Letter from the Chair
The SPE Decorating & Assembly Division is starting off 2020 with a lot of activity. First, our division will be sponsoring a session at ANTEC® 2020 (details below), scheduled for the afternoon of Monday, March 30. We also are working on another educational webinar sponsored by our division. Our plan is to have another webinar by the end of February. Look for emails and more information on the Plastics Decorating website.
A great deal of preparation now is being made for the upcoming SPE Decorating & Assembly Division Topical Conference (TopCon) and In-Mold Decorating Association (IMDA) Symposium. We will have an exceptional lineup of presentations on the latest decorating, assembly and in-mold decorating technology. We also will continue our interactive workshops where attendees can discuss topics in smaller groups and learn from one another. In addition, the event will have a Supplier Trade Fair for attendees to network with leading suppliers to the industry. Please check the Plastics Decorating website for further details soon. Our plan is to have the schedule and registration up by mid-February.
I hope that those who read my chairman letter will look at joining us for one of our upcoming events and/or educational webinars. There is a lot of new technology and processes, especially in the field of decorating. Even if you are not currently looking at adding machines or services, it is important to keep up to date on what is out there and what potentially will become a competitive process to what you might be offering.
Again, I encourage you to be more involved in 2020, to develop relationships with both your peers and suppliers in person, and to stay in touch with what’s happening in the plastics decorating/assembly industry and what is coming up in the future.
Jeff Peterson
President, Peterson Publications, Inc.
Chair, SPE Decorating & Assembly Division
Decorating/Assembly Session at ANTEC® 2020
The SPE Decorating & Assembly Division will sponsor an afternoon of sessions at the upcoming ANTEC® 2020, March 29-April 2, in San Antonio, Texas.
A new program format will be introduced for ANTEC this year, including four keynote speakers each day and more than 300 concurrent sessions. Pre- and post-conference workshops also will be offered. ANTEC will include exhibits where attendees can network with many of the leading suppliers in the plastics industry. The SPE Decorating & Assembly Division presentations will take place Monday afternoon, March 30, in Room 16. The presentations will include:
- Global Innovations in Coatings – Biao Lu, Akzo Nobel
- Anticorrosion Coatings Based on Polyimide/Zirconium Phosphate Nanocomposites – Guan-Hui Lai, Texas A&M University
- Developments in Adhesion Promotion Using Flame Plasma Surface Treatment – Joe DiGiacomo, Flynn Burner
- Advanced Laser Ablation and Laser Marking on Plastics – Faycal Benayad-Cherif, FOBA Laser
- Fatigue Resistance of Structural Adhesives – Matt Miner, Henkel
- To register for ANTEC and the SPE Decorating & Assembly Division session, visit www.4spe.org and select “Events.”
The SPE Decorating & Assembly Division will once again partner with IMDA for the upcoming TopCon/IMDA Symposium. The event will take place at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest, Ypsilanti, Michigan, June 18 and 19. “We are extremely excited to partner with Ron and Myra Shultz at IMDA on this event again this year,” stated Paul Uglum, Uglum Consulting and TopCon program chair. “We are confident that this it is going to be our best set of presentations and workshops that we have ever had.”
Topics that will be covered with both presentations and focused workshops will include: digital inkjet; coatings/painting trends; pad printing and automation; laser ablation and marking; surface treatment and cleaning; UV curing technologies; laser welding; adhesives for plastics; and much more. Additionally, IMDA will have an entire program with the latest in in-mold decorating/labeling technology. “What makes this combined event so special for attendees is for them to have the ability to choose between both tracks and go back and forth as they wish,” stated Jeff Peterson, SPE Decorating & Assembly Division chair.
Look for more details on the schedule and registration soon at www.plasticsdecorating.com.
