NPE 2018: An Industry Heavyweight
The USA’s biggest plastics trade show, NPE, weighed in heavy when it landed in Orlando, going supersized on not only exhibits, but also in its approach to the issues facing the international market.
Opening its doors to the world, NPE weighed in heavy. Some 21 million US tons of freight were displayed on the show floor, from a combined 2,200 exhibiting companies across 1.2million sq. ft. of space. And there’s no sign of it slimming down for future editions, with a waiting list of companies for the 2018 edition for the first time in the show’s history meaning organisers, the Plastics Industry Associations (PLASTICS), are looking to creative ways of using space to accommodate future demand.
Going Large
Milacron, for example, took the show’s biggest stand, on which it displayed the largesttonnage injection moulding machine to operate at an NPE show. ‘The Cincinnati’ has some 2250 tons of clamping power and is designed to meet the demands of the global automotive, appliance and other large-part moulding markets. The Cincinnati product line builds on the company’s large machine technology with a platform that adds both performance and a shorter footprint.
Mike Sansoucy, Vice President Sales Injection, Americas, said “we wanted to go big this year at the show,” adding that the display of the Cincinnati demonstrated the company’s expertise in manufacturing moulding machines in the 1000 ton-plus-range. It also used NPE to display the Milacron-Fanuc Roboshot 500, the largest tonnage Roboshot ever offered in the Americas. The machine has an increased tonnage option up to 550 US tons and Milacron’s CTO, Bruce Cateon, said it was “great for larger moulds”, with a tie bar spacing of 91.94cm.
Arburg too said the American market is ready to go big, with a high level of demand for its new large machine. Premiering its Allrounder 1120H injection moulding machine at NPE, Arburg’s Managing Director of Sales, Gerhard Böhm, said the company had sold the machine on display at the expo and had received several further enquiries.
“At the NPE, our Allrounder 1120 H is celebrating its American premiere. This will please injection moulding companies in the US in particular because they have in the past often expressed the wish of obtaining larger machines from Arburg,” said Böhm. “With our new large machine, we have expanded our clamping force range upwards by 30 percent. It features an impressive clamping force of 730 tonnes or 6,500 kN. The market for the Allrounder 1120 H in America is ready.”
The expanding size of the show and the vast array of equipment on display is not least in part down to exhibitors clamoring to be part of the first major trade event since the introduction of capital expensing provision in the US, allowing American businesses to write off 100 percent of the cost of capital equipment purchases made between September 27, 2017 and January 1, 2023. With much of the technology on display at NPE qualifying as capital equipment, it was little wonder that there was so much to see and so many looking to take advantage of the opportunity.
The Big Questions
Opportunities, as well as threats, were discussed at the show, with PLASTICS President, Bill Carteaux, tackling issues such as NAFTA and the impact of the Chinese market on American plastics machinery and resin trade, as well as working alongside EUROMAP for standardisation and Industry 4.0 and, of course, the thorny issue of plastics in the environment and the current inundation of negative attention the industry is receiving.
Where the latter is concerned, the association chose the show to launch a new initiative – ‘This is Plastics’ –designed to help people who work in the plastics industry dispel myths in an easily digestible way that inspires meaningful conversations about the power of plastics.
“Plastics industry employees can use information they glean from This Is Plastics to inform conversations they have in their daily lives,” said Wylie Royce, PLASTICS Chairman and President of Royce Associates.
“If we're able to articulate what we all know and believe, we can show people how plastics make a positive impact.” The initiative incorporates a resource-based website and toolkit accessible 24/7, with articles, shareable images, videos and interactive quizzes, geared toward addressing issues facing the plastics industry, such as marine litter, plastic bag bans and taxes on plastic products.
Green Agenda
Recognising the importance of industry action and collaboration where sustainability and a circular future for plastics is concerned, NPE2018 was positioned as the “greenest yet” by diverting 100 per cent of its waste from the show for recycling or composting, exceeding the 87 per cent of waste that was diverted from NPE2015.
Carteaux commented: “Plastics are a valuable resource that should always be recovered for their highest and best use - at NPE2018, we’re practicing what we preach, putting sustainability and recycling at the centre of the event.”
Commercial Plastics Recycling collected and removed scrap plastic from the show floor and transported it to a new, on-site recycling area in the Westwood carpark, where a WEIMA two-stage shredding system reduced the collected scrap plastic into a small pellet size, before it was transported to CPR’s headquarters in Tampa. Attendees were invited to visit the demonstration area to see the process in action before the scrap was transported off site.
Also showcasing recycling live in action, Pure Loop, a division of the EREMA Group, showed visitors the quality of products that can be produced on its ISEC eco 102 machine during the show. The system used the combination of a double feed ram system and single shaft shredder to process LLDPE film, PE hollow bodies and PE lumps to make high-grade recyclates.
Manfred Dobersberger, CEO of Pure Loop, said: "Even temperature-sensitive mixed PE plastics such as in the case of irrigation hose are no problem for the ISEC. It stands out through easy handling and virtually autonomous operation, integrating itself seamlessly in production."
Also bringing sustainable innovation in its live demonstrations was Kautex Mascninenbau, which demonstrated how it is expanding end markets for recycled plastics with its KBB40D bottle machine. On the showfloor a double station KBB40D with 10 cavities produced 600 ml flat oval bottles for the personal care industry, using a three-layer ReCo process, only adding colour to the bottle’s outer layer. The middle layer of the product uses regrind or PCR in line with circular economy principals, while the inner layer uses virgin material to minimise the migration of impurities into the filled product.
Bill Farrant of Kautex said at the show: “It uses scrap material or recycled plastic in the middle layer. This means you only need masterbatch on the outer layer.”
Material World
There was no shortage of innovation in the materials hall, with several new product launches across multiple areas. Sabic, for example, launched Lexan Margard FHC10 sheet, the latest addition to the company’s automotive glazing portfolio.
The new technology is engineered to comply with the stringent visibility, strength and abrasion resistance requirements of ECE R43 (Regulation No. 43 of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations). It features a tough polycarbonate base with “exceptional optical quality”, combined with a unique, formable hard coating that is pre-cured sufficiently to allow processing like regular PC sheet. Sabic says the sheet can enable customers to avoid post-coating operations, and gives automotive OEMs and tiers a new option for creating simple, curved glazing designs.
Eastman celebrated 10 years since the launch of its Tritan copolyester material, with a focus on the global trends shaping its materials portfolio in the coming years.
“Nowhere is this more exciting than the Internet of Things,” said Burt Capel, Vice President and GM of Eastman Speciality Plastics. Capelsaid recent innovations in smart technology are emerging to position Tritan as the right plastic for applications in digital agriculture, such as solar-powered smart device to monitor crops and weather.
Where personal health and fitness will still be a huge trend in the years to come, Capel said Tritan has “inherent properties” making it ideal for the next generation of watches, trackers and drinks bottles.