Features
Quebec’s Precimold is finding its own way forward
by Canadian PlasticsThe mid-1960s was a long time ago, and you don’t last from then until now without reinventing yourself along the way.
Winnipeg’s COLOR AD PACKAGING finds its sweet spot
by Canadian PlasticsFor any hockey fans working at Winnipeg-based flexible packaging manufacturer Color Ad Packaging Ltd., these are salad days. First, you’ve got the Jets back. Second, Color Ad’s business is booming.
DRYERS: The Necessary Nine
by Mark Stephen, editorWhen it comes to drying polymers, figuring out the “why” is easy: to control viscosity and ensure maximum performance. It’s the “how” that can keep you up at night. Resin drying — especially involving…
Some Assembly Required: Chiller installation made semi-easy
by Mark Stephen, editorInstallation can be everything. That surround sound home theatre system in your man cave will sound worse than a two-cans-and-a-string telephone if it hasn’t been put in properly. Ditto chillers. Whether portable or central, the most…
Setting a Baseline
by Mark Stephen, editorTaking measurements to establish baseline data for an extruder system sounds pretty dull. Dull, but important. Simply put, when a new single screw or twin screw extruder is installed, or a new screw mounted in an existing machine, it’s…
Medical Marvels
by Mark Stephen, editorFor plastics processors, there may be no such thing as a recession-proof sector — but medical parts molding comes damn close. At the very least, the medical molding business is less susceptible to economic swings than most other…
Brace yourself for custom, 3D-printed casts
by Canadian PlasticsIf you’ve ever had a fractured limb, you know how unpleasant a cast can be. They’re bulky and uncomfortable — not to mention a blank canvas for embarrassing sketches by family and friends. But a Toronto start-up is using 3D…
Extruders Clean Up
by Mark Stephen, editorWe’ve all heard the old myth that an apple falling onto his noggin inspired Sir Isaac Newton to start thinking about gravity. A more recent myth holds that commercial purging compounds (CPCs) are for injection molding machines only. While…
B&C Plastics: Highlighting competitiveness with the right ERP solution
by Mark Stephen, editorThere’s nothing wrong with writing things down on paper by hand — it’s how Shakespeare and America’s Founding Fathers did it, among others. But let’s face it: it’s no way to run a business in the Internet Age.
Avoiding Unforced Errors in Size Reduction
by Mark Stephen, editorWhether you’re on the golf course or in a plastics processing plant, it’s never fun to wind up in a trap. In the first scenario, you probably risk bogey or worse. In the second, it’s even grimmer: wasting time and material,…
What Do They REALLY Think?
by Mark Stephen, editorFor the past few years, the Canadian Plastics injection molders’ surveys have read more like Stephen King horror stories than anything else, charting an industry in freefall and reflecting everything from declining utilization rates to…
Pipeline to the Facts
by Canadian PlasticsThis time last year, we opened our fifth Extrusion Benchmark Survey by noting that the worst of the worst recession in living memory was behind us. Twelve months later, we’re fairly certain it’s true. But what do some of…
In-Mold Assembly: All Together Now
by Mark Stephen, editorIf the manufacturing sector learned one thing from the Great Recession it might be this: get more efficient, fast. In multi-component injection molding, efficiency means eliminating secondary operations by assembling separate components in the…
Uncertainty Across the Board
by Mark Stephen, editorIt’s a strange time for plastics processors. Two years ago, you had the materials and not the orders; now, you have the orders but can’t always get the materials to fill them. And what the heck is going on with the U.S. and European…
Making a Mark with Liquid Colorant
by Mark Stephen, editorAny plastics processor out there who doesn’t want to gain a competitive advantage, raise your hand. Nobody, right? Well, interest in one potential advantage is on the rise: A growing number of molders are considering liquid colorants as a…
Gate Crashers
by Mark Stephen, editorFact: Valve gating has become the preferred method of gating for precision molders, offering a more stable injection process without stringing and drooling of the melt. And these are particularly interesting times for valves gates: two themes…
Four-Warned
by Mark Stephen, editorThe survey, consisting of 33 questions, was emailed in August 2012 to approximately 160 moldmakers across Canada in the Canadian Plastics database, as well as to members of the Canadian Association of Mold Makers (CAMM). We received 23…
Building (or rebuilding) A Better Materials Handling System
by Mark Stephen, editorJust like that killer double-breasted suit probably does with your wardrobe, materials represent your single largest expense as a plastics processor. You didn’t sew the suit yourself just to save a few bucks, so why scrimp on having a…
Taking a fresh look at LIQUID COLORANTS
by Canadian PlasticsAll plastics processors out there who don’t want to gain a competitive advantage, raise your hands. Nobody, right? Well, interest in one such solution is spiking right now: a growing number of processors are considering liquid colorants…
Driving into China
by Mark Stephen, editorIn a famous scene from the classic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman convinces Robert Redford to pull up stakes for Bolivia by telling him, “If we were in business during the California gold rush, we’d have…