The 12th biennial CMM International Exposition will include the largest, most comprehensive conference program ever offered to the converting industry. Attendance is expected to top last year's number of 35ꯠ. Taking place April 12 to 14 at Chicago's McCormick Place North, the conference will consist of four tracks representing more than two dozen sessions.
The sessions will cover a variety of management, operational and technical issues. CMM Intl. is produced and managed by Miller Freeman, Inc. (New York, NY). Registration and more details on CMM are available at its Web site, www.cmmshow.com.
The conference kicks off Monday, April 12, with various management seminars. At 8:30 a.m., Restructuring of the folding box and corrugated box industries will be discussed. Presenters include Jeff Robb of Mebane Packaging, Jackie Shultz of Paperboard Packaging and Bud McAdam of International Paperbox. Concurrently, another seminar will cover Specialty products: more challenging, more profitable. Panelists expected to participate in this seminar include Bill Klein of Business Factors, Inc. and Jeff Stahl of Seal-It Corp.
Two more management sessions are planned for Monday morning. CE marking: Safety requirements for exporters to Europe will explain how to meet essential health and safety requirements. The speaker will be AES, Inc.'s Michael Bonawitz.
There will be two late morning sessions on Monday. At 10 a.m., Planning for the millennium: Where will the packaging industry be? will be presented by Mickey Gorman of the National Paperbox Assn. Concurrently, Opportunities and challenges in high volume sheetfed rotary foil stamping and embossing will be presented by Ted Barry of Matik North America.
Technical Seminars
Mandy Weeber of Focus Automation Systems will present Automated inspection: detecting defects on Monday at 8:30 a.m. Three other seminars will be given concurrently. They include: Laser digital converting by John Dillon of Lasx Industries, Inc.; High solids water coating and ink technology by Claris Technologies' Michael Dalton; and finally, GATF's Hal Hinderliter will explain how to Overcome the top 20 digital prepress problems.
Two late morning technical seminars will be held on Monday. High precision shaftless servo drives will be presented by James Hulman of Indramat Div., Rexroth Corp. Held concurrently will be Basics of foil stamping/ embossing applications, presented by Mary Fuller of Foil Stamping and Embossing Assn.
On Tuesday, April 13, one of the 8:30 a.m. seminars will look at Solventless laminating for the next millennium, with presenters including Matthew Tielkemeir of Dri-Tec, Inc. and Herm Haven of American National Can. Meanwhile, an Introduction to UV/EB technology will be presented. Also at 8:30 a.m., the Re-emergence of gravure will be presented. Speakers include Dave Spence of Graphic Packaging Corp. and Dr. Jules Farkas of MNF Consultants. Concurrently, other experts will discuss Web handling.
Two seminars concerning the environmental side of converting will be held at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Dan Bemi of Wolverine Corp. will present Clean air solutions. The second environmental session will discuss Converting and printing in a green environment. Speakers include Deb Kramer of PNEAC and Kathy Mullaney of Oliver Products. Mark Spaulding of Converting Magazine will moderate a panel on the ABC's of CtP. Participants will include representatives from Barco, Creo, Heidelberg and DuPont.
In a late morning session on Tuesday, Enhancing graphics on narrow web products will be discussed. Wednesday, April 14, at 8:30 a.m., a technology update will be given about Coating, laminating and metallizing. Meanwhile, ABB Industrial Systems will provide an international perspective on Web tension measurement with less maintenance.
Chaos or golden era?
Panelests will look at the trends that are shaping the Flexible packaging and label industry today at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Water-based ink technology will be discussed by several experts, and FFTS's Lucinda Cole will give guidelines and tutorials for production of high-quality flexography graphics.
Other programs on Wednesday morning include Money-saving tips presented by GATF's Howard Fenton, Color management presented by Karen Gaskins of Gretag Macbeth, and UV curable p-s adhesives.
The two final sessions begin on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Jon Glidden of American Roller will talk about Roller technology for extrusion, and Tom Biner of Raytek Corp. will discuss Measurement of temperature.
Computer-to-plate technology
Earlier this year, CMM Intl. announced a special Computer to Plate Technology Center to be unveiled at the exposition. The center will consist of the leading providers of this process and will feature all the latest products that can be used in this burgeoning process.
"CtP technology is one of the of the most significant advancements that we've seen in the converting/package printing industry in the last decade," says Leo Nadolske, vice president of CMM events. "More and more converters and package printing professionals are exploring the advantages of this process, and they rely on CMM exhibitors to help keep them abreast of such significant advances in converting technology."
In addition to the CtP center, there will be 950 exhibitors. A list of packaging-related exhibitors follow.
