PT Blog

Standing behind the SmartServices platform is Conair’s own team of process and service engineers. For instance, a 24/7 Instant Access Hotline makes part replacement or service just a call away. If on-site assistance is needed, Conair’s team of field service professionals includes almost 40 members.

The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) has developed a highly-visual fact sheet on the life cycle advantages of flexible packaging. The fact sheet is based on the recent report “A Holistic View of the Role of Flexible Packaging in a Sustainable World” prepared for FPA by Todd Bukowski and Michael Richmond, of business and technology management company PTIS, LLC.

The new report details the preferable environmental attributes of flexible packaging for six different package formats, and the industry’s efforts to address end-of-life challenges. The six package formats evaluated are: single-serve juice, coffee, baby food, laundry detergent, and motor oil.

If you were looking for hopeful signs on machine-building lead times, there was an update on multiple facilities expansions and upgrades, as well as numerous factory tours. If you wanted to learn more about Industry 4.0, the future of “smart factories,” advanced controls for “smart machines,” and new kinds of “smart services,” there were speakers and Expert Corners galore. And if you just wanted to see some of the newest developments in injection machines, robots, and auxiliary equipment, 14 operating work cells were staffed by knowledgeable personnel.

All that was enough to attract 1400 guests from 48 countries to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the creation of Wittmann Battenfeld through the acquisition of the venerable Battenfeld injection machinery business by Wittmann, back then a supplier only of auxiliary equipment.

There are just a few days left to save $100 by taking advantage of the “early bird” registration fee for Plastics Technology’s fourth ever Extrusion 2018 Conference.

The Extrusion 2018 Conference is going to be held Sept. 18-20 at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland. It’s our first Extrusion Conference in Cleveland, following three successful events in Charlotte. The entire agenda has been finalized, and you can find it and all other relevant details about the event on the website.

My first reaction to the announcement of Berry Global Group’s third-quarter fiscal 2018 results was: Wow. Berry did have a good quarter: net sales up 9% to $2.1 billion, operating income up 2% to $216 million, and so on. But what really caught my eye was the statement that the company’s board unanimously approved a new $500 million share repurchase program.

I know there are some really big plastics processing companies today—Nypro, Amcor, Bemis, to name a few (and the last two just agreed to merge!). But the recognition that a company that does plastics molding and extrusion would spend half a billion dollars just for stock buybacks makes it even more vivid: Plastics processors (they used to be called “fabricators” or “converters”) have hit the big time.