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Until recently, vacuum maker Bissell viewed the costs of its outsourced plastic parts as largely inscrutable, simply accepting their price structure and design facets as delivered.

The drive to reduce medical costs in the United States is triggering more patient care in their homes, where costs are lower and there are reduced risks to acquire potentially deadly infections, such as MRSA and other penicillin-resistant bacteria.

Van Dorn Demag has long boasted one of the biggest installed machine bases in North America, an understandable claim given that its very first molding machines came off the production line at the old E. 79th St. plant in Cleveland in 1945. But perhaps just as impressive, is its installed people base.

While automotive suppliers are more optimistic about increased business from the OEMs in 2013, OEMs continue to be concerned about tightening capacity and suppliers’ ability to meet launch schedules. Those are the latest findings from the Automotive Supplier Barometer released this week by the Original Equipment Suppliers Association in partnership with Deloitte LLP.
   

The truly amazing revelation that came out of the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh three weeks ago is the number of clothing manufacturers that didn’t know their clothing was being made at that sub-contractor’s facility. The supply chain is a tricky business. OEMs contract to a supplier to get specific parts, but if that contractor maxes out capacity, often they’ll sub-contract to another company lower down on the tier without telling the OEM that their parts are being made elsewhere.
   

While there were several papers presented on validation of mold-fill simulations, another type of validation was very intriguing: conformal cooling.

Editor's Note: PlasticsToday sent injection molding expert and 45-year veteran of the plastics industry, Bill Tobin to the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) ANTEC annual technical conference to get an expert's take on all things injection molding at the event. This is the second installment in a three-part series.

A new "smart catheter" senses the start of an infection and automatically releases an anti-bacterial substance. It is being tested at the University of Michigan in an effort to stop catheter-related blood and urinary tract infections.

Dipankar Koley, the principal researcher on the project, said the technology can be applied to catheters inserted into blood vessels and the urinary tract.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly in the spotlight in trouble spots throughout the world, but they are also finding increased use in civilian applications. In parallel, suppliers of advanced thermoplastics such as Sabic are addressing demands for aerospace grade materials that meet a number of stringent operational requirements.

Transfer molding with a thermosetting compound and a proprietary tool is being positioned as an alternative to use of thermoplastics and standard injection molding in the production of some semiconductor devices.

Dutch firm Sencio BV (Nijmegen) says its nCapsulate technology can deliver better isotropy and thermomechanical stability than thermoplastics and standard injection molding.

Record 2012 sales for a key client translated to a huge new workload for Design Molded Plastics (DMP), but instead of being overwhelmed, the custom injection molder responded, and was rewarded with a Supplier of the Year recognition in April.