Finding Lower Cost, Better Performing Resins
With New Plastics Search Engine Powered By IDES

LARAMIE, Wyo. - August 5, 2004 - IDES has responded to the need for finding lower cost, better performing resins with the introduction of an all new Prospector plastics search engine. Prospector Pro now makes finding the optimal resin faster and easier than ever.

The new Prospector Pro contains virtually everything a designer, molder or purchasing agent needs to know about every resin on the market. “Our customers think of IDES Prospector as the Google for plastics,” said Mike Kmetz, president of IDES. “Think Prospector when you think plastics. Our goal is to enable anyone looking to specify, find a replacement, or buy a plastic to immediately find the right material and the information they need to support a buying decision. This release of Prospector is significant because a user can find, specify and initiate a purchase all from one central location.”

Prospector Pro offers an Alternatives feature to find offset materials with the click of a mouse. “Because of the tenuous climate right now relative to resin pricing, OEMs and molders are constantly on the prowl to find lower cost alternatives or need to replace discontinued materials,” said Kmetz. “Over the past 18 years, I cannot tell you how many times customers have asked for an easy way to find a suitable replacement for a resin that is already in use. The technology we have developed is amazing. With a single click, our search engine scours the database, finds alternatives, and ranks them so users can easily review new resin candidates. This feature can save a company thousands of dollars by identifying a lower cost plastic that may be a ‘drop in’ replacement. Our industry has never had a tool like this… until now.”

The new Prospector base package provides simple datasheet searching to locate materials by Product Name, Generic Family and Manufacturer. Other optional functionality includes a Property Search utilizing 300 material properties, an Automotive Specs Search to find OEM approved plastics, and a Multi-Point Search to find and display information for CAE analysis.

More information about the new Prospector plastics search engine powered by IDES can be found at: www.ides.com/demos/ or call 800-788-4668 / 307-742-9227

About IDES - The Plastics Web®

IDES's innovative plastics search engine technology connects 233,764 companies around the world with plastic materials data. Founded in 1986, IDES is the industry standard for finding plastics and data sheets. IDES’s flagship search engine, Prospector, contains 77823 materials from 698 global resin suppliers. IDES also develops custom data management solutions for resin suppliers, distributors and OEMs. IDES is headquartered in Laramie, Wyoming and has a sales office in Oyonnax, France.

800-788-4668, 307-742-9227, www.ides.com

Media Contact:
Nathan Potter
IDES Inc.
1-307-742-9227 x246
pottern@ides.com

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