Facilities & Equipment
Hands-on workshops held in the University's state-of-the-art labs supplement classroom instruction
The Department of Plastics Engineering is constantly reorganizing and upgrading its state-of-the-art
laboratory space. At the present time, the department has nine individual laboratory rooms, each dedicated
to a specific activity or purpose. Almost all of the plastics laboratories have undergone complete 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 Autodesk-Moldflow Computer Aided Design Laboratory
- The Mark Saab Advanced Polymers Properties Testing Laboratory
Processing/Manufacturing
- Injection molding machines with capacities from 3-100 tons
- Rubber Injection Molding
- 3/4" - 1 1/2" single screw extruders
- 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:
- Autodesk-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.