The Rubber Manufacturers Association and the Society of the Plastics Industry will collaborate on a multiexhibitor pavilion and educational program at SPI's NPE 2006, scheduled for June 19-23 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
As envisioned by the two associations, the pavilion and educational program will present materials, machinery and technical developments covering the entire range of elastomeric polymers, including both thermoset rubber and thermoplastic elastomers.
This will be the first time an NPE show spotlights thermoset rubber and TPEs, according to SPI.
The cooperative effort sprang from a meeting between former SPI President Don Duncan and Kevin Ott, vice president of the RMA General Products Group.
``We were looking to expand the show to include elastomers,'' Ott said, noting that the K trade show in Dusseldorf, Germany, has included elastomers for some time.
``We hope to draw diverse traffic through that [NPE] pavilion of designers and processors who might not otherwise invest in TPEs or rubber,'' Ott said.
More information on the GPG-SPI program can be found at www.npe.org/rubber.