What's Different About This NPE

Several new attractions will set this year’s Big Show apart from previous events: --Make room for rubber: For the first time, the plastics show will have a TPE/Rubber Pavilion, co-sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) and the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA). It will highlight both TPEs and thermoset rubbers. --Molds, molds molds: Another first for NPE will be the North American Moldmakers Pavilion, sponsored by SPI’s Moldmakers Div., the American Mold Builders Assoc. (AMBA), and the Canadian Association of Moldmakers (CAMM). Thirty to 40 companies are expected to participate. There will be hundreds of other tooling-related exhibits elsewhere in the show. --Leading edge: Also first for NPE is the New Technology Pavilion highlighting four technologies expected to have broad implications for the future of plastics: nanotechnology, bioplastics (see p. 9), energy efficiency, and recycling. SPI will also host its second International Degradable Plastics Symposium immediately before NPE (June 14-17) in Chicago. (Contact Nancy Jones at SPI, 202-974-5267.) And Executive Conference Management will present the Nanocomposites 2006 conference in Chicago on June 18-19 (734-737-0507). --Do it in the mold: Ask a panel of experts about another leading-edge topic over lunch at the show. Plastics Technology will sponsor a Q&A session on in-mold technologies—decorating, labeling, finishing, and assembly—on Wed., June 21 from noon to 1:30. Admission is free. --A touch of Disney: See a fully automated manufacturing cell mold, assemble, and label an eight-piece toy robot, similar to the way it is produced for crowds of children and parents at the Fantastic Plastics Works exhibit at Innoventions at Epcot in Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. It’s running in booth N-4401.