Features
Power Failure!
by Canadian PlasticsRising electricity prices, courtesy of Canada’s most ambitious green energy plan, are threatening to turn out the lights on Ontario’s plastics processors.
INTEX TOOLING TECHNOLOGIES is cutting into the market
by Canadian Plastics Coming out of the Great Recession, Canada’s manufacturing sector looked like scorched earth after a massive forest fire. But scorched earth sometimes encourages new growth. In post-recession Southern Ontario, one group of entrepreneurs surveyed the landscape and saw opportunity.…
Much ado about fracking
by Canadian PlasticsHydraulic fracturing can open vast stores of cheap natural gas, to the benefit of North America’s chemical and plastics industry. The weird part is that, after more than 60 years, the process has suddenly become a lightning rod for controversy, and even outright bans. Here’s why.
Universal Gravo-Plast is getting a reboot
by Canadian PlasticsNew ownership is reinventing a familiar fixture of Canada’s plastics processing scene.
Ontario extruder cuts into the market for wood railroad ties
by Canadian Plastics Just because something grows on trees doesn’t make it inexhaustible. Take wood. It doesn’t just grow on trees, it is the tree. But people still want to use less of it if possible. A prime example is wooden railroad…
The energy-efficient chemical supplier (and how to become one)
by Canadian PlasticsEnergy costs are on the rise in Ontario, and chemical manufacturers are huge consumers. So now is definitely the time to get serious about finding new and efficient ways of using your electricity. The good news? There’s a wealth of experts and incentive programs at hand to help you along.
CAVALIER TOOL & MANUFACTURING is sticking to the basics
by Canadian Plastics We’ve all heard it from time to time — “So-and-so was born to do this job”. Unless you’re talking about Prince Charles, however, odds are it’s just a throwaway line. But with Brian Bendig, the president of Windsor, Ont.-based…
Polymer device could save the limbs of injured soldiers
by Canadian Plastics In what might be the best military news since the United States Navy SEALS tracked down bin Laden, soldiers wounded by gunshots and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) may soon be treated with a polymer-based medical device that can literally…
Overcoming common MEDICAL TUBING problems
by Canadian Plastics Close might be good enough when tossing a hand grenade, but it won’t cut it in critical applications like medical tubing. Which is why medical extruders can’t afford to overlook even the smallest process flaw. And there’s a host…
Canada’s first family of blown film is back with Cyber Plastic Machinery
by Canadian PlasticsFounders of equipment maker Future Design have returned to the industry.
Lessons from Portugal’s improved moldmaking industry
by Canadian Plastics Go back 30 years and many of Canada’s moldmakers and plastics processors probably had at least one or two Portuguese companies as go-to contacts on their rolodexes. With a centuries-old glass making tradition that crossed naturally over into creating…
New era begins for an Oldcastle tool shop
by Canadian Plastics Sean O’Neil, president of Cutting-Edge Technologies Ltd., on the shop floor. The company will be undergoing a US$10 million expansion and hiring spree due to a partnership with an American-based company. (Photo Credit: DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star) What with…
ACCORDING TO JIM: Talking with the CPIA Leader of the Year
by Canadian Plastics Never underestimate the power of a good teacher. Socrates taught Plato, and that turned out all right. Twenty-five hundred-odd years later, the role of teacher is one that Jim Ellies is happy to take on. A 35-year veteran of…
Wearable machine sensors head off equipment failure
by Canadian Plastics As Bill Clinton could tell you, being tipped off to a problem before it happens can mean the difference between life and death. In 2004, doctors of the former U.S. president saved him from a looming — and possibly…
RESHORING: MYTH OR REALITY?
by Canadian Plastics Popular ideas can be hard to resist. Brian Burke convinced a lot of people that Phil Kessel would turn the Toronto Maple Leafs around, for example. Speaking of things turning around, another popular narrative involves reshoring. According to many,…
Que.-based foam product maker POLYFORM is branching out
by Canadian Plastics More and more, it feels like it’s a polystyrene foam world and we just live in it. From insulating concrete in homes to beer koozies by the pool, expanded polystyrene (EPS) and expanded polypropylene (EPP) are everywhere. Including landfills,…
Here comes the 3D-printed car
by Canadian Plastics Sci-fi film buffs might remember a late-80s movie called The Fly, in which a scientist develops a machine that instantaneously transfers matter from one location to another through space. “It will change the world as we know it,” he…
Design a BETTER INJECTION MOLDED PART
by Canadian Plastics Think it’s tough putting together a decent jacket-shirt-tie combo in the morning? Try mastering the complexities of designing an injection molded appearance part for production runs in the hundreds of thousands. It’s as difficult as it sounds. “Small details…
The latest ANTIMICROBIALS for plastics
by Canadian PlasticsMicrobes may be nothing more than tiny single-celled organisms, but they’re harder to kill than Rasputin. They’re resilient enough, in fact, that scientists have revived them from fossils more than 250 million years old. They also…
New APMA head talks industry strengths, challenges
by Canadian Plastics Canadian automotive parts makers are fully capable of competing globally, but it’s still crucial to retain Canada’s existing auto assembly plants, according to Flavio Volpe, the new president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA). It all adds up…