Machinery firms give positive reviews to first US plastics show since early 2020

Anaheim, Calif. — Attendance was noticeably light at the Plastec West trade show, held Aug. 10-12 in Anaheim.

"We're definitely seeing lower traffic to the booth, it's down compared to previous years. But the quality of leads is as good or better," said Eric Adair, marketing manager at Westerly, R.I.-based US Extruders.

Exhibitors came to the show with low expectations. After all, this was the first in-person North American plastics trade show since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, especially with positive cases spiking again, companies knew that some would-be attendees would stay home.

So while there was some grumbling about the empty aisles, machinery executives were mostly happy.

"It was definitely worthwhile coming," said Chuck Gorman, national sales manager at injection press maker Shibaura Machine Co. America. "We have a pretty big West Coast customer base. We weren't sure what to expect this year, but we've seen a lot of customers."

Like many Plastec West exhibitors, this was the first in-person U.S. trade show for Shibaura Machine since the previous Anaheim show, which was held Feb. 11-13, 2020. That was one of the last major North American plastics events held before travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders from COVID-19 impacted the trade show business.

Missing NPE, which had originally been scheduled for May 17-21, 2021, in Orlando, Fla., was a disappointment for some machinery exhibitors like Shibaura Machine. It would have been an opportunity to reinforce its recent rebranding to North American customers. Japanese machinery maker Toshiba Machine Co. Ltd. changed its name to Shibaura Machine Co. Ltd., effective April 1, 2020.

Gorman estimated Plastec attendance was about half a typical Anaheim show. Plastec West and its related shows — Medical Design & Manufacturing West, WestPack, D&M West and Automation Technology Expo — are collectively known as Informa plc's Advanced Manufacturing West. The co-located annual shows regularly draw about 20,000 attendees and 1,900 exhibitors to the Anaheim Convention Center.

Without NPE, machinery companies have been scrambling to reach customers. Some, including auxiliary equipment supplier Conair Group of Cranberry Township, Pa., held successful virtual events.

"Our new product development cycle doesn't stop just because they cancel the show," said Sam Rajkovich, Conair's vice president of sales and marketing.

Conair's virtual event drew 1,500 people. "Not quite NPE, but still pretty good," Rajkovich said. "And what's interesting is they were there for Conair. They were there to see us.

"I don't know if it will become an annual event, but we felt it was important to show our customers all of the things that we were working on. We couldn't think of a better way to do it."

Plastec West doesn't have the infrastructure to handle lots of working machinery like NPE, but Conair did have equipment on display. Like previous Anaheim shows, the company worked with partners on a medical-themed cell.

This year Conair teamed with extruder maker Davis-Standard LLC and noncontact measurement company Zumbach Electronics Corp. to produce polypropylene medical swab components.

"In past shows we did a lot of tubing," Rajkovich said. Swabs, which are used in COVID tests, were a good way to demonstrate a product that's in heavy demand in 2021.

"We're extremely busy, which is a challenge because of the global component shortage and supply chain issues," he said. "It's been putting pressure on our team; it's a daily challenge for us. But it's a good problem to have. We get up every day ready to meet the demands of our customers and understanding the pressures that they face."

In Anaheim, some exhibitors scaled back their booth personnel to match the smaller crowds. Marko Koorneef, president of injection press maker Boy Machines Inc. of Exton, Pa., did the opposite. He brought two more people this year than he did in 2020.

"We thought that this is the first show in almost two years, we expected that we'd see people who have been waiting to come to a face-to-face event. I wanted to make sure we had enough people in the booth to cater to that," Koorneef said.

"This is much better than I expected. I'm glad we brought more people," he said.

Koorneef and others said that people who braved coming to a trade show during a pandemic did so because they need to add capacity, solve problems or get the latest technology.

"We're seeing more customers and fewer people who are just kicking tires," he said.

Informa plc made some changes to the 2021 show to deal with COVID. Name badges were optional — most attendees downloaded a show floor pass onto their telephones, which were scanned at the doors. There was no carpet in the aisles, and there were signs at the entrances with messages including "face covering recommended" and "check your temperature, 100.4 or below."

There were no vaccine passport requirements, though, or temperature checks. About a third of the attendees were wearing masks, which were not required.

Some exhibitors, including Glenn Starkey, president of Progressive Components, wondered how cancellation of the NPE2021 show will impact his business in the coming years. NPE is held every three years, so the next event is scheduled for May 6-10, 2024.

"We've used this time to develop new products that will help us in 2022 and 2023," said Starkey, whose Wauconda, Ill.-based company sells mold components and monitoring systems.

"This [Anaheim show] is good for us because our roots are in the medical mold market. We're always excited about coming to a West Coast show. The demand of that market are high, and we are well suited for that," he said.

Adair and Doug Johnson at US Extruders said losing in-person trade shows has made marketing a challenge, but the company still managed to see sales growth of about 20 percent in 2020.

"We grew and added people," Johnson said. "The medical market is back to pre-pandemic levels. Automotive, construction including doors and windows, and home appliances are all strong markets."

Gorman at Shibaura reported that missing NPE gave his company more time to develop some Industry 4.0 technology, which it will introduce in the coming months.

"We've been very busy. To be quite honest, [not having NPE] has been a huge blessing for us. We're working on some neat things that we are really excited about," Gorman said.