Articles

• Survival tips for first-time NPE attendees
  So, you're seeing the halls of McCormick for the first time this NPE, and the only advice you've received from NPE veterans is that the show is really big and you need to use your time wisely to see everything. Just how big is the show? Nearly a million square feet are used to accommodate NPE. The squares on the hall maps don't look very big, but when you consider the number of machinery and products on display and the meeting rooms, stages, computer stations, and other offerings at every booth, it takes a lot of space to fit everything in. As a first-timer at NPE 2003, there are a few other bits of advice I wish I would have known, and a few tools offered to help you create a plan of attack even before you get to Chicago.


• NPE charges up with all electrics
  One query more than any other kept coming up for Milacron's Director of Marketing Bob Strickley during the Plastec West event this February in Anaheim. “You've got a growing concern about energy consumption, and it's not going to go away,” Strickley said. “If anybody would have told me that it would be as big today as what we're seeing, I would have never believed it, but we've got people wanting to get away from hydraulic machines in the mid-size and larger in this industry that we haven't talked to before, and it's coming down to energy.”


• Options increase for combining PUR and thermoplastics
  Only two years ago at the K show in Düsseldorf, plastics processing machine manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Corp. (Booth# 2102) made a huge splash with its SkinForm work cell. Krauss-Maffei brought out its SkinForm unit, which combined at that show a KM 350-1600CX injection molding unit with a reaction injection molding (RIM) unit next to it, fed with moldings by a robot.


• Seminar and Design Competition for TPEs
  Design engineers will want to register early for the TPE Overmolding Seminar sponsored by GLS Corp. on Tuesday, June 20 from 1:30-4:45 p.m. Cost is $75, and you can register at www.npe.org/education, where you’ll find a registration link at the bottom of the page.


• 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, June 1 (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.