s we prepare to gather in Atlanta for the 2026 IAPD Annual Convention, it is remarkable to think that we are also celebrating the association’s 70th anniversary. Despite what some may think, no, I have not attended all 70 conventions. However, after spending the past 41 years in the performance plastics industry, all as an IAPD member, I have experienced firsthand the value this association brings to our industry, our businesses and the people who make them successful.

Reaching 70 years is an accomplishment that belongs to every member who has invested time, shared knowledge and helped strengthen this association. It is also an opportunity to reflect on what has made IAPD successful for seven decades and why it continues to be a leading trade association serving the performance plastics industry.

Throughout those 70 years, our industry has continually evolved. New materials have entered the marketplace. Manufacturing technologies have advanced. Markets have shifted. Customer expectations have changed. Companies have grown, merged and expanded around the world.

ears ago, one of my association mentors gave me a piece of advice that has stayed with me throughout my career.

When your board is wrestling with big questions about the future of the organization, don’t wait until every answer has been decided before you tell your members about them. Tell your members the questions while you are asking them.

That’s transparency.

So, as we prepare to gather in Atlanta for IAPD’s 70th Annual Convention + connecX, I want to share some of the big questions your IAPD Board of Directors, Executive Committee, committees, task forces and staff are asking about the future of IAPD.

They are not small questions.

What should IAPD look like five years from now?

What does it mean to be a highly engaged member company?

Are we measuring success by how many companies belong to IAPD, or should we also be measuring how deeply IAPD is embedded within those companies?

rom retail displays and trade show exhibits to signage and digital printing, PALBOARD® co-extruded multilayer PVC sheet is engineered for applications that require durability, versatility and high-quality graphics.

Compared with traditional alternatives, PALBOARD offers a lightweight solution with greater structural stability than corrugated substrates while weighing less than aluminum composite material (ACM). For organizations seeking more sustainable material options, Palram also offers PALBOARD Terra, a carbon-negative composite panel.

For more information, visit www.palram.com/us/product/palboard

According to Primex, the Prime Double Bubble-X reflects the company’s ongoing focus on product innovation and manufacturing technology. The product is designed to provide customers with a new solution for applications requiring advanced film processing capabilities.

The Prime Double Bubble-X is available exclusively through Primex.

The tool allows users to search PBY’s materials library by material series, polymer type and fillers, including options ranging from virgin PTFE to UHMWPE GOLD. Users can also match materials to applicable ASTM, MIL and AMS specifications, simplifying the material selection process.

very food processing plant manager knows what a stopped line sounds like. Whether it’s a guide rail wearing out, a roller cracking, a pad finally giving out or a mixing paddle breaking, downtime is measured in dollars per minute, not per hour. The usual solution of machining a replacement part or waiting for an OEM part that may no longer be available can take days or weeks. That’s usually not fast enough for a plant that runs 24/7.

That is where additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, has become a practical tool in a food facility’s maintenance and engineering toolkit. It is not a replacement for injection molding, cast urethane production or machining, but a way to address urgent, low-volume problems that traditional methods were never designed to solve quickly. It’s also not just one technology anymore. Several types of 3D printing are now available for different kinds of jobs.

Stereolithography (SLA). This process uses UV light to cure liquid resin layer by layer to build parts. It produces components with fine detail, a clean surface and very tight tolerances, making it ideal for precision fixtures, guides and small mechanical parts where exact dimensions and a clean finish are important. There’s also a large selection of resins, from stiff and rigid materials to softer, rubber-like ones to heat-resistant grades, so one printer can cover parts with very different needs.

hen a plastic part fails on a food-processing line, or when you’re specifying one for the first time, the temptation is to open a datasheet and compare tensile strengths. Resist it. In food plants, most material failures aren’t mechanical at all. They’re chemical, environmental or regulatory, and they are often caused by someone optimizing for the load case and ignoring everything else. Here is a working method for picking a material or picking a better one.

Filter two: sanitation chemistry. The cleaning protocol is part of the material spec. Chlorine, quats, caustic, acids, peracetic acid and steam/CIP each attack different polymers, and a part that survives the process can still be destroyed by the wash down. Before you compare any two materials, know exactly what the sanitation crew sprays on them and how hot it gets.

hen an end user looks to switch suppliers for their food and beverage processing components, asking the right questions is paramount. Because end users tend to be more familiar with their own internal processes than with component material, starting the sales process with targeted questions is key. Doing so helps identify the best solutions, meet sanitary and product integrity standards and ultimately earn you a repeat customer.

Ask: “Are you looking for a hose/tubing designed for a specific application, such as dairy transfer, bulk dry goods processing, fatty foods, oil transfer or beverage dispensing?”

This provides clear context and allows the end user to share necessary information that can narrow down material and construction options. For example, a hose used for a carbonated beverage bottling line must contend with different pressure levels, permeation concerns and carbonation retention than a hose designed for milk transfer, where sanitation, fat resistance and repeated clean-in-place (CIP) sterilization are more critical.

ood processing facilities operate with a constant tension between two competing needs: maintaining efficient movement throughout the operation while protecting the controlled environments essential to food safety.

People, forklifts, pallet jacks and products must move continuously between production, processing and storage areas, often crossing spaces with different temperature, sanitation and environmental requirements. Restricting that movement can slow production and create operational bottlenecks.

Yet every opening between these environments can also create vulnerabilities. Open doorways allow conditioned air to escape and can provide a pathway for airborne contaminants, pests and outside air to enter controlled areas. The challenge for food manufacturers is balancing the movement required for efficient operations with the environmental control needed to protect food safety and product quality.

The very movement that keeps a facility productive can also introduce risks that food manufacturers work hard to control. Food safety is often discussed in terms of sanitation procedures, employee training, testing protocols and regulatory compliance. All are critical. Yet one of the most overlooked aspects of food safety is something much simpler: controlling the environment itself.

he food and beverage industry operates at the intersection of some of today’s most complex sustainability challenges. Unlike many industrial sectors, its products are fundamentally dependent on natural systems land, water, biodiversity, and climate stability. This creates a unique pressure: the industry must not only minimize environmental impact but also preserve the very ecosystems that enable long-term food production.

As illustrated in the 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land, food systems exist within an interconnected web of land use, water availability, climate change, ecosystem health, and food security. Disruption in any one of these systems can cascade across the entire value chain, affecting agricultural yields, ingredient sourcing, energy demand, operational costs, and supply reliability (IPCC).

In this environment, sustainability is no longer an abstract corporate goal. It is increasingly tied to business continuity and operational resilience.

s IAPD celebrates the accomplishments of its 2025 award recipients, their achievements also set the stage for the next group of industry leaders and organizations to be recognized. Each award reflects a different way IAPD members are making an impact, from leadership and service to education, marketing, environmental responsibility and innovation.

With the 2026 IAPD Annual Convention approaching, excitement is building around who will be recognized next. The 2026 award recipients will represent the people and companies continuing to move the performance plastics industry forward through their ideas, commitment and contributions. Who will join the distinguished group of IAPD award winners this year? Stay tuned as IAPD prepares to celebrate the 2026 honorees in Atlanta.

he IAPD Women in Plastics (WIP) Leadership Program is designed to attract, retain, advance and empower women throughout the performance plastics industry. What sets the program apart is its focus not on materials, products or the technical expertise, but on the people who help drive our industry forward. Women in Plastics provides opportunities for participants to strengthen their leadership skills, invest in their personal and professional growth and bring greater value back to their organizations. For companies, it is an investment in their people and in developing the next generation of leaders who will help shape the future of the performance plastics industry.

This year, the Women in Plastics Leadership Program evolved further as we moved from individual events throughout the year to a 5-month leadership program. The program included four 90-minute virtual sessions, with breakout rooms where many great connections began, followed by an in-person capstone event in Chicago.

Each virtual session built on the one before it. Participants weren’t just learning—they were taking those skills back to their everyday lives, putting them into practice and sharing their experiences at the next session.

arlier this year, the warning signs were easy to list: energy volatility, changing CDL eligibility rules, renewed English-language enforcement and increased legal scrutiny around carrier selection. As of this summer, those warning signs have become the market. Trucking capacity tightened to levels not seen since the 2021-22 cycle; by June, spot pricing moved above contract pricing for the first time in five years, and spot rates spiked into July. Then the market turned again: as summer demand softened in August, spot rates posted some of their largest weekly declines in years, even as fuel stayed high. That whipsaw is the real story of 2026. Spot linehaul rates in major truckload segments remain roughly 40 percent or more above last year’s levels, but the direction can change in a matter of weeks, and a market this volatile punishes shippers who plan around last month’s number.

Underneath the swings, the problem is not a surge of freight; it is a shortage of trucks. Freight volumes are roughly flat. Carriers that exited during the 2023-25 downturn have not been replaced, fleet growth is limited, enforcement is removing drivers from the pool, and truck postings are down more than 25 percent from a year ago. For manufacturers, that shows up as delayed pickups, carriers backing out of loads and routing-guide failures.