Webinars

September 22

The Four Pillars of a Successful Plastics Manufacturing Exit

You have spent decades building a plastics manufacturing business — through material shortages, equipment cycles, customer consolidation, and shifting market demands. Whether you operate injection molding lines, extrusion equipment, blow molding systems, or a combination of processes, the value you have created is real and substantial. The question facing you now is not whether your business has value. The question is whether you will capture every dollar of it when the time comes to sell.

Selling a plastics manufacturing business is not a transaction. It is a process — one that requires specialized expertise, advanced preparation, and a dedicated team working exclusively in your interest. The founders who achieve the strongest exits are not necessarily those with the largest plants or the longest customer lists. They are the ones who entered the market prepared.

The Four Pillars

The following framework identifies the four critical dimensions that determine the outcome of a manufacturing business sale. Each pillar must be addressed before going to market. A weakness in any one area will be identified and exploited by professional buyers during due diligence.

Your Exit. Your Terms. Your Legacy.

As a plastics industry founder, you have operated in one of the most competitive and technically demanding sectors in American manufacturing. You understand that the right tool for the job is not the most convenient one — it is the right one. The same principle applies to exiting your business. A generalist business broker, a part-time intermediary, or an unsolicited offer from a competitor are not the right tools for a transaction of this magnitude.

Plastics Machinery Group, Business Services (M&A) works exclusively with manufacturing business owners to plan, prepare, and execute confidential sale processes that protect value, protect confidentiality, and protect the people who helped build the business. We invite you to schedule a confidential, no-obligation consultation to discuss your timeline, your goals, and what a structured exit process could mean for your retirement.

About the Speakers:

October 27

3D Scanning with Keyence: The Latest Developments and Why It’s Becoming Essential for Every Thermoforming Processor

Thermoformed parts present unique dimensional and surface challenges for quality teams. This webinar shows how high-accuracy 3D scanning and offline metrology enable fast first-article validation, repeatable part inspection, tooling creation and validation, and supplier acceptance workflows that reduce scrap and speed time to market.

Nic Rossi will walk through practical scanning workflows, common industry examples, and a KPI-driven approach that demonstrates ROI for thermoforming operations and supply chains.

Target Audience:

• Quality engineers and metrology leads in thermoforming and plastics production
• Process and plant managers responsible for commissioning and line performance
• Supplier quality and sourcing professionals evaluating inspection methods
• OEM design and validation engineers working with thermoformed components

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the strengths and limitations of high-accuracy 3D scanning for thermoformed parts, including features, inconsistent wall thickness, warpage, webbing, and tooling issues.
• Develop a step-by-step plan to validate scanners for first-article inspection and incoming supplier quality assurance.
• Learn how AI-driven scanning routines can reduce cycle time and improve repeatability.
• Learn how to integrate scanning data into SPC and generate audit-ready inspection reports that demonstrate ROI.
• Identify the KPIs that should be tracked, including inspection lead time, scrap rate, first-pass yield, and cost per inspection.

About the Speaker:

Nic Rossi is Sales Manager at Keyence Corporation, specializing in high-accuracy 3D scanning, offline metrology, and inspection workflows that accelerate new product development, improve supplier quality assurance, mitigate disputes, and deliver measurable ROI. With nearly six years at Keyence and a Management Engineering degree from WPI, Nic helps manufacturers across automotive, aerospace, defense, medical device, nuclear, firearms, consumer products, and packaging translate inspection requirements into digital-first measurement programs. His practical approach centers on rapid, high-density measurement, digital twins, point-cloud analysis, traceable audit-ready data, faster go/no-go decisions, and SPC integration to cut scrap, shorten downtime, reduce rejects, improve time to market, and justify measurement investments to operations and procurement.

November 3

Our Sheet Don’t Stink… So, Let’s Move the Industry Forward

Thermoforming is a dynamic, flexible, cost-effective process delivering strong, attractive, sustainable plastic solutions, yet the industry often feels stagnant. This webinar, presented by Ken Griep and Tom Innis of Portage Casting & Mold, challenges the status quo and highlights thermoforming’s advantages over other plastics processes.

Through forward-thinking case studies featuring bold, rule-breaking product launches, attendees will see the unique value thermoforming brings to modern manufacturing. The session aims to energize the industry, strengthen its collective voice, and inspire renewed confidence. Participants will leave aligned, motivated, and ready to proudly affirm that our sheet doesn’t stink.

About the Speaker:

Thomas G. “Tom” Innis is Director of Sales & Marketing with Portage Casting & Mold, Inc. (PCM), a Portage, Wisconsin-based provider of tooling and supply chain solutions for the global plastics industry. In this role, Innis deploys a diverse skill set and executive-level experience in driving growth and expanding the market reach of PCM’s multifaceted product and service offerings to product developers and plastics manufacturers worldwide.

In addition to his role at PCM, Innis is CEO of Xcelerant Growth Partners, LLC, a Madison, Wisconsin-based multidisciplinary consulting firm focused on the global plastics sector. Leveraging industry experience and relationships built over more than 25 years in international manufacturing, Xcelerant connects the links in a fragmented supply chain to accelerate speed to market and deliver turnkey product development, business growth strategies, manufacturing solutions, and merger and acquisition guidance to an international audience.

December 8

ABS Grades for Extrusion and Thermoforming – The Mass Process vs. The Emulsion Process

Not all ABS polymers are the same. Differences in chemical processing result in downstream application changes that heavily influence the aesthetics of a thermoformed part. These different processes give rise to emulsion ABS grades and mass-polymerization ABS grades.

This webinar will outline the differences between these types of ABS and how these changes affect sheets and finished thermoformed parts. Topics covered will include gels, stability, VOCs, and sustainable production methods.

About the Speaker:

Jay Sikarskie is the Technical Service & Development Engineer for North American Copolymers with Trinseo LLC and resides in Midland, Michigan. During his two years with Trinseo, he has supported customers manufacturing sheet and thermoformed parts through technical assistance and the creation of new ABS and SAN products designed to serve diverse market needs. Jay’s career in specialty chemicals spans 12 years and includes work in adhesives, 3D printing, pharmaceuticals, food-grade solvents, and thermal management for electronics.

Questions? Contact:
Lesley Kyle
SPE Thermoforming Division Administrator
E: lesley@thermoformingdivision.com
T: 914-671-9524

Webinar Presenter Release Form

Introducing AC-ABS: A New Breakthrough Material for Faster, Cooler, Lower-Carbon Thermoforming

Recorded webinar coming soon!

Mark Herrema and Benjamin Houriez, Newlight Technologies

The thermoforming industry has spent decades optimizing machines, tooling, and processes. What if the next major breakthrough came from the material itself?

For centuries, alloys have expanded what metals can do, transforming performance, durability, and manufacturing possibilities. We believe polymers are entering a similar era. Introducing AC-ABS: a patent-pending biomolecular alloy of Aircarbon® and ABS.

Designed for thermoforming, AC-ABS helps parts run faster and cooler by improving flow and supporting lower-temperature processing, while embedding carbon reduction directly into the polymer.

Our webinar will introduce the technology, review production results, and explore its commercial potential for ABS thermoformers today.

About the Speakers:

Mark Herrema is co-founder and CEO of Newlight Technologies, where he leads work to transform methane into Aircarbon®, a biomolecule made by microorganisms found in nature. Today, Aircarbon is an advanced material platform being used to improve physical and environmental performance across industries including fashion, foodware, automotive, packaging, and electronics, with alloys designed to fit into established manufacturing applications. Aircarbon has been recognized as “Biomaterial of the Year” by the Nova Institute, “Innovation of the Year” by Popular Science, and “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum.

Benjamin Houriez is Vice President of Resin Sales at Newlight Technologies, where he leads commercialization of Aircarbon materials. Over the past decade, he has brought practical, market-ready sustainable innovations to the plastics industry. Prior to Newlight, Ben served as Head of Sustainability at Entec Polymers, helping advance sustainability strategy across Entec and Ravago’s North American operations. At Newlight, Ben is helping bring AC-ABS to market: a next-generation alloy of Aircarbon® and ABS, designed to help thermoformers run faster, run cooler, and reduce carbon.

Tooling Options for Low Volume Programs: A Case Study – Watch the Webinar

The SPE Thermoforming Division R&D Committee’s deep-dive case study is a timely analysis of the latest tooling advances and their impact on the thermoforming process. This case study comes directly from the collaboration of extruders, tooling, and thermoforming equipment and manufacturers.

Learn how your choice of tooling can affect your process. View the results of processing sheet using aluminum, ceramic, syntactic foam, metapor, polyurethane, machine board, and 3D-printed silica tooling.

Presented by:

Heavy-Gauge Sheet Extrusion – Equipment for an Optimized Process and Sustainability Outcomes

In this webinar, PTi discusses vital components, including thermal modeling data, necessary for the reduction of sheet irregularities and maximization of sheet performance needed for reliable, high-quality, heavy-gauge sheet.

Presenter: Tom Limbrunner, VP – Applications & Technology

Sponsored by:

The Benefits of Additive Manufactured Tooling – Watch the Webinar

Vacuum forming with conventional metal tooling can be expensive and comes with a long delivery time. Imagine if there were a better tooling method that could cut that cost and time nearly in half.

Catalysis Additive Tooling has developed a solution for low-cost 3D-printed tooling that enables low-volume production parts to be produced in half the time and at half the cost of traditional aluminum tooling methods.

This webinar will address:

• Opportunities for cost and time savings
• Catalysis tooling compared to a Renwood tool
• Catalysis tooling background, including tool finish, strength, and thermal management
• The number of parts that can be produced from Catalysis tooling
• Tool modifications that can be achieved with Catalysis tooling
• The Catalysis Tooling deliverables: tool design, engineering, 3D printing, thermoforming process understanding, proprietary tool coating packages, tool post-processing and finishing, base design, and tool assembly

The webinar will also share case studies based on Catalysis’s tooling technology and customer testimonials.

About the Presenter, Darrell Stafford

Darrell is a mechanical engineer with over 31 years of experience at Honda of America Manufacturing. Over the course of his career with Honda, Darrell worked in auto assembly and equipment development before ultimately wrapping up his last five years with the company serving as the Honda North America Lead for Additive Manufacturing across all Honda Business Teams, including styling, development, manufacturing, tooling, and end-of-life parts.

Sponsored by:

Thermoforming Goes Digital – New Opportunities with HP Latex Inks – Watch the Webinar

HP Latex ink technology is enabling traditional, tried-and-true industrial plastics companies to keep their businesses relevant by adapting to a direct-to-substrate printing technology that gives them access to deeper and wider product-development capabilities, faster go-to-market routes, and efficiencies in materials, labor, and capacity.

Digital solutions with such capabilities not only differentiate these companies from their competition but also enable them to provide new products and solutions. Digitally decorating plastics with thermoformable inks allows for expansion into new markets with new products.

Presented by: Thomas Giglio, HP Inc.

Tom Giglio is currently the North American Latex Business Lead for HP’s Large Format Production business. He spent nine years at HP managing strategic accounts and transitioned to his new role managing the roll-to-roll and flatbed HP Latex printers in 2020. His career in the printing industry spans more than 30 years in digital printing, thermoforming, screen printing, and distortion printing.

Giglio resides in the Chicagoland area.

Thermoforming Presents:

Replacing Steel with Thermoformed Plastics – Watch the Webinar

A webinar for industrial designers and plastics engineers.

Learn to identify when the benefits of thermoformed plastics outweigh fabricated steel. Two case studies review design, cost, speed to market, and why thermoformed plastic was the optimal choice. A steel-to-plastic conversion guide is also presented to help ensure the plastic part is functional and cost-effective. Webinar length is approximately 60 minutes.

Presenters:
Evan Gilham
COO, Productive Plastics, Inc.

James M. “Jay” Waddell
Owner, Plastic Concepts & Innovation, LLC