Jasele Oita's Blog A weblog about everything

Many of us don’t consider plastic to be the most exciting of materials. When examining sports display cases, we’re probably much more interested in the contents than the construction of the case itself. However, there are plenty of people who have an interest in plastic and how it is being used in modern manufacturing. The Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (also known as the SPE) is certainly one of these groups. For forty years, they have hosted the Automotive Innovation Awards Competition, which celebrates the plastics injection molding company or other manufacturer who has shown the most innovative use of plastic in applications related to automobiles and other forms of ground transportation. It is the oldest such event anywhere in the world and is one of the most prestigious. In the past decade, the group has also recognized those executives who have been supportive of innovation within the industry. This year’s gala will be held in November in Detroit, MI.

There are many innovations that have been celebrated by the SPE, and there are sure to be many plastic prototypes honored in the future. Some of the advances that have received Automotive Innovation Awards relate to improved parts consolidation, reduction in weight, and a higher level of design and aesthetic freedom. Plastics have proven to be much more than simply cheap replacements for costly OEM parts. The competition helps draw attention to what an important role plastic plays in the design process and the engineering of parts.

Many products that we take for granted these days are possible only due to the technology known as plastic injection mold design. This technology enables plastic products to be made into a variety of shapes which are functional and yet pleasing to the eye. Take plastic containers for example.

Plastic containers have now become part of a family’s everyday life. Storing food in the refrigerator can now be done neatly and hygienically, thanks to these containers. They can also be used as lunch boxes or storage mediums for nuts and bolts, needles and thread, jewelry, medicine etc. It is a wonderful product that helps you store things neatly and safely. The best part is that they do not look ugly and they come in many shapes and sizes. Round, oval and tubular are all words that are possible with plastic containers because of the advent of plastic injection mold design technology.

This technology has also helped collectors. Those who collect die cast cars in particular love the display cases available on the market now. The cases have excellent visibility, protect against dust & moisture and are very durable. These die cast display cases are also available in many different sizes to accommodate the varying sizes of model cars. Many companies offer custom designs as part of their value added services. In the old days this would not have been possible, as cases made out glass could only have rectangular or square shapes. Not only that, their fragility was also a threat to the product they were protecting.

The internet opens the door to a wide choice of work-from-home jobs for anyone wanting to make some extra cash. This article aims to list down seven such jobs that can help you to earn that extra income.

1. Affiliate Marketing
You need to have good entrepreneurial skills to become an affiliate marketer where building trust with a list of subscribers will ensure that they buy what you have on offer.

2. eBay
The most popular choice of work-from-home where all you have to do is look around you to find things that you no longer need and sell it on eBay.

3. Freelance writing
The internet needs good content and search engines are always on the lookout. If you have the writing skills, then you can take up freelance writing jobs.

4. Blogging
Creating your own blog and writing reviews of products sold by Amazon.com can bring money in the form of commissions.

5. Turn your interest and hobbies to sellable products
If you are good at singing, you can record a CD and sell it. Compiling a list of recipes and publishing it as an eBook is another way of making use of your hobbies to make money.

6. Craigslist
Craigslist is similar to eBay where you can sell items online or you can find a suitable work-at-home job or find buyers for any services that you might have to offer.

7. Search the job sites
Major Job listing sites like Monster.com and Career Builder will have work-at-home jobs listed by companies who are looking for a part-time or even a full-time resource to work from their home.

Have you ever wondered if the plastic boxes for storage of food and water in your home are safe to use? Checking underneath the plastic container for the number within a recycling triangle is a simple way to find out if the plastic containers in your house are safe for you, your family and the environment. This is because all plastics are categorized by a number one through seven, representing a different type of resin.

Plastics number three and six are particularly harmful. The number three resin (PVC)–typically used in cling wraps for meat– interferes with hormonal development and its manufacture and incineration release dioxin, a potent carcinogen and hormone disruptor. The number six resin — Polystyrene — can leak a dangerous human carcinogen called styrene into food. While your diecast car displays can be manufactured with this type of plastic, your food containers cannot. A quick check at home can reveal whether or not you own these types of plastics. If you do, it is a good idea to throw them out and purchase new safe plastic containers.

Instead of sending all of those plastic containers off the landfill, one company is using them to create equipment for a new playground in Trumbull, Connecticut, reports the Connecticut Post. Sun Products and more than 150 volunteers will be building a sustainable playground on October 30 at the Trumbull Nature and Arts Center using recycled plastic materials.

The playground equipment is made from the equivalent of 50,000 HDPE #2 clear plastic containers. According to the article, the project is designed to be a learning experience for children at the town’s six public elementary schools and its Early Childhood Education Center. Students are encouraged to bring in clean #2 plastic containers for recycling.

“Sustainability is a priority reflected in all we do to preserve our beautiful and healthy community,” said Raymond Baldwin, Trumbull first selectman in a prepared statement. “The Full Circle Playground represents a true public-private partnership based on a shared commitment to sustainability and the future of our town.”

When it comes to promoting your product or services at a trade show, competition is fierce. You are literally competing with hundreds — if not thousands — of other companies that are essentially offering the same product or service. However, Milosgroup can help you design a high-impact booth or display that will stand out from the rest of the exhibits. By utilizing a trade show truss or other aluminum truss systems, Milosgroup can design and build an impressive trade show exhibit that will attract an audience and gain sales.

If you attend trade shows on a regular basis, then you know that after a while every booth or display starts to look similar. That’s why it is important to trust a company such as Milosgroup, with exhibit truss systems that are created to offer multiple configuration options. You can easily design and build a new display every time. What’s more, Milosgroup’s display truss systems are lightweight and easy to assemble, making the entire process hassle-free.

While most call center services are fully willing to comply with the federal laws that regulate the telemarketing industry, there are also those that do whatever they can to bypass those laws, sometimes to the point of harassing the people that those laws are supposed to protect.

One tricky method involves calls offering a survey. The caller asks the resident during the survey if it would be all right for them to place a follow-up call. Little does the homeowner realize that they’ve just opted in to receive calls from a company trying to hawk goods.

Another trick used by telemarketers can actually result in a homeowner calling a live answering service in order to make the calls stop. This involves companies that sell filtering and call blocking services harassing residents by calling at all hours until they’re desperate for call center solutions that will give them a little peace.

Even though construction in the real world remains soft, apparently the amounts of new skyscrapers, castles and Star Wars craft being built by kids remains strong. Lego is one plastic manufacturer that is bucking the trend of cutbacks recently seen in the industry. The company announced that it is planning on boosting capacity at three international plastics injection molding plants.

The company is planning on installing “hundreds of machines” in plants in Denmark, Nyíregyháza, Hungary, and Monterrey, Mexico between now and 2010, said Lego company spokesperson Charlotte Simonsen.

The expansion makes sense as Lego’s profits continue to grow: the company’s pre-tax profits were up 65 percent in the last year. So if your son or daughter (or husband) is a Lego maniac, it looks like it’s time to invest in some wholesale plastic containers to store the loose pieces, since there will be plenty more parts on the shelf in the near future.

In an economy where jobs are scarce and people are struggling to stay afloat, many companies are finding that their current call center solution isn’t robust enough to handle the demand. Despite layoffs in so many areas, there are new employment opportunities popping up around the country for those interested in working in an inbound or outbound call center. Qwest Communications in Des Moines will be holding a job fair to entice new applicants, while iQor Inc. is looking to expand their call center in Columbus. The latter area has a strong showing in this market, with JPMorgan Chase also looking to add a large number of employees to handle their answering services. Other busy call centers in the region include Discover Financial Services, Alliance Data Systems, and State Farm. With so many stories in the news about unemployment rates these days, it’s good to see an industry going strong.

In 2001, a teacher invented a new product that would make white boards a lot more appealing to users, paving the way for single mom entrepreneurs, Examnier.com reports. After searching for her missing dry eraser to clean the white board in her classroom, Julia Rhodes realized that other teachers shared the same frustration. Instead of using her hands to erase the white board, she decided to invent, patent, and manufacture a dry erase board marker with a built-in eraser on the tip. The purpose? So that the eraser can’t get lost.

The article goes on to list her top three tips for “mompreneurs”: break the rules, break the rules, and break the rules. According to Rhodes, breaking the rules actually led her to inventing more products. When she was told that a woman with a single product couldn’t sell it to retailers without a man backing her up, instead of being discouraged, Rhodes cut out a man’s image from a sheet of white board and glued it to a stick so that she could have a man with her at the pitch. Rhodes agrees that it helped her sell the product, and gave her an idea for her second product, “a handheld whiteboard paddle used in classrooms to encourage student participation, making the learning process more interactive—and paperless.” Another one of her unique inventions, and one that caught the attention of Tonight Show host Jay Leno, is a white board dress that she custom-tailored to wear to all of her business meetings and trade shows.

Please visit www.milosgroup.com to find out interesting details about Trade Show Exhibits, Portable Stage & Exhibit Lighting.