Blog Posts by James Callari : Plastics Technology

MMT Recognizes Moldmaking Innovators at Amerimold

By: James Callari 5. June 2013

MoldMaking Technology Magazine, a sister publication to Plastics Technology, will recognize two cutting edge moldmakers with its Leadtime Leader Award at the upcoming AmeriMold Show, June 12-13, Rosemont, Ill.

“Through this year’s Awards—presented by MMT and Progressive Components—we honor two outstanding mold manufacturers who demonstrate excellence in overall innovation, efficiency, quality and commitment,” states Christina Fuges, MMT’s editorial director.

Both companies excel in tight-tolerance, highly complex molds, use innovation to differentiate themselves, commit to acquiring current technology, focus on customer service and view employees as the key to success.

There is much behind the success of this year’s winner, but it began with one man. In 1972, Bill Kushmaul started Tech Mold, Tempe, Ariz., with a Bridgeport, a grinder and a few basic hand tools. By the early 1980s, Tech Mold was building molds for some leading, up-and-coming industries, who then depended upon Tech Mold to engineer and manufacture innovative, high-volume molds. To remain successful Tech Mold needed to be flexible, and so when offshoring began Tech Mold found new customers in new markets, which landed the company as a leader with Fortune 100 companies in medical disposables, consumer products and packaging. Next Tech Mold began to heavily invest and integrate engineering and manufacturing technologies, but a major challenge became the “business” of moldmaking.

Kushmaul explains, “Most of us who started these companies many years ago had minimal business skills, so making the transition from a technical person to a business person wasn’t easy. We had to fight our way through and hire the right people to do what we couldn’t. I learned to trust people with their jobs, yet have systems in place to verify the results.”

MMT’s 2013 Honorable Mention shop was founded by a dynamic duo. Tim Katen and Dave Mead started Micro Mold Company, Inc., Erie, Pa., in November 1978 with a focus on manufacturing technically demanding, high quality plastic injection molds. They both poured their life savings into the business and officially launched the company in a 1,400-ft², rented garage. Initially the company could not afford heat or a phone line, and was hit by the 1980s recession and sky-high interest rates. However, they stayed committed to excellence in service, advanced engineering and conservative fiscal management, which allowed the shop to grow and make a name for itself.

Then came more employees and advanced machining equipment; sampling services and initial production requests resulting in the purchase of an injection molding machine that launched sister company, Plastikos in 1989. When offshoring began, Micro Mold honed in on the medical and electronic connector industries to survive. In 2009, Tim and Dave retired and passed the reins to second-generation owners, Ryan and Philip Katen, and Rob Cooney, who pushed the company pursue new technologies and industries.

Don’t forget this year’s winner and honorable mention will be honored at an Awards Ceremony at the amerimold Expo in Rosemont, IL, on Wednesday, June 12th at 5:00pm. You can also visit Tech Mold at Booth # 728 and Micro Mold at Booth # 130. Be sure to register today to be a part of this industry event and celebrate these Award recipients

Clock’s Ticking…But You Can Still Register for amerimold2013

By: James Callari 23. May 2013

The premier North American event for moldmaking will be held June 12-13, 2013, Donald E. Stephens Center, in Rosemont, Ill. Click here to get a free exhibit hall pass and a 25% discount (type in PT in the promo code box) for a conference registration for amerimold 2013, the yearly exhibition and conference presented by Gardner Business Media and three of its publications: Modern Machine Shop, Plastics Technology and, of course, Moldmaking Technology.

This year’s technical conference program is comprised of three tracks, each sponsored by an professional association or consultancy. Each takes a critical look at product, application and business management issues related to a primary part of the plastic injection mold lifecycle.

Engineer: Sponsored by the Society of Plastics Engineers, Moldmaking & Mold Design Division (SPE MMDD).

Build: Sponsored by the Tooling & Manufacturing Association (TMA).

Maintain: Sponsored by ToolingDocs.

New this year, the amerimold showfloor will include two Knowledge Centers featuring technical presentations from applications experts at exhibiting companies. These presentations will focus on process innovations and new product technologies being displayed at the show.

Also, join MoldMaking Technology for the unveiling of this year’s “Top 10 Reasons to be a Moldmaker”. After the presentation, walk across the aisle to Booth #147 to pick-up this year’s “Top 10” t-shirt.

What: “Top 10 Reasons to be a Moldmaker” Announcement and T-Shirt Giveaway
When: Wednesday, June 12^th – Noon
Where: Knowledge Center – North (End of 100 aisle) / Booth 147

LEADTIME LEADER AWARDS

Presented by: MoldMaking Technology

Reshoring Hub-Bub

By: James Callari 16. May 2013

Is reshoring fact or fiction? Morgan Stanley thinks the latter, so stipulated in a 125-page report titled U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance: Is It A Masterpiece Or A Fake? Basically the global financial firm says there is no data supporting claims that manufacturing is coming back to the U.S., calling any stories that suggest otherwise anecdotal.

But Harry Moser of the Reshoring Initiative is undaunted. Offshoring is indeed still occurring, the former machine tool executive agrees, but according to his group’s numbers, some 50,000 manufacturing jobs had been reshored in the time period from January 2010 through about July 2012, representing about 10% of manufacturing’s overall job growth. “The annual amounts are not large enough to be visible in national data.” Moser states. “The rate is still absolutely moderate, probably about as large as large as the annual incremental offshoring, but it is dramatically higher than 4 or 5 years ago,” he adds.

Taking a longer-term view, Moser points out that offshoring took 60 years to unfold with the help of many consultants and has resulted in a net loss of about 3 million manufacturing jobs. “Reshoring, conversely, has been underway for about 3-4 years and consultants are just starting to get onboard,” he states. “The $500 billion+ trade deficit will eventually come down because our trading partners will stop shipping goods for worthless dollars. The question is whether the deficit comes down now gradually as companies recognize total cost and improve productivity or later dramatically when the dollar collapses. I prefer the former.”

Moser adds: “The key for faster reshoring is for companies to reevaluate their offshoring decisions using something like our Total Cost of Ownership Estimator, see that the true cost gap is gone in some cases and small in others, apply lean, automation, training, etc. to close the remaining gaps as costs continue to rise offshore. Given the difficulty of achieving cultural change, that process will only accelerate now if the media consistently reports on the reshoring successes. Companies followed each other like lemmings offshore. My job…is to shine a light on the cases that will motivate the herd to reevaluate and the tools that will help them decide to come home.”

Top 10 Troubleshooting Tips

By: James Callari 29. April 2013

I usually don't venture into the realm of "technical" in this space. I leave that up to my fellow blogger Tim Womer. But well-known extrusion gurus Greg Campbell and Mark Spalding announced at ANTEC last week the publication of their 800-page book, Analyzing and Troubleshooting Single-Screw Extruders. Six years in the works, the book is chock full of processing advice and should be on the shelves of anyone involved in the extrusion business.

I do like Top 10 lists, however. Click here for a quick summary of what the two authors have identified as the Top Ten list of troubleshooting tips, posted originally on the SPE's Extrusion Division website.

Click here for information on how to order the book.

PPA Adds Three New Members

By: James Callari 11. March 2013

The Plastics Pioneers Association this month announced that three new members have been selected to join the organization.

Founded in 1944, the PPA is a non-profit organization with a roster of more than 250 members, all of whom have at least 25 years of experience in plastics. The group’s primary purpose is to award scholarships to students seeking a career in plastics and to preserve the history of the industry. Plastics Technology Executive Editor Matthew Naitove as well as yours truly are among the members, as is Rick Kline, CEO of Gardner Business Media, parent compant of PT.

The new inductees are:

Dennis Paradise: Paradise has been in plastics machinery sales since 1986, when he joined McNeil Akron as sales manager. Since then he has worked in a variety of sales positions for Krupp Machinery, HPM, Dynisco, and Extrusion Dies Inc.

Dennis is currently senior vice president of sales and marketing for Processing Technologies Inc., a global supplier of sheet extrusion systems based in Aurora, Ill. During his career Paradise has served on the regional advisory board of the SPI and has presented papers at numerous conferences around the world. He is also a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers. Dennis graduated from Kent State University in 1976 with a BS in business administration.

John Perdikoulias: Perdikoulias joined the plastics industry in 1985, when he went to work for Brampton Engineering as an R&D engineer. In his 12-year stint at Brampton he designed more than 200 single-layer and more than 100 coextrusion dies for blown film. One of the more significant products that Perdikoulias helped commercialize is Brampton’s stacked-type die, called the Streamlined Coextrusion Die. His work ultimately lead to the sale of the first commercial 8- and 9-layer dies in the world, which have helped make Brampton a global leader in coextrusion blown film extrusion systems.

Perdikoulias co-founded Compuplast in 1989, where he currently serves a president. At Compuplast, Perdikoulias has developed some of the most advanced CAE tools that more than 200 companies around the world use for the design and optimization of polymer processing equipment.

Perdikoulias earned both his bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in chemical engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He received his PhD in chemical engineering in 1997 from the University of Waterloo.

Perdikoulias has been an active member of both the SPE and TAPPI for virtually his entire career.

In 1997, he received the best paper award for his presentation at ANTEC. He also received the TAPPI PLACE Technical Achievement Award and Best Paper award in 2004. He also recently received designation as an Honored Service Member of SPE.

Mark Spalding has spent his entire 28-year career working in R&D for Dow Plastics. Over that span he has held a number of technical positions in corporate R&D, polystyrene R&D, plastics R&D, and INCLOSIA Solutions.

Spalding is widely considered an expert in single-screw extrusion and related polymer processing technologies. He has solved some of the most complicated extrusion problems at Dow customer’s plants by developing and applying sophisticated troubleshooting methods. These solutions have created considerable value to both Dow and to Dow’s customers. Mark has designed extrusion systems for most of Dow’s major customers for virtually every resin that Dow produces.

Spalding has been involved with the SPE throughout his career. He has served as technical program chairman for SPE’s ANTEC Conference in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013. He served on the SPE’s Fellows Selection Committee in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2013. He has been a board member of the SPE’s Extrusion Division since 1999, having served as chairman in 2004-2005. He is also a member of the Polymer Processing Society.

He was elected an Honored Service Member SPE in 2011, and a Fellow Member in 2003. He also received the Bruce Maddock Award from the Extrusion Division in 2006 and six times received the Best Paper Award at ANTEC.

Spalding completed a book to be published by Hanser in April 2013 titled Analysis and Troubleshooting of Single-Screw Extruders. The book is 700 pages; the first half provides the fundamental theory of extrusion based on screw rotation physics, the second half contains nearly 100 actual case studies on extrusion problems and their technical solutions. Prof. Gregory A Campbell is coauthor.

He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Toledo in 1979, his M.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1982; and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1985.

Paradise, Perdikoulias and Spalding will be inducted at the PPA’s spring meeting, scheduled for April 11-13 at the Omni Hotel on Hilton Head Island. S.C.

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MMT Recognizes Moldmaking Innovators at Amerimold

Clock’s Ticking…But You Can Still Register for amerimold2013

Reshoring Hub-Bub

Top 10 Troubleshooting Tips

PPA Adds Three New Members

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