SPE Library
The SPE Library contains thousands of papers, presentations, journal briefs and recorded webinars from the best minds in the Plastics Industry. Spanning almost two decades, this collection of published research and development work in polymer science and plastics technology is a wealth of knowledge and information for anyone involved in plastics.
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Webinars
Compensation of Plastics Professionals: Perspective, Trends, and Forecast
The program will look at salary trends and the factors that affect your money. Dennis will provide an overview of the past five years of employment in the plastics industry. Specifically, he will analyze the growth curve of compensation for roles in manufacturing, engineering, sales, supply chain, and general management.
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy in Failure & Compositional Analysis
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a fundamental analytical technique for the analysis of organic materials. It provides critical information in the evaluation of polymeric materials, including material identification, contamination, and degradation. The webinar will present a fundamental understanding of the technique and the following topics will be covered:
Failure Associated With Injection Molding
The injection molding process is one of the key characteristics that determines how a plastic part will perform in service. Manufacturers certainly attempt to avoid failure, but often unanticipated factors result in unexpected problems.
The chances for a successful application can be significantly increased through preventative measures, including appropriate material selection, proper mold design, and process development. Even when appropriate actions are taken, failures can still occur. The evaluation of these failures provides an opportunity for learning. By understanding how and why a plastic component is failed, steps can be taken to prevent future occurrences. Case Studies will be presented to illustrate failures associated with the deficiencies from the injection molding process.
The presented cases will illustrate how the failure analysis process was used to identify the failure mechanism as well as the primary factors responsible for the failures.
Managing Difficult People Without Becoming One of Them
Being an effective and positive communicator at work is vital to every role. When we work with other people, however, communication styles don’t always work well together. This webinar will share ideas about how to be a successful communicator as well as how to deal with people whose communication styles don’t always complement yours.
While this webinar is not a ‘conflict management how-to,’ the communication etiquette tips shared will help make some of those situations easier. First setting a positive foundation can assist with making negative communication situations easier to handle. Additionally, learning how to provide a sincere apology without overdoing it - and communicating personal responsibility and credibility - can help calm impassioned interactions. In truth, we can’t change others…but we can manage ourselves and thus mitigate negative situations.
Giving High Impact Feedback
Giving ongoing feedback to direct reports and colleagues is one of a manager's and team leader's most critical responsibilities. Feedback helps enhance individual and team performance. It also contributes to high levels of employee motivation and helps build trust. OnPoint's webinar, Giving High-Impact Feedback, helps managers and team leaders create a climate that supports open feedback, provides strategies to reduce defensiveness, and ensures feedback is perceived as useful.
Objective: To build the skills to give feedback to drive higher performance and development, including:
Degradation Failure of Plastics
Plastic materials offer a unique balance of strength and ductility associated with their inherent viscoelastic nature. However, they are susceptible to molecular degradation through a variety of exposures. Molecular degradation is a permanent change in molecular weight that reduces the mechanical properties and integrity of the plastic material. This degradation can occur during compounding, processing, storage, or while in service. Such degradation mechanisms include:
The various forms of molecular degradation account for approximately 20% of plastic part failure, and an understanding of the nature of degradation can help to prevent failure. Topics covered during this session will include:
Bumps & Bruises: Starting Your First Real Job
However you finished in academia, your first job is a clean slate. You’ll start to develop who you are professionally. How do you want to be? What do you want to be? These are all questions that time mindful thought to answer … and only you can answer them for yourself! This webinar will cover:
Introduction to Design for Rotational Molding
This one-hour seminar is an introduction to the rotational molding process, applications and basic design guidelines. The presentation will be forty-five minutes followed by a 10-15 minute Q&A. Rotational Molding Process — A brief description of the process will be discussed to acquaint the attendees with the equipment, processing overview and tooling requirements. Approx. 10 mins. Applications — Rotational molding applications will be highlighted within market groups. A brief description of the market, design overview and advantages of the process will be discussed to familiarize attendees with suitable applications of the process. Approx. 10 mins. Design Guidelines — The remainder of the presentation will be focused on fundamental design guidelines for the rotational molding process. The focus is on basic design, due to time constraints; the speaker will highlight major parameters associated with the process which distinguish it from other plastic molding processes. Although the design guidelines will be constrained to essential considerations, attendees will learn about the basics of designing for the rotational molding process. Approx. 25 mins.
Understanding Failure Rate in Plastic Components
When a plastic part fails, a tough question is often asked, “Why are a limited number of parts failing?”. This is particularly true with seemingly random failures at significant, but low, failure rates. Two aspects are generally linked to such low failure rates, multiple factor concurrency and the statistical nature of plastic failures. Failure often only takes place when two or more factors take effect concurrently. Absent one of these factors, failure will not occur. Plastic resins and the associated forming processes produce parts with a statistical distribution of performance properties, such as strength and ductility. Likewise, environmental conditions, including stress and temperature, to which the resin is exposed through its life cycle is also a statistical distribution. Failure occurs when a portion of the distribution of stress on the parts exceeds a portion of the distribution of strength of the parts. This webinar will illustrate how the combination of multiple factor concurrency and the inherent statistical nature of plastic materials can result in seemingly random failures.
Meetings from Ordinary to Extraordinary
Effective meetings are a competitive advantage for organizations. The ability to set up a conversation, manage the conversation, and wrap it up effectively is usually the missing piece in most organizations. Meetings continue to be a source of frustration—especially when people end up taking work home to make up for time lost in unproductive meetings. Make your meetings a welcome part of your week with this workshop on process skills, which can also expand your influence in the organization. While most people think that passion, knowledge, and drive are all they need to succeed, your meeting skills are what will set you apart.
Strategies for Flexible Package Integrity and Seal Inspection
The field of flexible packaging continues to evolve with new and unique packaging designs. With the shift into new materials and formats, the means for assuring package quality and integrity introduce unique challenges. Creative application of new technology allows for more effective inspection of seal quality and the detection of microleaks.
The webinar will cover technologies deployed for on-line seal inspection of pouch seals as well as off-line microleak detection. Practical case studies of implementation of each technology will be presented with key factors of success for deploying each solution. The path to assuring seal quality and package integrity requires multiple strategies to achieve the necessary results.
The webinar will cover:
Integrating Injection Molding Machine Response into Mold Filling Analysis
Simulation is playing an increasingly important role in manufacturing. However, engineers still face challenges in bridging the gap between simulation and manufacturing. Join us for this webinar to learn how to maximize simulation utility with Moldex3D, where we integrate real-world conditions to more accurately take into account crucial information from the physical world, including considering the dynamic machine response of an injection molding machine, ensuring the optimized processing conditions obtained from simulations can be directly applied on the production floor.
What You Will Learn:
Five Myths About Material Recycling
The debate about plastics recycling has entered the public arena, with implications for processors, material scientists, business owners, and policy makers. We have seen plastic bans and the introduction of alternative packaging materials, some of which have larger environmental footprints of the plastics they are replacing. Can paper be recycled indefinitely? Is foam impossible to recycle? In this webinar, Kelvin Okamoto, will identify 5 myths of materials recycling and present real-world examples and case studies to illuminate the complex truths of this increasingly important topic.
Enhancing Cross Functional Team Performance
Today, more and more companies are adopting cross-functional team structures that reward collaborators over "lone wolves." Members of these teams often have complex reporting relationships, rather than a single boss, which makes it essential for goals to be aligned across departments or teams.
In matrix organizations, where team members represent various departments/functions, the lines of decision-making are often blurred; it’s not always clear who is in charge, or who has the ultimate decision-making authority.
In many cases, team leaders lack the skills to boost cooperation and communication within their teams, and team members often lack the skills to collaborate effectively.
Join Rick Lepsinger, Managing Partner of OnPoint Consulting for an exciting webinar during which you will:
How to Use SPE's Material Database
Join us and learn:
Dynamic Mechanical Analysis
Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) is a thermoanalytical technique that measures the stiffness (modulus) and damping (tan delta) of polymeric materials to assess the viscoelastic properties as a function of time, temperature, and frequency. Polymeric materials display both elastic and viscous behavior simultaneously, and DMA can separate these responses. Polymers, composed of long molecular chains, have unique viscoelastic properties, which combine the characteristics of elastic solids and Newtonian fluids.
As part of the DMA evaluation, a small deformation is applied to a sample in a cyclic manner. This allows the material’s response to stress, temperature, and frequency to be studied. The analysis can be in several modes, including tension, shear, compression, torsion, and flexure. DMA is a very powerful tool for the analysis of plastics and can provide information regarding:
Take A Look at This: Using Visual Comparison to Evaluate and Control Appearance
The appearance of a molded plastic part is often an important design element. Appearance involves color, and also texture and gloss, lighting and viewing conditions, and the perspective of the viewer. While each of these can be defined and controlled, the methods can be expensive, and the terminology is often confusing. This paper presents a method for specifying and evaluating appearance in a simple and easy to understand manner. The method and can be used at any phase of the development process, from initial concept to the factory floor. Properly implemented, it provides a practical and cost effective means to ensure consistent appearance in molded plastic parts.
The Challenges With Digitally Printing on Flexible Films With Water Based Ink
For a variety of reasons, including health, safety, environment and cost, the printing industry, especially in flexible food packaging, has been trending toward water-based printing systems. Unlike most paper-based substrates, flexible films tend to be hydrophobic and water-impermeable, which makes it a challenge to achieve adequate wetting and adhesion of water-based inks, not to mention the subsequent removal of the water and any co-solvents that are in the inks. In this webinar, we will briefly review the market trends in package printing, including common multilayer package structures, and provide an overview of the various digital printing technologies that are available today for printing on thin, flexible films. We will describe an all-aqueous system of primer, printing inks, and post-coatings that can be used for either surface or reverse printing of plastic labels, flexible packages, and vinyl wall coverings at production speeds of up to 300 meters per minute.
Patent Law Fundamentals for Scientists, Engineers and Managers, Part 4
This webinar is intended as an introductory primer in patent law and practice for scientists, engineers and managers involved in business and technology. The webinar provides an overview of patent protection and trade secret protection. The webinar also covers the fundamentals of how to identify, and document an invention, search for patents related to the invention, and apply for a patent application. In particular, attendees will become familiar with the types of patent applications, patentability requirements, the parts of a patent application, and the prosecution process for getting a patent application allowed before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Attendees will also become familiar with foreign filing of patent applications, post grant patent options including mechanisms for challenging a U.S. patent before the USPTO, the various types of patent opinions and patent litigation. No prior knowledge of patent law is required.
Sandwich Panel Design and Thermoplastic Honeycomb Technology Overview — Extending the Weight and Cost Reduction Opportunities
The seminar is a review of available sandwich panel technologies, with the focus on configuration with thermoplastic honeycomb core being accepted in more and more applications today. The principles and benefits of sandwich panel design will be presented, along to post-processing techniques and examples of applications starting from a lower end of industrial packaging, through building and transportation, including but not limited to automotive.
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