Academic Program Code: 935
An increasing variety of automotive parts, household goods, sports equipment, furniture, toys, and machinery parts are formed from plastic, and the plastics forming industry continues to grow nationally and locally. There are many plastics processing plants in Western Michigan that need trained people. These manufacturers and the Western Michigan Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers have indicated that excellent employment opportunities exist in plastics manufacturing and that trained workers are in short supply. The Plastics-Polymer Engineering Technology program prepares people for jobs as laboratory technicians, mold designers, production supervisors, mold technicians, and plastics machinery maintenance technicians for the rapidly growing local plastics forming industry. Injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, thermoforming, and many secondary processes are studied in the program. Since injection molding is the most prevalent of these processes, it is emphasized.