Anticipation building for machine makers as NPE2024 nears

Machine builders have high expectations for big crowds filled with serious buyers as they plan exhibits for plastics processing innovations at NPE2024 following a six-year, pandemic-induced hiatus.

The last time the largest trade show for the North American plastics industry was held was in May 2018, when 56,034 people registered — the largest number since the triennial event moved to Orlando, Fla., in 2012.

Organized by the Plastics Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group, NPE2021 was canceled as COVID-19 cases and deaths spiked about the same time final booth payments were due.

NPE accounts for up to half of the association's revenues. To settle with NPE2021 exhibitors, the trade group gave them nonrefundable credits for NPE2024.

The anticipation has been building ever since.

"NPE has not been held for six years, and that's a long time without an opportunity to really show our U.S. customers the breadth of what Arburg can offer," said Martin Baumann, president and CEO of Arburg Inc. in Rocky Hill, Conn.

"Not everyone can travel to K show, and regional shows don't give us the same chance to put all our new technologies on display."

Arburg will have 14 systems running at NPE, and each will showcase an application that is fully automated, Baumann said.

Officials at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery are hopeful about NPE2024 on the heels of other recent major events with good turnouts. They are planning exhibits for all of their core markets, including some new and future products for North America.

"We closely watched the numbers at K and Fakuma. Both seemed very successful. Most expect this momentum to carry over into our market and signal a strong NPE," said Steven Ross, the senior manager of strategic sales and marketing.

At Bekum America Corp. in Williamston, Mich., Gary Carr, vice president of sales, said: "After six long years, we sense that the blow molding industry is ready for a technology update, and Bekum will be showcasing our latest developments and capabilities with no reduction in booth size or exhibit scope."

Bekum will demonstrate its range of extrusion blow molding technology from small pharma ampules to large storage containers and tanks, including "the industry's first U.S.-manufactured all-electric extrusion blow molding machine," Carr added.

Lebanon, Ore.-based Entek Manufacturing Inc. will highlight its recently acquired material handling division, its recently formed wear parts division, its newest twin-screw extruder, patented vacuum feed technology for higher material throughput and patent-pending vent flow sensors for safety.

"We hope to reconnect with our existing customers as well as meet new connections for future business," said Linda Campbell, Entek's vice president of sales. "We recognize that there are many people who have joined the plastics industry since the last show in 2018, and we are excited to meet them and learn about their challenges."

So is Ross, who said: "With a six-year gap, we are among most companies that are expecting a very large turnout. We are also expecting a higher level of first-time attendees due to the larger turnover in staffing over the six-year span."

Wittmann USA is planning a full rollout of equipment and customer events, but Sonny Morneault, vice president of sales, said it's too early to give details.

"Our goal is to show the plastics industry that we are the leader in the growth of innovation and what its positive impact can have on the environment, the economy and our everyday lives," Morneault said.

With processors facing many challenges — from using more recycled content in their products to using less energy in their factories — the halls of the Orange County Convention Center are expected to be filled May 6-10.

Machine shoppers from all over the world, particularly Latin America, are planning meetups with machine builders from all over the world.

"With more than 1 million square feet of exhibit space already sold out, our expectations are that this may be one of the best attended shows ever," said Nolan Strall, president of North America for Krauss-Maffei Corp., part of KraussMaffei Group. "Every plastics processing equipment manufacturer, automation manufacturer and auxiliary suppliers will be in attendance, plus business owners, current and future customers, plant managers, injection molding operators and technicians, purchasing and more."

The staff of Boy is bringing six machines — a new 60E Hybrid and the new XSE — to display along with "hope for record attendance," President Marko Koorneef said.

The overall record for the event, which dates to 1946, remains NPE2000 in Chicago, which drew about 90,000 registered attendees, although observers don't believe that was matched by actual attendance.

The Engel staff is looking forward to this year's showcase, President Vanessa Malena sad.

"We are very interested to see changes in the demographics and the needs of the attendees. It has been a long time since the last show. We are prepared for questions concerning sustainability and digitalization, or what services we can offer to work around labor shortages," she said.

Milacron Advanced Systems General Manager Andy Stirn agreed.

"We anticipate a big increase in attendance for the show, but we think the faces will be a bit different than what we've seen in the past," he said. "We anticipate a newer industry face with a younger demographic than past shows, as there has been a shift in the workforce. In addition, we anticipate more women this year, as females are breaking the mold!"

For all kinds of processors, NPE is a good time for comparison machine shopping.

"This is the big event," Absolute Haitian President Glenn Frohring said. "The week goes by fast for me. We look forward to showing our technology to people who are also seeing our competitors to make conscientious decisions. It can only be a great thing."

At R&B Plastics Machinery LLC in Saline, Mich., President and General Manager Fred Piercy expects a well-attended show "unless something comes out of left field."

"We're a somewhat new entrant in the blow molding machine market, and we're hoping to get exposure to different customers," Piercy said. "For us, it's an opportunity to show what we have to offer to this market in particular. We're continuing to push the accumulator head side of our market on the blow molding end."

Still, not all machine makers are on board with NPE from the start. Officials at Kautex Machines Inc. in Flemington, N.J., were mulling the event into November.

"Our participation in the NPE is still under evaluation, but what we can confirm is that regardless of our decision, we will introduce in that time frame a new machine model that will further improve the key cost drivers of applications we are targeting. More we cannot share today," said Manuel Heusinger, vice president of sales and service Americas.

For LS Mtron, NPE2024 will be the first major U.S. trade show since the company began a major expansion that included the acquisition of the Japanese press distribution business of Daiichi Jitsugyo. With it, LS also acquired the company's 30-year NPE history, giving LS a high-level pick for NPE booth placement.

LS officials have big plans for their 13,500-square-foot space.

"We view the NPE show as our coming-out party to show the total strength of the LS group," President Peter Gardner said, noting LS is a $30 billion company founded by LG, a $120 billion company.

LS machines were originally created for LG's own molding needs, and the LG/LS family of companies uses thousands of LS machines around the world.

"This gives us a unique ability as an OEM to provide machines that have been fully vetted in our own production facilities," Gardner said. "We hope NPE will be a place for our existing and new customers to come together and will extend the awareness of South Korea, and LS in particular, as an advanced manufacturing powerhouse."

Milacron is supersizing its exhibit space to 26,600 square feet — the largest footprint allowed at the show — and sharing it with fellow operating companies under the Hillenbrand umbrella.

"New products will be showcased, and we will unveil some capabilities with sustainability in mind. We will exhibit the majority of our product lines and injection molding solutions that are accessible in America, and our extrusion side of the business will showcase some innovative 'firsts,'" said Mike Puhalla, extrusion systems general manager for Milacron.

Yizumi-HPM has budgeted more money for marketing because next year is an NPE year.

"We hope to attract more processors to refresh their impression of Yizumi and Yizumi-HPM by seeing our newest developed applications and technologies," said Joe Liang, sales director North America.

After 77 years, the event has become one the biggest and most anticipated shows in the world, Liang added.

"It is a trade show but also an industrial gathering for exchanging experiences and seeing something new," Liang added. "Therefore, Yizumi-HPM will bring their best solutions and applications to show to the processors and budget as much as possible."

Sodick will have a new booth and new partners as it shows a fully automated vertical machine cell that will be flown in from its factory in Japan. The cell will have a 60-ton LSR machine, pumping unit and microfeature precision tooling.

"It should be a great show for us," said Len Hampton, national sales manager at Plustech Inc., the North American base of Sodick Co. Ltd.'s injection molding machinery division.

Wittmann USA will demonstrate connectivity, sustainability, the circular economy and energy efficiency. "Wittmann is truly the only plastics processing equipment supplier in the market that doesn't just talk about this; we do it every day," Morneault said.

Billion Plastics Machinery Inc. in Rochester Hills, Mich., is rolling out new machine connectivity based on Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture communication.

"The objective is to simplify significantly the connection of peripheral equipment, including mold sensors to the machine, to increase the flexibility of production cells by allowing plug-and-play sensors to be added," said Georg Kiesl, North American sales manager.

KraussMaffei will display its direct compounding injection molding technology, which Strall describes as a single-screw extruder that is extruding directly into the injection cylinder.

"We can combine carbon fiber. We can combine glass fiber. We can do lightweight," Strall said. "We've got a lot of different opportunities for material cost and weight savings for the customer."

He sees a lot of opportunity for KraussMaffei technologies that combine injection molding with extrusion or reaction processing machinery.

"The best examples are in the electric vehicle industry, aerospace, other commercial applications, and anywhere lightweighting is needed," Strall said.

The machine builder also will highlight its newest press technology with MuCell and the HPS-physical foaming screw, which has a longer three-zone area. The screw can be universally used for all plastics — with and without fiber reinforcement — and has a plasticizing capacity that has increased by up to 30 percent.

"This allows for the selection of lesser screw diameters than before, which significantly reduces investment and operating costs for the plasticizing unit, or for the generation of a greater output using a screw of the same size as before," Strall said.

Farrel Pomini will showcase its developments in the areas of biopolymer and recyclate compounding as well as mechanical and chemical recycling.

"Farrel Pomini has a number of ideas and innovations to share with the show's attendees. We are also very pleased that we will be presenting at the NPE sustainability stage," said Paul Lloyd, Farrel Pomini business unit director and president of Farrel Corp.

Processing Technologies International LLC, an Aurora, Ill.-based manufacturer of sheet extrusion machinery, will display examples of its Genesis products.

"All displayed equipment will be available for immediate delivery as is the case with all Genesis program products," President Dana Hanson said.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's Ross said the machine builder is committed to enhancing all-electric press technology.

"At this NPE, we are excited to continue this message by exclusively featuring all-electric exhibits demonstrating high-speed, precision repeatability and energy efficiency," he said. "In our booth, we will feature partners from across the globe furthering our message that we believe in our technology and seek the best partners in the world to deliver high-end production solutions to our customers."

Yizumi-HPM Corp. will show its capabilities for multimaterial and color injection as well in-mold electronics with polyurethane reaction processing.

Sodick-Plustech will put a spotlight on its new VR-G series vertical molding machine with a low table height and fast turntable movement as well as a next-generation controller at NPE.

R&B Machinery will demonstrate a new all-electric continuous extrusion shuttle machine and one of its single screw extruders.

"We will have machines to run and demonstrate at the show, which R&B hasn't done for many years, maybe 20 years, although we've had booths," Piercy said. "We're focused on the new all-electric blow molding machines, shuttle machines and our growth into accumulator head machines, which has been in the last four years. We think we're positioning ourselves pretty well in the North American market to compete with larger blow molding machinery manufacturers when it comes to accumulator heads and shuttles."

Haitian will focus on technology that lets processors reduce energy usage. The machine builder will introduce new presses that incorporate the technology later in 2024.

Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. won't be running any extrusion systems at NPE. Company officials are looking forward to other aspects of the trade show.

"[The Plastics Industry Association] has done a lot to broaden the reach for NPE, and they've galvanized some good energy," W&H President Andrew Wheeler said, adding new programs and events will be offered, including some Spanish-language sessions.

Trade shows are just one aspect of staying in contact with customers.

"We're a global company, and NPE is one facet of our marketing strategy. We have consultancy-based partnerships with our customers and an intimate knowledge of their business, which helps us both grow," Farrel Pomini's Lloyd said.

Milacron's Stirn agreed, saying the machine builder is more influenced by markets than trade shows.

"We're an industrial company. Buying habits are very different than that of a consumer. ... The ROI in trade shows can often be difficult," Stirn said "Having said this, we are always in touch with our customers no matter what is happening in the world around us."

Arburg's Baumann put it this way: "Fundamentally what remains and will remain most important to our customers are the visits by sales managers, service techs and application engineers. These will always be more important than any particular show."

Kautex staff kept close to customers thanks to a strong footprint in the Americas, Heusinger said.

"We try to find a good balance between meetings in person and virtually," he said. "We are also doing more and more hybrid meetings, having a small team on-site and specialists dialing in remotely. This has shown to be very effective."

Machine builders resumed in-person meetings but not to pre-pandemic levels for some.

"This has been incredibly difficult," Morneault said. "We track our in-person visits, weekly for all our field sales, and the number has just not come back to where it once was. So, we have increased our use of social media, webinars, advertising, email blasts, etc., to try and reach our customers and potential customers with our messaging."

Entek's Campbell said staff has "continued to make face-to-face visits a priority, whenever possible."

LS Mtron dramatically increased marketing efforts starting in 2021 to build recognition of the brand in North America, including public relations, advertising and increased participation at industry events. "This, coupled with our fast growth and addition of numerous sales- and service-focused employees, kept our name out there and our presence strong for both our existing and future customers," Gardner said.

At Haitian, some staff members hardly curbed their travels.

"We have a lot of salespeople traveling. I traveled every month during COVID," Frohring said. "We've been aggressively making sure we stay in front of everyone."

KraussMaffei's Strall said traveling and in-person meetings are still especially important and much more prevalent since the pandemic. "Our customers are all pushing for personnel to be back in the office. However, we see there is a balance between in-person and virtual meetings because of efficiencies and lower costs associated, which the pandemic taught us," Strall said.

For W&H staff, Wheeler said, "NPE is an opportunity to see people we know and meet new people. A large contingent of our group is coming from Latin America. I expect an exchange of great energy and knowledge."

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag's Ross said one issue to address will be the unprecedented number of machines purchased in response to pandemic-related products.

"As such, there are now many dormant machines and excess capacity. This has definitely had a direct impact on purchases in 2023," Ross said. "With the market coming together in May of 2024, we expect many productive and positive discussions leading to overall growth in the medical segments and industrywide."