Did you get anything for your molding or extrusion shop for Christmas? No worries if you didn’t — PlasticsToday has your back. Here are some recently introduced time-saving, productivity-enhancing tools that may make your working life a little easier as you segue into 2022.
Image: Alamy/Kenishirotie The PlasticsToday team wishes you and yours a happy, safe, and prosperous 2022. We’ll be back reporting on the news, trends, and technologies that matter to the plastics processing community on Jan. 3. Dec 31, 2021
After a two-year COVID-induced hiatus, the Mold Maker and Mold Designer of the Year awards are back! The Mold Technologies Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) will accept nominations for the 2022 program through Feb. 15 and will present the awards during PT XPO in Rosemont, IL, on March 29 to 31. Nominees do not have to be SPE members but should meet the following criteria: A lasting…
Plastics Technology’s On Site articles, as the name would suggest, are typically based on an in-person tour at a plastics processor. As everything is these days, these articles were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. On Site’s completed in 2020 for publication in early 2021 were reported remotely, including visits with Plastikos, Plastic Molding Technology (PMT) and Trademark Plastics. As vaccination rates climbed, and the virus’ spread seemed to ebb, in-person…
More US resin capacity coming online, new opportunities for recycling, and the ripple effects of the wild ride of 2021 will affect resin prices in the year ahead, experts say. “Resin producers in general learned a very valuable lesson during 2021, which is that the market could tolerate substantially higher resin prices before demand destruction takes the proverbial wind from the sails,” noted Michael Greenberg, CEO of the PlasticsExchange. “All…
Last week, we reported on the completion of Comar’s move to a new building in West Bend, WI, under the headline: “Comar Triples Capacity in Fitting Finale to Year Marked by Growth.” It seems we jumped the gun with that headline — the supplier of custom medical devices and assemblies and specialty packaging wasn’t quite done growing for the year. It announced this week that it has acquired Omega Packaging, a…
It’s that time of year again: When the grizzled (at least in my case) and sometimes grisly (just speaking for myself again) editorial staffers reflect on some cool stuff that happened over the year. Here’s my two cents: Busy, busy, busy: Over the course of the year, I don’t think I’ve spoken to one company—supplier or processor alike—that wasn’t busier than ever. Many equipment suppliers—both primary and auxiliary—are categorizing 2021…
Comar announced Dec. 28 that it has purchased Omega Packaging, a La Mirada, Calif.-based injection and blow molder that serves the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, sports nutrition and skin care markets.
An engineering firm in Singapore has developed a knee brace that is 30% lighter than conventional metal versions without a loss in robustness thanks to a design that uses plastic and assistive springs. The X-Brace was placed on the market this month. Based on a prototype assistive orthopedic brace 3D-printed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), the X-Brace resembles the knee brace used by Batman in The Dark Knight…
The spot resin market was somewhat quiet in the holiday-shortened week heading into Christmas, and overall spot prime pricing was flat to as much as $0.05/lb lower, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. Just one week earlier, very active trading was prompted by several waves of railcar offers canvasing most commodity polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) grades. The material was aggressively priced at steeply discounted levels and made available…