Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Getting back on the road
      How long will it take for EVs to replace internal combustion engines?
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
    • Kickstart: No one said returning to school would be easy
      Kickstart: Best foot forward
      Kickstart: Heading back to the office ... sometime
      Kickstart: 'Have an adventure in life'
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Plaskolite wins 3M supplier award
      Green feet: Braskem partners with Dansko on bio-based clogs
      Curbell donates plastic sheet for prosthetics project in Ecuador
      Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      The benefits of getting social
      Rising Stars shine bright future on industry
      Getting back on the road
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      College training, programs
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling Systems Customized for Any Process or Budget Need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell
      Sponsored By Shell
      Food and Beverage Trends Impacting the Polymer Industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
August 14, 2020 02:22 PM

SimTech lets top technicians compete for ‘major bragging rights'

Don Loepp
Plastics News Editor
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Johnny Ash, left, a process technician at Preformed Line Products in Rogers, Ark., won SimTech Challenge in 2019. Heather Wegner, right, process improvement lead at Orbis Corp.’s Monticello, Iowa, molding plant, has been entering the challenge for about five months.

    Johnny Ash is the Michael Phelps of injection molding. Or maybe the Joey Chestnut. Whatever analogy works best for describing the top plastics technician in the world.

    Throw a tough molding challenge at Ash, and he'll fix it in a jiffy. Usually faster than anyone else in the world.

    We know that thanks to the SimTech Challenge, a contest that Paulson Training Program Inc. first introduced two years ago at NPE2018. Ash won the contest's top prize in 2019, and he's still a regular on top of the leaderboard.

    Paulson Training is a family-owned company that makes interactive plastics training courses, offers e-learning programs and conducts seminars. It came up with the contest to help spread the word about its SimTech injection molding machine simulator.

    In the process, the company ended up tapping into the competitive side of thousands of plastic technicians.

    Karen M. Paulson
    Solving problems for fun

    For the contest, each month Paulson Training comes up with a challenging molding problem that entrants need to solve. Then they optimize the all-virtual project in as few shots as possible while following good molding practices. There's no charge, and all the work is done remotely. The only requirement is a valid email address.

    "It can be a variety of things," President Karen Paulson said. "There's one, two or three problems, and usually the cycle is not optimized to some degree. So you have to solve the problems, and you have to optimize the machine."

    Good molding practices include having the melt temperature within 2° F of the front zone barrel temperature, having the cushion size less than 10 percent of the screw back distance, and the transfer from velocity control to pressure control (the VPT setpoint) between 94-96 percent.

    "In addition to any problems that you have to solve, you have to make sure that those three things are in line," Karen Paulson said.

    "Now, depending on how complicated we want to make the challenge, sometimes we might have those things already done for you. On the harder ones, we may have none of those three things set, so you have to do that in addition to solving all the problems."

    The contests are conducted monthly, and the website has a live leaderboard where entrants can track their results. The top performer in all the monthly contests is crowned the industry's top injection molder.

     

    Crowning the champion

    Even for Ash, the 2019 winner, the challenges haven't been easy. The 56-year-old is a process technician from Seligman, Mo. He's worked at Preformed Line Products' Rogers, Ark., plant for 32 years, the past 22 in injection molding.

    "They started the contest in 2018 at NPE, and I did one of the challenges and took third place. A year or so later, I started another one," Ash said. "I just wanted to see how well I would do, test my knowledge. I was really surprised by how well I did."

    The number of entrants varies month to month. Typically there are about 800. To date, more than 10,000 people have entered the challenge at least once.

    Ash credits his former boss, Steve Leden, a plastics engineer, with teaching him to truly understand how plastics work.

    "He was good at making you think. That's what helps me out a lot," Ash said.

    Monthly winners get a $500 credit for Paulson training, which anyone at their company can use, plus a hat and a T-shirt. Not to mention some major bragging rights.

    Ash admits he has a competitive streak, and he enjoys solving plastics molding problems the way others like putting together jigsaw puzzles.

    "I like fixing stuff. When the operators have problems, it makes me feel good to help them out. And hopefully they can learn some things from me when we're doing it. It's all about learning as much as you can," Ash said.

     

    Real-world challenges

     

    While all the molding is virtual, Ash said the challenge is very much like solving real-world plastics problems. That's an opinion shared by Heather Wegner, process improvement lead at Orbis Corp.'s Monticello, Iowa, molding plant. She's been entering the challenge for about five months and has finished as high as third place.

    "I do have some passion about understanding injection molding, knowing how to troubleshoot problems," Wegner said. "I have always been interested in the mechanics of how things work. I'm a detail-oriented, meticulous person. I like to dig deep. I've been like that as long as I can remember," she said.

    She won a $200 certificate for Paulson training, which she's eager to use. "I'm always interested in expanding my knowledge," she said.

    Wegner, 34, started at Orbis at age 20. On the job, she enjoys getting molds to run in a repeatable process. In the contest, she's doing the same thing.

    "It does get a little stressful, when they have a monthly contest that they rate 'very difficult.' As an experienced processor, I know that some changes should have a specific result, but sometimes things don't go the way you think they should," Wegner said. "I think it's fun. Maybe I'm just kind of a nerd," she joked.

    Brown-Thomason

    Training and prizes

    Some companies, including Jones Plastic & Engineering LLC, use the SimTech Challenge internally. Tonia Brown-Thomason, human resources manager at the company's Camden, Tenn., plant, has been encouraging her process technicians to participate every month.

    "Camden is in remote rural Tennessee; I don't have processors knocking on my door walking in and wanting jobs. We have to grow our own pool. We have to build our own talent. So SimTech helps us do that," Brown-Thomason said.

    She offers prizes to the top performers in the plant.

    "I tell them, 'You know you can win money if you enter.' It motivates them to try. And they don't realize they're learning the whole time. It's a win-win," she said.

    Brown-Thomason encourages entry-level workers to enter the contest, too, hoping it will start them on a path to more training and advancement.

    "I'm definitely on board with finding hidden gems in the company," she said. "We really enjoy the program. I hope it continues on and on for a long time."

    Michelle Paulson

    Michelle Parr Paulson, director of marketing communications at Paulson Training, is happy with what the SimTech Challenge is accomplishing.

    "They're fun to do, and it's a great way to engage customers and offer them a free way to learn something," she said. "It's a nice little value-add that Paulson can do. As long as people are engaged and actively participating, we'll keep doing this with them."

    The company touts SimTech is a cost-effective way for technicians and operators to practice machine setup and solve molded part problems. Michelle Parr Paulson explains that it is like training a pilot on a flight simulator: It's easier to play with the controls when it's all virtual and there's no danger of crashing.

    "Basically it's an injection molding machine on a computer," Karen Paulson said. "Once you take the training and you have the knowledge, instead of going right out to start practicing on a real machine, you practice on the simulator."

    The simulator was created as a training tool, using decades of data and research compiled by her father, company founder Don Paulson.

    "Basically it's Don's brain in a computer, which is why the logo for SimTech is his head — a profile of his head with some gears in it," Michelle Paulson said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions