On top of that, Birchmeier will be moderating the Additive Manufacturing and Mold Building educational session on May 8 at 1 p.m. He will be joined by panelists from Westminster Tool, Mantle, Accede Mold & Tool, and the HTS Group.

The old-school approach also is a nod to “professors who could demonstrate their knowledge in lectures on a simple chalkboard or whiteboard. I think PowerPoint has diminished that technical mastery to a certain degree,” said Birchmeier.

originally used to shred production waste and put this back into the production-line straight away, the ‘shredder’ machine was re purposed from the current plastic industry. ‘it can be quite tough to get your hands on one, the plan is to develop a machine like this as well -a low speed, powerful, efficient plastic shredder.’

The live session, an offshoot of his YouTube channel devoted to injection molding issues, is scheduled for Monday through Thursday at the Bottle Stage at 4 p.m.

precious plastic by dave hakkens: an open-source plastic recycling workshop‘extrusion’ open-source machineall images courtesy dave hakkens

The live Whiteboard Session is scheduled for Monday through Thursday at the NPE2024 Bottle Stage at 4 p.m. Birchmeier will be joined by guests covering topics such as mold simulation, conformal cooling, design of experiment, and constant pressure molding for sequential valve gating.

Editor in chief of PlasticsToday since 2015, Norbert Sparrow has more than 30 years of editorial experience in business-to-business media. He studied journalism at the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes du Journalisme in Strasbourg, France, where he earned a master's degree.

Before striking out as a consultant, Birchmeier was technical director at iMFLUX for 10 years, where he applied new control and adaptation concepts to the injection molding process. During that time he was responsible for 23 patents related to his work. He also spent some time at Rain Bird and Johnson Controls as a process engineer and holds a BS in plastics engineering technology from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI.

I guess you could call it a gimmick, but Brandon Birchmeier is sticking with his beloved whiteboard. The 20-year veteran of the injection molding industry, and now head of a consultancy serving plastics processors, started a YouTube channel a few months ago. In the Injection Molding — The Whiteboard Sessions videos, Birchmeier addresses the latest technologies and trends from a processor’s perspective, illustrating his concepts on a whiteboard, of course. He will be taking the show on the road next month, when he hosts a live version of The Whiteboard Sessions at NPE2024.

‘injection molding is the most commonly used technique in the plastic industry,’ adds hakkens. ‘usually these machines are extremely quick – this one is much slower and more manual, but can still produce a product every couple of minutes. the inserted plastic warms up and is then pressed inside a mould.’

"In our new world of AI and digital content, it's hard to know what can be trusted and where content necessarily comes from,” he told PlasticsToday. “Written words and now photographs can be auto-generated in ways unimaginable only a few years ago. When it's just me standing in front of a whiteboard, it's completely authentic.”

There are currently only three videos up on Birchmeier’s YouTube channel. He would like to produce one or two each month — “as often as I have gaps in my work schedule,” he told me — but his consulting business, Birchmeier Plastic Solutions, apparently is not leaving him with much free time. A good problem to have, no doubt. In the future, he plans to film “press-side videos,” he told PlasticsToday. “I want to begin demonstrating methods and techniques on an actual injection molding machine, making parts,” Birchmeier said. In the meantime you can catch his act at NPE2024 in Orlando, FL, on May 6 to 10.

a diverse digital database that acts as a valuable guide in gaining insight and information about a product directly from the manufacturer, and serves as a rich reference point in developing a project or scheme.

dave hakkens, the same designer responsible for the phonebloks concept has introduced his latest project, ‘precious plastic‘, a set of plastic machines developed for users to set up a small scale plastic workshop. conceived as an open-source solution, the collection of DIY machinery is based on general industrial techniques and made to work with recycled bits of PET or PP. the current series of interventions includes ‘injection’, ‘rotational’, ‘extrusion’ and ‘shredder’. the ‘extrusion’ machine has been set up for extruding lines, shapes or possible 3D printer filaments. ‘shredder plastic is put in the bucket, the screw inside the tube presses the flakes forwards and the heating elements melt the plastic along the way,’ says hakkens, ‘the outcome of this process is a line of molded plastic – the form depends on the shape of the nozzle.’

In essence, his YouTube channel targets process engineers and process technicians who are looking for different perspectives when it comes to injection molding process development. “I’m hoping to influence their thinking and approach when caught in a troubleshooting tailspin, so I want the content to be easy to digest. Many times these folks are the last line of defense when dealt a less than ideal deck of cards — part design, mold design, equipment capability — and I'm just trying to add to their tool belt to help in those scenarios,” said Birchmeier.

As for his trusty sidekick, Birchmeier touts the authenticity and simplicity the whiteboard brings to his presentations.

often used to create large hollow objects, hakkens developed a rotational molding device similar to those used in the plastic industry, only smaller. the ‘rotational’ machine is built of an old oven which heats the mould inside and can turn 360 degrees.