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

At Sussex IM, compact cells of side-by-side injection and blow molding machines “assemble” reusable water bottles with insert blow molding and automated transfer, trimming and leak testing.

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

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.

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.

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

Headquartered in Maple Plain, Minnesota, Protolabs bills itself as “the fastest and most comprehensive digital manufacturing service in the world.” Globally, the company operates nearly 500 CNC machines at three AS9100-certified facilities. Last year, these CNC facilities turned out more than 68,000 machined parts per month and brought in revenue of almost $190 million. Capable of producing parts in a single day and offering tolerances down to ±0.005", the plants can machine over 40 plastics and metals, including aluminum, brass, copper, steel and titanium.

Since many of the more routine tasks at the plant are automated, “when we do use people, we deploy them where human insight really adds a lot of value for customers,” Thompson said. For example, “even though we digitally manufacture parts and our software automatically generates the G code, before we actually kick the job off and run it, we still want a human to review that job and the choices the system made to make sure it’s going to deliver what we promise to the customer.”

The two sports-bottle cells currently run 24/5, but Everson sees other applications beckoning for this dual-molding approach and its nearly full-wrap IML capability. One factor is the growing popularity of refillable water bottles versus single-use PET bottles. Another is the untapped potential in products such as wipes containers and medical products (Sussex is ISO 13485 certified).

When Sussex IM approached blow molding again, five years ago, it decided to focus only on specialty niche applications. For the sports bottles, Sussex approached it in its accustomed fashion—with a do-it-ourselves attitude and an urge to automate.

An example of such compact cells are the two lines making reusable water bottles (“sports bottles”) in a variety of sizes and color configurations, using paired injection and blow molding machines. According to Everson, these bottles formerly were made only in Asia. The original procedure was to injection mold TPE soft grips, which were hand loaded into fixtures, from which a robot would place them in the blow mold. After molding, the bottles were trimmed and pad printed.

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When Protolabs receives customers’ CAD files, by contrast, “we almost never look at drawings on the quick-turn side of things,” Snetselaar said.

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.

In 2007, the company added a second quick-turn manufacturing service, a CNC machining business called First Cut. It was essentially an outgrowth of Protomold, said Greg Thompson, Protolabs’ global product director of CNC machining.

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

Earlier this year, Protolabs’ speedy machining service saved the day for Bloodsport, a robot competing in Fight Night of BattleBots World Championship VII in Las Vegas. In its first fight, the 250-lb. robot flipped over and landed on a 3D-printed plastic housing, causing the housing to shatter. Bloodsport’s team had just 48 hours to obtain a replacement part before the next battle.

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.

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

On the downside, a machining process optimized for speed can leave leftover material for customers to deal with. But the idea is to deliver parts fast enough to make that an acceptable trade-off.

Working overnight, the team came up with a design for an aluminum part that it hoped would outperform the plastic housing. The following morning, the team sent the design to Protolabs, which had provided rapid prototyping services when Bloodsport was tested before the event.

At Protolabs’ machining facilities, the company applies what it calls a “digital-first approach” to the entire manufacturing process. This starts with an e-commerce interface that customers use to upload 3D CAD part design files. Within a few hours of uploading a file, customers receive an automated manufacturability analysis, along with an interactive quote that lets them change materials and quantities and see the resulting price updates in real time.

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.

According to Protolabs, the plant can ship machined parts in as little as five hours if they are ordered early enough in the day and their geometry allows quick-turn machining. When a same-day order is received, the job is moved to the head of the production queue and chips often are being cut within 30 minutes.

The blow molder is not a brand-name machine but a custom system built to Sussex’s unique specifications at a local machine builder with a global reputation. It has two accumulator heads—one for each cavity—and an 80-ton clamp.

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.

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

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

The same six-axis robot and EOAT that transfers the TPE grips from injection to blow molds also picks and places in-mold labels in the blow molds.

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.

Sussex IM has 100 robots and several collaborative robots (cobots), the latter used to transfer products between operations. The firm also has a 3D printer that allows it make custom plastic components for jigs, fixtures, mandrels and robot grippers, as well as prototype parts.

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

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

“We’ve had times where customers placed an order and an hour later they called and said, ‘I forgot to add this feature. Can we cancel that order?’ And we said no because we were already cutting material,” Snetselaar said. “So sometimes we almost move too fast for our own good.”

Consumer-product brand owners increasingly see advanced chemical recycling as a necessary complement to mechanical recycling if they are to meet ambitious goals for a circular economy in the next decade. Dozens of technology providers are developing new technologies to overcome the limitations of existing pyrolysis methods and to commercialize various alternative approaches to chemical recycling of plastics.

“To get our injection-molded parts out as fast as we did, we were doing a lot of rapid machining to cut the tools,” he said. “It was just a natural extension to take that technology we had and apply it to cutting the parts themselves.”

Protolabs made the deadline, delivering the aluminum part within 36 hours of receiving the design, he said, adding that the part held up throughout Bloodsport’s remaining bouts.

After blow molding, the TPE grips are bonded to the bottle body (LDPE or PP) and in-mold decorated (eliminating the subsequent pad-print operation). A secondary robot removes the two bottles and transfers them to another station, where the bottles are automatically trimmed, leak tested and passed to a wairint conveyor system. Lastly, an operator gives a quick visual check, adds a unique multishot cap assembly, product information tag, and UPC code label, and packs the bottles for retail distribution. This is all done within the blow molding cycle.

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.

The concept of joining two materials in the mold—in-mold assembly—was already familiar to Sussex IM, which has experience with a wide variety of multi-shot injection molding techniques. Extrusion blow molding, however, is very different from injection molding, a likely reason why there aren’t a lot of shops that do both. Fortunately, Sussex IM had a history in blow molding—and some long-time employees who remembered that experience.

At a conventional machine shop, the initial stages of a job typically involve people who study the part design to produce a quote, manufacturability feedback and the computer code needed to cut the part, noted Dan Snetselaar, product sales leader for CNC machining. In addition, he said early steps in the process include obtaining material blocks close to the part size and making sure the shop has the right hardware to cut the part, as well as building custom fixtures in many cases.

Protolabs’ largest CNC machining facility, a 215,000-sq.-ft. factory in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, houses more than 300 CNC mills and lathes. Visitors to this plant see rows of machines but not many employees in the aisles. This is because each worker can run multiple machines, due in part to physical and software error-proofing techniques implemented to ensure repeatable processes and quality levels.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The six-axis robot waits by the blow mold for a second robot to remove the bottles for leak testing and trimming. This view is looking over the injection press, whose tiebar is seen at bottom.

Adds Kyle Kopp, v.p. of manufacturing, “In-house automation expertise gives us total control. We build systems for our people and our style of operations, so our people find it more intuitive and learn it quicker. Doing automation in-house also makes it easier to optimize and fine-tune. This gives speed to market by allowing us to react faster.”

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.

Microprocessor-based controller dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives and controls the various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.

“We want the customer to be able to say, ‘You guys got me 95% of the way there. If I get (the part) today, I can clean up this one little feature,’” Snetselaar said.

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

Machining operation in which metal or other material is removed by applying power to a rotating cutter. In vertical milling, the cutting tool is mounted vertically on the spindle. In horizontal milling, the cutting tool is mounted horizontally, either directly on the spindle or on an arbor. Horizontal milling is further broken down into conventional milling, where the cutter rotates opposite the direction of feed, or “up” into the workpiece; and climb milling, where the cutter rotates in the direction of feed, or “down” into the workpiece. Milling operations include plane or surface milling, endmilling, facemilling, angle milling, form milling and profiling.

Although customers tap Protolabs’ quick-turn machining service for its speed, there have been instances when they got more speed than they bargained for.

“Because we have so much automation built in to our quick-turn plant, we can use operators instead, which are much easier to come by in the market these days,” he said, adding that a single operator can run as many as 20 machines at once, depending on the workload.

“Back in the late 1980s,” recalls Everson, “we reached a fork in the road: go automated or do just manual jobs. We chose automation and to do it internally. We hired a full staff of seven automation engineers and technicians to build custom automation for specific programs. Post-mold operations are a big niche for us, so we build several million dollars worth of automation each year. If we had to buy that outside, it would cost twice as much, take twice as long, and work half as well.”

The company now known as Protolabs was launched in a Minnesota garage in 1999 by Larry Lukis, an engineer and entrepreneur who wanted to slash the time that it took to produce injection-molded plastic prototype parts. He wrote over a million lines of computer code to automate the early stages of the injection molding process at his fledgling firm, which he called The Protomold Co.

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.

A Boston recycler invested in a turnkey shredding, granulation and elutriation system to expand its plastics reclaim business.

Machining operation in which material is removed from the workpiece by a powered abrasive wheel, stone, belt, paste, sheet, compound, slurry, etc. Takes various forms: surface grinding (creates flat and/or squared surfaces); cylindrical grinding (for external cylindrical and tapered shapes, fillets, undercuts, etc.); centerless grinding; chamfering; thread and form grinding; tool and cutter grinding; offhand grinding; lapping and polishing (grinding with extremely fine grits to create ultrasmooth surfaces); honing; and disc grinding.

William Leventon is a contributing editor to Cutting Tool Engineering magazine. Contact him by phone at 609-920-3335 or via email at wleventon@gmail.com.

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.

Plastics processors are finding applications for 3D printing around the plant and across the supply chain. Here are 8 examples to look for at NPE2024.

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

For customers seeking rapid prototyping and quick-turn, low-volume production, Protolabs’ automated in-house machining process “tends to work very well,” Thompson said. “But if you’re talking higher quantities, that’s where we need to tap in to the network. We did the acquisition of Hubs to get some partners that are way more efficient at scale. So if you’re willing to wait and want to get the most economical price point, (your job) is going to fall to the network.”

“Value-added operations are one of the criteria for distinguishing between shoot-and-ship molding—where a part is ejected from the mold and essentially goes straight into a box—and engineered molding. One of the most efficient procedures in plastics manufacturing involves integrating downstream operation to the molding cycle. While we have control of the part, through robotics and fixturing, we can effectively reorient, inspect, test, decorate, machine, assemble, and package.”

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.

Cylindrical tool that cuts internal threads and has flutes to remove chips and carry tapping fluid to the point of cut. Normally used on a drill press or tapping machine but also may be operated manually. See tapping.

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

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.

Sussex IM was started in 1977 as Sussex Plastics Inc. The current CEO, Keith Everson, has been with the firm almost all of that time, during which, Sussex has grown to a $70 million operation that employs 500 people and houses 70 injection machines from 25 to 955 tons—plus two blow molders—at two facilities in Sussex, Wis., that total 210,000 ft2. Its activities are divided almost equally among four market sectors: consumer goods (including cosmetics packaging), healthcare, agriculture, and industrial. Sussex also has a small proprietary Sussex Brands division, which makes Mr. Lid food-storage containers (mrlid.com).

While the company’s own rapid machining equipment consists mostly of mills, companies in the Hubs network offer “whatever is needed for the part,” he said, including electrical discharge machining, grinding and Swiss machining.

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

In addition to automation, the company’s approach depends on tight control of manufacturing variables for the sake of speed. This means that quick-turn customers must limit themselves to the material block sizes and cutter sets available at a Protolabs factory.

Kopp notes that Sussex automation engineers pride themselves on designing compact workcells that perform multiple operations within a small footprint: “By streamlining the assembly process, we can eliminate unnecessary touchpoints, minimize excess handling of WIP items, and actually yield significant energy savings. These are discrete pieces of the sustainability puzzle that may be overlooked in conventional thinking.”

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.

“We know exactly how long it will take to make a part, which feeds into your lead time and pricing,” Snetselaar said. “And you know that when a quote goes back to you, it is 100% accurate.”

Sussex IM is an injection molder and contract manufacturer with broad competence in secondary operations—degating, barcoding, pad printing, digital ink transfer, in-mold labeling and decorating (IML, IMD), digital watermarking, laser etching, sonic and vibratory welding, functional testing, and even retail packaging. To make all that efficient, the company is also committed to automation. As it states on its website (sussexim.com), this combined focus is integral to the company’s philosophy:

So, when Sussex needed to make a hollow-bodied object with solid attachments of a different material, it adopted blow molding as just another secondary operation to injection molding, and engineered the automation to link them together efficiently.

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

Proto Labs Inc., which does business as Protolabs, prides itself on its prowess in rapid prototyping and quick-turn, low-volume machining of metal parts. But that’s only part of the company’s story, which dates back more than 20 years and is marked by expansion and the addition of a variety of manufacturing capabilities.

In 2009, Protomold and First Cut became Protolabs. Milestones afterward included the launch of industrial-grade 3D printing services; the acquisition of Rapid Manufacturing Group LLC, a New Hampshire-based custom parts supplier specializing in sheet metal fabrication and CNC machining; and the purchase of Hubs, a global online CNC manufacturing network.

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.

Protolabs’ in-house milling and turning capabilities are supplemented by those available from its Hubs network of hundreds of manufacturing partners. Companies in the Hubs network can handle 60 or more materials, offer tolerances down to ±0.0008" and provide volume pricing options that lower per-part costs as quantities increase.

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

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.

The result was a cell in which the process starts with injection molding four TPE soft grips in a 120-ton press. A six-axis robot extracts the grips with end-of-arm tooling that also picks up two in-mold labels and places all of them in two aluminum blow molds—one grip in each mold half—in an adjoining press.

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.

Other injection molders might be attracted to the idea of blowing hollow-bodied objects with grips, handles, or other attachments incorporated via an insert-molding approach. But a word of caution is in order. Notes Kopp, “There are aspects of the process that can be challenging when you combine multiple technologies. Making it all function within cycle time consistently is not easy. It’s challenging, but we work very hard to eliminate variables.”

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

As the industry tries to ramp up recycling, there are several innovative sorting solutions in the offing—ranging from enhanced optical sorting technologies and chemical tracers to advanced solutions based digital watermarks and artificial intelligence.

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.

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).

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.

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

Workpiece is held in a chuck, mounted on a face plate or secured between centers and rotated while a cutting tool, normally a single-point tool, is fed into it along its periphery or across its end or face. Takes the form of straight turning (cutting along the periphery of the workpiece); taper turning (creating a taper); step turning (turning different-size diameters on the same work); chamfering (beveling an edge or shoulder); facing (cutting on an end); turning threads (usually external but can be internal); roughing (high-volume metal removal); and finishing (final light cuts). Performed on lathes, turning centers, chucking machines, automatic screw machines and similar machines.

When Sussex IM took on this application, it had the advantage of prior experience with extrusion blow molding. “About 25 years ago, we had five machines making seasonal point-of-sale decorations—pumpkin heads, Christmas trees, candy canes,” Everson notes. “Then we got out of it. Most of that business went to Asia.”

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

In the beginning, Thompson said First Cut was manufacturing only relatively small plastic parts. Eventually, though, the company added metal cutting, which now makes up the bulk of its machining business.

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.

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.

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.

Sussex IM CEO Keith Everson (right) and Kyle Kopp, v.p. of manufacturing, in front of the trimming and leak-testing station of the automated injection and blow molding cell that produces sports water bottles with IML.

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