PTO Conference USA
“Production”, “Technics” and “Organization” were the watchwords at a one-and-a-half day conference in early November in St. Louis, the “Gateway to the West”. This was once the starting point for the wagon trains heading into the “wild west”, hoping for a better life. One or other of the around 160 participants may have come along with similar expectations, hoping to discover new tricks and processes in the world of particle foam processing. The main point of focus was the pre-foaming of expandable polystyrene, one of the most important processes in the manufacturing chain of moulded parts and blocks. Further topics were compliance, quality assurance and internal advanced training in the company in view of the still considerable fluctuation in the North American operations. Lectures on successful tool-making, cutting techniques in block processing and conservative recycling rounded off the conference.
During his lectures, Walter Kurtz called on his decades of experience in North America, highlighting the different developments of European machine manufacturers for the particle foam market and posing the question of whether they have really arrived in the North American market – a question which he could only partially answer in the affirmative. The Kurtz Ersa shareholder referred to the still unexploited potential and listed possibilities for overcoming these deficits. Furthermore, he provided an overview of the latest Kurtz solutions such as PANEL FOAMER and BOX FOAMER, both of which perfectly comply with the standards Kurtz Ersa sets itself: halving the cycle times and requiring only half the energy input for the same product.