Learn about sustainable scrap reprocessing—this resource offers a deep dive into everything from granulator types and options, to service tips, videos and technical articles.

Plastics Technology’s Tech Days is back! Every Tuesday in October, a series of five online presentations will be given by industry supplier around the following topics:  Injection Molding — New Technologies, Efficiencies Film Extrusion — New Technologies, Efficiencies Upstream/Downstream Operations Injection Molding — Sustainability Extrusion — Compounding Coming out of NPE2024, PT identified a variety of topics, technologies and trends that are driving and shaping the evolution of plastic products manufacturing — from recycling/recyclability and energy optimization to AI-based process control and automation implementation. PT Tech Days is designed to provide a robust, curated, accessible platform through which plastics professionals can explore these trends, have direct access to subject-matter experts and develop strategies for applying solutions in their operations.

Second quarter started with price hikes in PE and the four volume engineering resins, but relatively stable pricing was largely expected by the quarter’s end.

In a time where sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, the food and beverage packaging industry is required to be at the forefront of this innovation. By adopting circular packaging processes and solutions, producers can meet regulatory requirements while also satisfying consumer demand and enhancing brand reputation. Join Husky to learn more about the broader implications of the circular economy — as well as how leading brands are leveraging this opportunity to reduce costs, increase design flexibility and boost product differentiation. Agenda: The cost and operational benefits of embracing circularity Key materials in circular packaging — including rPET and emerging bioplastics How to design a circular food and beverage package Strategies for selecting sustainable closures to future-proof packaging solutions Optimization and streamlining of production processes for enhanced efficiency How Husky Technologies can enable your sustainable success

Sustainability continues to dominate new additives technology, but upping performance is also evident. Most of the new additives have been targeted to commodity resins and particularly polyolefins.

When, how, what and why to automate — leading robotics suppliers and forward-thinking moldmakers will share their insights on automating manufacturing at collocated event.

In this collection, which is part one of a series representing some of John’s finest work, we present you with five articles that we think you will refer to time and again as you look to solve problems, cut cycle times and improve the quality of the parts you mold.

Despite price increase nominations going into second quarter, it appeared there was potential for generally flat pricing with the exception of a major downward correction for PP.

Ultradent's entry of its Umbrella cheek retractor took home the awards for Technical Sophistication and Achievement in Economics and Efficiency at PTXPO.

The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) has released final figures for NPE2024: The Plastics Show (May 6-10; Orlando) that officially make it the largest ever NPE in several key metrics.

In this three-part collection, veteran molder and moldmaker Jim Fattori brings to bear his 40+ years of on-the-job experience and provides molders his “from the trenches” perspective on on the why, where and how of venting injection molds. Take the trial-and-error out of the molding venting process.

Gifted with extraordinary technical know how and an authoritative yet plain English writing style, in this collection of articles Fattori offers his insights on a variety of molding-related topics that are bound to make your days on the production floor go a little bit better.

technotrans says climate protection, energy efficiency and customization will be key discussion topics at PTXPO as it displays its protemp flow 6 ultrasonic eco and the teco cs 90t 9.1 TCUs.

Core Technology Molding turned to Mold-Masters E-Multi auxiliary injection unit to help it win a job and dramatically change its process.

While the major correction in PP prices was finally underway, generally stable pricing was anticipated for the other four commodity resins.

Implementing a production monitoring system as the foundation of a ‘smart factory’ is about integrating people with new technology as much as it is about integrating machines and computers. Here are tips from a company that has gone through the process.

“Additive is a niche,” Dunne says, pointing to his booth where the company is highlighting technology that supports investment casting molds – test molds for the foundry industry. “Investment casting is a niche within a niche. That’s where we play. That’s where the magic is: low-volume, high complexity. That’s where you see us.”

“I say, ‘Really? I’ll start a stopwatch, and call me in 30 seconds,’” Dunne says. With dies made, it takes 30 seconds, but it takes months to get those. The difference between those two is where additive makes the most sense, he says.

Discover how artifical intelligence is revolutionizing plastics processing. Hear from industry experts on the future impact of AI on your operations and envision a fully interconnected plant.

Any molder will tell you there’s a difference in working with electric vs. hydraulic drives. Servohydraulic is still hydraulic; a hybrid machine is something different. Imprecise use of terms causes needless confusion.

Across the show, sustainability ruled in new materials technology, from polyolefins and engineering resins to biobased materials.

Say “manufacturing automation” and thoughts immediately go to the shop floor and specialized production equipment, robotics and material handling systems. But there is another realm of possible automation — the front office.

In this collection of content, we provide expert advice on welding from some of the leading authorities in the field, with tips on such matters as controls, as well as insights on how to solve common problems in welding.

Join KraussMaffei for an insightful webinar designed for industry professionals, engineers and anyone interested in the manufacturing processes of PVC pipes. This session will provide a comprehensive understanding of the technology behind the production of high-quality PVC pipes: from raw material preparation to final product testing. Agenda: Introduction to PVC extrusion: overview of the basic principles of PVC pipe extrusion — including the process of melting and shaping PVC resin into pipe forms Equipment and machinery: detailed explanation of the key equipment involved — such as extruders, dies and cooling systems — and their roles in the extrusion process Process parameters: insight into the critical process parameters like temperature, pressure and cooling rates that influence the quality and consistency of the final PVC pipes Energy efficiency: examination of ways to save material and energy use when extruding PVC pipe products

August 29-30 in Minneapolis all things injection molding and moldmaking will be happening at the Hyatt Regency — check out who’s speaking on what topics today.

Mold maintenance is critical, and with this collection of content we’ve bundled some of the very best advice we’ve published on repairing, maintaining, evaluating and even hanging molds on injection molding machines.

After successfully introducing a combined conference for moldmakers and injection molders in 2022, Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology are once again joining forces for a tooling/molding two-for-one.

Across all process types, sustainability was a big theme at NPE2024. But there was plenty to see in automation and artificial intelligence as well.

Join Wittmann for an engaging webinar on the transformative impact of manufacturing execution systems (MES) in the plastic injection molding industry. Discover how MES enhances production efficiency, quality control and real-time monitoring while also reducing downtime. It will explore the integration of MES with existing systems, emphasizing compliance and traceability for automotive and medical sectors. Learn about the latest advancements in IoT and AI technologies and how they drive innovation and continuous improvement in MES. Agenda: Overview of MES benefits What is MES? Definition, role and brief history Historical perspective and evolution Longevity and analytics Connectivity: importance, standards and integration Advantages of MES: efficiency, real-time data, traceability and cost savings Emerging technologies: IoT and AI in MES

The aim of this presentation is to guide you through the factors and the numbers that will help you determine if a robot is a smart investment for your application. Agenda:  Why are you considering automation? What problems are you trying to solve? How and why automation can help Crunch the numbers and determine the ROI

CHICAGO, Illinois—There’s never been a question that additive manufacturing is cool. The ability to 3D print complex parts from plastic or metal powders offers massive improvements in the geometries that manufacturers can produce and in some cases eliminates expensive tooling.

Mike Sepe has authored more than 25 ANTEC papers and more than 250 articles illustrating the importance of this interdisciplanary approach. In this collection, we present some of his best work during the years he has been contributing for Plastics Technology Magazine.

“A molding shop run by two women—you don’t see that everyday,” says Lynn Momrow-Zielinski (left), who cofounded Extreme Molding with Joanne Moon in 2002. On the table in front of them are YogaJellies yoga pads (yogajellies.com), compression molded of about 1 lb of LSR.

A few booths down at Desktop Metal, Justin Nardone, founder and CEO of subsidiary Figur shows off his system that effectively uses giant ball-point pens to created stamped metal parts. Well, that’s a simplification. A stylus presses rolling balls onto a flat metal surface, bending metal into complex shapes by applying force to that rolling ball.

This month’s resin pricing report includes PT’s quarterly check-in on select engineering resins, including nylon 6 and 66.

Plastics Technology covers technical and business Information for Plastics Processors in Injection Molding, Extrusion, Blow Molding, Plastic Additives, Compounding, Plastic Materials, and Resin Pricing. About Us

Product engineering manager Michael Fil often has to tweak customers’ designs to ensure they can be molded successfully. There aren’t a lot of designers familiar with LSR, especially when it comes to overmolding.

Wittmann Battenfeld will introduce the new EcoPower B8X injection molding machine line and show direct current as an energy source for a concept machine that will power its own robot.

In this collection of articles, two of the industry’s foremost authorities on screw design — Jim Frankand and Mark Spalding — offer their sage advice on screw design...what works, what doesn’t, and what to look for when things start going wrong.

Join this webinar to explore the transformative benefits of retrofitting your existing injection molding machines (IMMs). Engel will guide you through upgrading your equipment to enhance monitoring, control and adaptability — all while integrating digital technologies. You'll learn about the latest trends in IMM retrofitting (including Euromap interfaces and plasticizing retrofits) and discover how to future-proof your machines for a competitive edge. With insights from industry experts, it'll walk you through the decision-making process, ensuring you make informed choices that drive your business forward. Agenda: Maximize the value of your current IMMs through strategic retrofitting Learn how to integrate digital technologies to enhance monitoring and control Explore the benefits of Euromap interfaces and plasticizing retrofits Understand how retrofitting can help meet new product demands and improve adaptability Discover how Engel can support your retrofitting needs, from free consultations to execution

A collaboration between show organizer PLASTICS, recycler CPR and size reduction experts WEIMA and Conair recovered and recycled all production scrap at NPE2024.

Take a deep dive into all of the various aspects of part quoting to ensure you’ve got all the bases—as in costs—covered before preparing your customer’s quote for services.

While prices moved up for three of the five commodity resins, there was potential for a flat trajectory for the rest of the third quarter.

Additive technology creates air pockets in film during orientation, cutting down on the amount of resin needed while boosting opacity, mechanical properties and recyclability.

Multiple speakers at Molding 2023 will address the ways simulation can impact material substitution decisions, process profitability and simplification of mold design.

Thousands of people visit our Supplier Guide every day to source equipment and materials. Get in front of them with a free company profile.

Join Engel in exploring the future of battery molding technology. Discover advancements in thermoplastic composites for battery housings, innovative automation solutions and the latest in large-tonnage equipment designed for e-mobility — all with a focus on cost-efficient solutions. Agenda: Learn about cutting-edge thermoplastic composites for durable, sustainable and cost-efficient battery housings Explore advanced automation concepts for efficient and scalable production See the latest large-tonnage equipment and technology innovations for e-mobility solutions

Formnext Chicago is an industrial additive manufacturing expo taking place April 8-10, 2025 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Formnext Chicago is the second in a series of Formnext events in the U.S. being produced by Mesago Messe Frankfurt, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, and Gardner Business Media (our publisher).

A big selling point for additive is the lack of tooling. Products tend to go straight from a digital file into a physical product. Higher production volumes tend to demand custom tooling for plastic injection molding or stamping dies.

Bio: Robert Schoenberger has been writing about manufacturing technology in one form or another since the late 1990s. He began his career in newspapers in South Texas and has worked for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland where he spent more than six years as the automotive reporter. In 2014, he launched Today's Motor Vehicles (now EV Manufacturing & Design), a magazine focusing on design and manufacturing topics within the automotive and commercial truck worlds. He joined IndustryWeek in late 2021.

Eden Manufacturing was founded on a vision of vertical integration, adding advanced injection molding capabilities to a base of precision moldmaking and more recently bringing Swiss-type machining capabilities in-house.

While the melting process does not provide perfect mixing, this study shows that mixing is indeed initiated during melting.

Baystar's Borstar technology is helping customers deliver better, more reliable production methods to greenhouse agriculture.

Products exemplifying Extreme Molding’s specialties are the Baby Banana Teething Toothbrush for infants (two colors and durometers of LSR overmolded) and the infant feeding nipple (below) of LSR overmolded onto Eastman’s Tritan copolyester.

Extreme Molding defines its special niche as overmolding, especially with LSR, for applications in female-oriented and children’s healthcare.

The big selling point: lack of hard tooling for stamping dies. Transfer presses can stamp complex shapes into metal sheets several hundred times per minute, but again, you need the dies in place for that. Want a handful of parts tomorrow? An additive system like Figur might make sense.

Exhibitors and presenters at the plastics show emphasized 3D printing as a complement and aid to more traditional production processes.

Resin drying is a crucial, but often-misunderstood area. This collection includes details on why and what you need to dry, how to specify a dryer, and best practices.

Formerly a showroom for early-aughts-era Van Dorn hydraulics, the newest additions to Drummond Industries’ transforming fleet are all-electric Niigata injection molding machines.

This Knowledge Center provides an overview of the considerations needed to understand the purchase, operation, and maintenance of a process cooling system.

Processors with sustainability goals or mandates have a number of ways to reach their goals. Biopolymers are among them.

However, cost and speed have always been the challenges. At the IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show, several additive companies say they still can’t compete on speed or cost in a lot of situations, but where the technology makes sense, it makes a lot of sense.

Hard tooling like that supports fast, cheap production, but it’s fixed. Any change to the product will require new dies, and that can take months to produce. As Dunne puts it, when he tells someone that his new additive technology takes about two hours to produce a unique part, the response is generally, “I can do that in injection molding in 30 seconds.”

For a small custom injection molder competing in today’s global market, Lynn Momrow-Zielinski has two pieces of advice: 1) Develop a business plan and stick to it. 2) Find a technical and/or market niche and stick to that, too.

For a small custom injection molder competing in today’s global market, Lynn Momrow-Zielinski has two pieces of advice: •Develop a business plan and stick to it. •Find a technical and/or market niche and stick to that, too. “The world does not need another injection molder of commodity plastics. The key to business success as a domestic injection molder today is business focus and technical specialization,” she told an audience of molders at last January’s Molding 2013 Conference in New Orleans. By practicing what she preaches, Extreme Molding LLC, the company she co-founded and co-manages with Joanne Moon, achieved profitability within 18 months of its opening in 2002 and has achieved double-digit growth in most (non-recession) years since then. Momrow-Zielinski is a straight talker who’s not shy about making no-nonsense pronouncements about the economic pressures on a small molder facing a world of competitors, about domestic vs. overseas pricing, molding market trends, achieving business focus, winning and managing customers, and buying molds abroad; the place of rapid prototyping, social media, and ISO certification; and the growth of liquid silicone (LSR) molding and overmolding. Having built a business from scratch—one of the few female-owned plastics molding companies—Momrow-Zielinski speaks from hard-earned experience. A native of upstate New York, she has two engineering degrees (chemical and industrial) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. She was a development engineer for the plastics operations of Mobil Chemical for four years and then operations manager and global technical marketing manager for GE Silicones for eight years. She then became general manager of Canton Bio-Medical, a maker of silicone and other rubber products in Poestenkill, N.Y., which was acquired in 2000 by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, where she became the worldwide general manager of the Laboratory Products Business Unit. That’s how she met her future business partner. Joanne Moon had pursued an MBA from Seton Hall University in New Jersey and had been a product supervisor for L’Oreal-Lancôme cosmetics and then plant manager and director of manufacturing for CR Bard, a medical products company. After 13 years there, she left to join UroMed, a medical device startup company, and then in 2000 became worldwide general manager of healthcare products for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. When they met as managers at Saint-Gobain, the two women found that they shared a particular ambition. Moon had always wanted to run her own business, and Momrow-Zielinski came from a family-owned business in Christmas trees, firewood, and tree service. They decided to strike out on their own and spent a year formulating a business plan. They resolved to accept no outside investors and no startup money from family. Instead, Moon took out a second mortgage on her home. While scouting for locations, they came across the Watervliet Arsenal, run by the U.S. Army in Watervliet, N.Y., just across the Hudson River from Troy. The Arsenal’s newly formed Business & Technology Partnership was looking to fill vacant space with private businesses. Extreme Molding became the first major non-military manufacturing tenant there, occupying part of the third floor of a building devoted to Army machine shops. The U.S. government paid for site preparation and provides round-the-clock security and fire and emergency services. Why the name Extreme Molding? “We do wacky things that you might say shouldn’t be molded,” says Momrow-Zielinski. “We’ve used intrusion molding to make parts greater than the shot capacity of our machines. Challenging materials and complex designs are our specialty. We take on tough jobs that other molders won’t do. We work with complex molds with lots of actions and undercuts. We tinker with materials to accommodate such molds—such as going to a lower durometer that can be pulled over the undercuts.” The two managing partners had already decided that their new firm would focus on business areas they knew and liked—healthcare for women and infants and LSR molding. Their first machines were a pair of brand-new Toshiba all-electric presses, one of 65 tons for thermoplastics and a 45-tonner for LSR molding. They chose all-electrics for their energy efficiency, quietness, and “state-of-the-art” precision, which is especially important in LSR molding, says Momrow-Zielinski, who is the firm’s top technical officer. She recalls her initial difficulty in convincing the vendor to sell machines to her. “They told us, ‘We never shipped to a woman before.’” Since then, Extreme Molding has acquired four more new all-electric presses from Toshiba and Sumitomo Demag, as well as five used machines (Arburg, Engel, Milacron, and Van Dorn). All told, seven of the 11 machines are outfitted for LSR and four for thermoplastics. They span a range of 45 to 110 tons. The firm also has a few small vertical compression presses for molding silicone and other rubbers. Besides LSR, Extreme Molding uses TPEs, polycarbonate, Tritan copolyester from Eastman Chemical, and occasionally more exotic resins like fluoropolymers, PEEK, PEI, or LCP. The firm employs more than 40 people, many of them young engineering graduates from Rensselaer Polytechnic. It operates 24/5 or 24/7 and business is growing steadily towards $5 million. Currently occupying 15,000 ft2, Extreme Molding plans to take over another 3000 ft2 in a separate building in July. CHOOSE YOUR NICHE “Almost all domestic molders have been forced to develop specialized capabilities in the last 10 to 15 years,” says Momrow-Zielinski. “You have to have something you’re known for and do better than most everyone else—or you can’t stay in this business. Our claim to fame is overmolded combinations of  materials in applications for female-oriented and pediatric healthcare.”

Mixed in among thought leaders from leading suppliers to injection molders and mold makers at the 2023 Molding and MoldMaking conferences will be molders and toolmakers themselves.

While prices moved up for three of the five commodity resins, there was potential for a flat trajectory for the rest of the third quarter.

Successfully starting or restarting an injection molding machine is less about ticking boxes on a rote checklist and more about individually assessing each processing scenario and its unique variables.

Introduced by Zeiger and Spark Industries at the PTXPO, the nozzle is designed for maximum heat transfer and uniformity with a continuous taper for self cleaning.