Industry Flocks to 17th Annual SPE Automotive TPO Conference

Americhem enjoyed a key role in this year’s SPE TPO Automotive Conference, held annually in Detroit. Our speaker, color expert Rick Mathew, helped kick off the conference on Sunday, Oct. 4, with an opening address/workshop on colors for TPO. Rick touched on numerical versus visual color tolerancing and creating color harmony between automotive TPO materials and other polymers, including polypropylene. This session was very well attended, with an estimated 50 conference participants in attendance. This is particularly noteworthy since the address occurred on Sunday evening, the evening before most of the conference activities were to commence. 

We got a lot of good feedback on the presentation, and a number of people stopped to tell me how entertaining and engaging Rick was. They also mentioned how his address made them think differently about color representation. The SPE board also appreciated our contributions and would like us to contribute similar content to next year’s conference.

As far as the conference itself, the attendance was the best I’ve seen in my years of participation. In particular, Monday’s programming was attended by a large throng, the best one day attendance I’ve seen at the conference. The receptions and other networking opportunities were outstanding and extremely well attended.

There was good representation from OEMs and others within the automotive supply chain, such as resin and additive companies. The exhibition portion of the programming seems to add more exhibitors each year. Our technical team was extremely pleased with the subject matter and the papers that were delivered. Each year, we see a lot of familiar faces, and the conference really has become the automotive plastics industry event where everybody is together in one place at one time. 

Industry personnel were optimistic about the growth of TPO materials in automotive applications and they were enthusiastic about the industry in general. The global diversity of the conference attendees continues to grow and evolve each year. Next year, the conference will potentially go overseas for the first time with the 2016 Shanghai TPO Conference, to be held March 22-24 in Shanghai, China. Look for Americhem to participate.

We continue to find that this growing event is an excellent platform for innovations and insight from Americhem. If you were at the conference, we’d love to hear your feedback, so leave us a comment to continue the conversation.

Brett Conway
Group Director – Plastics, Americhem Inc.

Optimism Abounds at NPE2015

Americhem's booth saw a steady stream of traffic throughout NPE2015.

NPE2015 is now in the history books and what a show it was! Optimism abounded among the visitors, exhibitors and show owners, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI). According to Plastics News, 65,810 visitors attended the show, representing almost a 20% increase over the 2012 show in Orlando. That first NPE show in Orlando was considered highly successful, so exceeding the attendance by that kind of  margin is noteworthy.

So what made this NPE so great? Certainly the enthusiasm of the visitors was noticed at the Americhem Group booth. They came from over 23,000 unique buying companies and they came to spend money, as more than a half dozen major machinery manufacturers announced purchases on the show floor. A continuing trend was the global nature of the show, with more than a quarter of the attendance from visitors outside of the U.S. More than 5,000 visitors were from Latin America and our Latin American representatives were the busiest guys in the booth for much of the exhibition.



Our booth featured a full-sized Arctic Cat® ATV featuring
material from Infinity LTL Engineered Compounds.

NPE records were set in the number of exhibitors and amount of booth space sold. For a show that has been in existence for 69 years, these records are especially meaningful. We observed optimistic exhibitors at nearly every turn as our staff walked the show floor. Traffic to the Americhem Group booth was especially heavy Monday through Wednesday and we even had significant conversations with buyers on Friday, the last day of the show, which is typically sparsely attended.

The favorable economy certainly contributed to the upbeat nature of NPE2015. Attendees were especially interested in innovation. “What do you have that’s new?” was the typical question asked by visitors and Americhem Group delivered with new nDuramax™ UV products for films, new Color Rx® medical grade flame retardant compounds and new manufacturing capacity at both Americhem and Infinity LTL plants.

Having Americhem and our new sister company, Infinity LTL Engineered Compounds, exhibit at the same booth was a first. Representing a broader product selection including both color and additive masterbatches and engineered compounds led to some interesting meetings and discussions. Visitors also got to check out an Arctic Cat® ATV featuring color compounds from Infinity LTL, a 3D printer demonstration, and participate in the NPE Color and Plastics Challenge, a contest testing participants’ knowledge of the industry.

So Americhem Group left NPE2015 with a very optimistic view about the industry and our place in it. We’re excited that the 2018 and 2021 shows will stay in Orlando, as this venue has been a successful one for SPI and for our Americhem group. We’re following up on discussions with dozens of companies and we’re excited to try and help their businesses grow, mirroring the optimism of the industry. 

Scott Blanchard

Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager