Beaumont offering training to customers
ERIE, PA. - Erie-based Beaumont Technologies Inc. - of MeltFlipper fame - now offers in-house training at customer plants on the basics of rheology, and runner and gate design.
Elcom Inc. of El Paso, Texas, had Beaumont Technologies train about 50 employees at all levels, including tooling design engineers, process engineers and technicians, supervisors and managers, and quality personnel.
The seminar on runner and gate design covers both hot and cold runners. Employees learn how various gating styles affect parts molded with different types of resins. The rheology session gives a basic understanding of how polymer flow affects part quality and process stability.
The company's MeltFlipper rotates the melt to balance filling on hot- and cold-runner applications. Other products include the 5 Step Process software for mold commissioning and CAE by BTI flow analysis services.
Machinery demand to grow through '09
CLEVELAND - Global demand for plastics processing machinery should grow 3.5 percent a year through 2009, when it will reach $18.8 billion, according to Freedonia Group Inc.
Cleveland-based Freedonia said China will be the fastest-growing market, accounting for one-fifth of total world demand by 2009.
Sales also should be strong in India and Russia, as well as in lower-volume markets such as Turkey, the Czech Republic and Iran. Demand in those developing countries will be stimulated by healthy economic growth, continuing industrialization efforts and rising incomes, Freedonia said.
Equipment markets in the United States and Japan will show renewed strength after a period of decline. The Western European market will accelerate through the period. North America was the only region to decline from 1999 through 2004, but Freedonia predicts North America will grow by 2.6 percent from 2004 through 2009.
According to Freedonia, extrusion will be the strongest equipment segment, driven by world demand for construction products such as pipe and siding, and technological improvements in the machinery. Demand for machinery to make construction products will expand at a faster rate than packaging equipment - which Freedonia said is the single largest market for plastics machinery.
The 344-page report, ``World Plastics Processing Machinery,'' costs $5,200.
Netstal posts stellar 3 quarters in Europe
NÄFELS, SWITZERLAND - Netstal-Maschinen AG delivered 174 all-electric injection molding machines through the first three quarters of 2005, out of a total European market of about 570 during that period, the company announced in December.
Netstal of Näfels, Switzerland, claims that 31 percent market share makes it the European leader of all-electric presses.
The company makes the e-Jet all-electric to make optical discs, and the Elion. The company said it sold more than 50 Elions within a year of its introduction at K 2004. Netstal said it also has sold more than 400 e-Jets since the K 2001 rollout of that press.
The company's U.S. headquarters is Netstal Machinery Inc. in Devens, Mass.
Fanuc tech facility expands in Southeast
ROCHESTER HILLS, MICH. - Fanuc Robotics America Inc., based in Rochester Hills has expanded its Southeast operations by moving from Charlotte, N.C., to a 22,000-square-foot technology center in nearby Huntersville.
The larger building will have space for customer training, application setup and demonstrations, according to Jim Kosmala, general manager of Fanuc Robotics Southeast.
The location offers sales, engineering, integration and support for local customers and system integrators.
Made2Manage nabs software supplier
INDIANAPOLIS - Indianapolis-based Made2Manage Systems Inc., which makes enterprise resource planning products for manufacturing, has made another acquisition, picking up Capri Corp., a Downers Grove, Ill., supplier of ERP software to the printed circuit board industry, through its operating subsidiary Cimnet Systems Inc.
In 2004, Made2Manage bought DTR Software International Inc., a company that supplies ERP systems to plastics companies.
Briefly ...
* Control Equipment Inc., Demag Plastics Group Corp.'s sales representative for parts of the Midwest, has merged with Solution Group, also a sales rep firm. Mark Hoffmann, who is based in Willoughby, Ohio, is chairman of the new firm, called Solutions Group, which covers Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Other reps are Dale Bodey in Strongsville, Ohio; Mark Garrison of Columbia City, Ind.; and Matt Hoffman of Cold Spring, Ky.