Who We Are... We are a community of Plastics Industry Experts who recognize the need for a product development focus. The power of the web enables collaboration across time and place. Recognizing that the Plastic Industry services many diverse technologies and needs, our mission is to be a source of in depth yet practical technical information which helps you, the product development professional to reduce your time to market for your products that use plastic materials and process technologies.

What We Have Learned.... Over the last 15-20 years the proliferation of materials and plastics technology has rapidly developed leaving in its wake a large but fragmented industry. Over 150 million mtons of resin is used worldwide with hundreds of thousands of parts under development. One of the areas which is still a frontier for many product development engineers is understanding how to get the most out of plastics technology. There does not exist a lot of hard engineering data for plastic materials. The principals of PolymerPlace have been aware of unmet needs in the industry with regard to digesting the diverse technologies under the plastics industry umbrella. At the same time the pressure has increased in getting products developed and to market in a timely manner and cost-effectively. We've spoken to resin companies and have found that they are often not satisfied with the current channels to market especially for newer products and technologies. Companies like Dow, BPAmoco, Eastman, Ticona, Honeywell feel there is room for improvement

Over the years we have interviewed many design and product development engineers who need more customized data or case studies for plastics. Many of the tools exist somewhere but how do you find them? Individuals responsible for product development in companies like Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Xerox, Rubbermaid, Baxter, Ethicon Endo Surgery (J&J), and AMP struggle to stay on top of plastics technology while at the same time staying on top of their own technologies. Many of these companies have had to develop plastics technology competency in house. Smaller companies with fewer resources have even a greater problem. Over the last couple of years we have been watching the progress with web-enabled technologies. The principals of PolymerPlace feel it is time to introduce our platform to the product development community through end-use industry focus. We are a supplier driven site but with strong customer focus. Our mission is to organize and digest information that will serve the needs of the product development community as a compliment to the supplier community efforts. We recognize the critical nature of the exchange between the supplier and the end-user. The successful plastics application is the integration of material performance, design and optimal process. Our supplier community members are experts in these critical areas.

PolymerPlace will attempt to address the needs of the product development community by bringing together the diverse technologies "under one roof". It will also act as a collaboration platform bringing companies together fostering improved communication for faster and customer focused product development.