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It's show-time – are you ready?
Plastics in Canada is producing the only official Showguide for Plast-Ex 2007, and we also have a major Show Preview in our April issue, which closes on March 13 . Our Showguide is the sole one being distributed to all showgoers at each of the show's entrances.
To make sure your company is listed in both publications with its booth information, please go to www.plast-ex.org, and click on Exhibitor Resources .
You'll find three forms there:
List / Edit Plastics in Canada Magazine's Information
Add / Edit Product Preview for Plastics in Canada Magazine
Show/Edit Guide Categories for Plastics in Canada Magazine
These are for:
Your basic company listing;
A product press-release that CPIA can use for publicity;
and,
A list of the different products or services you will present at your booth.
Complete all three – you have to go back to Exhibitor Resources after each one – and click on 'modify' each time. And you're all set!
And if you want to be sure you draw the people to your show booth, contact Gillian Thomas at 416-764-1527 or gillian.thomas@plastics.rogers.com to arrange advertising in the Showguide or the Show Preview.
News
Plast-Ex seminars offer top speakers
The Plast-Ex show has a top-notch roster of guest speakers for its breakfast and lunchtime seminars. They will tackle a range of technical and business aspects of plastics processing.
Tuesday, May 1, the first day of the show, breakfast speakers will be Jeremy Ritchie, business development manager with ATS Automation Tooling Systems; Pierre Maillet, president of Cyframe; Joachim Kragl, manager of processing technologies with Engel Canada; and Martin Baumann, marketing manager for hot runners with Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. Ritchie will speak on Automated Component Loading & Unloading; Maillet on MRP/ERP Software; Kragl on Better Part Performance with Less Material; and Baumann on Lighter Parts & Faster Cycles with Hot-Runner Technology.
The lunchtime session features Randy Fleck, senior process engineer with BASF Corp., and Michael Wittmann, CEO of Wittmann Inc. and Nucon-Wittmann. Fleck will speak on Water-Assisted Injection Moulding of Engineered Plastics, and Wittmann on Integrating Automation Systems.
The second day's breakfast session looks at emerging technologies. Dr. Mohini Sain, director of the Centre for Biomaterials Processing at the University of Toronto speaks on Bioplastics and Biocomposites; Horst Schmidt, director of research & development with A.P. Plasman Corp. speaks on Innovations in Mouldmaking; and Jim Hay, vice-president, sales & marketing, with Du Pont Engineering Polymers, talks about Specialised Materials & Applications for the Automotive Industry and Beyond.
The lunch session on May 2 has Dennis DesRosiers, head of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, speaking on the Outlook for the North American Automotive Sector; and James E. Robertson, executive vice-president of Magna International, on What is and Will be Required to Successfully Conduct Business with the Auto Industry.
Thursday, May 3, looks at packaging and recycling at the breakfast session. Ludivine Cauchon, manager of international business development with Recyc RPM Inc., talks on Reducing Costs with Recycled Raw Materials; Dr. Fred Edgecombe of the CPIA speaks on Degradable Plastics; and Beverley Ferguson of Chantler Packaging talks on Keeping Monotony out of Monolayer Films.
The Lunchtime session then has Jim Farrell, managing consultant with Hatch & Assocs. talking on Energy Saving; and Peter Love, chief energy conservation officer with the Ontario Power Authority speaks about Using Energy More Efficiently and Effectively.
Each breakfast session costs $20, and lunchtime sessions costs $49 for pre-registrants and $69 to register on-site. A continental breakfast is included in the morning and a hot buffet at lunchtime.
www.plast-ex.org
CPIA moves ahead on restructuring
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association is accelerating part of its restructuring plans, as former Ontario regional director Atul Sharma has left for a new position with consultants Hill & Knowlton. While he will continue to work on government relations for the CPIA in his new job, the association is looking for someone to handle the number-crunching of industry economic data.
"Our new structure can be more difficult to manage," says CPIA president Serge Lavoie, "but it offers us a lot of flexibility. We are able to focus more on what the members tell us they actually need."
Except for its Quebec office, which offers the necessary economies of scale to be viable on its own, CPIA has closed its regional offices. Its staff still handle regional affairs, but also look after individual councils or other initiatives.
The restructuring was triggered by a need to create a more cost-effective organisation, as CPIA faces the same type of limits on its income faced by other industry groups. It is expected the changes will all be in place by this summer.
www.cpia.ca
Non-automotive builds demand for robots
North American robotics companies had a record year in sales to non-automotive users in 2006, but it wasn't enough to offset the steep decline in sales to automotive companies. As a result, new orders to North American companies fell 30 per cent (in units) for the year, according to statistics from the Robotic Industries Association (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
A total of 12,765 robots valued at US$904.2-million were sold on this continent in 2006, a decline of 22 per cent in revenue from 2005. When sales to companies outside North America are added in, the robotics companies' total sales were 13,791 robots, valued at US$958.4-million, down 29 per cent in units and 22 per cent in revenue.
"The most interesting result from 2006 is that non-automotive orders reached the highest mark since we've been tracking the data this way," says Donald A. Vincent, executive vice-president of RIA. "We saw very strong growth in industries such as beverages and tobacco, apparel, wood products, paper manufacturing, printing, machinery manufacturing, and furniture. We also saw growth in food and consumer goods, life sciences/pharmaceuticals/biomedical, and plastics and rubber."
Non-automotive orders accounted for 44 per cent of total orders in 2006, compared with just 30 per cent in 2005. Vincent says he believes this is a very healthy trend for the robotics industry.
"Our members understand that while the automotive industry has traditionally been and remains the largest customer for robotics, changes are occurring in the auto industry that may negatively impact future robot sales to automotive OEMs and their suppliers," he adds. "Therefore, it becomes more important than ever to find new markets, which is what we're seeing happen."
www.roboticsonline.com
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Lighter packaging a key to sustainability
In a follow-up to its 1995 report on packaging efficiency, a new study from the editors of The ULS Report says the key to producing sustainable packaging hasn't changed much in 12 years: Start with less stuff. The report, "A Study of Packaging Efficiency as it Relates to Waste Prevention (February 2007)," confirms that light-weighting, or source reduction, is one of the best ways to improve the environmental and economic efficiency of consumer product packaging.
According to Bob Lilienfeld, editor of The Use Less Stuff Report, "Regardless of the packaging material, the best way to reduce waste, energy consumption, and the potential for greenhouse gas emissions, is through source reduction. For packaging designers and decision makers, this demonstrates that the product-to-package weight ratio is an excellent topline indicator for making decisions about packaging efficiency and sustainability. It means greater use of lighter packages, larger sizes where appropriate, and the promotion of concentrated product forms for items like fruit juice or liquid laundry detergent."
The study also illustrates the value of flexible packaging as a strategy to reduce trash and other forms of waste. Lilienfeld added that, "From the perspective of what Wal-Mart and other retailers are trying to accomplish in the area of sustainability, flexible containers are to packaging what compact fluorescents (CFLs) are to light bulbs – a great way to save energy and materials. And unlike CFLs, which require customers to purchase unfamiliar products, flexible pouches and envelopes still contain the same products that consumers are comfortable buying today."
While not as significant a factor as source reduction, the study found that recycling is also important. Lilienfeld stated that, "Because consumers are doing more eating and drinking outside of their homes, efforts to increase recycling need to be significantly stepped up at venues where consumption is occurring or waste is being generated. These include malls, parks, schools, gas stations, and other high-traffic public areas."
The ULS Report was published on a regular basis between 1994 and 2000. Editor Bob Lilienfeld, who co-authored the book Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are, is in the process of re-launching the report. The full archive of reports and research is available at www.use-less-stuff.com .
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Plastics in Canada's
enewsletter goes out every two weeks to over 7,500 confirmed recipients.
Advertising to reach all these decision-makers can be very cost efficient.
Call Gillian Thomas today at 416-764-1506 to find out more. Creative
advice and services are also available.
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Changes
Johnson Controls Inc. (Plymouth, Mich.) is leasing four North American injection moulding plants to Plastech Engineered Products Inc. (Dearborn, Mich.) A plant in Whitby, Ont., is included in the arrangement. Plastech, which is offering employment to all affected employees, also has a plant in Leamington, Ont., moulding interior and exterior auto components.
www.plastecheng.com
Staring in March 2007, entrance passes for Germany 's K 2007 can be ordered online at a reduced price, at www.k-online.de. A one-day entrance pass can be ordered for Euro 49 (instead of Euro 55 payable on show site) and a three-day entrance pass costs Euro 108 online (compared to Euro 120 at the fairgrounds). This new service also comes with another incentive: The entrance passes can be used as a free public transportation ticket on all buses, streetcars, underground trams (U-Bahn), urban railways (S-Bahn) and German rail service within the Rhine-Ruhr regional network (VRR) of Düsseldorf and the Rhein-Sieg transportation network (VRS), which includes the neighboring cities of Wuppertal, Krefeld, Dortmund, Bonn and Cologne.
Prism Instruments (Pickering, Ont.) is the new Canadian representative for Datacolor's complete line of portable and bench top spectrophotometers and visual evaluation technology. www.prism.to
KUKA Robotics Corp. (Clinton Township, Mich.), a global manufacturer of industrial robots, has named Stuart Shepherd president of KUKA Robotics. He was founder and president of Shepherd Solutions, a business development and management consulting firm that focused on robotic automation OEMs, system integrators, related service organizations and technical associations. He will report to Martin Kuhnhen, CEO of the Americas KUKA Roboter GmbH.
www.kukarobotics.com |  |
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Lawrence Rosen has been appointed as the vice-president of the Industrial Systems Division of Ontor Ltd. (Toronto). He has engineering and MBA degrees as well as a strong background in sales and marketing, largely in the process world, specialising in plastics extrusion, wire & cable, and metrology.
www.ontor.com
Lawrence Rosen
Demag Plastics Group has now streamlined and restructured its sales department, and Christian Renners will take over as DPG's manager for global sales. He was previously based in the US as a sales representative, then in Germany and elsewhere in Europe as a production manager for the automobile supplier industry.
Joerg Bothe, who reports to Renners, has taken over as sales manager for Europe and Rest of World, a designation that excludes Asia-Pacific, the US and China. He succeeds Johannes Strassner, who quit the company in 2006.
www.dpg.com
Cutlines
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| Christian Renners |
Joerg Bothe |
Robert Brooks, founder of Anco Chemicals Inc. (Maple, Ont.) died on February 24. Before Anco, he had a career with Dow Chemical, where he was a pioneer in their plastics division and later became manager of heavy chemical sales. He started Anco, a full-service chemicals distributor, in 1962.
www.ancochemicals.com
A new processor, Global Composite Manufacturing Inc. (Tilbury, Ont.) plans to begin making polyurethane composite utility poles this summer. The company will work under contract for RS Technologies ( Edmonton ), the firm that developed the poles under the brand-name RStandard, and they will be sold to HDSupply, a division of Home Depot Inc. of Atlanta, which in turn will re-sell them to public utilities.
www.grouprsi.com
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Coming
Events March 15: Society of Plastics Engineers, Ontario section, University Night. At the University of Toronto, Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing. (Contact: Laurie Higgins, laurie.higgins@pliantcorp.com).
March 29-30: Society of Plastics Engineers, Quebec section, Topcon on Injection Moulding: Designing for Processors and Processing for Designers. At the Industrial Materials Institute, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Martin Bureau at 450-641-5179 or Martin.Bureau@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca).
April 2-4: International Symposium on Polymeric Materials for Regenerative Medicine. At Industrial Materials Institute, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Martin Bureau at 450-641-5179 or Martin.Bureau@cnrc-nrc.gc.ca)
April 19: Society of Plastics Engineers, Ontario section: Injection Moulding Minitec, at the Delta Toronto Airport West Hotel. (Contact: Pam Robb at 905-671-1511 ext. 206 or probb@brenntag.ca).
May 1-3: Plast-Ex 2007, Canada's triennial plastics trade show. At the International Centre, Toronto. (Contact: Sally Damstra at 905-678-7748 or sdamstra@cpia.ca).
May 5: Galea Awards, CPIA Quebec's annual recognition of outstanding individuals and companies. At Hotel Mortagne, Boucherville, Que. (Contact: Marie-France Sosa, at 450-641-5926 or mfsosa@acipquebec.ca).
May 7-11: Brasilplast 2007, at Anhembi Park Exhibition Hall, São Paulo, Brazil. (Contact: Alcantara Machada company at 5511-3030-9463 or almax@almax.com.br.)
May 21-24: Chinaplas, at the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Pazhou, Guangzhou, China. (Contact: Hong Kong 852-2811-8857 or chinaplas@adsale.com.hk).
May 22: CPIA's Canadian Natural Composites Council annual general meeting, at the Hall of Ideas EFG, Madison, Wis., during the 9th International Conference on Wood & Natural Fiber-Plastics Composites (contact: Marilyne Berman, 905-678-7405 Ext. 278, or mberman@cpia.ca)
May 24: Quebec Plastics Pioneers social hour and dinner, at the Whitlock Golf and Country Club in Hudson, Que. (Contact: Terry Browitt at 450-458-5591 or tjbrowitt@terinex.com) October 24-31: K 2007, Germany's international plastics super-show, at Duesseldorf Trade Fairgrounds. (Contact: Stefan Egge at 416-598-1524 or messeduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca)
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