news | NPE 2015 NPE 2015 draws in the crowds
NPE organisers SPI said the 2015 event was on course to break records and it did. Registrations for the US show last month totalled 65,180 – up by 19% on 2012 (the first held at the Orange County Conven- tion Centre in Orlando, Florida) and an all-time record for the 69-year old exhibition. SPI said those registrations
came from 23,396 unique companies (up by 22% on 2012) while 26% came from outside the US, including 5,000 from Latin America. “We expected it to grow but it has exceeded our expectations,”
the show floor over the five-days.
SPI also put an end to talk of Visitors crowd the aisle in NPE’s West Hall
said Gene Sanders, SPI vice president in charge of trade shows and conferences. NPE 2015 clearly benefited
from the resurgence in the US economy and a willingness on
the part of US companies to invest in new – and particularly automated – production equipment. Sanders estimat- ed $100bn of accumulated purchasing power was walking
Stork pulls out all the stops
Netherlands-based injection machinery maker Stork managed to turn disaster into an opportunity at NPE. The 440 tonne machine that was to be the centrepiece of its exhibit was involved in a road accident on the way to the show, tipping
the machine onto the road. The impact put the frame out of alignment, destroyed the control cabinet and some of the hydraulics, and wrecked much of the guarding. With replacement impos- sible, the company made the
decision to repair the machine on the stand. After three days of hard work on the show floor, and a little bit of help from other exhibitors with some replacement hydraulic components, the team led by service manager Ronald Dekker had the machine producing 0.5 gallon thin wall pails for the show opening. “The big thing in injection moulding is how good your service is. When I saw the damage I said we have to repair it,” said CEO Rob Spekreijse. “I’m not happy that it happened – it was a disaster. But I’m happy we were able to show we could support it.” Unfortunately for the US
Stork's Ronald Dekker led the on-site repairs 8 INJECTION WORLD | April 2015
customer that was to take delivery of the machine after the show there will now be a wait as it has to return to the factory in Europe. ❙
www.storkimm.com
a return to NPE’s former home in Chicago. There is no doubt that the city of Orlando has welcomed the show and SPI president and CEO Bill Carteaux said it had confirmed space at the Orange County venue there for 2018 and 2021 (the next show will run from 7-11 May in 2018) and has reserved an option for 2024. It seems palm trees and plastics will be the NPE standard for some time to come. ❙
www.npe.org
Mold- Masters gets smart
Milacron introduced its Mold-Masters Smartmold technology, which uses sensors in the hot runner manifold to continuously feed real-time data about the moulding process directly into a production data system via a wireless connection. “In every injection moulding system today the mould is dumb yet it is the most important part of the process,” said Milacron chief technology officer Bruce Catoen. “We have installed sensors in the hot runner that allow us to tell exactly what is going on. We can upload that data to the cloud or to a data manage- ment system.” ❙
www.moldmasters.com
www.injectionworld.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64