Loose Plastics Inc., a custom sheet extrusion manufacturer based in Gladwin, Mich., is on a path to grow the business.

Extrusion machinery sales held their own in 2019, despite challenges of slowing economic growth, tariff wars and global uncertainty, machinery executives said. The blown and cast film machinery sector could be a victim of its own success, as several strong sales years could leave an overhang for 2020.

Houston Community College hosted plastics industry executives during an October manufacturing conference on how technology is changing the industry, a polycarbonate peek at Corvette's jewel and Sotheby's has the toys and props you're looking for. 

Women use and interpret words one way, while men use and interpret words another way. And in the workplace, especially, those differences create a challenge that's twofold: a powerful imbalance and an unnoticed bilingual environment, said Lindsay Cronkright of Currier Plastics Inc.

For 2019, uncertainty became the new normal for suppliers of injection molding machines to North America, as they adapted to the unknown, prepared for the unexpected and struggled to convert interest into hard sales.

The German maker of extrusion blow molding machinery is adding 40,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 7,400 square feet of office space to the existing 115,000-square-foot facility.

A new project is collecting trash from fishing boats catching marine debris, Scotland’s MacRebur Plastic Road Company paves a way to plastic roads in the U.S. and LOL Surprise’s tiny toys now have a more sustainable solution for their packaging.

Some injection molding machines at Dr. Boy Gmbh & Co. KG are getting a hybrid option, with optional servo-electric drive for the injection unit on its Boy E presses ranging from 60-125 metric tons.

While many of the larger machinery makers at K 2019 are feeling the effects of uncertainty in the global economy, Italian machinery maker BMB SpA is experiencing the opposite.

Tom Goeke and Bruce Chalmers led Milacron Holdings Corp. through an initial public offering and a 50th anniversary. And now with a completed sale of Milacron to Hillenbrand Inc., the CEO and chief financial officer have stepped away from the machinery maker.

Negri Bossi SpA has seen steady sales near the $100 million point, but it last posted a profit in 2016. The acquisition by Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd. will expand the range of injection molding machinery sizes offered by Nissei while also expanding its geographic reach. 

A new edible and biodegradable material, made of fishing waste and algae, was designed by the 2019 James Dyson Award winner for design, Hillenbrand completes nearly $2 billion Milacron acquisition and get your plastic toy fix on a new season of Netflix’s “The Toys That Made Us.”

Milacron shareholders had already approved the deal on Nov. 20, and Hillenbrand followed up that news a day later with a news release that it has wrapped up its cash and stock transaction.

For injection molding machinery maker Engel Austria GmbH, transparency throughout the entire process is the ultimate goal of digital transformation in manufacturing.

Italian hot runner manufacturer HRSflow GmbH, a division of mold maker Inglass SpA, is showing a range of product developments aimed at improving the injection molding process.