Features
Kal Polymers is growing strong after 25 years
by Canadian PlasticsAs it hits the quarter-century mark, the Mississauga, Ont.-based compounder is heading off into new directions.
DMS executive gets the Red Carpet treatment in Georgia
by Canadian PlasticsMike Hicks, vice president of Windsor, Ont.-based mold component supplier DMS Components, spent a memorable four days as a guest at the invitation-only Red Carpet Tour in April 2017, an event designed to showcase Georgia’s attractiveness for new business investment.
Terry Elliott: 2017 CPIA Leader of the Year
by Canadian PlasticsTerry Elliott has spent over 30 years in Canada’s plastics industry, rising from the chemistry lab to sales and management positions to his current job as president of Scepter, while doing enough volunteer work along the way to fill a second career. In both areas, he’s used his team management techniques and transformational leadership skills to improve organizational health – and the bottom line. But for all his strategizing, he didn’t see the Leader of the Year award coming.
Going the extra miles for Aoki
by Canadian PlasticsJose Penaloza will rack up at least 20 trans-Pacific flights this year as part of his push to increase Japanese injection stretch-blow molding machine maker Aoki’s presence in Canada. That’s a lot of hang time, but it’s beginning to pay off.
Fifty years of Canada’s plastics industry, explained!
by Canadian PlasticsPicking up where an earlier volume left off, a new book chronicles the Canadian plastics industry from 1950 to 2000.
Revere Plastics Systems is reborn in Brampton
by Canadian PlasticsThe Brampton, Ontario plant of this U.S.-based injection molding firm has just embarked on an ambitious four-year growth plan, and has the strategy and the resources to make it happen.
IPL’s cart business keeps on rolling
by Canadian PlasticsThis Quebec-based injection molder exited the auto parts molding business and, led by its production of wheeled carts, is now killing it as one of North America’s leading suppliers of products for the environmental, bulk food, and retail sectors.
VECTOR INJECTION is worth the drive to Acton
by Canadian PlasticsWhen it comes to making small machines, this Ontario-based injection molding and assembly technology supplier has some really big ideas.
Cold Calculations
by Canadian PlasticsIf you think choosing a chilling system comes down to cost, capacity, and performance capabilities, you’re only half right. The resins you’ll be processing give up heat at different rates, which means you’d better be taking them into account, too.
UP IN SMOKE?
by Canadian PlasticsWill Canada’s carbon tax plan hurt the plastics industry’s competitiveness?
Covertech Flexible Packaging: Backward integration into the future
by Canadian PlasticsWhen this Toronto-based extruded film maker purchased a packaging supplier four years ago, it didn’t just change its name; it changed its business. And business is now booming.
TRONOPLAST TECHNOLOGIES has a mandate to innovate
by Canadian PlasticsAs part of its mandate to devote serious resources to R&D, film extrusion technology supplier Tronoplast Technologies Inc. has relocated and expanded.
PATRICK PLASTICS isn’t going it alone
by Canadian PlasticsDoes this Markham, Ont.-based custom injection molder draw strength from belonging to a global electronic manufacturing services company? You bet. But it owes its success to its own hard work and customer service.
Is the drive to meet the 2025 CAFE standard running out of gas?
by Canadian PlasticsAmericans have spoken, and the 54.5 mpg corporate average fuel economy target is off the table. But the Environmental Protection Agency might get the final say.
Say hello to your little friends
by Canadian PlasticsCollaborative robots are inexpensive, versatile, and easy to program. And by working safely alongside human operators, they can revolutionize the way you handle small-batch manufacturing and ever-shortening product cycles.
ARC de TRIUMPH
by Canadian PlasticsFrom aerospace engineering to high finance to plastics packaging is quite the career arc. But when Amir Karim returned to Quebec and joined family-owned Polykar Industries after a successful stint on Wall Street, he didn’t know his best business days were still to come; or that his career trajectory would propel him into the ranks of the elite, as the Canadian Plastics Industry Association’s 2016 Leader of the Year.
The Book on plastics
by Canadian PlasticsWhen it comes to running Peterborough, Ont.-based custom molder G.B. Book Plastics Ltd., the brother/sister team of Bill Book and Cathy Cremers has always been on the same page.
Flexstar Packaging reinvents itself
by Canadian PlasticsRecapitalization, new technology and new hires, a plant expansion, and green initiatives are all part of this Richmond, B.C.-based company’s growth strategy.
ROTATIONAL MOLDING: Big machines, small hassles
by Canadian PlasticsWhat’s it like working in a plastics processing sector where short-run production is the norm and foreign competition is almost nonexistent? Just ask a rotational molder.
3D PRINTING: The multi-material future is here
by Canadian PlasticsMulti-material 3D printers have arrived. But so have challenges to wide-scale adaptation, beginning with the machines’ hefty price tags.