ARM International 28th Annual Spring Conference 

Orlando, Florida, March 13-16 2005

Attendees:  224 (including spouses)

Countries Represented: 5

Molder Companies / Attendees: 36 / 57

Supplier Companies / Attendees: 58 / 123

Presentations

Spring meetings may not be as big or as technical as the Fall meetings but they offer the chance to relax and mix with people at your leisure. Networking is always the number one benefit that people list as the reason to attend and this is the ultimate way to do it. Attendance was good and the hotel was up to par so all in all it was a nice meeting. Nothing too heavy on the technical agenda and, as a bonus, we had an excellent presentation from the Disney Institute on leadership.

Large Machines for Large Parts, Harry Covington, Ferry Industries, Inc.

It looked like rotomolding in the land of the giants for a while here with Harry showing some machines for parts up 26 ft x 10ft (7.9m x 3.0m) including a new style of rock and roll machine called an 'Oscillating Machine' which is mounted on four large ball-screws. It weighs 55,000lbs (25,000kg) and oscillates up and down 28 ft (8.5m) at either end.

Improved Paxon Metallocene XLPE Materials, Ron Cooke, ExxonMobil Chemical Company

ExxonMobil always do an excellent job in their basic material analysis. Ron showed data here relating to a cleaner version of their Paxon crosslink materials which has higher levels of reactive chemicals with an optimized formula that produces better reactivity and faster cycling. Impact performance, gel content and color were also better than the previous generation.

You're On-Line but are Your Prospects Finding You?, Angela Charles, Polysort, LLC.

An interesting presentation on how to spend lots of money to put your company name at the top of the list on search engines such as Google. Did you realize that every time you click on the top 2 or 3 results returned from your searches that it costs the company something like $2.50-$3.00 per click?! I'm still trying to figure out if it was a good thing to have your name up on the screen...

Drop Dart Low Energy Impact Test, Dr. Nick Henwood, Matrix Polymers, Ltd.

Nick discussed the use of a modified version of the ARM impact test which uses a fixed drop height (1m) and variable weights in order to evaluate 'fragile' materials for molders. My question is, what are the applications for fragile materials? 

Supaventing - One Way or the Hard Way, Sandy Scaccia, Norstar Aluminum Molds, Inc.

The Supavent is a great idea using a silicone rubber vent with a pressure relieving reed-valve as a self-maintaining vent. It allows the air inside to escape while keeping the powder inside the mold (the Cycle Time Reduction Committee proposed something similar in Rotation Magazine in 2002). Sandy reported that it also allows the pressure to build-up inside and so accelerate the molding cycle - I wonder if the rubber can really hold 3psi of pressure before the slit opens up? See Tech Transfer for some photographs.

10 Ways to Save 10% in Rotomolding, Paul Nugent

A quick listing of some of the ways that you might be able to improve your operation using existing technology. Take a look at the presentation at 10 Ways. Always interested to hear what you think.

Leadership, Disney Style, Disney Institute

Excellent presentation, very well presented and with underlying themes that translate into any operation. I learned quite a bit.

How to Control Your Unemployment Costs, Jerry Hoffman, UCAC

Sorry didn't see this one.

International Update, Dave Mulligan, Ravi Mehra, International Committee

Dave and Ravi gave an overview of developments in India and other parts of the world. The new Indian group SARD (South Asia Rotomoulding Division) will be holding an event in conjunction with PlastIndia on February 15-16, 2006. ARM will have a booth at BrasilPlast in April and is looking at setting up a South American Group. An advisory group has been established to find out what South American molders would like ARM to do. ARM is talking about representation in China - China has recently established a government sponsored group for rotomolding - nothing active by ARM at present however. Despite the current interaction, I was surprised not to hear mention of ARMO and what is happening in terms of the relationship between the groups.

Reactive Graphics Solutions for Polyolefin Products, Jason Brownell, Mold In Graphic Systems

Jason brings a fresh approach with focused, to-the-point presentations on the excellent development work by MIG. He covered conductive graphics, security graphics, barcodes, manual sequential numbering and RFID tags embedded in RMC3.

Material Handling of Poly Resins, Bob Slate, Tilt-Tank Services

Bob presented concepts for transporting bulk materials between facilities in trailers that double as storage silos. It was an interesting concept - I'm curious to see what the benefits would be over traditional over the road tanker trucks.

New Rotomolding Products, Jon Ratzlaff, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company

Jon reviewed four new grades that Chevron Phillips have developed for rotomolding.

Building Better Customer Solutions from the Ground Up, John Zenner, Cytec Industries, Inc.

John presented details of new additive systems that produce UV15 and beyond protection while reducing the additive percentage levels over traditional HALS. Always good news for rotomolding materials.

Accurate Determination of Heat Flow, Dr. Nicholas Rodriguez, Ciateq, A.C.

Nicholas presented some detailed work that Ciateq have been developing to model heat flow in rotomolding ovens. I look forward to seeing more information as their project progresses - perhaps at the Fall meetings.

Gala Dinner

Conference Chairman Mike Dorsey had two armfuls of trouble with Julie Mulligan and that crazy, good looking chick from Ireland.

Portia and Jim Hummel of Powder King chatting about how much warmer it was in Arizona with Thomas Cramer of Chroma Colors. Is that Harry Howard enjoying himself in the background?

Marci and Tom Innis have just moved recently to somewhere near Fargo and were just happy to be in the heat of Florida for a change. From his tan, you can tell that Sandy Scaccia of Norstar Molds is happy there too.

The ever bright and cheerful Conchita Miranda of Miraplastek with Jose Luis Jesus and Roberto Remy of Alpina Termoplasticos of Brasil.

Bruce and Janeen Frank of Trilogy Plastics chatting with the graceful and charming Susan Gibson of Rotoworld Magazine. Oh, and that's Jim Leitz of Gregstrom Plastics in there too.

Ravi Mehra of Norstar Molds, Corky Carlsen of Solar Plastics and Sherman McKinniss of Rotonics.

Some true heavyweights in the industry, ARMI CEO Jeff Arnold, Bob Sly of Reduction Engineering and Scott Saxman of Mold In Graphics. And there's that tan again from Sandy Scaccia!

Bob Bunday of Chroma Corp. with Steve Andrzejewski of Equistar and Jiong Yu and Florencio Topete of CIBA Specialty Chemicals.

Darci and Corey Claussen of Custom Roto-mold with Ted Hardmeyer of Polyone.

A rose between two thorns? No, it's Greg LeFevre of A. Schulman with Harry Covington of Ferry Industries and Brian Olesen of Centro.

A thorn between two roses? No, it's Horacio Lobo of Negocios Especializados with his wife Anis and Jennifer Gibson of Rotoworld Magazine. 

Lovebirds Sheri and Bruce Muller of Plastics Consulting, Inc. relaxing with Jay Kelsall of RMI.

There's that cool chick again with Marilyn Wade of Rochester Rotational Molding, southern gent Charlie Busceme of ICO Polymers and star of the west E.J. Consen of Entec.

Contrary to the rumors, relationships between SPE and ARMI are actually quite good. Jon Ratzlaff of Chevron Phillips and Barry Aubrey of Cyclics Corp. were ready to jump in and save ARMI CEO Jeff Arnold - he didn't realize that I have a black belt in Origami.

La Famiglia - three generations of Claerbouts take on the house at the Casino Evening. I understand that they control the waste management business in Wisconsin....

The winning team - Orla figures out with Corky and Chuck Carlsen how they will spend their consortium's $600,000 winnings. Orla and Corky wanted to go shopping but in the end, the top prize of a free registration for the next meeting was drawn from a hat from everyone who joined in and went to Doren Connors of Remcon Plastics. 

Hope to see you all in Chicago (if not before)!

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to email@paulnugent.com with questions or comments about this web site.

Copyright © 2001-2006 Paul Nugent
Last modified: April 06, 2005