The following items were written by Plastics News reporters Tom Ford and Bill Bregar at Plastics USA, held Sept. 12-14 in Chicago.
Attendance at Plastics USA already had surpassed that of the first Plastics USA in 1992, even before a single visitor walked onto the McCormick Place show floor Sept. 12.
The reason: strong pre-registration. Advance registration totaled 14,600 - 10,500 visitors and 4,100 exhibitor personnel. Total attendance for the entire three-day show in 1992 was 12,002, with 8,465 of that visitors and 3,537 exhibitor personnel.
As of Sept. 13, registration for the show totaled 17,570.
The show is co-sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. and the Society of Plastics Engineers. The goal of SPI and SPE was to consolidate the old regional shows each trade association had held into a single, national show held every three years between International Plastics Expositions.
Vincent Witherup, Plastics USA chairman and vice president of auxiliary equipment maker Conair Group, gave the following statistics:
There are more than 600 exhibitors, a 45 percent increase from the 1992 show, when 415 companies had booths.
Total exhibition space is 122,000 square feet, 22 percent more than in 1992. Booth space was limited to 1,600 square feet, the same as 1992.
The 14,600 pre-registration for Plastics USA nearly doubles the pre-registration for the first Plastics USA in 1992 of 7,400.
A typical regional plastics fair attracts about 4,000 people.
Sumitomo offering CD molding press
Sumitomo Plastics-Machinery of Norcross, Ga., unveiled its injection molding machine designed for audio compact discs, CD-ROM and high density video discs, called the SD30 machine.
Vice President Jerry Boggs said the SD30 can mold discs in less than 4 seconds, with cycle times of 3.5-3.8 seconds in production tests.
Sumitomo already makes machines to mold magnetic optical disks. The firm will continue making these machines, called the Disk 3 and Disk 5 presses.
In November, Sumitomo will hold demonstrations for customers at its Norcross headquarters.
Toshiba introduces thermoset machine
Toshiba Machine Co. America's Plastics Machinery Division introduced its first thermoset injection molding machines for the U.S. market.
Toshiba, which has built thermoset presses in Japan for that market, has created a simpler design to facilitate easier use for the U.S. market, said Tim Glassburn, vice president of Toshiba Machine Co. America. The thermoset machines come in clamping forces of 60-500 tons.
Toshiba made the announce-ment at Plastics USA, although the company did not display one of the machines at the show. Toshiba instead showed its ISG Series machines, with newly designed controllers, the Injectvisor S10 and V10.
Illinois Tool Works buys United Silicone
Illinois Tool Works Inc. of Glenview, Ill. has purchased United Silicone Inc. of Lancaster, N.Y., a leading designer and manufacturer of plastic decorating systems.
The company announced Sept. 12 that it has finalized the acquisition, and United Silicone will continue to operate under that name as part of ITW Decorating Group, an operating unit of Illinois Tool Works.
Privately held until the acquisition, United Silicone started as a manufacturer of pad printing materials, but grew to manufacture pad and heat transfer, and hot-stamp plastic printing machines, said Keith Hillestad, national sales manager for United Silicone.
``ITW wanted to expand its decorating capabilities and scope,'' Hillestad said.
Autojectors plans larger machines
Insert molding press maker Autojectors Inc. of Albion, Ind., unveiled its first-ever machine with tie bars and also announced plans to make machines with clamping forces to 800 tons.
President William Carteaux revealed details of the bigger
Autojectors, which is building a previously announced, 50,000-square-foot assembly plant in Avilla, Ind., makes insert molding machines as large as 300 tons. By the end of 1996, the firm plans to make machines as large as 800 tons, he said.
``We are not going to do it with a C-frame construction. It's going to be a tie bar machine,'' Carteaux said.
Autojectors' first tie bar machine, the TV-40, is a 40-ton press that has a hydraulic vertical clamp and vertical injection unit. The machine is capable of shot sizes from 0.73-6.04 ounces.
