SPECSheet
Society of Plastics Engineers / Cleveland Section
VOL 64 NO 5
1st Place Winner: Stephen Sun, Hawken Upper School in Gates Mills, OH.
“Polymer Based Modification on Peristaltic Locomotion of a Modular Mesh-based Robot”.
2nd Place Winner: Carly Justice, Firestone High School in Akron, OH.
“Recycling Plastics in Lightweight Concrete: Reducing Global Waste”.
3rd Place Winner: Charles Pafford, Incarnate Word Academy in Parma Heights, OH.
“Materials and Design Optimization for Fused Deposition Modeling Application of Vehicle Suspension Parts.”
2019/2020 SPE Scholarship Winner – Teegan Smith
Shawnee State College in Portsmouth Ohio, Associates Degree in Plastics Engineering and Computer Aided Design.
Next Meeting:
Location
D’Angeses
1100 W. Royalton Rd., Broadview Hts., OH 44147
Phone: 440-237-7378
5:30 pm arrival/networking
6:00 pm award winners’ poster session
6:30 pm dinner
7:30 pm award presentations – Dennis Meade
Attendees will pay for their own meals and drinks.
Reservations must be made by noon on Friday May 3 to Dan Crist at 440 227 5424 or by email to mail@cmd-tip.com.
Cleveland SPE Members,
For the last couple of years, I have attended SPE meetings, Plastic Pioneers Association meetings and Industry Advisory meetings as well as many discussions with individual companies in the Plastics Industry. One topic that seems to always come up is how to get new and keep existing employees that we need to sustain and grow our businesses.
Last month’s Cleveland/Akron joint meeting speaker was Michael O’Donnell, VP of Operations of MAGNET. MAGNET is a not-for-profit, state funded organization to assist North East Ohio manufacturing in hiring and retaining employees. The meeting was a very interactive and very lively discussion between the presenters and the members. Mr. O’Donnell offered many new and progressive ideas on benefits programs and work policies.
If you missed that meeting you missed an opportunity to help your business. Here is the website to MAGNET for more information: www.manufacturingsuccess.org
This month, on May 13th, our annual Awards Night will be held in Broadview Heights, OH. Our North East Ohio Science and Engineering Fair winners will be there as well as our College Scholarship winner. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and encourage the young people that Cleveland SPE is supporting in their pursuit of careers in plastics. I urge Cleveland Members to attend this meeting to meet these bright and inspiring students and to see the good work our section is doing. Hope to see you there.
DENNIS MEADE
President
SPE Cleveland
Mission Statement
The mission of The Cleveland Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers is to promote the advancement of plastics science and engineering through; monthly technical meetings, seminars, conferences, plant tours, scholarships, educational awards and social events. These activities provide a means of members technical advancement, employment opportunities, business technical advancement, social interaction, and community involvement.
Call for Cleveland Committee members
Would you like to take a more active role in the leadership and direction of our section? If so, the best way to start is to join a committee of our local section. Committee members form the pool of talent from which board leaders and committee chairs are chosen from. In fact, key positions like President and Treasurer require board level experience to be qualified.
New committee members are assigned to the committee that best meets their skills and interests and you will be working alongside other SPE professionals. The work of the committees relies on technical, commercial, industrial and academic leaders like yourself to achieve our mission. A list of committees can be found on the last page of this newsletter.
COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS OF UP TO $1500
FOR STUDENTS WITH AN EXPRESSED OR DEMONSTRATED CAREER INTEREST IN THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY
APPLY TO:
SPE Cleveland Section
Attn: Dennis Meade
President SPE Cleveland
2914 Scheid Rd.
Huron, OH 44839
Email: dennismeade@hotmail.com
Entry must be POSTMARKED by April 15th, 2020
Event planning for our next season is well underway. Potential presenters and tour hosts include NOVA Chemicals, TYMEX, ENTEC, ACCESS and POLYMAG. The season will include the annual holiday party and will wrap up with section award events.
The new season will kick-off on September 9, 2019 with most events being held on the second Monday of each month. Be sure to check our monthly emails, newsletter and website for any changes to these topics or schedule.
In Attendance (all via teleconference):
Crist (House), J.Sovis (Treasurer), B. Opalko (Secretary), D. Meade (President, Education), R. Raleigh (Past President, Awards), C. Potter (Communications / Sponsors), J. Blayne (Councilor), G. Zhang, M. Ghosh, S. Montgomery (Councilor for the Injection Molding Div.)
New Business:
Meade will put together a Board of Director slate for 2020.
Raleigh proposed that we combine the Education / Awards / Student Liaison as 1 person, and members agreed. R. Raleigh volunteered to be that person, but he asked that G. Zhang help out and he agreed. R. Raleigh will be on the Vinyl Division Board in the near future.
Treasurer:
Sovis routed the report prior to the meeting, and members approved it. The bonds in the account are corporate bonds. D. Meade asked when they mature, and while the exact date was unknown by members at the time, most agreed that they are in a ladder arrangement. We may need them for seed money for a future event.
Communications:
Ghosh proposed launching a CLE section on either LinkedIn or Facebook, noting that the Akron Section has a presence on social media. The goal would be to update the Facebook page once/month, and M. Ghosh will lead this effort, with help from C. Potter. There does not appear to be any upfront cost. Members agreed to launch this in September 2019.
Councilor:
Blayne and D. Meade attended a 2 session event at the Detroit Center, with some highlights:
Sections need to be more self-sufficient due to national financial conditions.
HQ has an events committee to improve the event experience, and D. Meade recommended that we use this.
HQ has a Sections committee to help & assist the operation of the section.
The 2018 revenue only slightly in the black, 2019 finances look better than 2018.
There is a Young Professionals group, with the goal to promote membership for those under 35 yrs. of age.
Brian Landis asked sections to push national on sustainability and plastics waste.
House:
The Cleveland Technical Society Council (CTSC) has an event on 5-20-19 from 5:30-7:30PM. The cost is $50/person. D. Crist will attend; we will have a table with scholarship applications.
The Scholarship Awards Dinner will be 5-13-19 @ 6PM, site TBD.
Membership:
Potter will forward the CLE section members list to D. Meade, so that he can personally invite them to the Board.
Education:
As of this meeting, there was no scholarship candidate yet, with a deadline of 4-15-19.
There is interest from Noble Elementary (Cleveland Hts.) in the PlastiVan for 4-30-19. This appearance has been approved and budgeted at $1650.
The degree program at LCCC has gone quiet. Ferris State has shown interest.
Raleigh has reached out to CASE on the student counseling sessions, and our contact at CASE is actively organizing, picking a date, etc. The target is late April. G. Zhang is targeting fall of 2019 for the next speaker event at CASE.
Dr. Maia is the contact person for the upcoming Extrusion TOPCON.
Program:
Ghosh will investigate a Sherwin-Williams tour on the open date of 11-11-19. D. Meade will get an update on programs from R. Keeley.
Awards:
The NEOSF competition is 3-11 to 3-14-19, with the judging on 3-12-19. D. Meade and R. Raleigh were judging entries prior to this meeting.
Old Business:
The Extrusion Minitec will be in October 2020, and J. Blayne will discuss the details with C. Martin.
The Injection Molding Div. Minitec with be November 10-12, 2020. S. Montgomery said that the recent Minitec in Chicago was semi-successful due to the lack of sponsorship. She noted that this event in 2020 was pushed out to gather more sponsorship and a good keynote speaker. She has not identified a venue yet, and asked for our assistance on this. R. Raleigh noted that we had done this research recently, and he will forward this info to D. Meade and J. Blayne, who will meet with S. Montgomery at a later date.
There is no meeting date planned, although most members will be at the Awards Dinner on 5-13-19.
