Show goers will see an electric injection machine in nearly every press maker’s booth this year, and electric/hydraulic hybrids in several.

Commercial applications in hollow-part molding with water—or water and gas—are starting to accelerate. They are driven by recent enhancements of process technology, equipment, and materials.

New approaches to rapid tooling, rapid prototyping, and gas assist were highlights of the SPI Structural Plastics Conference. It also showed off several eye-opening molded parts.