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Guangzhou, China - For Bob Preston, president and CEO of Davis-Standard, it's a no brainer to have a presence at Chinaplas 2013.

"About 30% of our business is in Asia-Pacific, which is why Chinaplas is important to us," Preston said. "We're committed to expanding the footprint in this area, not just the manufacturing footprint, but also in expanding the capability in areas of service aftermarket and technical support."

Leading polyamide supplier Invista (Wichita, KS) has signed a Land Reservation Agreement with the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Development Company for a polyamide 6,6 resin site at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP).

The 2013 edition of Chinaplas opened in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou today augmenting its status as the second largest plastics industry show in the world. Over 2900 exhibitors from 38 countries occupying 220,000 square meters of floor space, 15 national pavilions, and an anticipated 120,000 visitors, including 30,000 overseas visitors from 150 countries attest to the global status of Chinaplas and the importance of the China market to global and local suppliers of processing machinery and materials.

A nucleating agent has helped push homopolymer polypropylene (PP) into thermoformed packaging applications with the promise of better haze and less yellowing compared to conventional nucleated PP homopolymers.

Next Generation Films (Lexington, OH) has ordered another 3-layer blown-film line from Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. with an addition system being specified out. The latest system will be a three-layer Varex with a 134-inch working width, grooved feed extruders (105.30/135.30/105.30D), Optifil P3 gauge-control system, Opticool high-output air ring and a 35.43-inch Maxicone C die.

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.