Matthew Naitove Contributing Editor
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A Vision of the (Electric) Future
If you're a skeptic about electric servo drives, the Tokyo plastics show would have made you a believer.
Read MoreLearning to Love the Lab
Your colleagues in the long white lab coats are becoming Most Valuable Players on your manufacturing team.
Read MoreSeeking A New Equilibrium
In the past year, the Society of the Plastics Industry has lost roughly a dozen major resin suppliers to a rival group, the American Plastics Council (APC).
Read MoreWhat Would You Do With Some Extra Cash?
If you suddenly discovered an extra bundle of funds in your purchasing budget, what would you do with it? What would be the first use you would make of an extra $10,000? What about $100,000? Or $1,000,000?
Read MoreNew Materials Rise to the DVD Challenge
DVDs are casting a new light on optical discs--quite literally, since new generations of high-density disc players are expected to use blue-green lasers with shorter wavelengths in order to read the smaller pits of new higher-density data discs.
Read MoreFinally, Some Respect
I don't know if you noticed, but the plastics industry is enjoying a particularly fertile period for innovation in design of mixing screws--single screws, that is.
Read MoreETPU Is a New Choice for Thermoplastic Pultrusion
What suits these resins particularly to TP composites is their unusual ability to depolymerize in the melt phase, followed by very rapid rebuilding of molecular weight as the resin cools.
Read MoreCivil Wars Are Always Tragic
All wars are terribly wasteful, but fratricidal strife may be the saddest waste of all. I hope I'm wrong, but I see worrisome signs of such strife within the plastics industry's trade associations.
Read MoreRotating & Shuttling Molds Speed EPS Molding With Inserts
Expandable polystyrene bead molding equipment has taken on a new look in order to keep up with the need for faster insert molding. Machine builders say insulated concrete forms (ICFs) are one of the fastest growing EPS applications in North America. EPS shapes act as the forms into which concrete building foundations are poured. Plastic inserts act as spacers to hold apart the two sides of the form. After the concrete sets, the wall is now thermally insulated by the EPS, which is held in place by the inserts.
Read MoreHave You Seen Plastics Technology Today?
Are you a news junkie? Want a daily "fix" of news about plastics? If so, we've got your medicine.
Read MoreSmart Manufacturing Means 'Fix It Before It's Broke'
If you want to get the most out of your plant, you need to concentrate on preventing problems, not fixing them once they've occurred. That's the basic concept of "pre-emptive process control," which is the aim of software and hardware options recently introduced for the Source 1.3 CIM system from Hunkar Laboratories Inc., Cincinnati.
Read MoreIt's All Here!
Article TextnThis month, Plastics Technology launches three new database tools on our Web site (www.ptonline.com). Like everything else at our site, they can be used free of charge. We're trying to be your one-stop plastics information source, and I think these newest features, combined with our other well-known products, put us there. And there's more to come.
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