“I’m here to see the technical updates and what’s going on with other rotomolders,” Jorge Fajardo with Boiro, Spain-based Rotogal, or Rotomoldeados de Galicia.

Professor Roy Crawford with the University of Waikato, New Zealand, said the 8-hour long “Master Seminar in Rotational Molding” he gave on October 21 drew more than 50 molders, designers and suppliers. He is the director of technical services for ARM.

“They are hungry for technical information that they can use to make higher value-added products,” Crawford said, “that’s the sensible thing to do during a downtime.”

Rotational molding is beyond making large storage containers, he pointed out. “You can make very complicated technical parts in an economical way.” He noted that different regions have focused on different products: water tanks in Australia and New Zealand, technical parts in Europe and multilayer fuel tanks in the U.S.

Crawford said the growing use of polyethylene (PE) foam in the U.S. is a good trend. The use of foaming in rotomolding generates a good stiffness-to-weight ratio. U.S. molders are now using PE foam to replace more expensive polyurethane foam -- which also require a second shot and doesn’t stick as well as PE foam to the outside layer.

Lin Baoshu, general manager of Chinese machinery maker Fangda Rotational Molding Co. Ltd. of Yantai, Shandong, said he has routinely attended the ARM meetings for a few years. This year, for the first time, he had a shared booth and displayed some literature.

“I didn’t hope to sell anything, given the current economic climate in the U.S.” But by the end of the show, he had a handful of interested buyers, he said.

But the U.S. machinery market is hard to crack, said Fixopan Machines Pvt. Ltd. of New Delhi, India. The export-oriented company has been trying to make inroads to America for past few years. So far, it has delivered units to Canada, and South American countries including Ecuador and Chili. “It’s even harder now, with the economy down,” said Dinesh Joshi, director of marketing.

Aguascalientes, Mexico-based molder Miraplastek SA de CV is concerned with the impact of the U.S. financial crisis spreading to the rest of the world.

“About 20 percent of our business is in the U.S.,” Mark Docter said. “It takes longer for the impact to develop for the rotomolding industry, while injection-molded consumer items are immediately affected by the economy.” However, “delayed impact doesn’t necessarily mean less of impact.” Docter, working on the import and export business, has not seen any order cancellation. But he said: “We should start working right away, double sales effort, because the late effect will eventually come.”

For Foam Ltd. of Kópavogur, Iceland, a supplier of PE foam pellets, the economic crisis is more of a reality in its home market. “The credit is tight,” director of business development Haukur Alfredsson said, “People are worried, postponing [purchasing] decisions.”