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December 09, 2012

Molding 2013-Dec.15, 2012 Last Day for Registration Discount

Just a quick note about Molding 2013 being held in New Orleans from January 21-23

Molding 2013

Vital Technologies for Business Success in a Changing Global Market

The last day for discount registration is Dec 15th, so if you're going, get registered this week. Sounds like it is going to be very worthwhile, and they do know where to hold conferences! :-)

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The 23rd International Conference & Exhibit MOLDING 2013 will focus on important innovations in manufacturing technologies of consumers and industrial products. Industry leaders will present the latest developments in various injection molding processes, hardware and controls with special emphasis on adding value to your business.

Important Note: The conference agenda is organized by a volunteer committee of all branches of the industry's molders, moldmakers, materials suppliers, and the trade press. Thus, the program focuses on what molders want to know more about; sales and promotional presentations are excluded. These conferences are widely recognized as a most important forum for technical information and business connections.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

REDUCING COSTS: Saving energy; Minimizing waste; Recycling scrap; lean initiatives

ADDING VALUE: Robotics; Automation; Multi-Component; In-Mold Assembly; In-Mold Decoration / In-Mold Labeling; Integrated Manufacturing

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS: Developing Proprietary products; Entering new markets; M&A; Attracting & developing new talent

MEDICAL MOLDING: Machines; Processes; Specialty materials; Clean Room Operations; Regulatory Issues

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

 (Note Plastics.com is a Molding 2013 Sponsor)

July 09, 2012

Plasticity Rio '12

(OK it's been a while, so shoot me :-)   )

Again on plastics and the environment, my favorite blogging topic.  The UN conference Rio+20 Earth Summit just completed in, well.. Rio.  They held many side events, one of which was directly related to plastics and was called Plasticity Rio '12.

Plasticity-rio-2012-398x141-logo
A few important things to note.  Here, the world's leading environmentalists are discussing plastics issues and from our industry you barely hear a whisper of it. Too bad.
Now I'm in an odd place finding myself agreeing with many points made. Anyone who has read my blogs knows I love to poke fun at ignorant environmentalists who take the simplistic attitude of 'plastics are evil'.  There's almost no one I enjoy tweaking than those folks.

On the other hand, I am an environmentalist. There... I said it.  I even have the credentials:
- Working in recycling industrial waste plastics to value added materials as a consultant (diverting landfill scrap to something useful).
- Was one of the original founders of the SPE Environmental Division (Recycling Div at the time)
- Owned a compounding company producing engineering plastics alloys from scrap feedstocks (Example; PET bottle scrap with Polycarbonate CD scrap into high end alloy sold to Bailey Mfg for auto bumpers)
- Have a recycling technology patent for bonding scrap tire rubber into plastics blends, successfully commercialized, and named a top ten new material by Design News. (Example; Replaced virgin PVC on Rubbermaid step stool non-skid covers with a blend of 40% scrap rubber, 20% scrap milk bottle HDPE and 40% scrap eva from bottle cap liners.)
- Spoken worldwide about scrap polymer environmental issues.

I'm not happy with industry talking heads who never met a plastic they didn't like. We're not industry spokespeople, we get to say what we belive. But I HATE ignorant environmentalists who just say plastics are evil!

Why? Mainly because our ubiquitous plastics are simply irreplaceable as a material in general. Of course there are many BAD plastics applications that are wasteful and bad for the environment, but I think for every bad one, there are hundreds of plastics applications that have no better environmental alternative.

As an example, the entire global warming debate. I read that humanity has modified something like 30 or 40% of the land's surface into farms, cattle land, etc. adversely affecting global climate.  Now if global climate concern is an issue of yours, then you should be supporting the vast majority of plastics usage, because the alternative would simply probably double that number.

Imagine a world without plastics. A lot of environmentalists try to, but the ones I've read ALL get it wrong.
- Imagine if there were NO plastics in clothes or shoes. What would people wear. Leather and cotton derived products!
- Imagine no plastics for manufacturing. What would be the replacements? Mainly wood (there go the trees!) and metal. Less efficient manufacturing and heavier products means more manufacturing pollution, more shipping pollution!

Virtually everything now made in plastic faces serious environmental consequences if switched to a alternative IF it was done on a worldwide scale.

I'm just touching on the tip of the iceberg here.

Now there ARE reasonable environmentalists, but they can be hard to find! :-)  But I met one over the phone recently which bring me back to Plasticity Rio '12.

Doug Woodring, of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, www.oceanrecov.org, is one such reasonable environmentalist in my book. Deemed so by one simply quote of his from Rio that started with "Plastic is great for many uses..."  That alone makes Doug alright in my book.

Doug is one of the founders of Plasticity Rio '12, which Plastics.com intended to sponsor but sadly late timing and technical difficulties prevented it. Plasticity strove to bring industry and concerned environmentalists togther to discuss solutions to many of our industry's problems. No blind hate, no 'just get rid of it, no "it's evil", just here are the problems, what can we do?  I really like it!

So hat's off to Doug and Plasticity Rio '12 for their worthwhile work on all our behalfs. I'm not sure what the future is for Plasticity as it was tied to that one event, but I'll be contacting Doug and I hope it continues into the future.  If it does Plastics.com will be there supporting them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 25, 2011

Plast-Ex Canada Trade Show Report by Formech Inc.

Nic Neath of our partner, Formech Inc., is reporting from Plast-Ex in Toronto, Canada where his company is exhibiting the latest in thermoforming (vacuum-forming) equipment.

His report is encouraging for the industry in general as he reports a lot of traffic, a lot of interest.

Nic's Comments from his 'Day Two' notes...

- plenty of trade thermoformers

- loads of people that are into injection molding. They are always surprised by the low cost of our machines and tooling. Some even considered Formech for their single cavity molds.

- a lot of the show goers where from Canada but there were also a lot people from the Mid-west. Plenty of traffic from the Canadian and Michigan auto industry.

This photo shows the increased amount of people.
Plast-ex-people-2011

This next photo is a pic of our 508FS demonstrating its unique 'pre-stretch' ability.

Formech-508fs-plast-ex-2011

FYI - They expected about 5,000 attendees per day, there were 723 booths available and 687 of them were rented. Just to give you an idea of volume.

Thanks for the update Nic!  Should anyone want to get in touch with Formech, here is there contact info:

Nic Neath
Formech Inc.
Head of North American Sales
773.656.2757 - direct
312.396.4072 - office
312.396.4073 - fax
[email protected]

www.formechinc.com

 

 

March 10, 2011

Welcome Blackwell Plastics to the blogs.plastics.com family

Blackwell Plastics partners with OEM manufacturers and sub-tier suppliers in South Texas including Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi to provide plastic injection molding and plastic extrusion of engineering grade resins that satisfy demanding industrial applications. Blackwell Plastics supports plastic injection molding and plastic extrusion projects from design to fulfillment.

Webpage-206x389-3-10-201 Blackwell's engineers are now blogging on plastics.com. You can find them at plastics.com/bwp

Their project engineers provide assistance in product design, material selection and tooling. Blackwell Plastics has full service in house plastic injection mold and plastic extrusion die building capabilities. Injection molding and extrusion are supported by an extensive secondary operations group that provides plastics machining, welding, heat staking, inserts and mechanical assembly.

Blackwell Plastics supports customers through Kan Ban and managed inventory service, since 1939 in Houston Texas. Blackwell Plastics Operations follows the guidelines of ISO 9001 2008.

Welcome aboard! Looking forward to your posts.

Would you like to blog here as well? Just drop a note to [email protected] telling us who you are and what you'd like to blog about.

 

January 24, 2011

Are directory submissions (like buyersguide.plastics.com) of value?

Morning,

Today I'm mentioning the value, or effectiveness, of directory submissions to a sites google rankings.

Some SEO'ers (especially those that are selling stuff) will tell you submissions are no longer valuable, you should just use (insert SEO tool or service here).

It's bull. Now lets bring this to relevance to the plastics industry.

The directories we are discussing are business directories where one can go in and submit their web site to be included in that directory.

Examples of such directories include:

  • http://buyersguide.plastics.com
  • http://www.polymerdirectory.com/
  • http://www.plasticsnewsdirectory.com/

and so on...

The question is, "If I take the time to enter myself in relevant directories, will it do me any good regarding search engine optimization (SEO) for my site, www.acme-molders.com?"

Some experts, as mentioned above, say don't bother. They couldn't be more wrong. First, most relevant directory sites will have MUCH high google rank relative to plastics terms than your site and that link back to your site is probably worth dozens or hundreds of links from weaker sites like your own.

Pdc-directory-206x488Link rank by google is among the highest parts of the google algorithm, and directories ARE including in that ranking.  There is likely no more valuable SEO you can do. By value, I mean what you're getting in SEO versus the minimal time it takes to do it yourselves.  This is something any junior staffer can be trained to do.  No software to purchase, no experts to source out to. One of our SEO staffers read this SEO blog and brought this to my attention:

Is This Proof Directory Submission Still Works?

In it he discusses how even SPAM words/links entered into some generic directory and being registered and ranked highly on google as of now.  And if SPAM is ranking highly, than certainly relevant words/links will rank even higher.

So again, the relevance of this to plastics companies is this: Enter your site into well known directories relevant to plastics and YOUR site's google rankings will increase. That simple!

And, as mentioned above, plastics.com has such a directory and provides free links to industry businesses, and even has a program where you can get a premium link at no-charge!

So, if you care at all about your google traffic,  get out there and start linking your site as much as you can!

 

 

 

 

January 12, 2011

Free Plastics.com Buyers Guide Entry & Link Building

Hi all,

Today I want to remind folks that plastics.com has a buyers guide that allows for a free listing. Our membership includes over 5,000 members ID'ed as purchasing agent. The guide is located at buyersguide.plastics.com  

Now, in addition to us here simply wanting our directory to be very full, there is a reason that EVERY PLASTICS FIRM in the world should WANT to be listed here. That reason? Link Building!

As google's search engine algorithm has evolved over the years, mainly in trying to subvert black hat seo-ers, google has become much more sophisticated in the details of what will rank your site highly.

One of the MOST important factors now is;

  • how many external links from other sites point to your site?
  • how relevant and trusted are those sites?

 

At first, you could simply load up on junk links from anyone, and that worked. No longer. Now, it HAS to be a relevent site or you actually can get your rankings punished, if you link to many non-relevent sites or to sites google knows as link farms or any other site that has many unrelevent sites linked to it.

Now, your links MUST be relevant. Plastics.com is relevant to anyone within the plastics industry and our buyers guide provides you with that valuable link.

We need to mention Google Page Rank. It is an adequate tool for determing how important (or valuable) your site is. The rank goes from 0-9 and each step up is exponential. So an amazon.com or ebay.com will be a 9. A brand new site will be a zero. Most small business sites site in the 3-4 range.

Now, google ranks the importance of your link. So a link to your site from a Page Rank 6 site (like plastics.com) is worth literally dozens upon dozens of links from sites in the 3-4 range.

Plastics.com has what google terms as a high trust level as it is SO OLD (over ten years) and has such a lengthy history of being a valuable plastics resource.

Check your web site's linkage score free, here:
        http://www.linkpopularity.com/
Check your web site google page rank free, here:
        http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_checker

So there isn't a site in the world that should hesitate to get a link from ANY high ranked plastics site. Unfortunately, many small business owners don't know this. Don't be one of those!

The fact that most small businesses are clueless is actually a big advantage to you (reading this). Go build some links and, all other things being equal, you will be killing your competitors on google.

Use the tools above to check your rank and your link quantity versus your competitors.

This is also an easy thing to assign to a staffer. Get (and give) links to all of your relevant contacts, clients, etc.

Now, here at plastics.com we've gone a step further. We've set it up so that YOU can have a link from plastics.com to you at no charge. Just go to the buyersguide.plastics.com and follow the instructions for the free registration.

Pdc-linkbuilding-531x167

If you have any questions or would like to do this online right along with us, simply call our staff number at 1-978-602-8123 and we'll be glad to help.

A simple win-win for everyone. See you on plastics.com!

PS: I have a Link Building article on our site as well:

Link Building 101 Article by Greg Koski

 

January 06, 2011

Finally, someone agrees w/me regarding the Gyres

It was nice to see someone agree with me!

Scientists from Oregon State University state:

  • claims that the “Great Garbage Patch” between California and Japan is twice the size of Texas are grossly exaggerated
  • claims that the oceans are filled with more plastic than plankton, and that the patch has been growing tenfold each decade since the 1950s are equally misleading
  • it is simply inaccurate to state that plastic outweighs plankton, or that we have observed an exponential increase in plastic

The full article is a plastics.com "plastics NEws Today" top story, and the article link is here:

Media Portrayal of Oceanic 'Garbage Patch' Misleading

Plastics.com has a discussion of this going on here:

http://www.plastics.com/communities/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=33784

Please add your thoughts to this.

Personally, I hate when activist journalists, who pretend to be writing neutral articles, skewer the truth via exagerations and misleading statements.  I think that THEY thinbk they need to cause a panic so that someone will pay attention to them and their interests.

I don't mind when someone voices an OPINION, only when it is disguised as journalism.

And of course the plastics in the gyres is a significant problem, no question, lets just keep the hyperbole down.

 

 

 

 

 

January 03, 2011

My News Years Resolution... Blog More and Now Some History

Ok, so I take a year off here and there, so what?

Anyway, some news on plastics.com if you haven't visited lately. 

This June 20th will mark our official tenth birthday using the domain name plastics.com!

Even older than that, we started in 1994 as polylinks, then polymers.com early in 1995!

Here is the History of Polymers.com - Plastics.com Polymers-home110x335

In 1994, a small high-tech compounder of engineering plastics, Phoenix Polymers Inc., launched the first plastics portal as part of it's corporate web site. That section of the site was known as Poly-Links.

Wildly popular, in 1995, it was spun off into it's own site with the domain name polymers.com. The site offered industry links and ares for resumes, articles, chat and much more.

Ziff-Davis named it one the ten most significant technology sites worldwide in 1996.

So popular and full of potential, key managment of Phoenix Polymers soon sold their interest in that firm to pursue plastics related internet ventures full time and in the person of Greg Koski, founder, still do today at plastics.com, llc.

This pioneer site helped influence many followup sites such as PolySort, PlasticsNet, Omnexus and more.

Polymers.com went on to win many substanial web awards during the nineties including several international awards from industry organizations as well as internet entities.

PDCTIT

Please note, the logo used above is our 'vintage' circa 1995 original logo.

TOP10MED2 A sucessful and profitable site since inception, it underwent a name change in the year 2000 to become plastics.com. Plastics.com being perceived as the better of the two names for directly serving the plastics industry.

The domain has been kept active and pointing at plastics.com since then to take advantage of search engine rankings and links.

For those interested, a web archive shows some of what the site looked like in 1997:

PDC web.archive.org 1997

Today, plastics.com carries on with the same mission and goals, servicing tens of thousands of members who make up the world's largest plastics internet community.

January 05, 2010

The Plastics Gyre... The Plastic Blob? or the newest nation on earth: plastics.com

So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,

200px-Network12 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

Ok, maybe I'm not 'that' mad, but almost. It isn't the first time this non-fact has gotten to me, it gets me everytime I read it.

This time it was here but I'll quote it for you;

"The famous (or infamous) Texas-sized blob of plastic now floating about the Pacific..."

There is no Texas sized blob of plastic floating in the Pacific, not even close. You'll find clumps of plastics crap but no island blob the size of Texas. If there WAS a Texas sized blob, I'd be on my way there right now to declare it the sovereign state of plastics.com and plant the plastics.com national flag.

400x400circle I've checked with the UN, I could do it. Then I'd invent a tugboat with a big scoop and start recycling my island. Yes, I'd lose real estate, but I'd be rich.  Or maybe I'd just tow it to China and sell it there, they buy a lot of scrap.

I think of myself as an environmentalist. I've worked for years in recycling and was one of the original founders of the SPE Recycling Div (Now the Environmental Div).  But in general, people that spout this nonsense aren't environmentalists to me, they are dumb, factless rumormongers or worse, liars. Environmental Fundamentalists who seem to think the means (distortion to scare people) justifies the ends of getting the problem fixed. It's embarrassing to think of myself lumped in with these eco-jugheads who don't have facts.

And indeed there is a problem, a serious crisis of a problem.  But the reason I can't tow my island to China or chop it up in my recycling tugboat grinder is because there is NO ISLAND.  The problem is much worse than that. The vast amount of plastic in the Gyres is broken down into sizes, some so small you have trouble seeing them and suspended under the water, not floating on top.  And therein lies the real problem: There is no simple method to clean it up yet. I'm not even sure there is a complicated solution on the table.  You can't simply filter it as it will take all the good stuff as well, plankton, etc.  Or so I understand. I read little about solutions, mostly it's hyperbole about the giant island.

And the plastics industry does little to acknowledge the issue and promote a solution. On the left we have what I call Environmental Fundamentalists yelling "Plastics BAD" and industry spokespeople countering with "Plastics GOOD". [Insert sigh here]

We need solutions, not ridiculous exaggerations, we need accurate reporting to counter points made that simply are not true.  For every accurate article I see regarding the Gyre problem, I seem to see ten talking about my non-existent island.

Too bad it isn't an island, I'd be on my way with my flag right now.


December 21, 2009

Are bio plastics competing with food crops?

Thats the question we are asking today...

Crops Are bio plastics competing with food crops? Are we just replacing one problem with another?

Just read a great article on Cereplast's technology to make plastics from potatoes and algae but it didn't address the question: in a world w/hungry people, does crop based plastics make sense?

Frederic Scheer, the CEO of Cerplast and it's main inventor of the technologies does make the claim that

"Each time you create one kilo of traditional polypropylene, you create 3.15 kilos of carbon dioxide. When we create one kilo of bio-propylene, we create 1.40 kilos of carbon dioxide, so clearly you have a substantial saving with respect to greenhouse gases, creating a much better carbon footprint for the product"

The answer may be in algae conversion, a process Cereplast is working on, but we'd like to see more detail on crop based plastics (or alternatives) versus the need for food crops.

Join the discussion in plastics.com forums, what do you think?


 




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