Schaumburg, IL – September 27, 2016 – Plustech, Inc., the North American Branch of Sodick’s IMM Division, recently attended the “Innovation and Emerging Plastics Technologies Conference” at Penn State Behred. The two day conference focused on highlighting many of today’s industry leaders.
The conference kicked-off with keynote speaker, Mr. Paul Boulier VP of Business Attraction for Team Northeast Ohio, discussing insights on Shale’s effect on the future of the plastics industry. He has a Masters Degree from UMASS Lowell in Plastics Engineering and is responsible for developing and executing direct-to-company business attraction for the region’s core industries. The conference included three classrooms that ran simultaneously with half hour presentations/discussions on all facets of cutting edge equipment, technology, processes, and techniques within the plastics industry. Afternoons consisted of Penn State professors lecturing on everything from 3D printing to injection molding troubleshooting and project management.
Plustech team at the IEPTC Event at Penn State
Plustech had the opportunity to speak about micro molding and the importance of this process in the manufacturing industry today. Kohei Shinohara, from Plustech, Inc., discussed the “Challenges for Today’s Cutting Edge Micro Molding”. The talk focused on the true micro molding approach and how it is critical to meet today’s most demanding “miniaturization’ applications. The challenges of advanced micro molding include managing small metering volumes, dealing with residence time of advanced polymers, meeting a super-quick fill time, and controlling warpage and distortion of thin-wall sections.
The paper focused on real life molding challenges of micro molding applications’ evaluation, process development steps, and the unique and special technique of processing function through the use of a two-stage plunger injection molding approach. Shinohara highlighted high injection velocity vs. injection pressure, small dosage control ‘2 mm injection stroke’, resin density stabilization function by plunger, high-cycle applications ‘0.9 second dry cycle machine’, and included multiple case studies that included these functions.
“This was a ‘first-class’ conference and was very well set-up”, stated Len Hampton, National Sales Manager, Plustech, Inc. “There was a wide range of topics discussed and numerous takeaways for attendees”. Each exhibitor has a table top exhibit. There were over 35 exhibitors and over 180 attendees. Many of the tutorials were held in the college’s 10,500-square-foot plastics processing lab, the largest, most comprehensive plastics training lab in the country.
Plustech is strongly committed to education within the plastics industry. They had a summer intern from Ferris State University, Steve Matt, come along to the conference so that he could experience first-hand this informative conference.
About Plustech, Inc.:
Plustech, Inc., the North American Branch of Sodick, Inc., is located in Schaumburg, IL. Sodick IMM are exclusively sold and serviced by Plustech in North America. Sodick is a global leader in the manufacturing of precision injection molding machines. Sodick injection molding machines have had a presence in North America since the 1990s. The company offers its customers the support they need to compete and succeed with new technologies and unmatched reliability.
