Two weeks ago, ARM made our members aware of a draft standard for Rainwater Harvesting Systems being developed by the International Code Council that would address the materials and design of potable and non-potable rainwater tanks. ARM organized a teleconference for members to learn about the standard  from Michael Cudahy, Technical Director at CM Services…

ARM will conduct a free webinar addressing maintenance for rotomolding machine burners on December 9 at 2 PM Central. Adam Covington (Ferry Industries) will present the talk, which should last 45-60 minutes and include an opportunity for questions and answers. This webinar is free to ARM members thanks to a sponsorship from Entec Polymers. Register…

ARM conducts monthly troubleshooting calls that foster brainstorming on process issues and problems faced by rotomolders. These calls are a great benefit of membership and they are open to all members free of charge. To give you an idea of the content, during last month’s call members discussed seasonal affects of part shrinkage, permeation in wine tanks,…

More than 245 members of the rotomolding community attended ARM’s Annual Meeting in Denver last week. There were 105 rotomolders in attendance — up 19% from our Cleveland meeting. The meeting also received excellent feedback from dozens of first-time attendees. One first-timer told us: “As a new molder.I was extremely impressed with the organization of the conference.…

ARM has added six rotomolding training videos developed in the 1990s to the Members’ section of ARM’s website. The topics include: Before You Begin Good Manufacturing Practices Curing Venting Shielding Unlimited Possibilities Members can access the videos here. (You will be required to login.) The production of the videos (and some of the hairstyles) show their age —…

ARM has just completed our summer season of excellent meetings in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; Buena Park, California; Bloomington, Minnesota; and Cincinnati, Ohio. First, I’d like to thank all of the participants that attended these wonderful meetings. I also want to thank everyone who gave their time to ARM by speaking at a regional meeting this summer.…

The Board, Committees, and Staff of the Association of Rotational Molders are constantly working to provide excellent resources and benefits to our members. As a result, ARM now has more North American rotomolder members than it has in years. As part of these efforts, new benefits and programs are constantly being considered and implemented. Some…

Taking a walk on the lean side is more of a journey than a destination very similar to a fitness or a weight loss program. As we said in our last blog, Stern implemented lean initiatives with our employees, through a weight loss and step tracking initiative; as well as with our facility, through a…

I deal with a variety of different industries and one thing I have learned is the molding of materials.  Whether it is rotational, blow, injection, compression, transfer, resin infuse, etc, I have seen and worked with many different processes, parts and technologies. I graduated from college in 2007 with my Masters in Business and at…

The rotational molding (RM) process existed for 90 years before there was a moldable plastic material.  In 1948 Italian Patent #440,295 discussed the RM of liquid polyvinyl chloride (plastisol) .  Low and high density polyethylene were discovered in 1933 and 1957 respectively.  The first moldable polyethylene powder was introduced in 1961. The U.S. Army became…