“Every custom molder thinks he needs a proprietary product,” says John Currier, president and co-owner of the injection molding firm his father founded, Currier Plastics in upstate Auburn, N.Y.
Automation in plastics processing can involve sophisticated, high-tech manufacturing cells specialized for a particular application (see NPE feature this month ). Or it can involve much simpler, off-the-shelf solutions that offer the user flexibility to configure—and reconfigure—an automation system according to the job and plant layout.
Late last month, Friedrichshafen, Germany, hosted Fakuma 2011, the largest European plastics show of the year, growing to be second in size and importance to the K show in Dusseldorf.
Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, Calif., has just made available a new version of its Moldflow Insight software that takes time-consuming meshing and analysis functions off your desktop and performs them at a remote data center accessed via the Internet.
Automation Plastics in Aurora, Ohio (automationplastics.com), is a 32-year-old custom injection molder with 50,500 ft² and 30 presses from 35 to 700 tons.
A large German manufacturer of hoses, cable ducts, and other extruded automotive components recently expanded its activities into the white-goods appliance sector.
Relief for escalating costs of packaging materials and an opportunity to address sustainability goals are two factors that have helped attract global attention to a new physical foaming technology for HIPS packaging.