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Engineering Conferences
News Release from: Smithers Rapra
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 16 August 2005
The art of plastics design in Berlin
Rapra Technology's conference "The art of plastics design" will take place in Berlin on 18th and 19th October 2005, and will feature the input of Sebastian Conran.
Rapra Technology's conference "The art of plastics design" will take place in Berlin on 18th and 19th October 2005 It will feature the input of Sebastian Conran who will give the keynote address, entitled "Creating value"
Richard Simpson, Rapra Technology Development Manager says: "We are delighted to be working with Sebastian Conran on the often overlooked and undervalued issues of plastics design".
"We at Rapra are well versed in the day-to-day science, mechanics and technical feasibility of plastics production".
"But, from time to time, product designers in the industry need to raise their sights to the realms of the imagination and the possible".
"This process is what our Berlin October conference is all about".
"Sebastian's input, and that of other designers, will be of vital importance in helping the plastics manufacturing sector raise its game".
Conran has been designing in plastics since his training at Central College in the mid-1970s and he has extensive experience in a wide range of manufacturing techniques, especially those involving mechanical assemblies and plastics.
Conran's technical innovations have been granted dozens of patents in a wide variety of fields and his work has been awarded many design, marketing and innovation awards and he has published two books on contemporary furniture and contemporary lighting.
Conran says: "Rapra Technology's plastics design conference in Berlin is an event for both the design and plastics industries that is long overdue".
"All too often the worlds of industry and commerce and the worlds of art and design remain ignorant of what each can offer the other".
"Plastics remain an indispensable part of the modern world".
"Designers need to understand the materials and the processing better and for their part industrialists need to widen their scope and understanding of what the design world needs".
Conran says: "Product designers and plastics industrialists simply need to make more of their mutual opportunities and need to create more business together".
"Rapra Technology is ideally placed to broker this activity and deserves support in its efforts to bring these audiences together and grow the market".
Conran will not be alone on the Berlin programme in advancing the design and aesthetic part of the equation.
Consultancies such as Razorbite UK, Chris Lefteri Design, Product Innovation and PDD Group UK will also share the platform.
Plastics producers such as Dow Corning, Degussa and ExxonMobil will also have their say; Rapra Technology itself will show how mould simulation can take the stress out of design and many other topics and interests will be represented throughout the 23 papers offered.
For some time Rapra Technology and sister organisation Faraday Plastics have for some time both been championing the cause of good design.
The Faraday Plastics booklet, "Design for life", summarises and expresses the main plastics product and production issues involved, including topics such as wall thicknesses, chemical attack, environmental failings such as stress cracking, warp, shrinkage and many other factors.
Rapra Technology's design and testing consultancy services have seen a recent and steep rise in company demand, based on an increasing amount of plastics substitution for other materials in industry, especially metals.
Also key is Rapra's abilities to offer a one stop shop design and production service; from feasibility, to first drawings, CAD modelling, tool trialling and production.
Rapra Technology Marketing Manager Richard Walton notes: "Our aim is to build client-focused teams equipped with the latest tools, in order to offer the highest quality service to new product developers in general and to also offer specialised services to companies in the pharmaceutical sector and to assist companies seeking to reduce energy cost and minimise waste".
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