NEW ONE-PIECE, PLASTIC SLIDEBED DELIVERS SMOOTH RIDE ON 360 DEGREE SPIRAL PLAYGROUND SLIDE NEW SLIDE GREAT ON BOTTOMS, BOTTOM LINE As Published In Design News Youngsters enjoying playground slides may never thank Meese Orbitron Dunne, but they should. The plastics molding company based in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, is producing a one-piece, 360-degree slide bedway for Playworld Systems that is safer and more durable than steel and much cooler. It's also less bumpy than a sectionally-assembled slide. And as any kid on a hot, steel slide in a playground will tell you, a smooth slide that's cool is "way cool!"   And that's cool, too, with the people at Playworld Systems, New Berlin, Pennsylvania. Playworld, which has been bringing innovative products to playgrounds for more than a quarter century, approached Meese Orbitron Dunne (MOD) early in 1994 with a challenge. Could they produce Playworld's new, one-piece, 360-degree spiral slide? MOD, an innovating specialist in rotomolding, not only could, but did, and in an astonishing 16 months from concept to shipping the finished product. Of course, MOD was already producing 270- and 360-degree slide beds for Playworld, using a medium-density polyethylene, in seven UV-inhibiting colors, but these were rotomolded in sections. Playworld felt it was time to introduce a better product, one that had greater integral strength, fewer assembly points, didn't collect dirt in joints....and provided a smoother ride. In May, 1994, engineers and designers from MOD, Playworld and tooling manufacturer Wheeler-Boyce began brainstorming together to come up with manufacturing parameters. These parameters also had to meet the restrictions of existing technology, a state-of-the-art Ferry 330 rotational molding machine. And in order to include the new slide in the next Playworld catalog, MOD was faced with an extraordinarily tight deadline. "We went from concept to finished product so quickly because every participant had input on every part of the project right from the beginning," explains Bob Dunne, General Manager, Rotomolding at MOD's Ashtabula, Ohio plant. The weight limitation of the Ferry 330 is 2,300 pounds. The cast aluminum mold weighed 1,200 pounds. The resin would weigh 200 pounds. Thus, the spider could not weigh more than 800 pounds. ("Spider" is the term for the tooling support framework which encases the molten plastic during molding and looks very much like a gigantic spider.) More >>