Equipment makers, auctioneers putting Internet abilities to use.(Special Report)(plastics industry)

Byline: Bill Bregar

When it comes to plastics machinery, the very definition of e-commerce has evolved, as equipment manufacturers use the Web for things like quoting via e-mail, spare parts, service and much closer communication with customers.

Auction houses also commonly run live auctions simultaneously with electronic auctions, where bidders interested in used equipment participate from their desktops.

But molders still are not ready to buy new machines online, said Brian Bishop, president of North American operations for Demag Plastics Group in Strongsville, Ohio.

"Where we are today, customers like to do their own research, in their own time. So they want to look at specifications, options and details online. But they want to buy it from a real person,'' Bishop said.

When the Internet hype was at its loudest, around 2000, several press makers rolled out basic machines designed to be purchased over the Internet, like a book or a CD.

Those presses had very few options and were designed for quick shipment.

But, as everyone knows now, molders in the big U.S. and Western European markets largely have stopped buying big numbers of basic machines, and they need specialized, high-tech presses for things like multicomponent molding. Commodity molding work is moving to low-cost places like China and Eastern Europe.

"The small machines and the general-purpose machines, the …