The population of rainbow trout in Montana is probably larger than the state's human population.

But more on that in a future issue.

This is the story of three companies near Bozeman, MT that have answered the challenge of machining and fabricating plastics and are working to educate today's workforce.

Two Companies
In early March, Plastics Machining & Fabricating visited two plastics processors that are virtually right next to each other, but worlds apart in terms of their end products. At both companies, the art and science of machining plastics is an ongoing educational process.

At the first firm, Sunrise Medical has perfected machining and forming ABS to manufacture key components of its strollers for disabled children (see page 20). After a few years of outsourcing the ABS parts, the company decided to bring its plastic fabricating in-house. Sunrise purchased a CNC router and not only has reduced its material costs and product inventory, but has dramatically reduced its lead time to implement design changes.

The next company, Pathway Systems Inc. specializes in machining and fabricating polypropylene and will be featured in the next issue of

PM & F. Pathway builds a variety of enclosures for chemical storage and distribution. Its main customers are in the semi-conductor and disk drive industries. Pathway has a pair of CNC routers, which it purchased two years ago, and, like Sunrise, has become tremendously adept at programming and getting new products to the market.

And a School
Nobody needs to tell you about the lack of skilled labor in this country. Regardless of the industry, America's under-educated labor pool is our Achilles' heel. Enter the Willow Creek Training & Productivity Center in Willow Creek, MT. I sat in on a two-day training programming called SOS CNC A.S.A.P. Established in 1992, the center is devoted to training members of the plastics and wood industries in a variety of technical disciplines. Thirty people attended the above-mentioned seminar and, I believe, got a lot out of it. Incidentally, employees from both Sunrise and Pathway attended the seminar. For more information on the Willow Creek program, contact David Spencer at (406) 285-3249.

The secondary plastics processing industry has a particularly tough battle ahead of it in terms of educating its workers. For all practical purposes, machining and fabricating plastics remains an inexact science learned by trial and error. We applaud our friends in Montana for doing the work.

Plastics Machining & Fabricating
P: (847) 634-4347 F: (847) 634-4379 EMAIL: hfrankurba@aol.com	P.O. BOX 1400 LINCOLNSHIRE ILLINOIS 60069