PMM Insight: A Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing Podcast

Budget debate, new UR cobot, extrusion's future: Machinery Minutes

Learn about three top stories of the week:
As the U.S. Senate debates President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” we look at what it could mean for plastics processors.
Henning Stieglitz, CEO and CTO of the German company that manufactures Battenfeld Cincinnati extrusion machines, talked with the VDMA about sustainability, artificial intelligence, post-consumer material and problems with the circular economy. 
Universal Robots has launched the UR15 collaborative robot, promising high performance and greater speeds. 

Sustainability struggles; Epson's new robots; plastics publisher dies: Machinery Minutes

Key points from this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast:
Corporate sustainability goals are colliding with the reality of a political climate dominated by news of cuts and regulatory backlash, but work on recycling is moving ahead at the state and company level because it makes business sense. 
Pete Sullivan, a long-time publisher of trade magazines for the plastics industry, and a member of PMM's founding team, passed away last week at age 81. 
Epson unveiled the new GX-C series of SCARA robots it describes as its high-performance flagship line. 

Behind the scenes at Bekum; SPE Thermoforming award; Wittmann's latest granulator: Machinery Minutes

On this episode of Machinery Minutes:
Bekum America builds application-specific extrusion blow molding equipment and prides itself on customer support, especially to new blow molders. Take a look behind the scenes. 
The SPE Thermoforming Division presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Greg McCunn, staff engineer for materials at John Deere, at its recent conference. 
Learn about Wittmann’s latest granulator, the S-Max Dual 8. 

How plastics leaders can find opportunity in tough times: PMM Insight

Key points from this PMM Insight podcast, with Editor Ron Shinn and Senior Staff Reporter Karen Hanna:  
Leaders can put their heads down and cope with a crisis, but to successfully deal with change they have to keep their heads up, take a deep breath and make decisions that gets them to their goal. 
Lean manufacturing plays an important role in dealing with chaotic times. 
Believe it or not, there are new opportunities for processors despite the uncertainty. You just have to know how to look. 

Digital transformation; self-leadership; PTi upgrades extruder: Machinery Minutes

Key points from this episode: 
Digital transformation holds the key to making better decisions about your customers’ needs, machine maintenance, supply chain trends and more.  
A top leadership consultant discusses how to cope with fear, volatile markets, global instability and waves of tariff announcements and suspensions. 
PTi has upgraded and rebranded its twin-screw dryerless sheet extruder formerly known as the HVTSE. 

Trump's tariffs and how to manage through the chaos: Machinery Minutes

Key points from this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast:
A survey of PMM readers found processors and equipment suppliers are unhappy and are at a loss as to how to deal with the constantly changing tariff landscape. Orders are slowing down and processors are postponing equipment purchases. Read the summary story or listen to our podcast commentary. 
It may seem like chaos in the business world, but you still have to pull up your big-boy pants and manage through it. We can help, with our story about dealing with chaos and even finding new opportunities. 
Progressive Components’ Spring Cups are our new product of the week, enabling safer and faster installation of spring-loaded ejector systems in molds.

Readers speak out on Trump tariffs in PMM poll

Key points from this PMM Insight podcast episode: 
Processors and others responding to a PMM survey said they believe that the Trump administration’s trade policies will have a negative impact on their business and that customers are already delaying orders. 
More than 60 percent said they are delaying purchases of new machinery and equipment. 
There was little optimism that reshoring would result in new business for the domestic plastics industry. 

Reshoring hits snags, automation and smart factory adoption lags: Machinery Minutes

Key points in this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast: 
There are significant stumbling blocks to reshoring, including our labor shortage, lack of manufacturing capacity and failure to invest in artificial intelligence, according to the annual Kearney Reshoring Index. 
China is eating our lunch when it comes to investing in automation and industrial robotics. Can plastics processors help? 
Smart technology is a smart investment. A new study from Deloitte shows improvements of up to 20 percent in production output, 20 percent in employee productivity and 15 percent in unlocked capacity. 

Andrew Wheeler of W&H; gen AI in manufacturing; Engel redesigns valve: Machinery Minutes

Key points in this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast: 
Andrew Wheeler, president of Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp., discusses how packaging markets have changed, the growing use of recycled plastics and whether the W&H Group might start building machines in the U.S. 
Manufacturers will continue to invest in artificial intelligence, but are moving toward generative AI, according to international business consulting firm Deloitte. Find out how generative AI might be used in the plastics industry. 
Engel has redesigned its spherical check valve to make it more precise and reliable. 

The benefits of harnessing your machine data: PMM Insight

Key points from this podcast episode:
Collecting operational data has become easy. Using it effectively is the difficult part. For our recent cover story, three consultants talked about the competitive price processors pay when they don’t effectively use their data. Editor Ron Shinn discusses.  
The IT director at a Pennsylvania thermoformer has seen spectacular on-time-delivery results pulling data from the company’s ERP system and displaying it in real-time for plant-floor operators and decision makers.