Product innovation was the main topic of discussion at the Caps and Closures Conference, organized by European Plastics News in Brussels, Belgium.
Lego installed 100 new Arburg injection molding machines at its toy-brick plant in Ciénega de Flores, Mexico, near Monterrey, one of its largest manufacturing facilities, which was established in 2009.
Imperial Plastics, a Lakeville, Minn., custom injection molder, plans to build a new 69,000-sq.-ft. plant and hire 125 workers in nearby Mankato.
North American plastics processors have reported that prices for polypropylene and PET bottle resin have been on the rise over the last few months.
Stanford University Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic are hoping that their plastics recycling projects will lead to guidance on how plastic medical waste recycling can increase at hospitals around the United States.
California businesses are being plagued by plastic thieves, who steal plastic pallets, trays and crates in order to sell them to recyclers. Some of the stolen contraband may be shipped to factories in Asia. But authorities say a growing percentage of it is processed by recycling operations in Southern California, some of which rely on government contracts. The prices plastic recyclers pay vary, but lately they have hovered around 15 cents a pound for non-ground plastic, industry officials say.
BASF SE, the world’s biggest chemical maker, is dissolving its plastics division and splitting the operations into consumer and commodity lines to help market tailored products to automotive or apparel customers.
Founded in 1937, NETCO Extruded Plastics provides plastic extrusions, profiles and custom parts to a variety of industries – telecom, government, medical and industrial. For the uninitiated, a plastic extrusion is a manufacturing process through which plastic is melted, shaped and cut to a desired length. The company recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.
Hiawatha recognized the advantages of consolidating its many systems to better track data for all functions and more easily pull reports and compare costs, productivity and efficiency of various facilities. It could also make the data available to all employees, creating transparency into the entire enterprise and a renewed sense of ownership by everyone. The ideal system would accurately report inventory control, track labor and profit and loss metrics, and automatically capture data that had previously been entered manually.
Rubber climbed, heading for a second weekly advance, after data showed China’s manufacturing expanded for the first time in three months in October, boosting the outlook for demand in the world’s biggest consumer.
A company that opens its doors during a recession might be expected to take any work it can find. However, Anchor Plastics Inc. took a different route on the way to the Fast 50.
