Features
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…
Exxel Polymers: sous le signe du succes/Under the sign of success*
by Canadian PlasticsSi la route qui mène au succès est souvent parsemée de difficultés, elle est ussi faite de moments charnières au cœur desquels les décisions prises par les dirigeants sont déterminantes….
Big order marks a big year for W. Amsler Equipment
by Canadian PlasticsThe Beatles sang “It was 20 years ago today” back in the 60s, turning 20th anniversaries into big deals ever since.
A closer look at CPIA Leader of the Year MARK DANIELS
by Canadian PlasticsGiven such monumental screw-ups as the City of Toronto’s infamous flirtation with a plastic bag ban last year, we Canadians could be forgiven for thinking of these bans as our own unique problem, like snowstorms in May. Far from it….
Athena Automation keeps on building
by Canadian PlasticsProcessing machinery maker Athena Automation Ltd. is putting down some deep roots.
Charged and ready: Engineering resins for electric and hybrid vehicles
by Canadian PlasticsAs any blackjack player could tell you, doubling down involves a big risk. But it’s one thing to chance it at the local casino for half a day’s pay, quite another when careers, reputations, and hundreds of millions of dollars are on…
PolyCello’s extended family success story
by Canadian PlasticsRepeated selection as one Canada’s “Best Managed Companies” doesn’t happen simply by maintaining best business practices. If it did, probably every third firm in the country would get the nod. Instead, it takes more…
The rise of 3D printing
by Canadian PlasticsSometimes layering can take a long time — as in millions of years. Take rocks. They’re stacked in layers containing fossils, with the oldest fossils at the deepest layers and the most recent near the top. For scientists and…
R&M Plastic Products beats the third-generation curse
by Canadian PlasticsSome family businesses just don’t work. Fans of The Godfather trilogy, for example, may recall the brothers in the Corleone mob clan winding up as how-to guides for dysfunction. And it’s not like you couldn’t find a gazillion…
K 2013 WRAP UP: OTHER COOL STUFF
by Canadian PlasticsNew additive manufacturing machine