Most-Read Plastics Business Stories of 2017
Plastics Business
Plastics Business
While work on Plastics Business‘s first issue of 2018 is well underway, we paused to see the topics with which our readers spent the most time last year. We found that readers often check through our archives, referring to information published as far back as 2009. The following stories, published in 2017, were the top reads for nearly 27,000 visitors to the website.
- 2017 Plastics Industry Outlook: Optimistic and Automated
More than 90 percent of plastics processing executives anticipate either steady or increased business activity for 2017, according to the recent State of the Plastics Industry Report from the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors (MAPP).
- Liquid Color for Plastics: Friend or Foe?
In the early 1980s, liquid color acquired a reputation as an unreliable method of coloring thermoplastics, primarily due to the lack of technology involving the carrier and delivery systems.
- Applying the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 in the Plastics Sector
Everyone is talking about the promise of the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the related concept of Industry 4.0. But, discussions often are broadly conceptual, giving manufacturing operations managers and executives little real-world guidance on how to leverage new information and operational technologies to drive efficiencies in their facilities.
- Material Development for 3D Printing
In the past few years, injection molders have gone from using 3D printers almost exclusively to create prototypes to exploring larger scale production opportunities for complex parts. However, material developers havent always kept up with industry changes.
- 3D Printing Takes on a New Shape
Even as resin development takes a step forward, 3D-printed objects still have inherent structural flaws because of the layered building steps of the traditional additive manufacturing process. A Coeur dAlene, Idaho-based company has patented a 3D printing technology that combines continuous fibers with UV-curable resins to 3D print composite parts without the restrictions and limitations of layering.
