Plastic and Rubber Products Manufacturing
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Industry Overview
The US plastic and rubber products manufacturing industry includes about 16,000 companies with combined annual revenue of $215 billion. Major companies include divisions of DuPont, Pactiv, Textron, and Mark IV Industries. The highly fragmented industry has hundreds of niches, determined by material type, manufacturing process, and end-use.
Competitive Landscape
Because plastic products are widely used in industry and as consumer products, demand depends on the health of the US economy. The profitability of individual companies depends on product mix and production efficiency. Large companies have economies of scale in buying raw materials and in manufacturing commodity products such as bottles and plastic film. Small companies can compete effectively by specializing. The industry is labor-intensive: annual revenue per worker is about $220,000.
Products, Operations & Technology
Major products include plastic bottles, plastic film and sheets, plastic pipe and foams, and rubber hoses. Plastic products account for 80 percent of the industry. Plastics and rubber have a wide range of physical properties, making them suitable for different uses. Most producers specialize in a few product lines, as the equipment and tooling needed to manufacture to customer specifications can be expensive. Production usually occurs in single-use plants that can range from 50,000 to 500,000 square feet, depending on the product. The typical manufacturer has a single plant and fewer than 50 employees.
Injection and compression molding are the principal methods of plastic processing. In injection molding, plastic material is put into a hopper that feeds into a heated injection unit. The heat softens the plastic into a fluid, which is injected into a cold mold. The plastic cools and hardens, then is ejected. Timing is essential to ensure that the plastic is in the correct state for softening and hardening. Compression molding uses plastic molding powder squeezed into a mold shape through force; pressure, heat, and timing are key. One new process method is reaction injection molding, which uses liquids that chemically react to turn into plastic inside the mold. Because this method requires little heating, it uses considerably less energy. Process methods and equipment are chosen to suit the type of product made, such as the blow molding process, which adds compressed air to form hollow articles like bottles.
Raw plastic materials include vinyl; acrylics; polyvinyl chloride (PVC); polystyrene; polypropylene (PP); high-density polyethylene (HDPE); polyethylene terephthalate (PET); polycarbonate; epoxies; urethanes; and dozens of other plastics. Raw materials are the major manufacturing expense, often equal to 50 percent of revenue. These plastics may be bought from suppliers or made from polymer resins bought from large chemical producers such as DuPont, ExxonMobil, Dow, and Bayer, which typically synthesize them from oil or natural gas. The type of resin used depends on the end-use, such as acetal in auto parts and polyethylene in toys. Prices for resins are tied to crude oil prices. Some plastics, such as PET, often used for bottles and sheets, can be recycled.
Most rubber is synthetic, produced in manufacturing plants that synthesize it from petroleum and other minerals. Natural rubber is made from the sap of cultivated trees in Asia and Africa. Whether natural or synthetic, rubber in its native form is useless until chemicals are added to make it soft, resilient, or hard. The different types of synthetic rubbers are styrene butadiene (SBR); polybutadiene (BR); ethylene propylene rubber (EPR, both EPM and EPDM); acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR); polychloropene (CR); butyl (IIR); and specialty elastomers.
Some plastics makers, such as of food packaging, use information management tools that link manufacturing operations to customers. These systems improve customer service by ensuring timely product distribution while reducing supply chain costs and improving productivity. Some companies may also use CAD systems to design products, or use 3-D simulation software for computer modeling of various products or manufacturing processes.
