For all you molders out there who would like a proprietary product, here's one you can capitalize on: purgings. Let's face it, sometimes you make more purgings than you do actual parts. And purgings can have some interesting and useful applications.
Since purgings come in all sizes, shapes and colors, and each one is different, you can sell purgings as original modern art. After all, modern art doesn't have to look like anything or have any particular meaning. Someone calls it ``art'' and people come along and pay big money for it.
Purgings make handy and useful items. I've been in several shops where people have purgings on their desks being used as ashtrays and coffee cup holders. There are some very intriguing paperweights out there, all thanks to the innovative minds of those on the production floor who, after looking at purgings for so many years, have begun to see them in a whole new light.
I think psychiatrists would find purgings useful as testing tools - like a Rorschach test. People could look at the various purgings and describe what each reminds them of, as an insight to their inner self. It could revolutionize the field of psychiatric treatment.
When I worked in the molding industry, it amazed me how much material went to waste just purging one material out of the barrel so that another material could be run.
Standing by a scrap barrel one day, looking at all the interesting shapes and colors, I realized that we could probably be making more money selling our purgings at Park 'N Swap on weekends than we did molding parts all week!
I still have my favorite purging, one I call ``Waterfall Frozen in Time.'' It's clear GE Lexan polycarbonate with a gray-green tint that begins as a pool, runs over the edge in a stream, forms another pool, then falls over the edge again in a smooth and quite beautiful pattern.
The bubbles and foam in the material make it look as if there are plants moving along in the running water. Believe it or not, I've had several compliments on my plastic ``artwork'' that sits on a bookshelf.
I say let's practice ``reduce, reuse and recycle'' by getting creative with purgings. Every good marketer knows that it's all in the packaging and the promotion.
Put the purging in a pretty box, label it something like ``Pet Plastics'' and go for it.
