Articles

• New polymer, vinyl compounds set to debut during NPE
  Additive, compounder, and polymer producer PolyOne (Cleveland, OH) is set to feature more than six new product solutions during NPE at its booth #2542. “We have been working hard to listen to our customers. The new products and services offerings we plan to feature ... are a direct reflection of that effort,” says David Honeycutt, PolyOne's director of marketing communications. “We realize listening to customers is the first step toward delivering service and solutions.”


• Tips on Smarter Molding
  Visit the Moldflow booth (#1470, South Hall) to listen to plastics consultants John Klees and John Bozzelli as well as leading author Dr. Robert Malloy, chair of UMass Lowell's Plastics Engineering Dept. They will be presenting their ideas in a theater that Moldflow has incorporated into its booth. You can also pick up a copy of the new viewer, Moldflow Communicator, which allows you to open analyses done in Moldflow Plastics Insight. This free application can be used by anyone with a Windows PC to visualize, quantify, and compare results. It has been described as “a major move forward” and includes dynamic online help. The company will also be showing a new technology called Simalink that allows molders and designers to work together to optimize the design-through-manufacture process, whether they are onsite or distributed throughout the world.


• Engel, Electroform, and Progressive Components to collaborate at NPE
  What is being called by Engel “a true firework of innovation” can be viewed at Progressive Components' booth (#4744), as mold manufacturer Electroform Co. Inc. (Rockford, IL) in partnership with Engel and Progressive Components, will be demonstrating its automated mold/molding manufacturing cell. The cell will feature a multicomponent mold and automation equipment, utilizing three molding technologies to make a single part.


• Spin Stack mold to incorporate five technologies at show
  The Tech Group (Scottsdale, AZ), a West Pharmaceutical Services company, has teamed up with automation supplier Motoman (Booth #6352), Krauss-Maffei, and Dynamic Tool & Design (Booth #10336), a mold manufacturer in Menomonee Falls, WI, to produce a universal Spin Stack mold that incorporates five technologies into one operation. The application is a poker chip and will demonstrate two-shot, insert molding, and in-mold labeling of two labels, one on each side of the poker chip.


• 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 Thursday, May 18 (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.