Industry Trends
Automation is one facet of injection molding where investment continues. "The industry is seeing a downward trend for new molding machines, but robots and automation remain strong as processors still battle labor issues and staying competitive," said Jason Long, vice president of sales at Wittmann USA.
Derek Moeller, founder and CEO of CognitionWorks and president of Surain Industries, expects these artificial intelligence trends to take hold in the plastics and other industries.
Plastics processors are taking their first steps to store the knowledge of retiring engineers and technicians, bring new hires up to speed more quickly and access a secure global database related to machine operations.
Inside a plant at 95th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue sit two massive injection molding machines primed to make compostable plastic utensils. They're also going to make workers.
Perc Pineda was hired by Plastics Industry Association has a chief economist in 2017.
The number of college graduates boomeranging back to live with their parents and senior citizens moving in with their middle-age children has been hindering the housing market for years. At least 3 million fewer households formed in the last six years compared to the period prior to 2007. However, economists see signs that young adults will leave the nest for good and older adults will age in place somewhere independently.
AKRON, OHIO — The North American plastic recycling sector had its own particular set of challenges in 2012-2013, but none of those hurdles have been able to stop the industry from growing, though the growth hasn't been as robust as industry participants might have expected.
INDIANAPOLIS — Sales and profits are on the rise for most North American processors, according to a fall 2013 survey of the plastics processors industry from Plante && Moran PLLC.
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY — World production of plastics rose nearly 3 percent in 2012, according to figures from PlasticsEurope, the Brussels-based trade association.
TAIZHOU, CHINA — China's plastics processing industry continued its slower pace of growth in the first half of the year, with exports in particular seeing a slowdown caused by global economic uncertainty and rising costs hurting competitiveness, according to the country's main plastics trade association.
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