Day Two at the Nordic ARM Meeting, Finland
Overview of Day Two of the Nordic ARM meeting by Francis Ward MD Jonathan Wurr. The Sokos Hotel, Finland - location for the Nordic ARM Meeting 2014Day Two was just a half day with people heading back home after lunch but there was still time for some interesting presentations. Partnerplast presented on a defence project that they have been working on, but it is highly secretive so not much information could be shared. Gareth McDowell of 493K presented a Star Trek-themed presentation on cooling. His theme was to continue to highlight how short of temperature control, particularly cooling, most moulders are. Significant density shifts in the finished parts can be measured when cooling rates vary, particularly with external weather conditions. Tampere, Finland - Nordic ARM 2014There was a machine-maker theme to the morning session with Caccia and Polivinil going head-to-head either side of the coffee break. Whilst the current advances in machines are incremental rather than revolutionary, I continue to be impressed by manufacturer's tweaks and improvements to their machines and software. Walter Bonazzi also presented on behalf of PSI Brand of New Zealand. They have made some significant new advances in permanent adhesion products, such as a moulded in conductive strip for measuring liquid volumes in tanks. They have also developed a passive RFID tag that can be permanently moulded into a part in the same way as permanent graphics. The electronics apparently survive the heat of the oven. I will be following this up with Walter. Mark McCourt from Queens University Belfast presented the latest work from their research labs. The induction-heated mould project was the main focus and this has now been completed. Anyone who has any ideas for research that could attract the next batch of EU funding grants, called Horizon 2020, should contact Mark. I have been impressed by the advances made by the Nordic ARM group. They welcomed some new members and some new exhibitors to this conference, EEC from Egypt being a notable new name. One of the great things is that many moulders send several people to these meetings. There were seven representatives from CIPAX, eight from Finncont, and eight from Nordisk Wavin for example. The UK organisation under the BPF has grown in recent months, but we should aspire to some of the advances of the Nordic Association. I am already looking forward to Denmark next year.