPE in afternoon
  How can you get a crash course in extrusion and still maximize your time at the show? Attend Allan Griff's intensive extrusion seminar. The seminar will be presented from 8:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 20-21 in the South Building of McCormick Place (room number to be determined), leaving the afternoons free to go on the show floors.


• Valid industry statistics/benchmarks are a DIY job
  Every year, and this is the 44th, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) goes to a lot of effort to provide statistical reference points that you as a plastics processor can use to measure your company's performance against the rest of the industry. SPI also puts a lot of effort into making the statistics valid.


• The price of flight to Chicago
  If you’re even thinking about attending NPE 2006, a good start is to get to Chicago. We’re keeping tabs on airfares for you. This list shows the cost (U.S. dollars) of a round-trip ticket from several major cities to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, as of Wednesday, April 19 (don’t forget that you can fly into Midway Airport as well). Our source is travelocity.com. Dates include a Saturday night stay in the Windy City. Check back here each week and we’ll keep updating the numbers for you.


• United offers airfare discounts and early bird specials
  United Airlines is the official airline for NPE 2006. United is offering discounts on domestic and international travel to Chicago between June 9 and July 2, 2006.