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Pe le & PODCASTS

Head of Content

Dave Gray Gray

I’m looking forward to International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June. If you follow me or any of the Interplas Insights social media pages, you’ll know I’ve had the pleasure of travelling the country, meeting with key stakeholders in the plastics industry recently. I’ve been asking people about their current challenges, trying to get to the heart of the kind of content that would best serve our readers. There have been many common themes, but probably none more pressing than the issue of skills, recruitment and diversity in the workforce. At a friend’s wedding recently, I found myself chatting to a student of data science, who had just fi nished writing a paper on the correlation between various societal infl uences and the uptake of engineering amongst young women. One key outcome from this work showed that the language used around engineering still depicts an overtly masculine arena. Neutrality of communications could be a key consideration in trying to invigorate diversity among the next generation of engineers. Get It Made, a UK contract manufacturer off ering injection moulding, CNC machining and other services, got in touch with me to let me know about their initiative for International Women in Engineering Day. They’re off ering a grant of up to £10,000 tailored exclusively to femaleled, engineering, design and manufacturing enterprises. The recipient will also benefi t from business support and guidance from Get It Made – vital for any small business trying to fi nd its feet post-Covid. I’ll be speaking to the team at Get It Made in an upcoming episode of the Interplas Insights podcast. Speaking of which, I’m really enjoying hosting the podcast (which, by the way, is available on all major podcast apps) lately, because we’re getting some fascinating people in from all sides of the supply chain. Take for example a recent interview with Professor Michael Shaver at The University of Manchester’s Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub, and Natalie Mera-Pirttijarvi, project manager at the university’s Innovation Factory, Shaver has been leading a team of researchers in developing a new additive that can accurately detect the presence and concentration of recycled polymers. It’s timely, given the recent introduction of the Plastic Packaging Tax, and while uncertainties still exist (both in the interpretation of the tax, and the availability of recyclate), it’s likely to be a useful technology for the industry to have access to. In another episode, I caught up with sustainability leaders at Inovyn and LyondellBasell, fi rms that are both backing a cleanup project called Plastic Free Mersey. It’s perhaps not surprising that chemicals fi rms want to align themselves with these projects, and I wanted to fi nd out how they plan to put words into action. It’s a panel discussion, so you’ll also get to hear from the team at Plastic Free Mersey (the team behind Thames 21) on what they think industry can and should be doing to address the problem of plastic in waterways.

On the Cover

High standards

Meusburger explains the value of standardising your hot runner setup – See

page 22

3 COMMENT 6 CASE STUDY

Double output

Capital investments at Advanced Plastics pay dividends

11 SUSTAINABILITY

Responsible stewardship

Dave Gray sits down with Bertram Stern, sustainability manager at Arburg

15 REGULAR

Women in Plastics

Broanmain Plastics MD Jo Davis on running a plastics business post-Brexit, and postpandemic

25 FEATURE

Automatic tool changers have come a long way

Why there’s more than you think packed within the latest tool-changing tech

27 FEATURE

Four steps to better part handling

Gripping experts list the four things to get right in part handling

33 FEATURE

Materials handling

Linecross Composites on why it’s making new investments in ancillaries

Regulars and Features

15 WOMEN IN PLASTICS 19 POLYMERMAN 36 INDUSTRY NEWS 39 MACHINERY NEWS 41 MATERIALS NEWS 44 BUYERS’ GUIDE 46 DIRECT FROM THE DIRECTOR

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