Plastics News by the year: 1994

As Plastics News marks its 25th year of publication, we take a year-by-year look back at some of the events, people and curious coincidences that have shown up its its pages. Check back through the end of the year (not including holidays) to follow along. This year: 1994.

January

The cellular telephone business is booming, with sales climbing 46 percent in just one year. Injection molders are busy adding equipment to keep up with demand from companies like Motorola in the U.S. One Arizona firm says it added four machines in the past year and built space for another 15 to 20 presses. “It's definitely the right market to be in for the ‘90s,” one executive says.

February

The new stadium for the Colorado Rockies is being wrapped in 300,000 square feet of polyethylene film. The film, they say, will help contractors avoid weather-related delays.

The American Plastics Council's plan to merge into the Chemical Manufacturers Association is running into a hurdle as some directors believe the group should be more closely aligned with the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. instead.

March

Chrysler Corp. announces it will switch to nylon air intake manifolds for the next generation of its top-of-the-line cars, turning away from aluminum for the first time.

An informal poll at the American Mold Builders Association shows that most mold makers have started instituting a voluntary ban on “girlie” posters in the workplace. One mold production shop owner said he was curious because he started getting complaints from a female secretary who was faced with nude calendars in the work shop every time she went there to collect time cards. “Could this really constitute a sexually hostile environment?” he asked. (Let's hope that's not an actual question business owners are asking today.)

April

Compact discs, mini discs and CD-ROMs are set to take over the tape cassette business by the end of the century, forecasters say, although compact disc makers say they may be priced out of the market by low cost production in Asia.

May

Bonnie Bachman, a research and development manager with Empak Inc., becomes the first female president of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

Auto supplier Cambridge Industries Inc. triples its sales with the acquisition of Rockwell International Corp.'s plastics unit. The move is part of an acquisition spree President Richard Crawford later calls a strategy of buying "three-legged, one-eyed-dog" companies that nobody wanted. Cambridge declared bankruptcy in 2000.

June

Cleveland amusement park Geauga Lake replaces a third of its 30,000 square feet of decks with plastic lumber. “It was not for the waterproof qualities or for the durability in aquatic settings,” says the maintenance director. “It was because it doesn't splinter and we won't have as many people needing medical attention from getting a splinter in bare feet or hands.”

Thermoformers finally will be able to process polypropylene as OMV-USA Machine Division and Hilmont USA Inc. roll out new equipment that can handle the material at NPE.

July

The American Plastics Council's report on recycling shows PET recycling rates top the country's numbers with 28 percent of all PET — and 41 percent of soda bottles — recovered each year, adding up to 447.8 million pounds of recycled PET.

The German town of Bielefeld has lifted its seven year ban on PVC building products after a re-evaluation of products took into account their long life expectancies and current recycling methods.

August

Plastics News first ranking of the highest paid executives at publicly held companies is topped by gains for executives who benefitted from stock options. Warren L. Batts of Premark International is at the top, with more than $9 million in compensation. Seven of the top 10 in the list make more than $1 million.

Organizers of the annual Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Mich., say they recycled about 2,000 pounds of polystyrene, thanks to an effort co-sponsored by Dow Chemical Co. The program managed to collect about 30 percent of the 100,000 cups used during the event.

September

Composites are changing the playing field — or the playing water, as the case may be — in America's Cup Class racing. All the competitors preparing for the 1995 competition are using composite hulls.

Rigid packaging maker Johnson Controls Inc. has won federal approval to use its recycled PET in food contact applications. The company spent five years developing a proprietary cleaning technology that would pass inspection.

October

Nike Inc.'s Tetra Plastics Inc. business — a supplier of polyurethane for Nike's shoes — says it will build a $10 million plant in Weldon Spring, Mo., to replace a plant destroyed by flooding a year earlier.

November

A. Schulman Inc. is building a $6 million compounding plant in Indonesia, marking its first move into Asia. “We feel Asia holds as much potential for our business as Latin America,” says a Schulman executive.

December

Bowdie Isanhart, a manufacturing engineer for Timex Inc. at its in-house injection molding plant in Little Rock, Ark., wins a free Van Dorn Demag Corp. press in a promotional drawing. While Isanhart doesn't need the press for his personal use, it is going into production at Timex's plant, which is working overtime to mold plastic watch cases, bezels and other water parts.

Bandai America Inc. has 16 plants working flat out to keep up with demand for its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers action figures. “It is the most unbelievable phenomenon we've seen in the toy industry,” says one toy shop retailing executive.