Moving towards sustainability - NPE2012

Automotive, medical and consumer products, packaging, building and construction are the main applications targeted by exhibitors at NPE2012. North America's biggest plastics and rubber show is set to take place on 1-5 April 2012 at its new venue -- the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida -- after 40 years in Chicago. The improved economies and logistics of this new venue have encouraged many NPE2012 exhibitors to bring more machinery to the show, much of it to be operated on-site, according to John Effmann of ENTEK Manufacturing Inc, who is chairman of NPE2012.

For the automotive industry, plastics provide light-weighting solutions as replacements for metal, glass, and rubber. Besides direct substitution, plastics make possible weight reduction through their design freedom, consolidating multiple parts. In addition, some of the latest developments involving electric-drive control, infotainment, and voice recognition, and how plastics play essential roles in housings, connectors, switches, wiring, conduit, display and touch screens, and other components will also be shown.

SPE ANTEC? 2012, the world's largest plastics technical conference, will be co-located with NPE2012 and include an entire session on innovations in automotive plastics, along with other sessions dealing with process, materials, and engineering technologies of importance to automotive manufacturers.

With a strong focus on sustainability, bioplastic resins as well as recycling equipment and solutions will be highlighted and encompass all other sectors that will be featured. A special multi-exhibitor Emerging Technologies Pavilion will include companies and organisations involved with bioplastics, including SPI's Bioplastics Council.

Merchandisers, packagers, designers, processors, and converters will discover the newest polymer technologies for packaging at this year's edition. In many cases, visitors from the packaging industry will be able to observe commercial-scale production of film, thermoformed sheet, bottles, and containers right on the exhibit floor.

"Polymer technologies for the packaging and web converting industries will be everywhere at NPE2012," said Mr. Effmann. "Packaging is the largest single resin user worldwide and the fastest-growing sector of the plastics industry in developing countries. In the United States, one-third of all resin shipped each year is used for flexible packaging, bottles, cosmetic jars, shrink wrap, dairy tubs, egg cartons - on and on." Since most of the 2,000 exhibiting companies include either packaging producers or web converters among their clientele, the trade show portion of NPE2012 will present these professionals with a treasury of new equipment, materials, software, and services.

The 2nd International Plastics Design Competition will also be held. SPE ANTEC? 2012 will have multi-paper sessions dedicated to flexible packaging and bioplastics, respectively, as well as to key primary processes like blow moulding, extrusion, thermoforming, and other relevant sectors like thermoplastics raw materials, colour, and decorating.

New resources for visitors
Now online at www.npe.org are resources that can help international visitors get the most benefit from next year's greatest plastics exposition, according to the SPI. Visitors can register online at www.npe.org. and can access a multilingual section of the website that provides information on NPE2012 and instructions regarding visitor delegations and visa requirements, with links to relevant government agencies.

By visiting the NPE2012 website and clicking on "Attend," then "International," attendees can access information in English and seven other languages on several services. General and country-specific information is available on which visitors require visas to enter the United States, the visa applicatioJunior