Plastics Facilities at UMass Lowell

Facilities

Over the past few years, the Plastics Engineering Department has been reorganizing and upgrading its Ball Hall laboratory space. At the present time, the department has nine individual laboratory rooms, each dedicated to a specific activity or purpose. Almost all of these laboratories have undergone complete facilities renovations and have been stocked with new state-of-the-art plastics processing or testing equipment. This has been a multi-million dollar project that could only have been accomplished with the assistance and support of industry and alumni.

Industry-Sponsored Labs:
The Cincinnati Milacron Injection Molding Laboratory
The Nypro Precision Injection Molding Laboratory
The Gloucester Engineering Film Extrusion Laboratory
The Putnam Plastics Extrusion Laboratory
The Rocheleau Blow Molding Laboratory
The Freudenberg-NOK Elastomer Laboratory
The Moldflow Computer Aided Design Laboratory
The Mark Saab Advanced Polymers Properties Testing Laboratory

Processing/Manufacturing:
Injection molding machines with capacities from 3-100 tons
3/4" - 1 1/2" single screw extruders facilities
Co-and counter-rotating twin screw extruders
Ultrasonic welders
Thermoformers
Rotational molder
Blow molding machines
Blown film extruders
Compounding equipment

Characterization & Testing Lab:
Universal testing machines
Instrumented impact testers
Environmental chambers
Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Viscometers
Capillary rheometers
Torque rheometers
Dynamic mechanical analyzers
Microscopy and image analysis systems

Computer Capabilities:
Pentium PC Laboratory
Software includes:
MOLDFLOW (filling, cooling, shrinkage, warpage, stress analysis)
Flow 2000 (Extrusion Simulation)
B-Sim
T-Sim
PRO ENGINEER
SolidWorks®

To view the UMass Lowell's Plastics Engineering Department and facilities, visit the Plastics Engineering website. For additional information on the facilities or equipment, please contact the Department of Plastics Engineering at (978) 934-3420.