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Plastics & Polymer Technology

School of Industrial & Engineering Technologies
Breuder Advanced Technology & Health Sciences Center, Rm. E134 · (570) 327-4520
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
Accredited by the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)
Plastics & Polymer Technology  Plastics the wave of the future

Plastics and Polymer Technology at Pennsylvania College of Technology is one of only five plastics programs in the nation that is recognized by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. This endorsement from the leading authority in technology education results from the department's extensive array of industrial-size plastics processing equipment, modern laboratory facilities, highly credentialed faculty with lots of real-world experience, and a comprehensive curriculum that balances classroom and hands-on time.

The department offers two degrees:

Graduates from these programs are in high demand to fill plastics industry career positions in manufacturing operations, process technology, supervision, research and development, product and machine design, and many more. Starting salaries range from approximately $40,000 to $50,000.

Graduates of the department are currently employed at companies across Pennsylvania and the country, including Honda, Toyota, General Electric, DuPont, Tyco, General Motors, Graham, Arkema, Truck-Lite, West Pharmaceutical Services, and Alcan. As opportunities like this continue with a bright future, consider a career in plastics.

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Plastics & Polymer Technology News

College Benefits From Engineering Grant, Corporate Donations

September 2008

Donations from six companies have allowed Penn College to purchase engineering-related instructional equipment through a grant program administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Engineering School Equipment Grant Program requires a 2-to-1 match from private sources, with funds distributed based on enrollments in ABET- (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited bachelor-degree and associate-degree majors. Penn College has five ABET-accredited majors: plastics and polymer engineering technology (bachelor's), plastics and polymer technology (associate), civil engineering technology (bachelor's and associate), and surveying technology (associate).

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Penn College Hosts 10th Annual Extrusion Seminar

May 2008

Forty participants from nine states, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines recently visited Penn College for the 10th Annual Extrusion Seminar and Hands-On Workshop with world-renowned extrusion consultant Chris Rauwendaal and college plastics professor Kirk M. Cantor.

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Student Creates Remote-Control Race to Promote Plastics

May 2008

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A Penn College student organized a competition for Pennsylvania high school students that involves plastics, science, math and remote-control racing. Benjamin J. Campana, a plastics and polymer engineering technology student from Salladasburg, took on the venture as part of his senior project. His goal is to use the college’s mobile plastics lab – which travels to high schools throughout Pennsylvania – in a new way to expose a different group of students to the plastics industry.

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High Schools Visit for Plastics Experience

May 2008

Thermoformer Blown-film extrusion Student-molded cars Students from six high schools attended “The Penn College Plastics Experience” on May 15. Students from Danville, Elizabethtown, Line Mountain, Loyalsock and Milton high schools and Watsontown Christian Academy attended workshops in the college’s plastics laboratories, led by Penn College students. The day ended with a remote-controlled-car competition between teams from Loyalsock and Milton high schools. The high school students molded their own car frames and raced them on a 300-foot track in the college’s Field House. The race was developed by student Benjamin Campana for his senior project and implemented by students in the plastics and polymer department’s project management class.

'Road Scholars Tour' Includes Penn College Stop

May 2008

R. Timothy Smith, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at University Park, examines a bottle made by Penn College's plastics and polymer technology students Penn College's Senior Vice President William J. Martin talks with Road Scholars in ATHS lobby Jacob Langelaan, assistant professor of aerospace engineering (in glasses and gray jacket)
 is among those boarding trolley for campus tour Roughly 55 participants hit the highway for the 13th annual Road Scholars Tour on Monday. The tour, held May 12-13, offers new and newly tenured Penn State faculty opportunities to learn about the university and Pennsylvania as they travel to several Penn State campuses, businesses and popular historic sites. This year's tour visits four university locations – including Penn College – as well as the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, an Amish farm in Lancaster County, Eckley Miners' Village in Weatherly, Samuel S. Lewis State Park in Lewisberry, the Milton S. Hershey School in Hershey, the Starbucks coffee-roasting plant in York and Sterman Masser Inc. in Sacramento. For more from the first day of the tour, visit online.
( Photos by Lisa M. Powers, Penn State director of public information)

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