Injection Molding 03 2011

M a r c h 2 0 1 0
RFQ: The quest for

automation expands
A little help from EOAT keeps
a program in the U.S.
12 30
Determining conductivity
with DOE software
16
plasticstoday.com/imm
Massive
machining,
mega molds
Triangle Tool makes
engineering marvels
26
IM1103 001 1 3/2/11 4:46:45 PM
ENGEL quality parts shipped
in 24 hours.
Whether you need a quality part, a custom retrot or a
complete refurbishment, ENGEL has the expert personnel
and the right parts to keep your production up to speed.
With a huge in-stock inventory, most parts are
shipped within 24 hours. And when your machine needs
a retrot or refurbishment, ENGEL provides the engineering,
parts, assembly and installation to deliver like-new
performance. Maximizing performance, maximizing your
investmentthats our ENGEL.
ENGEL MACHINERY INC.
3740 Board Road, York, PA 17406
Tel. 717 764 6818, Fax 717 764 0314
sales@engelglobal.com, www.engelglobal.com/na
Canada: Tel. 519 836 0220
Mexico: Tel. 011 52 442 153 10 80
Its like having an ENGEL
parts department right in your facility.
Nobody knows your equipments
parts and components better than
Engel. Were here to make sure
you get the most out of your
investment. Thats our commitment
to you. I personally stand behind it.
Mark Sankovitch
President, ENGEL North America
IM1103 002 2 3/2/11 4:46:54 PM
MARCH 2011 plasticstoday.com/imm INJECTION MOLDING 3
MANAGEMENT Lead
|
Sel l
|
Mar ket
DESI GN Cr eat e | Anal yze | Spec
MORE IN AUTOMATION, TOOL TECH, PAGE 30
MANUFACTURI NG Shoot |
Shape |
Shi p
ALSO I N THI S I SSUE
30 Automation, tool tech keep personal care product
stateside A Washington state molder keeps an OEM
customer onshore with quick ROI in a high-tech cell.
32 Leveling the playing feld with a policy manual,
Part 1: Setting up the manual No one will protect your
business but you, so put your policies in writing.
8 Market Snapshot | Home & garden Even if the buyers
arent out there, homeowners are renovating.
12 FEATURE RFQ: Molder in search of fexible
automation solutions Walk through the quoting process
with our imaginary injection molder as it specs systems to
become more competitive, but not to reduce headcount.
16 Design of Experiments helps optimize injection
molding of conductive compounds Analyzing effects of
molding with carbon nanotube additives using DOE software.
23 The Troubleshooter | The simple fx for cracked
parts Two ways to avoid those annoying cracks in nylon.
26 FEATURE Plant Tour | Big molds make for big
business A visit to Triangle Tool Corp. in Milwaukee, WI.
5 Setup
6 Short Shots
36 Product Launch
38 Classieds
40 Industry Events
40 Advertiser Index
41 Parting Shots
41
23
20
Ma r c h 2 0 11
Vo l . 1 9 , N o . 2
Im not waving the flag; thats just cost
savings and service, not patriotism.
8
TOOLI NG Engi neer |
Bui l d |
Mai nt ai n
20 The Materials Analyst | Melt fow rate revisited
Part 1 Materials expert Michael Sepe gives the beginning of
everything you need to know about MFR.
IM1103 003 3 3/2/11 4:47:29 PM
Now at
4 INJECTION MOLDING plasticstoday.com/imm MARCH 2011
Registered trademark of UBM Canon.
Annual subscription: $150.00. Two years: $250.00.
2011 by UBM Canon. All rights reserved.
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Shocking development: Projectile Taser
cartridge made with 56 micromolded
parts, 20 molds, and on-target collaboration
Launched with a shotgun, a Taser cartridge
that comes with boosted power and range
capacity required the design and manufac-
turing expertise of a U.S. molder and mold-
maker to create a highly complex product
that can take down the bad guys.
plasticstoday.com/imm/articles/projectile-taser
OEM: Do you know what the condition of
your tooling is costing you?
Out of sight, out of mind: Once molds begin running at a
molders facility, many OEMs just forget them. They know
little about molds they built and less about those they inherit
via acquisitions. Why bother? Well, hundreds of thousands of
reasons actually, each worth a dollar.
plasticstoday.com/articles/oem-do-you-know-what-condition-your-
tooling-costing-you
AMBA member starts iPad for Wounded
Warriors campaign
When Tim Bartz, VP of opera-
tions for Mold Craft Inc. (Willer-
nie, MN), heard about the work
that Will Byers, a veteran of the
Iraq war, does with members of
the 3/5th Black Horse Battalion
who have been wounded in
Afghanistan, he knew he had to
help out somehow.
plasticstoday.com/articles/amba-
member-starts-ipad-wounded-
warriors-campaign
Blog: Whats it take to be a successful
molder or moldmaker?
Every day author Clare Goldsberry gets auction notices in
her e-mail inbox, and looking through the photographs of the
shops that are going out of business, she wonders, What does
it take to be a successful molder or mold manufacturer?
plasticstoday.com/blogs/whats-it-take-be-successful-molder-
or-moldmaker
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Box 47461 Plymouth, MN 55447 Ph: (800) 869-6882 Fax: (866) 658-6156
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Madison, WI (608) 442-4467 jamie.quanbeck@ubm.com
Contributing Writers
GLENN BEALL glennbeallplas@msn.com
CLARE GOLDSBERRY clare.goldsberry@ubm.com
BOB HATCH bob.hatchthetroubleshooter@gmail.com
STEPHEN MOORE stephen.moore@ubm.com
MICHAEL SEPE mike@thematerialanalyst.com
MARKE T I NG, P RODUCT I ON & ART
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SAL E S
Your guide to better
client relationships:
The policy manual
Contributor Bill Tobin gives you the reasons
why you should have one, and you can down-
load a sample manual to get you started.
plasticstoday.com/imm/articles/policy-manual-1
[Be a part of your
community!]
Start a discussion in our
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injection-moldin
IM1103 004 4 3/2/11 4:11:39 PM
T h o u g h t s f r o m t h e E d i t o r
SETUP
Rob Neilley, Editor in Chief
rob.neilley@ubm.com
After a few wrenching years, we may seem to be
stabilizing. But honestly, I dont think so.
T
here have been a number of positive economic stories in our business reported
recently. Granted, its a small number, but compared with the virtual absence of
any good news from late 2008 until early 2010, the good news stories feel like the
first days of fresh spring air after a bitter winter.
And though I dont think the molding business is stabilizingafter all, the pace of
change is still acceleratingwe now seem to have a chance to breathe normally, at
least for a bit. Unfortunately, that reminds of my school track coach. When he saw
us runners begin to breathe normally, he immediately started the next phase of the
workout. Thats about the way business goes nowa virtual nonstop workout.
For those who build molds and/or mold plastics, a fast pace and high pressure
arent all that much of a change. From my first days in the business, one thing that
always impressed me about molders and moldmakers is how well they handle the
many and widely varying aspects of their businesses.
Its impossible to run out of things to work on, or to avoid moving from statisti-
cal analysis to something as different as fixing a fitting or a client meeting. Our job
here at IMM has always been to help you do all those different things, and this issue
exemplifies the range of tasks we work on together.
An excellent example is the Market Snapshot by Clare Goldsberry (p. 8) cover-
The good news economic
stories feel like the first
days of fresh spring air
after a bitter winter.
ing the home and garden markets. Wait, isnt housing in a coma? Not completely.
Then, in the Design section (p. 16) we look over the shoulder of a compounder
searching for optimum material conductivity using DOE software that not only
makes the simulation process faster, but even makes it easier to see.
In a different technology vein, our RFQ feature (p. 12) asks suppliers to help an
IMMaginary molding shop become more competitive by using the latest automation
toolsand they rise to the challenge. The Materials Analyst column by Mike Sepe
(p. 20) takes on the well-known issue of melt flow rate, which, as you will learn,
isnt that well known at all.
Not to neglect the nontechnological parts of the business, on p. 30 a Washington
state molder tells how a customer was convinced to move from individual machines
to a high-tech production cell and mold by the ROI analysis. And that brought the
job back from offshore. The best part of competition is the victory celebration.
The article starting on p. 32 (Leveling the field with a policy manual) could
help you win another competition: the one you have with clients over who is or
was supposed to do something, how much it ought to cost, and who pays for it.
Having a great relationship with a client is always the right thing to do. Having the
details in writing can keep a good relationship on track. To help get you going, you
can download a model policy manual from our website.
Happy reading, and remember to breathe.
CAN WE JUST
CATCH OUR
BREATH?
IM1103 005 5 3/3/11 4:57:45 PM
F r o m t h e I n d u s t r y F l o o r
SHORT SHOTS
Find more news at
plasticstoday.com/imm.
C. Brewer buys
IM facility
Medical custom molder and
moldmaker C. Brewer Co.
announced at the Medical
Design & Manufacturing
(MD&M) show in Anaheim,
CA that it has acquired an
injection molding facil-
ity of San Diego, CA-based
CareFusion, a medical de-
vice company. The facility
operates in 30,000 ft
2
in On-
tario, CA, and has 15 mold-
ing machines. It was previ-
ously operated by Medegen
Inc. until that companys
purchase in 2010 by CareFu-
sion. The stand-alone build-
ing is ISO 13485 certified
with a Class 8 cleanroom
that Brewer says accom-
modates custom product
assembly, molding, and
special handling of parts
sensitive to bioburden.
Hoffer Plastics
adds four presses
Custom molder Hoffer Plas-
tics (Elgin, IL) has invested
$1.6 million in cash in four
new injection machines and
automation to accommo-
date new packaging busi-
ness from Procter & Gam-
ble, Kraft, and Johnson &
Johnson. The machines,
which include three 470-ton
Demag Systec presses with
Wittmann Battenfeld robots
and an extended daylight
600-ton KraussMaffei, give
Hoffer a total of 97 machines
ranging in clamp force from
35-650 tons.
MI CRO
SHOTS
T
he machinery glut, which was fed by the
markets excesses toward the turn of the
century and then the industry consolida-
tion that followed, has largely subsided, with
the latest upturn in business prompting the
purchase of new equipment. In the fourth
quarter of 2010, we saw, more so than at any
other time, a resurgence of replacement ma-
chine programs starting to take hold, says
Mark Sankovitch, CEO of injection mold-
ing machine and automation supplier Engel
North America (York, PA).
For some time, molders could turn to
the used machinery market to build capac-
ity, finding ample supplies of newer technol-
ogy that were well priced. There were a lot
of really good pieces of equipment that had
very low hours in 2002, 2003, all the way up
to probably last year, and people said, Hey,
I can buy a used machine that has very few
hours on it, and its state-of-the-art technol-
ogy, but all of thats finally been absorbed,
says Sankovitch.
Within automotive, Sankovitch notes that
in larger machines (1000 tons plus of clamp
force), suppliers had been running presses
with 15, 20, or more years on them, making
sourcing of replacement parts a challenge, but
one that was possible when older machines
could be cannibalized for spare components.
Those days seem to have passed.
According to the Society of the Plastics
Industrys (SPI) Committee on Equipment
Statistics (CES), machinery sales peaked in
2000, reaching 6420, before settling at 3585
in 2001 and 3536 in 2002. For 2005, 3706
machines were shipped, which was down
2% from 2004. In recent years, SPI has only
released percentages related to machinery
sales, vs. units. In the most recent report
thats been published on its website, SPI
said the number of injection molding ma-
chinery units shipped in Q3 2008 decreased
26% from the number shipped in Q3 2007
and was 18% lower than the number of units
shipped in Q2 2008.
While final numbers for 2010 are not out,
its safe to say the delivery of injection mold-
ing machines in North America rebounded
strongly last year, with some optimism that
the momentum will continue in 2011.
Browsing the websites of plastics equip-
ment resellers shows that while some used
machines remain available, there is no lon-
ger a surfeit of newer-model presses. Stopol
(Solon, OH) showed 407 injection molding
machines available, ranging in vintage from
1968-2010 (only one 10, a Hi-More), with
a preponderance of equipment coming from
the mid- to late 90s. The tonnage range was
15-3000. John Muzyczka, Stopol president,
says his inventory today is about one-third
what it was three years ago, with very robust
buyer interest in presses. Buyers are call-
ing daily looking for inventory, Muzyczka
says. Its 6:20 p.m. here in Ohio and Im
just wrapping up my day. Its not hard to sell
machines right now; its hard to find them.
Hunter Plastics, meanwhile, showed an
inventory of 19 used horizontal presses, rang-
ing from 40-2755 tons and from 1993-2004,
with five vertical machines. Kevin Murphy
of used metalworking machinery site Great
American Equipment Co. (Cincinnati, OH)
has seen a change in his business selling CNC
machining and turning centers. There has
been a big shift in that market with low sup-
ply and higher prices, Murphy says.
Sankovitch believes that going forward,
the North American market for injection
molding machines should settle somewhere
in the range of 2000-3000 machines/year.
Used machinery market runs dry
Calling the machine a real rare nd in this
state of tight inventories, this 2007 Demag
Model HT 300/635-2800 injection molding
machine sold quickly for Stopol, according to
company president Joe Muzyczka, with deliv-
ery to a new shop in late February.
IM1103 006 6 3/2/11 4:13:23 PM
SHORT SHOTS
Nypro invests in renewable
energy at NC plant
G
lobal contract manufacturer Nypro Inc. (based in Clinton,
MA) will reduce energy usage at its packaging/healthcare
injection molding and assembly facility in North Carolina with
a renewable energy installation that will be one of the largest
commercial projects of its type in the state.
According to Paul Kayser, group president of Nypro Pack-
aging, this renewable energy installation will be one of the first
major renewable energy investments in the plastics industry.
There are two key elements to our renewable energy project,
says Kayser. First, we will install a solar farm covering the roof
of our 150,000-ft
2
facility in Mebane, NC, which will generate
a significant portion of the energy required to power the opera-
tion. Additionally, we will install wind turbines adjacent to our
plant, providing additional energy to power the facility.
The total investment will exceed seven figures, though Ny-
pro didnt provide the exact amount. Kayser notes that the ini-
tial project is a pilot program to determine the most feasible
method of adapting renewable energy to plastics manufacturing.
Our long-term goal is for all of our Nypro Packaging opera-
tions to be powered by renewable energy, he states.
Molder PTI Engineered Plastics launches
design and development rm
N
oting that, Too often, new product ideas are compromised at
the point of production, Mark Rathbone, founder/CEO of PTI
Engineered Plastics (Macomb, MI), announced the startup of PTI
Design, a stand-alone rm that will deliver a full range of product
design and development services, bolstered by in-depth knowl-
edge and experience with DFMdesign for manufacturability.
PTI EP has provided its medical, automotive, electronics, con-
sumer, aerospace, and defense clients with in-house design sup-
port incorporating DFM throughout its 25 years in business. The
company saw a need for an independent rm that could focus and
expand that service for both new and current clients.
PTI Design will occupy separate ofce space on the top oor
of the 115,000-ft
2
building in Macomb that PTI EP inaugurated two
years ago, and will have an initial staff of four experienced design
and manufacturing professionals. John Budreau, PTI EPs execu-
tive director, says two of them are industrial designers and the
other two are strong in mechanical engineering, including hands-
on work in molding and designing for manufacturability. Budreau
says the new company comes from the need for the supplier to
carry more of the front end of the product development chain.
Whitepapers from PlasticsToday.com can help.
Become the knowledge maven at your company. Whitepapers
keep you on top of the latest in plastics technology. You and
your team can access FREE technology updates on automation,
processing techniques, machinery, materials, and more. Heres a
sampling of a few current whitepapers on our site:
Optimizing better mold temperature control for better products l
Using bar coding to improve efciency l
Design guidelines for thermoplastic vulcanizates l
Industrial energy optimization: Managing energy consumption for l
higher protability
Twisting and bending: A users guide to robotic cables l
And more! l
Join the conversation at
PlasticsToday.com/whitepapers.
LEARN.
))) )))
IM1103 007 7 3/2/11 4:13:28 PM
L e a d
|
S e l l
|
M a r k e t
MANAGEMENT
Market
Snapshot
T
he December 2010 Commerce
Dept. report on new housing
sales provided some signs of
hope for homebuilders. Sales of new sin-
gle-family houses in December were at a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 329,000,
according to estimates released jointly on
Jan. 26 by the U.S. Census Bureau and the
Dept. of Housing & Urban Development.
This is 17.5% above the revised Novem-
ber rate of 280,000, but 17.0% below the
December 2009 estimate of 356,000.
After six very tough months, the
housing market ended the year on an up-
beat note, with signs of stabilization be-
ginning to take hold in many markets,
says Bob Nielsen, chairman of the Na-
tional Assn. of Home Builders (NAHB)
and a homebuilder from Reno, NV.
That said, the nationwide inventory of
new homes for sale is now at its thinnest
level in more than 40 years. This is a sign
that many builders still cannot obtain the
credit they need to meet anticipated im-
provements in buyer demand in 2011.
The average sales price of new houses
sold in December 2010 was $291,400.
An estimated 321,000 new homes were
sold in 2010, which was 14.2% below the
2009 figure of 375,000.
For remodelers, the NAHBs Re-
modeling Market Index (RMI) edged up
to 41.5 in Q4 2010, compared to 40.8
in Q3. An RMI below 50 indicates that
more remodelers say the market is lower
compared to the prior quarter than re-
port it is higher. The RMI has been run-
ning below 50 since Q4 2005.
Remodeling activity has been rising
slowly since the first quarter of 2010. Ex-
pected improvements in the job market
and the overall economy are beginning
to increase homeowners confidence
and remodelers are seeing indications
that business will pick up, says David
Crowe, chief economist for the NAHB.
Molded polymer shakes
and shingles catching on
Polymer materials are not new to the
homebuilding industry, as conventional
extruded vinyl siding has been around for
nearly three decades. However, injection
molded roofing materials, fairly new to
the market, are being readily accepted by
the industry. Ray Rosewell, president of
DaVinci Roofscapes (Kansas City, KS),
says that polymers are generally accepted
by builders and architects today because
they are used in so many different areas
on a homes exterior.
Its not a big issue anymore in having
to sell the idea that polymers are the right
materials for building applications, he
notes. Some acceptance problems exist in
areas where there was an alternative mate-
rial that didnt hold up well in certain
The housing market remains sluggish and home prices continue to fall, but its not all bad news. New
home building is picking up a bit, and many homeowners have decided to stay put and use this economic
environment to remodel, refresh, and revive their homes.Clare Goldsberry
HOME & GARDEN
West
*An RMI below 50 indicates that
more remodelers report market activity
is lower compared to the prior quarter
than report it is higher.
Source: National Assn. of Home Builders
Q4
41.5
Q3
40.8
Q4
54.3
Q3
44.9
Q4
38.8
Q3
41.6
Midwest
Q4
45.8
Q3
42.3
U.S.
South
Northeast
Q3
49.3
Q4
39.7
Remodeling activity among homeowners showed signs of improvement during Q4
2010, and remodelers expect market gains during 2011 in most regions of the country
as homeowners sit out the continuing slide in home prices.
Remodeling Market Index
IM1103 008 8 3/2/11 4:14:25 PM
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IM1103 009 9 3/2/11 4:14:38 PM
MANAGEMENT
Lead
|
Sel l
|
Mar ket
climates or under certain conditions or ap-
plications, and it created problems. Thats
why we moved away from the term syn-
thetic, and call our product polymer.
People are familiar with polymer
building materials with products like
Trex decking, vinyl windows, and ex-
truded trim products, and the fact that
these products dont fade and are low-
maintenance, Rosewell continues.
There are so many positives to polymer
products that people not only accept it,
but actually seek it out.
DaVinci molds its own products, in-
cluding its Bellafort and Valor polymer
slate. Rosewell explains that DaVinci
Roofscapes increased its capacity by 20%
last year to meet demand for the com-
panys products, including adding equip-
ment and bringing on two new stack
molds. Da Vinci subs out the mold manu-
facturing, but does its own compounding
of materials with color, UV, and FR ad-
ditives, and has devel-
oped a process tech-
nology that allows
workers to change
from one color to
another inline.
At this years
I nt er na t i ona l
Builders Show,
DaVinci Roofscapes
introduced a vari-
ety of new colors to
its product lineup.
People are becoming
more discerning with
respect to color, says
Rosewell. Theres al-
ways been a lot of em-
phasis on interior color, but we see more
people looking toward exterior color as
outdoor living space becomes the norm.
The alternative polymer products offer
that.
Lawn and garden
Curb appeal is a big deal, and prod-
ucts for lawn and garden
continue to be a hit
with consumers.
What consumers
want are products
t hat hel p con-
serve water, and
make lawn/garden
care easier and less
time consuming. The
U.S. is the dominant
producer of lawn and
garden equipment,
with 2008 shipments
of $9 billion and ex-
ports of nearly $500
million. The residential market account-
ed for 60% of power lawn and garden
equipment, according to The Freedonia
Group, a Cleveland, OH-based industrial
market research firm.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (Marysville,
OH) is the largest U.S. supplier of lawn
and garden products. The company re-
ported fiscal Q1 sales of $230.2 million
for the period ending Jan. 1, 2011. Con-
sumer activity in lawn renovation proj-
ects was up 75%, led by a 90% increase
in consumer grass seed purchases, a 50%
increase in Turf Builder Starter lawn fer-
tilizer, and more than a 30% increase in
lawn soils.
All of this activity in growing green,
lush lawns inevitably leads to lawn mow-
ing, and naturally lawnmowers represent
the largest product segment in this mar-
ket. The Toro Co. (Bloomington, MN)
had fiscal 2010 (ended Oct. 31, 2010)
net earnings of $92.3 million. Quarterly
sales increased 17%, and sales for the year
grew 11% to $1.7 billion, with double-
digit growth in both professional and
residential segments. Michael J. Hoff-
man, chairman and CEO of Toro, says
the results reflect a return to change in
the right direction.
The companys 2010 activities in-
cluded building a new manufacturing fa-
cility in Eastern Europe to serve increas-
ing agricultural demands in that region.
On Jan. 17, 2011, Toro announced it
had acquired certain assets from Unique
Rain Birds DAS-ASVF Series Sure
Flow automatic anti-siphon valve
helps homeowners save water.
IM1103 010 10 3/2/11 4:15:01 PM
MANAGEMENT
Lead
|
Sel l
|
Mar ket
Lighting Systems (Escondido, CA), a
manufacturer of professionally installed
landscape lighting fixtures and transform-
ers for residential and commercial use.
The acquisition will be with Toros ir-
rigation business in Riverside, CA.
Irrigation is a critical component of
the lawn and garden market, and home-
owners are seeking water conservation
measures. Azusa, CA-based Rain Bird,
a privately held manufacturer of profes-
sional and residential irrigation/sprinkler
systems, introduced new weather-based
landscape watering technology gadgets
to help homeowners reduce water waste.
These products range from weather-
based smart controllers that adjust sprin-
kler operation according to current and
historical weather data to wireless rain
and freeze sensors and moisture sensors
that deliver real-time information on soil
condition. Each of these new products is
designed to be used in residential lawns
and gardens, and can help homeowners
cut outdoor water use by up to 70%.
Ames True Temper makes a variety of
molded lawn and garden products such as
its ReelEasy hose reels. These include the
ReelEasy Bench-style, a deck-style hose
reel with a swivel base, and a large-ca-
pacity ReelEasy Designer Series polymer
hose reel in a wrought-iron design that
holds up to 225 ft of 5/8-inch-diameter
hose. In September 2010, Griffon Corp.,
a diversified management and holding
company, bought Ames True Temper,
Clopay Building Products, and Clopay
Plastics Products.
Marketing to the
right audience
The use of polymer materials in home
building is becoming increasingly more
prevalent. As consumers read about these
alternative products and their benefits
over traditional building materials, they
are accepting them.
DaVincis Rosewell says his com-
pany markets to architects, builders,
and homeowners. With respect to re-
placement roofs, the homeowners are a
definite target for us, he says. Just as
important, however, is marketing to the
roofing contractors. They are the gate-
keepers, because they will be the people
to sit down with the homeowner to talk
about the roof. The homeowner can say,
I read about this product, but if a con-
tractor doesnt know about it or if he has
a negative perception of the product, he
can undo the sale.
To help with acceptance among con-
tractors, many manufacturers of alternative
building products make installation of the
new products as much like the installation
of the traditional building product as they
can. We work hard with the contractors
through our loyalty program, and we re-
cruit them and make them aware of the
products advantages, and provide training
to contractors in installation techniques,
adds Rosewell. With new homes, archi-
tects, homeowners, builders, and roofing
consultants all influence the decision mak-
ing, and we market our message to all of
those audiences.
a
Ames TrueTempers ReelEasy Designer
Series polymer hose reel offers the look
of wrought iron in molded plastic.
DaVinci Roofscapes
www.davinciroofscapes.com
National Assn. of Home Builders
www.nahb.org
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IM1103 011 11 3/2/11 4:15:05 PM
Suppliers respond:
Arburg Inc. (Newington, CT)
Arburg would be delighted to support you in automating your
production processes. We supply a wide range of hydraulic,
hybrid, and electric injection molding machines from 14-550
US tons. We also offer a variety of robotic systems, which are
developed and produced in-house and can be fully integrated
in our central Selogica control system. Our project department
provides expert advice and designs complex systems, including
peripherals, specifically to your requirements on a modular ba-
sis. Responsibility for each turnkey solution, in which upstream
and downstream steps can be integrated, rests completely with
usfrom consulting and planning through to implementation
and commissioning.
As the products you manufacture include household articles
that require postprocessing and quality control, we recommend
automation using a flexible six-axis robotic system, which en-
ables significant cycle time reductions. One example of such a
solution is a production cell that produces thermoset insulat-
ing rails for domestic irons. The robotic system removes the
parts and transfers them to the subsequent stations. Thanks to its
complex 3D movements, deburring can be performed rapidly
and reliably. The device then transports the finished parts for
optical quality monitoring and final functional checking before
stacking them in a space-saving manner.
Because Arburg has implemented the intuitive graphical user
interface of the Selogica control system in the robotic system,
your installation technicians can independently program and
flexibly modify the movement sequences as necessary, without
prior specialized knowledge.
For many applications, the linear Multilift robotic system is
an interesting alternative. For one customer, for example, we
RFQ
:
Arburg says its exible six-axis robotic system reduces cycle
times signicantly and can perform complex 3D movements
often needed for postprocessing and quality control.
Dear automation solutions vendor:
Idaho Molding & Mold Corp. (IMM) is a medium-scale injec-
tion molding shop operating 45 presses ranging in tonnage
from 55-1100 tons. W
e mold a variety of products including
writing instruments, housewares, furniture, and even some
electrical and electronic components requiring insert mold-
ing. W
hile we do have a certain level of automation on some
of our presses, be it simple sprue pickers or Cartesian robots
in the case of sensitive parts, we are increasingly facing com-
petition not only from offshore but also domestically due to
our relatively remote location. As such, we are actively con-
sidering investing in automation cells for subassembly and
packaging.
Dont worry! W
e dont plan to lay anyone off. W
e see our
venture into higher levels of automation as a means of im-
proving quality and expanding our business. So what can you
offer me in terms of solutions, be they demolding, stacking,
and boxing of housewares or handling of complex insert-
molded electronic components that might require postmold
machining, QC checks, and packing?
Yours truly,
W
ill Mulder, CEO
Idaho Molding & Mold Corp.
Molder in search of
flexible automation
solutions
Our in-house injection molder is in need of some
assistance in introducing the latest productivity-
enhancing shop oor automation technology.
Stephen Moore
There is much more to each of these responses; nd it at
plasticstoday.com/imm/articles/RFQ-0311.
IM1103 012 12 3/2/11 4:16:08 PM
RFQ: AUTOMATI ON
integrated a Multilift V equipped with a complex gripper into a
production cell. This removes and positions the individual parts
of a folding crate and assembles it simultaneously with the in-
jection molding process. This fully automatic solution achieves
huge time savings.
Engel (Schwertberg, Austria)
The trend to a higher level of automation in injection mold-
ing continues to spread. This is driven not only by increasing
cost pressure and global competition, but also by increasingly
stricter quality requirements and the need for comprehensive
documentation of the overall process.
In our quotation, we reference an intelligent automation so-
lution at Zehdenick Innovative Metall- und Kunststofftechnik
GmbH, which manufactures printed circuit boards for the auto-
motive industry. This is a first-class reference for Idaho Molding
& Mold, because both companies are about the same size and
seek to achieve similar objectives with their investments.
The highly integrated production cell was supplied by En-
gel as a turnkey system. It comprises two Engel insert injection
molding machines with vertical configurations, a multiple-axis
industrial robot, an Engel pick-and-place robot, processing sta-
tions for the metal components, quality assurance equipment,
and packaging and pellet handling systems.
The process starts by feeding in the punched sheets (right
in the picture above). The contact rails to be overmolded are
prepared on a punching and bending machine, and fed in to an
Engel insert 200V/60-type molding machine. Following the
first injection process, the premolded parts are stamped clear
of the contact rails. The Engel pick-and-place robot takes the
parts off the mold and hands them over to the six-axis robot
while maintaining the right orientation for the second injection
molding process. This robot, a Kuka KR-16, insert-places the
parts into a 2+2-cavity mold on an Engel insert 330V/90-TR
injection machine.
After injection molding, the multiple-axis robot takes off
the molded parts and feeds them to the quality control station.
They then pass through electrical functional testing and a visual
check of the parts by means of a camera. The test results are
forwarded to central data management. The good parts are de-
posited directly on plastic trays by the robot for packing, and the
robot also sorts the parts into left and right in this step.
Sepro America LLC
(Pittsburgh, PA)
You are quite right when you suggest that the benefits of robot-
ic automation are not derived solely from manpower reduction.
In fact, your system can pay for itself quickly even if staffing
levels remain the same.
Automation will allow you to gain better control of your
process, eliminating human-related inconsistencies, not only
potentially shortening your current cycle times, but, more im-
portantly, ensuring consistent cycle times, improving part qual-
ity, and preventing part damage that could occur during part
ejection, secondary handling, assembly, and packing. You can
even integrate machine vision and other QC controls into the
automation system.
You say you produce a wide variety of parts and compo-
nents that range from simple to complex. We would be happy
to analyze each of those applications in detail, gathering critical
information on the molding machines and tooling, cycle time
expectations, the size, shape, and weight of the parts, number of
secondary functions to be performed, and specific attributes that
contribute to the end quality and profitability of those products.
With this information we can provide you with the right solu-
tion and an attractive return on investment.
As a starting point, let me describe a turnkey system that would
be required to automate the handling of your electronic compo-
nents, including the feeding and loading of inserts, removal of
finished molded parts, postmold cavity separation and visual QC
inspection, and finally the packing of the molded parts.
Required equipment
Insert feed module: feeder bowl and insert escapement track
Three- or five-axis servo Cartesian beam robot
Robot mounting riser
Two vertical
presses combine
with metalwork-
ing and inspection
systems to form a
turnkey multi-
robot automated
system for circuit
board production.
Compared to a robot of
comparable size in the
existing Sepro Generation 4
(G4) range, the S5-35 offers
a standard payload of 15 kg
(33 lb), a 25% increase.
IM1103 013 13 3/2/11 4:16:12 PM
RFQ: AUTOMATI ON
End-of-arm tool (EOAT) for the placement of inserts and
removal of finished parts
QC Station with proximity sensors for insert verification
Packaging station on conveyor
Equipment safety guarding enclosures to meet all SPI safety
and industry requirements
Wittmann Battenfeld Inc.
(Torrington, CT)
Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding robots and auto-
mation solutions for your company. Please review our five ques-
tions below. Your answers will help us learn more about your
operations and allow us to provide you with specific solutions.
1. What is the tonnage of the injection machines (IMs) that
need automation? You mention that you have press sizes rang-
ing from 55-1100 tons. We can offer unique solutions for each
tonnage size of machine.
2. What are the ages of the IMs currently in use? It is important
to realize that the new technologies of IMs and robots, along
with auxiliaries, can make a huge difference as to how you are
able to process and ultimately compete.
3. Do the current IMs have robot interfaces? Is there an over-
head clearance issue? What type of power is available (230V
AC or 480V AC)? Do you have additional air supply capacity?
When looking at adding robots and IMs, along with auxiliaries,
knowing what is needed can be a major concern and in some
cases can cause delays to projects and extra cost. Your application
and plant questionnaire is an important tool in conjunction with
your local representatives knowledge to reduce the surprises that
can happen and keep the project on time and on budget.
4. What cycle times are you running? As we determine the
best solution, knowing current and desired potential cycle time
is critical. Wittmann Battenfeld offers three choices in robot
speeds to customize the best options for your application.
5. Do you have in-house maintenance or engineering for au-
tomation and robotics? Wittmann Battenfeld injection molding
machines and integrated robots are available with 24/7 Web
support. Technicians can see the machine and log into the con-
trols for programming and troubleshooting help.
We would like the opportunity to visit your plant, meet
with you, and review your operations. This will help us identify
these and perhaps other potential time- and cost-saving items.
Yushin America Inc.
(Cranston, RI)
Thank you for contacting us regarding your higher-level auto-
mation project. Yushin America offers a wide range of solutions
for demolding and packaging needs. I agree with you that in
order for injection molding companies to stay competitive in
this highly competitive global market, they must reduce labor
costs while maintaining a high level of quality and maximizing
productivity. This can be accomplished by implementing an au-
tomated workcell beside the molding machine that will reduce
manual labor and improve the overall manufacturing process.
The Yushin RC-II Series full servo traverse robot is a great
starting point as the RC Series is designed to serve a wide range
of injection molding machines sized from 15-5000 tons, and
can be configured as a single- or double-arm robot. Molded
parts can be picked
with one arm and
inserts placed into
the opposite side of
the mold with the
other.
The rigid robust
construction of the
RC-II robot pro-
vides a huge increase
in part extraction
speed and allows for
vibration-free, pre-
cise product picking
and placing. The RC Series robot is a general-purpose robot that
performs high-speed takeout, elevating productivity levels to
new heights. High-precision repeatable positioning accuracy is
essential for such functions as loading inserts into a mold or plac-
ing molded parts into tight-tolerance pockets of thermoformed
trays for final shipping or interdepartmental transport.
The robot can be equipped with an NC servo wrist that
can flip or rotate end-of-arm tooling to very precise user-pro-
grammed angles. The RC Series robot equipped with the NC
servo wrist can have up to seven numerically controlled axes,
giving range and flexibility to handle any of your downstream
packaging, assembly, or quality needs.
a
Wittmann Battenfeld
seeks more information
from IMM in order to
provide an optimum
automation solution.
Dual-arm robot from Yushin picks parts
and places inserts.
Arburg Inc. | www.arburg.com
Engel | www.engelglobal.com/na
Sepro America LLC | www.seproamerica.com
Wittmann Battenfeld Inc. | www.wittmann-ct.com
Yushin America Inc. | www.yushinamerica.com
IM1103 014 14 3/2/11 4:16:30 PM
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IM1103 015 15 3/2/11 4:16:36 PM
C r e a t e
|
A n a l y z e
|
S p e c
DESI GN
When performing experiments
on surface conductivity, a mate-
rial supplier found DOE software
provided answers quicker and
more efciently.Jerry Fireman,
edited by Rob Neilley
C
onductive compounds such as
plastic resins with carbon nanotube
additives make it possible to combine
static dissipation and electrostatic dis-
charge (ESD) protection with the design
freedom of injection molding. A signifi-
cant challenge of implementing carbon
nanotubes is that the injection molding
conditions have a large effect on the re-
sistivity of the finished product.
The RTP Co. (Winona, MN), which
compounds custom engineered thermo-
plastics, recently used design of experi-
ments (DOE) to determine which injec-
tion molding process conditions would
optimize conductive properties for a par-
ticular material. DOE made it possible to
explore the complete processing space
and provided users with a formula to cal-
culate the conditions that would deliver
the required resistivity levels. The pre-
dictive capabilities of DOE make it pos-
sible to fully explore the processing win-
dow in only 32 runs, says Ned Bryant,
senior product development engineer at
RTP.
A carbon nanotube loading of only
1%-4% provides a thermoplastic com-
pound with a uniform surface resistivity
of 104-109 ohms/sq (m, in, etc.). This
level of loading also maintains the res-
ins key physical properties, including
ease of processing, shrink rate, impact
strength, and surface finish. Carbon
nanotube compounds provide a more
uniform conductive surface and reduce
the hot spots found with carbon-fiber-
filled compounds.
These structures also enable thin-
wall molds to fill at lower temperatures.
Nanotube compounds are ideally suited
for wafer processing, disk-drive compo-
nents, and cleanroom applications. They
are beneficial in automotive applications
needing static discharge protection, such
as fuel system components. Other auto-
motive uses are body attachments such
as mirror housings, door handles, and
fuel filler doors, as well as wheel covers,
bumpers, fenders, and interior parts.
Although the surface conductivity of
finished carbon nanotube components is
highly dependent on the processing con-
ditions, molders often dont have the time
to run the many experiments normally
needed to optimize surface conductivity.
When RTPs customers asked for guid-
ance in this area, previously the com-
pounder performed a series of experiments
for customers that typically involved vary-
ing one factor at a time in order
to evaluate its effect on conduc-
tivity. These experiments pro-
vided answers to limited ques-
tions such as, What is the effect
of mold temperature on surface
conductivity with all other con-
ditions held constant?
The assumption was being
made that mold temperature
did not interact with any other
variables, but these experiments
did not determine whether
or not this was actually true.
These experiments were use-
ful in solving limited questions
in isolation. However, they did
not address other important is-
sues such as, What are the best
material processing conditions
that will deliver the desired lev-
Design of Experiments helps optimize injection
molding of conductive compounds
Pareto chart
Rank
A. Mold temperature (170F-220F)
B. Extruder barrel temperature (500F-580F)
C. Backpressure (1%-10%)
D. Injection speed (4-9 in/sec)
E. Hold pressure (10%-40%)
F. Hold time (6-15 seconds)
30.07
25.77
21.48
17.18
12.89
8.59
4.30
0.00
1
B
2
BD
3
D
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 22
t- Value limit 2.04841
Bonferroni limit 3.49121
t
-
V
a
l
u
e

o
f

[
e
f
f
e
c
t
]
19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 29 31
Pareto chart shows the impact of each factor.
IM1103 016 16 3/2/11 4:17:59 PM
DESI GN
Cr eat e
|
Anal yze
|
Spec
el of surface conductivity in the finished
product?
DOE software makes it
easier, faster, better
More recently, RTP had begun using
DOE to map out the complete process-
ing space in order to enable processors
to optimize molding conditions while
taking into account second-order effects.
DOE provides a solid estimate of the val-
ue of independent variables in every pos-
sible combination by varying the values
of all the factors in parallel. This approach
determines not just the main effects of
each factor, but also the interactions be-
tween the factors. DOE also requires far
fewer experimental runs than the tradi-
tional one-factor-at-a-time approach and
makes it possible to identify the optimal
values for all factors in combination.
The statistical knowledge required
to perform DOE from scratch can be an
obstacle to its use, says Bryant. I save a
considerable amount of time and aggra-
vation by using Design-Expert software
[from Stat-Ease Inc., Minneapolis, MN]
to design and analyze the results of ex-
periments. Design-
Expert is easy to
use yet can per-
form many differ-
ent types of exper-
iments. Matching
the right experi-
ment al met hod
to the problem at
hand helps increase
accuracy while re-
ducing the number
of required experimental runs.
In a recent typical experiment, Bry-
ant used DOE to determine the surface
conductivity of an RTP electronics-
grade polycarbonate/carbon nanotube
compound over an extensive range of
processing conditions. The goal was to
help processors achieve optimal results
with the material. The advantages of the
new material include the ability to use
thinner wall thicknesses and low spe-
cific gravity, both
of which combine
to reduce mate-
rial costs by about
5%-plus. The new
material also makes
it possible to use
l ower pr oces s -
ing temperatures,
eliminates isotropic
effects, allows use
of regrind to lower
material costs, and provides excellent
surface appearance, according to RTP.
Bryant selected a fractional factorial ex-
perimental design that examines first- and
second-order effects while requiring only
half as many runs as a full-factorial ex-
DOE [shows] our
customers . . . which
process conditions
they need to focus on
HOLDING PRECISELY
and which ones
they dont need to
worry about.
VSHHG
VLPSOLFLW\
VHUYLFHDELOLW\
EVALUATE NEW ALTERNATIVES
AT WWW.PROCOMPS.COM/DEMO
OR BY CALLING 1-800-269-6653
There are nany ways lo nold plaslic parls requiring lhreads and
inlernal underculs, bul only Progressive's Dove Tail Collapsible
Cores can oer lhese unnalched advanlages over pasl praclices:
Elininalion o gears and racks reduces nold size and
dranalically culs cycle line
Mechanical aclualion resulls in an 'openshul' lool lhal is
slraighlorward lo build and nainlain
uick Lock ealure allows or servicing in lhe press, nininizes
downline and increases cavily ulilizalion percenlage.
Conlacl Progressive or a delailed applicalion and cosl conparison
beore building a new nold using design approaches o lhe pasl.
IRUWKRVHZKRDGYDQFHVXFFHVV
IM1103 017 17 3/2/11 4:18:04 PM
DESI GN
Cr eat e
|
Anal yze
|
Spec
periment. With six factors to be evaluated,
a full factorial experiment would require
2^6=64 runs while a fractional factorial
requires only 2^6-1=32 runs. The factors
evaluated in this experiment were:
A. Mold temperature (170F-220F)
B. Extruder barrel temperature (500F-
580F)
C. Backpressure (1%-10%)
D. Injection speed (4-9 in/sec)
E. Hold pressure (10%-40%)
F. Hold time (6-15 seconds)
Design-Expert software generated the
experimental design by specifying the
conditions for each of the 32 runs based
on the inputs provided by Bryant. RTP
personnel then molded 3-by-5-inch
plaques at each of the 32 run conditions
and measured the corresponding surface
resistivity with a Voyager test meter.
Bryant entered the responses from the
experiment into Design-Expert and the
software performed statistical analysis.
The Pareto chart on p. 16 shows how
much of the variability in the response
can be attributed to each of the factors.
The results show that the vast major-
ity of the variability results from varying
the extruder barrel temperature (B) and
A response surface map generated by Design-Expert software shows how extruder
temperature and injection speed affect surface resistivity, and the interaction of the
two variables is reected in the curvature (twisted plane) of the graph.
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IM1103 018 18 3/3/11 4:58:51 PM
DESI GN
Cr eat e
|
Anal yze
|
Spec
a lesser amount is due to the injection
speed (D) and the interaction between
extruder barrel temperature and injec-
tion speed (BD). The other four variables
have minimal impact on the surface resis-
tivity. This information in and of itself
was extremely important because it tells
processors which variables they need to
hold very precisely and which ones they
can safely ignore, Bryant said.
Design-Expert software also fit the
data to an equation that predicts the value
of surface resistivity for any values of the
factors. The equation below can be used
by processors to adjust processing condi-
tions in order to obtain a wide range of
surface resistivity.
Log surface resistivity = 53.75031
- (0.0837 x extruder temperature)
- (2.056 x injection speed)
+ (0.00411 x extruder temperature x
injection speed)
On the opposite page is a response
surface map showing how extruder
temperature and injection speed af-
fect surface resistivity. The interaction
of the two variables is reflected in the
curvature (twisted plane) of the graph.
This type of graph provides an intui-
tive understanding of the effect of the
factors on the response. It shows how
a small change in extruder temperature
has a big effect on surface resistivity,
underlining the importance of hold-
ing this variable within tight limits. It
also shows that as surface temperature
is increased past 560F and injection
speed reduced below 5 in/sec, surface
resistivity drops sharply as a result of a
multiple-factor interaction.
DOE helps our customers set their
processing conditions to achieve the re-
quired levels of surface resistivity with
our materials, Bryant says. It shows
them which process conditions they
need to focus on holding precisely and
which ones they dont need to worry
about. DOE also provides significant
statistical information that helps demon-
strate its validity. We have been getting
very positive feedback from our custom-
ers concerning our ability to provide
these results. They appreciate getting the
information and immediately understand
its significance. They achieve better re-
sults faster and are more likely to use our
materials.
a
Jerry Fireman (jerry_freman
@strucinfo.com) is president
of marketing firm Struc-
tured Information (Needham
Heights, MA) and wrote this
article on behalf of Stat-Ease.
RTP Co. | www.rtpcompany.com
Stat-Ease Inc. | www.statease.com
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The Materials
Analyst
C r e a t e
|
A n a l y z e
|
S p e c
DESI GN
W
hile new developments in
materials and processing
technology are exciting, it
is easy to lose sight of fundamentals in a
world where the next big thing is always
at the center of everyones attention. Re-
cently, we spent a lot of time reviewing
the subject of moisture analysis. This, in
turn, is related to an important require-
ment for processing many polymers: dry-
ing the resin prior to molding.
Most processors recognize the need
for drying, but a lot of attention to detail
goes into ensuring adequately dried mate-
rial, and many molders still resist the no-
tion that it is important to document the
various parameters associated with proper
functioning of their drying equipment. I
recently spoke with a client who was told
by his molder that monitoring the dew-
point of their dryers was not necessary
because they could just tell by looking
whether or not the material was dry.
A similar lack of understanding is as-
sociated with melt flow rate (MFR) test-
ing. Equipment for testing MFR has
been around for almost as long as injec-
tion molding machines, but there is a
tendency in the industry to view these
devices, formally known as extrusion
plastometers, as old technology.
Two-part solution
to spiking MFR
Early in my career as a processor, our
company received a rejection for brit-
tle behavior in parts molded from clear
polycarbonate (PC). The parts had an
acceptable appear-
ance and all critical
dimensions were to
print, but when the
assembled product
was subjected to a
standard impact test,
the parts we had
molded cracked.
Samples of these
parts were sent to
the resin supplier
and it was deter-
mi ned by MFR
testing that the ma-
terial had been de-
graded during the molding process. This
conclusion was based on a comparison
of the MFR of molded parts to the as-
sociated raw material. The raw material
had an MFR of 10.2 g/10 min and the
molded parts produced a result of 19.7
g/10 minan increase of 93%.
During a visit by the technical repre-
sentative from our resin supplier to eval-
uate the process, he explained that the
MFR value was related inversely to the
average molecular weight of the poly-
mer. As the MFR increased, the average
polymer chain length decreased. Shorter
polymer chains provide less opportunity
for chain entanglement, an important
factor in ensuring adequate ductility in
the material. Polycarbonate is thought of
as a very impact-resistant material, but if
not treated properly during processing,
the polymer chains can be shortened ex-
cessively, resulting in brittle behavior.
As we reviewed the process to look
for causes of the degradation, we focused
on drying, the melt temperature of the
material in the bar-
rel and the hot run-
ner, the time that
the material spent in
the molten state (of-
ten referred to as the
residence time), and
the management of
regrind. If polymer
degradation is oc-
curring during pro-
cessing, these are
the factors that con-
tribute to the prob-
lem. If more than
one of these is out
of bounds, the cumulative effect can be
greater than the individual contributions.
For example, wet material degrades much
faster at a higher melt temperature than it
will at a lower melt temperature.
As we went through the various as-
pects of the process, we identified two
This series of articles is designed to
help molders understand how a few
analytical tools can help diagnose a
part failure. Michael Sepe, our ana-
lyst and author, is an independent
materials and processing consultant
based in Sedona, AZ. Mike has pro-
vided analytical services to materi-
al suppliers, molders, and end users
for 20-plus years. You can reach him
at mike@thematerialanalyst.com.
Part 122: Melt ow rate revisitedPart 1
Despite your protests, you probably dont know all there is to
know about MFR. This article will get you started down the path
to enlightenment, leading to good parts.
I recently spoke with
a client who was
told by his molder that
monitoring the
dewpoint of their
dryers was
NOT NECESSARY
because they could
just tell by looking
whether or not
the material was dry.
Cant get enough of this guy? Search
plasticstoday.com/imm for Materi-
als Analyst to catch up on Michael
Sepes column from previous issues.
IM1103 020 20 3/2/11 4:19:01 PM
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key areas of concern. One pertained to
a need for more drying time when re-
grind was used. The customer allowed
for a 20% level of regrind; however, the
nonuniformity of the regrind particles as
compared to the virgin pellets resulted in
a less favorable surface-to-volume ratio.
This meant that a longer drying time was
needed to remove moisture from the
material properly. Our dryers were sized
to allow for only the minimum amount
of drying time recommended, and this
was insufficient when using regrind.
The other issue had to do with our
hot runner. The placement of the ther-
mocouples in our system resulted in tem-
perature readings that were significantly
lower than the actual temperature of the
material in the system. By replacing the
tip heaters with components that pro-
vided more accurate readings, we were
able to set our temperatures in the runner
system to a level that avoided overheat-
ing the material. Subsequent MFR tests
saw the MFR of the molded parts drop
to 12.4 g/10 min, an increase relative to
the pellets of only 22%, and the impact
test problems disappeared.
Demonstrate your own
touch of genius
Such tutelage from resin suppliers is rare
these days. But this experience inculcated
a real awareness of how important mo-
lecular weight is in determining polymer
properties. As a result, the first piece of
equipment that went into our materials
lab was an MFR tester. We didnt even
have to buy it; we found one gathering
dust in the quality control lab. It had
been purchased a few years earlier for
the purpose of checking incoming lots of
raw material with the idea that process
variation could be traced to fluctuations
in incoming material.
As we will show later, this was a poor
application for the instrument. But the
ability to correlate MFR results between
a material supplier and a processor is in-
herently valuable, since it promotes bet-
ter communication between supplier
and customer and it creates an awareness
within the molding operation of the im-
portance of the measurement.
The instrument also provides a means
of testing molded parts so that the mold-
ing process can be designed to ensure
against polymer degradation, something
that cannot be visually detected. Know-
ing the results of the process while parts
are being made is far less costly than be-
ing blindsided by a report from a material
supplier or an independent laboratory that
informs you that the product you made
and shipped months ago is not up to par.
Having worked with this method for
most of a 35-year career, I am constant-
ly surprised when I run into processors,
many of them very capable and with
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IM1103 021 21 3/3/11 4:59:51 PM
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good reputations in the industry,
who do not understand the signifi-
cance of the test and their role in its
outcome. While MFR values ap-
pear on many material data sheets,
the connection to molecular weight
and the fact that this molecular
weight can be influenced by process
conditions seems to have eluded
many practitioners in the industry.
Sometimes the level of understand-
ing is so poor that there is a refusal
to believe the numbers, much less
understand their significance.
In some ways, this is a curious
symptom of our high-tech, data-
cluttered world. We would rather
monitor 14 parameters on our resin
dryers than make an accurate mea-
surement of the moisture content
of the resin. We are drawn to a strategy
for process control that records 64 vari-
ables rather than focus on the four or five
that actually matter. We would rather do
Six Sigma than simple SPC charting. But
as Albert Einstein observed, Any intel-
ligent fool can make things bigger and
more complex. It takes a touch of genius
and a lot of courage to move in the op-
posite direction. As it happens, in the
long run, it also makes for a clearer and
more straightforward understanding of
the world around us. Bewilderment and
hazy thinking cost money.
So as old as the topic of melt flow
rate may be, experience suggests that
we still need to understand and use it.
In this series of articles, we will look at
the significance of the measurement,
shortcomings and limitations of the test,
misconceptions about the technique, and
details of obtaining good data from the
instrument.
The MFR tester
Lets start with what the instrument actu-
ally is and what it does. The photo shows
a typical MFR tester. The hardware por-
tion of the device consists of a heated
chamber with a center bore into which
the sample material is loaded. The diam-
eter and finish of this bore are carefully
spelled out in ASTM D 1238 or ISO
1133, both methods devoted to describ-
ing the procedures associated with the
test. The set temperature for any given
material is specified and can range from
as low as 125C to as high as 400C, de-
pending on the polymer being tested.
At the bottom of the cylinder is an in-
sert called an orifice that contains an even
smaller hole through which the molten
material must pass. Once a sufficient
amount of material has been loaded into
the cylinder and properly compacted, it
is preheated for a set amount of time to
ensure that it has been uniformly heated.
Although a temperature control is used to
set the appropriate temperature, an actual
thermometer designed to read very small
changes in the target temperature is also
placed into a hole in the heated chamber
to confirm that the correct temperature
is achieved. In older instruments, mer-
cury thermometers were used as the
only temperature reading. In the newer
instruments being built today, the physi-
cal thermometer is often used simply as a
calibration tool for the digital readout.
A piston weighing 100g is then in-
serted into the cylindrical bore of the in-
strument from the top side and a weight
is placed on top of the piston to achieve
the specified constant load. This constant
load is also a material-specific parameter.
Whenever an MFR value is quoted, it
should be accompanied by a notation that
specifies the temperature and the load
used in performing the test. This
is important because, for better or
worse, many materials can be tested
at multiple conditions. As we have
discussed in a previous article, the
selected conditions for a given resin
can have a substantial influence on
the numbers obtained.
Once the prescribed preheat
time has been achieved, the test is
started. It can be run in one of two
ways. One method involves a con-
stant time. Material being pushed
out of the orifice by the force of the
constant load applied from above is
collected at regular intervals speci-
fied by the method, and the mass
of these samples is converted to a
result given in g/10 min.
An alternative method involves
extruding a fixed volume of material,
regulated by a sensor that starts the timer
at a fixed point in the travel of the piston
and stops it once the piston has traveled
a particular distance. The conversion of
the raw data into the MFR result is a little
more complicated using this approach, but
it also allows for the calculation of a melt
volume flow rate (MVR), if necessary.
This approach is becoming more popu-
lar with material suppliers, and if you are
going to make an apples-to-apples com-
parison with a certification supplied by a
supplier that uses MVR measurements, it
pays to speak the same language.
The volumetric flow rate is actually a
parameter that is more relevant to a deter-
mination of the viscosity of the polymer.
It factors out differences that may be due
only to the density of the material. And
being able to perform the test in this way
enables the measurement of melt density.
This is an important parameter for flow
simulation software and it has some inter-
esting and little-understood applications for
determining the shot capacity of a molding
machine that we will review later.
So this, in a nutshell, is how the device
works. In the next part of our article we
will discuss some details of sample prepa-
ration, some housekeeping consider-
ations, and start to look at how the device
should be used and, perhaps more impor-
tantly, how it should not be used.
a
A basic melt ow rate tester (extrusion plastometer).
IM1103 022 22 3/2/11 4:19:09 PM
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TOOLI NG
The
Troubleshooter
I
could hear a big truck coming down
the snow-covered road in front of
my office. The driver had become a
friend and, like all of the others, likes to
get my packages to me as early as possible
so he can get a cup of coffee and scratch
the ears of Jake, my black Labrador Re-
triever, before hitting the road again.
My package this day was a small one
containing two parts and a cold runner
being fed by a heated sprue bushing. I
knew this molder well since we have
served on several SPE groups together.
We have even participated in many sem-
inars, but our topics are usually different.
He speaks about materials and I discuss
(what else) troubleshooting techniques.
The interesting part of this project is
that this single nylon part had replaced
11 metal parts that used to be bolted,
welded, or bonded together. This had
been a big cost savings for the molders
customer but there were still a few bugs
to work outmostly cracks in the areas
where the bearing section is attached to
the mounting bracket.
These cracks would show up right af-
ter molding most of the time, but some-
times they wouldnt appear until after
assembly. The perception was that if the
part was going to crack, it would do so
sometime in the two-week period right
after molding.
I looked at the parts and runners un-
der my lighted magnifier and could im-
mediately see many sharp corners and
edges that had cracked.
Checking measurements
The dimensions of the runner, gates, and
heated sprue cone looked pretty good.
The full-round runner was
fairly uniform at 0.110 inch,
the trapezoidal gates were
0.040 inch deep by 0.060
inch wide, and the cone shape
being fed by the heated sprue
bushing measured 0.130 inch
in diameter at the small end
and 0.180 inch in diameter
at the large endjust right
for the heated sprue orifice of
0.125 inch.
The gating detail was curi-
ous. The tooling engineer had attached
a block that measured 0.100 inch thick,
0.300 inch long, and 0.110 inch wide to
the outside wall of the bearing section. If
this was a tab gate, it was the biggest one
I had seen on a 0.050-inch-thick wall. I
made a note to ask the tooling engineer
what the purpose was for this small block.
Maybe they removed it after molding, or
possibly it was used for positioning the
part for assembly, but it did not really
hurt the molding process, so I decided to
forget about it for the time being.
I moved on to the gates and liked
what I saw. As I mentioned before, the
gates on each of the two parts had a trap-
ezoidal designbasically a subgate. This
design is one I wish more tooling engi-
neers and toolmakers would incorporate
into their designs, as it can be used with
most materials and wont let you down
or cast doubt on your abilities. The di-
mensions of this subgate that fed into the
block or tab and then into the part wall
were more than generous enough for
running unfilled nylon materials.
So far it looked like the sprue, runner,
and gate designs would work well. An
ejector pin attached to the main runner,
just 0.050 inch away from the subgates,
did give me some concerns, however.
Since the subgate entered the part at a 30
angle, this close proximity of the ejector
pin would not allow the subgate to pull
out of the tunnel portion of the gate with-
out being distorted during ejection.
This article continues our series of
troubleshooting reports from one of the
leading on-the-spot problem solvers in
the molding industry. Consultant Bob
Hatch of Bob Hatch & Assoc. (www.
bobhatchonline.com) has more than
45 years of experience finding solu-
tions to processing challenges. You
can reach him at bob.hatchthetrouble
shooter@gmail.com.
Part 128: The simple x for cracked parts
Sometimes its the little things that cause big problems.
A lack of proper
radiuses is a common
cause of cracking.
Troubleshooters
notebook
Part/material: Nylon.
Tool: Two-cavity cold runner.
Symptoms/problem: Parts cracked within
the rst two weeks after molding.
Solution: Radius all sharp corners and
edges; moisturize the nylon parts.
IM1103 023 23 3/2/11 4:20:20 PM
TOOLI NG
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As long as the material heats were care-
fully watched, this might not be a serious
problem. It just meant that automatic op-
eration of the molding machine might be
risky and should not be attempted.
I also made a note to remind the
molder to be sure this mold was be-
ing run in a molding machine with a
general-purpose nozzle feeding into the
heated sprue bushing. The orifice in the
GP nozzle would need to match the flow
tube or bore diameter of the heated sprue
bushing. This was not a mold that should
be fed with a reverse-taper nylon nozzle.
Nothing to this point led me to think
I had found the problem that had been
causing these parts to crack.
Next, I looked closely in those sharp
corners and sharp edges, finding 12 sharp
edges and 10 sharp corners that were not
radiused and only two sharp inside cor-
ners with any radius at all.
For my simple radiusing test, I held a
medium ballpoint pen at a 45 angle and
drew a line in each of the sharp areas. A
double line, visible on the left part in the
photo, meant insufficient radiusing and
therefore impact and tensile weakness.
Finally, here was the reason for the
part cracking! Fortunately, adding radius
is not difficult for the toolmakers. The
question was, how much radius should be
added? The rule for a blending radius is to
add radius equal to 25% of the thickness
of the part wall being attached to, and
for an inside corner the radius amount
should equal 50% of the nominal walls.
This means the radius amount required in
this part design would be between 0.0125
and 0.025 inch. From what I saw on these
sample parts, I decided to recommend all
0.025-inch radiuses, unless this created a
fit and function problem.
Mysterious delay
Now that we knew where the cracking
was coming from, why did it only occur
within that two-week period immedi-
ately after molding?
It seemed unusual to me that this
molder that I had known for so many
years would forget that moisturizing ny-
lon parts right after molding is one of the
ways for those parts to become usable
prior to at least 41 days after molding.
Many of the nylon manufacturers have
this information on their websites.
We used to just dump our nylon parts
into a tub of boiling water and leave
them to soak overnight, but this is not
recommended anymore. The material
manufacturers would prefer that anyone
molding their nylon materials place the
parts on a tray and heat them to a tem-
perature of 100F or a different temper-
ature of their choosing for at least two
weeks. Following this procedure reduces
operator safety issues and eliminates any
tendency for the soaked parts to become
unusually flexible.
This moisturizing procedure would
increase the parts impact strength by
several points, cause the part dimensions
to grow ever so slightly, and cut in half
the flex modulus or stiffness of the part.
If this moisturizing is not done artifi-
cially, it will occur naturally just by leav-
ing the parts in the normal atmosphere. It
takes six months or so for these changes
to happen outdoors or in a warehouse
(quicker in the summer and slower in the
winter), but it will happen.
I had arrived at the finish line for this
project. All I needed to tell the molder
was to have the toolmakers add the miss-
ing radiuses and moisturize the nylon
after molding. I called the molder and
spent my typical half hour catching up
and another half hour suggesting what
he needed to have done. He wanted to
know if the toolmakers could handle the
moisturizing part of the corrective action
that I passed on to him and I politely told
him it should probably be the responsi-
bility of the maintenance area.
Again, we have corrected the prob-
lem presented to us and, fortunately, it
did not put the total workload on the
toolroom. Sharing the responsibility of
corrective action always puts a smile on
everyones face.
It was getting lateI had spent 5 or
6 hours on this projectso I decided
to take Jake to the dog park so he could
catch up with all his friends. The deep
snow we had this winter has made it dif-
ficult for us to get around easily, so this
would be fun for both of us.
a
TOOLI NG
Engi neer
|
Bui l d
|
Mai nt ai n
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IM1103 024 24 3/2/11 4:20:28 PM
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IM1103 025 25 3/2/11 4:20:32 PM
P l a n t T o u r
Chicago
Milwaukee
Niches come in all sizes, and for one Midwestern mold
manufacturer, the bigger, the better when it comes to
molds.Clare Goldsberry
BIG MOLDS
MAKE FOR
BIG BUSINESS
Technical sales engineer Dan Gouge (right)
discusses customer-critical requirements on a
mold with process technician Jeff Schneider.
Triangle Tools 173,000-ft
2
manufacturing facility sits on 18 acres of land on
the northwest side of Milwaukee.
IM1103 026 26 3/2/11 4:21:59 PM

Our niche is large, highly engineered

molds, and we do these better than
anyone else in the world.
W
hen IMM walked onto Triangle Tool Corp.s production
floor, it looked very similar to others with one large ex-
ception: Everything is very big. The companys 173,000-
ft
2
facility contains some of the largest CNC machine tools in
North America, giving Triangle Tool the ability to manufac-
ture extremely large molds. The most recent facility expansion
was completed in July 2009 and added 18,000 ft
2
.
The Milwaukee, WI-based company was founded in 1963.
Roy Luther purchased it 20 years later, and in 1985 he built
a new facility on 18 acres where the company currently op-
erates. Today, Triangle Tool is ranked as the fourth-largest
mold manufacturing company in North America, according
to the Plastics News moldmakers survey, and is one of just a
handful of mold manufacturers with the knowledge and struc-
tural capabilities to design and build injection molds of the
size, complexity, and diversity that the company offers.
Victor Baez, technical sales manager for Triangle, says
the company has always built larger molds. When Triangle
moved into this facility, we installed a 1000-ton sample press,
followed by a 3000-ton press, which sealed Luthers com-
mitment to stay in the large-mold arena, he explains. Our
niche is large, highly engineered molds, and we do these bet-
ter than anyone else in the world.
With the commitment to molds of this size comes a num-
ber of challenges, including the capital investment needed for
equipment that can handle molds weighing more than 100
tons. The recent addition included a 100-ton crane. Just the
handling of these extremely large molds is tedious, but its
made easier because of the number of cranes20-plusthat
we have, says Baez.
Getting the layout
While walking around the facility, we notice that there are
rail tracks running through the shop to accommodate large
carts that can be easily pushed manually. These rail tracks span
bay-to-bay to allow easy access to all departments of the pro-
duction facility.
While many moldmaking companies operate as job shops,
Triangle Tool is truly a mold manufacturer. The company is
very departmentalized, so rather than a mold moving from
machine to machine under the watchful eye of a single mold-
maker as in many job shops, the molds move from department
to department, which makes scheduling a critical function.
Separate departments exist for lathe work and turning.
Triangle has 12 mold polisherssix on days and six on the
night shift. A core team of toolmakers assembles the molds
and sends them to be sampled and qualified in one of the
companys large-tonnage presses.
Triangle samples three to four molds a day. On the day
IMM was there, employees were sampling a large stack mold
in the 3000-ton press for a major supplier of plastic pallets.
The 3000-ton press has a 540-oz shot size that can produce
parts greater than 30 lb. In addition to the 3000-ton press,
Triangle Tool Corp., Milwaukee, WI
Facility size: 173,000 ft
2
Markets served: Industrial and returnable material handling,
large recycle carts, consumer storage products, and large ap-
pliance, heavy truck, and agricultural equipment components
No. of employees: 135
Work hours: Two shifts
Molding machines: Five, 500-3000 tons; Husky, Milacron
Moldbuilding equipment: 45 large CNC machining centers;
18 four- and ve-axis high-speed machining centers; two gun
drilling machines; two large tting presses; two small tting
presses; gantry-style EDM with 10-by-10-ft working area; 18
cranes up to 100-ton capacity; two new OKK Shuttle ma-
chines; Unigraphics mold design CAD-CAM.
Mold technology: Extremely large injection and compression
molds, standardized modular stack frames and stack molds;
single-cavity molds to multicavity stack molds for large parts.
Other services: Molding tryouts, welding, special machining
Co n t a c t I n f o r ma t i o n
Victor Baez | (414) 357-7117
www.triangletoolcorp.com
V I T A L S T A T S
One of Triangle Tools fastest-growing business segments is
the material handling market, and pallets are in big demand.
IM1103 027 27 3/2/11 4:22:12 PM

Top This ve-axis machining center from FPT has Triangle Tools
fastest spindle speed: 24,000 rpm. Middle The Pragma ve-axis
machining center from FPT is one of two that Triangle Tool oper-
ates, and is a workhorse for building large molds. Above The
multiaction molds for dishwasher tubs contain actions within ac-
tions and are built so the entire outside of the tool lifts away.
Triangle Tool has two 1000-ton injection molding machines,
including a wide-platen 165-oz press and a Husky Hylectric
with a 249-oz shot.
Broad customer base
Triangle serves a wide range of customers in diverse industries.
One market segment that has been a big growth business for
the company is plastic pallets and returnable packaging con-
tainers (RPCs). With everyone going green, there are a lot
of new designs for knockdown-style containers for easy re-
turn shipping. Its a very stable industry thats really sparked
a lot of interest and growth in North America, notes Dan
Goug, Triangle Tools technical sales engineer. Weve been
involved in this industry for a long time and bring extensive
expertise that few have.
Triangle also makes molds for 95-gal recycle carts, con-
sumer storage products, and large appliance, heavy truck, and
agricultural equipment components. Were really a nonauto-
motive mold producer, says Goug.
Specialty machining, mold engineering
Contract specialty machining services for a wide variety of
companies that require extremely large machined parts help
Triangle optimize machine tool capacity. There are only
so many spindle hours required for moldmaking, Baez says,
and with the people and equipment we have, were in a
unique position to take on large-part machining, which also
allows us to maximize our capabilities.
During IMMs visit, Triangle Tool was machining mis-
sile ballasts for U.S. Navy Zumwalt class destroyers in a large
Mecof bridge-style vertical machining center. We have the
capacity to do this work and weve blended it quite well with
the moldmaking, says Baez. However, there are still some
areas where were restricted because of the need for even larg-
er-sized machine tools.
In October of this year, the company will take deliv-
ery of a five-axis horizontal machining center with a 65-ft
travel bed. Well incrementally go where we need to go
to allow our specialty machining business to grow without
detracting from moldmaking, Baez says. We will not
interfere with our injection moldmaking operationsthat
trumps everything.
Engineering is key to building extremely large molds. Tri-
angle has 10 engineers for design and programming of the
molds. The biggest challenge is the ability to design and build
molds with multiple actions, taking into account the tremen-
dous weights these actions have to carry. For example, just
one slide in a dishwasher mold can weigh 30,000 lb. When
a dishwasher mold opens up, there are four large cavity fall-
aways, and on the core side, two large A-frame lifters. With-
in those actions are also a series of hydraulic actions.
This is where our Asian competitors fall short, Baez says.
A customer may take a set of prints overseas, but a mold is
more than steel. They cant engineer the clearance and fit and
IM1103 028 28 3/3/11 5:01:17 PM
Top Triangles Kuraki Machine Scan is one of 15 large boring bars
that the toolmaker operates, and is seen here adding vent channels
to multiple single cavity tools. Middle This FPT machining center is
creating an H-13 mold insert for a battery case. Above These three
FPT stinger machines perform much of the hard-cutting for the
multicavity molds the company produces for Rubbermaid.
weight-bearing aspects of a mold this size. Our molds are a
marvel to watch and truly a unique feat of our engineering.
Big molds for big parts
Besides conventional mold steels, Triangle Tool uses a lot of
MoldMax (copper alloys from Brush Wellman) and alumi-
num. Goug notes that the industry is turning more to alu-
minum for large molds. When customers need cooling but
also the strength of MoldMax, we go that route. But when we
can, we use aluminum in areas that are not on shutoffs or slide
features, he says. Cooling properties are better and it doesnt
cost as much as MoldMax. Cycle time is critical, especially in
very large parts that have thick, nonuniform wall sections that
are difficult to cool, so the use of MoldMax and aluminum is
critical to getting the heat out of these areas.
Because of the size of the parts, many molds Triangle Tool
makes are single cavity, so it receives orders for multiple molds
for producing the same component in order for customers to
meet quantity requirements of high-volume parts. At the time
of the IMM plant tour, the company was in the process of
making eight washing machine tub molds for a major appli-
ance manufacturer.
The company has a horizontal CNC machining center that
is one of the largest this writer has ever seen. A machinist sits
in a cab with the control panel, driving the spindle along
the cutter paths. We can rough faster at 90 than in a vertical
machining center, says Goug. We cant get the chips out
of the horizontal machine fast enough, so thats why theres
a person sweeping the chips out of the way with a broom.
When youre removing that much stock in that machining
center, the heat is contained in the chip, which is by design
with the new carbide cutting tools.
The cutters make metal chips as big as Fritos corn chips,
and Triangle produces as much as 20,000 lb of chips every
day. All the aluminum, steel, and copper chips are separated
and recycled, as is the large amount of cooling fluid these huge
machine tools use.
Big molds also present challenges for performing quality
checks, which are performed in the quality department with
a 10-by-10-by-7-ft coordinate measuring machine (CMM)
as well as via on-machine inspection. Most of our machine
tools are equipped with on-board inspection software, says
Goug. That enables us to check certain points as it cuts via
laser or probe inspection. We can also check wear on the cut-
ter tools. Triangle cuts all of its own custom cutting tools,
and all of its carbide cutting tools are reground, which is also
done in-house as a way to save money.
Baez adds that the industry has changed with respect to
final fitting of large molds. Everything is machined to a zero-
cut finish. We expect no handwork when a tool gets to the
final fit, he says. Theres no time for that in this industry
for large molds. And today, we have full parting line contact,
which makes the tools last longerall due to the accuracy of
the on-board inspections.
a

IM1103 029 29 3/3/11 5:01:24 PM
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A
s market acceptance of the product
grew and production consequent-
ly heated up, Cashmere Molding made
a proposal to its OEM client Clarisonic:
Invest in new tooling and automation to
switch production from two presses and
two two-cavity family moldsone re-
quiring five hand-loaded insertsto one
two-shot injection molding machine
running a four-cavity family tool that
would have inserts placed robotically and
produce finished parts.
Perhaps predictably, Clarisonics para-
phrased response amounted to, Whats
in it for us? Mike Gladwell, director
of engineering at the Woodinville, WA
custom injection molder, had a ready
answer: estimated costs savings of at least
40% (ultimately the new setup doubled
capacity and reduced labor costs by 70%),
with a less-than-six-month return on the
tooling investment.
Founded in 1991 with two employ-
ees, including current president and CEO
Greg Herlin, Cashmere has championed
intelligent process design, highlighting
automation and advanced molding tech-
niques to grow to more than 50 employ-
ees. Instead of reducing headcount as it
has automated, the company has added
20 staff and, perhaps most impressively,
has lured five customers back from China
on the basis of Cashmeres quality and
cost competitiveness.
Tough project,
able partners
For the Clarisonic project, the compa-
ny worked with Wittmann Battenfeld
for robotics, SAS Automation LLC for
custom end-of-arm tooling (EOAT),
The Turner Group for cell design, and
Engel for injection technology. Cash-
meres engineering came, pulled to-
gether those vendors and the customer,
and coordinated the effort with every-
one, Gladwell says, so it really was a
team effort to get it all working.
The product itself is the Clarisonic
Pro-Handle powered facial cleaning
device. Cashmere was molding the
handle enclosure, including an over-
molded elastomer grip and an indicator
lens in the form of a light pipe that had
to be inserted into the cavity prior to
molding.
The light pipe proved a particular
challenge given its small size, about as
big as two BBs side by side, and the need
for its precise placement. SAS was tasked
with creating a customized EOAT that
could insert two of the light pipes and
work within a 2+2-cavity transfer mold
that requires the EOAT to pick two in-
serts at once. The mold itself had only
0.0015-inch clearance on either side to fit
the inserts, and since floor space was lim-
ited, the insert shuttle table and guarding
needed to be as compact as possible.
When Cashmere started on the
project, it created two sets of molds,
running substrates on a 150-ton press,
placing the parts in a box, and walk-
ing them to a second machine where
a worker would manually insert them
for overmolding. For the front part of
the handle, two lights are inserted in its
front, as well as three small brass pins
that hold the brush in, a total of four
hand-loaded inserts. A family mold, the
One way to avoid the difculties of reshoring molding and
moldmaking work from China is to keep the business onshore in the
rst place. For custom molder Cashmere, the answer has been
smart automation and smarter design, including two-shot molding.
Tony Deligio
Automation, tool tech keep
personal care product stateside
Clarisonics Sonic Skin Cleansing Systems use a patented sonic frequency of more
than 300 movements per second to reportedly remove six times more makeup and
two times more dirt and oil than cleansing with your hands alone.
IM1103 030 30 3/2/11 4:23:30 PM
MANUFACTURI NG
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tool also produced one handles back
portion, which also had a light.
That was al l wel l and good,
Gladwell says, but as volumes grew,
the cost was high and the production
was slow. It was particularly hampered
by operator error in the hand loading
of inserts. Even though you couldnt
technically put [the inserts] in back-
wards, we managed to get a couple of
guys who did.
At this point in time, the success of
the product meant that Cashmere was
running it on a 24/6 schedule, a sweet
spot of volume that could allow for
a more automated solution. Gladwell
says, Cashmere came to the table and
told Clarisonic, Hey, theres a better
way to do this. Weve got this two-shot
equipment; you should consider retool-
ing and turning this system into a four-
cavity family mold that will produce
two completely finished parts.
Clarisonic approved the switch, and
Cashmere moved forward with the
new molding concept. For the three
brass pins, it decided it would be best to
handle those as a postmolding press-in
insert. The biggest challenge remained
the light pipes. One placed in each cav-
ity was an orientation nightmare: They
only had 0.0015-inch of wiggle room. If
they skewed diagonally, light would not
travel through the pipe. In conjunction
with its moldmaker Premier Tool, and
EOAT supplier SAS, Cashmere decided
the best plan would be to include nu-
merous locating features within the tool,
with three to four in each cavity helping
locate the end effector within the cavity.
SAS also supplied a sliding table,
from which the light tubes would be
picked up. The design was such that the
robot and end effector could automati-
cally tell where the light pipes were.
One of the big challenges was, Man,
how do we get an end effector to land
within a thou [0.001 inch] vertically
and horizontally in the press and come
out and land on a table within the same
thou and grab the parts to be installed,
24/6? Thats a lot of shots to keep ev-
erything perfect, says Gladwell.
In between those shots, the Witt-
mann robot picks up two light pipes,
drops them into the press, goes to the A
side, installs them in the side of the tool,
then goes over to the end effector on the
B side of the tool to pick four partstwo
complete products and two substrates
ready for overmolding.
Beating China on price
At this time, the process is running 24/6,
with good output of 99.6%, having done
so since its initial startup. Really, the
first time it went in the press, it started
up seamlessly, Gladwell says. It was the
coordination between the toolmaker,
and the molder, and the gripper people,
with some support from Wittmann and
The Turner Group that really made this
thing work like a champ.
The company has carried over the
concept for other parts, building three
more two-shot tools that use the exact
same system. It was super exciting for
us, and it was super exciting for them,
Gladwell says. Theyre saving a ton of
money, and theyve got super-reliable
production.
The money savings are helping Cash-
mere compete at a time when many
smaller shops are dropping out of the
game. Were very proud that Cashmere
found a way to not only compete with
China, but also beat China on pricing,
Gladwell says. In a large part, thats
thanks to Clarisonic making the invest-
ment and allowing us to purchase that
equipment, having faith in a U.S. manu-
facturer. You know, Im not waving the
flag; thats just cost savings and service,
not patriotism.
a
Left The EOAT begins a new molding cycle by preparing to dock with the light pipe shuttle xture. The light bars are arrayed verti-
cally in two sets of two and each set has its own array of three spring-loaded docking pin receivers. The receivers and docking
pins ensure that the EOAT picks the light bars exactly the same way each time, while the receivers location on the shuttle xture
matches the receivers mounted in the cavity half of the mold. Right Here, unlike in production where theyre placed on a conveyor,
nished molded parts remain on the EOAT. Normally, these parts would have been placed on the conveyor prior to the new set of
light pipes being picked from the shuttle xture.
Cashmere Molding Inc.
www.cashmeremolding.com
Engel | www.engelglobal.com
SAS Automation LLC | www.sasgripper.com
The Turner Group | chuck@turnergroup.net
Wittmann Battenfeld | www.wittmann-ct.com
IM1103 031 31 3/2/11 4:23:35 PM
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T
alk to any lawyer. When he writes
a contract for you it will always be
to your advantage and to the other guys
disadvantage. Ask your attorney a little
further and hell give you the big law of
commerce: The last contract that changes
hands before business commences is the
one that is in force.
In the molding business this is usu-
ally your customers purchase order. It
means unless you change things, you end
up playing by his rules (written by his at-
torney, to his advantage, not yours). The
next big law is, any contract is enforceable
when signed by both parties, regardless of
the terms, until a judge says it isnt.
Contracts should be fair. They should
be as simple as, You order, I build, I
ship, and you pay. While we all know
its never that simple, theres no need for
it to be overly complex.
First, lets really understand the pur-
chase decision. The only thing any cus-
tomer wants is a steady supply of accept-
able parts. CpK, Six Sigma black belts,
TQM (total quality management), lean,
and all the other garbage mean nothing.
Price means nothing. If it did, your cus-
tomer wouldnt pay for expedited air-
freight when he runs out of parts.
How you run your business (within
the boundaries of the law) means noth-
ing to your customer, either. How old or
young your machines are means nothing.
Your scrap rates, cycle times, and opera-
tor training mean nothing.
Its kind of funny (or should be) to
hear a buyer say, If you can drop the
price to $0.05/1000, I can place the job
with you. Really? A business package
of $80,000/year will hinge on an overall
price cut of a few hundred dollars? Horse
hockey! But this quaint piece of street
theater happens all the time.
How do you deal with it? When he
asks for the $0.05/1000 (hes basically
ignored your quote) raise the cost by
$0.10/1000 (ignore him). Then when
youre done trying to show whos more
macho, go back to your original price.
Tell him to tell his boss your price was
$0.10 higher but he beat you up and you
dropped back the $0.10. These are kids
games, but sometimes it must happen.
What this really shows is the game of
business. Most suppliers have only a basic
understanding of the rules of this game be-
cause their business is making parts and/or
tooling. Unfortunately, purchasing agents
attend seminars on how to beat up their
suppliers to lower costs. This is the infa-
mous cat and mouse game: The customer
is the cathunting skills, teeth, claws, and
alland the supplier is the mouse, whose
only real skills are agility and survival in-
stinct. If youve ever watched your cat take
out a mouse, youve seen that the mouse
doesnt have a good batting average.
Your business is molding, not contact
negotiations. But, you may say, they
dictate the terms! News flash: They
only dictate the terms because you dont.
Think about it. How do you level the
field to where you can do what you do
well and still end up making a profit for
the company? Actually, its fairly simple:
Have a policy manualand use it.
Customer buy-in
This series of articles will give you the
arguments and justifications for using a
written manual. A policy manual is like
a prenuptial agreement in a marriage,
with the sole purpose of laying out each
partys actions in the event of a divorce.
If the marriage goes well, the prenup
Its time to get tough with your customers. Huh? Although it hardly seems like the business climate will
allow it, setting guidelines for your potential clients to follow will actually make you more protable than
if you regularly low-ball your quotes. This four-part series shows you how a policy manual protects you
from predatory business.Bill Tobin
Leveling the playing eld with a policy manual,
Part 1: Setting up the manual
You can download a sample manual
at plasticstoday.com/imm/articles/
policy-manual-1. Tobin encourages
you to modify it to your own liking and
run it by your attorney.
IM1103 032 32 3/2/11 4:24:54 PM
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Your Project Acceleration Resource
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June 79, 2011
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
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IM1103 033C 33C 3/2/11 4:25:21 PM
MANUFACTURI NG
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is never used. With a policy manual,
what you are communicating is your ac-
tions when things change or go wrong. A
policy manual doesnt have to be as thick
as a phone book; it can be done in a few
dozen pages.
So just what is a policy manual? Its a
document that explains how you do busi-
ness. Heres how I break it down:
1. Whos in charge.
2. How you quote.
3. How youll get paid.
4. How youll re-
negotiate prices.
5. How you han-
dle a tool being
removed.
6. How you handle
shipments.
7. How you handle changes in shipping
frequency or volumes.
8. Your policy on quality reporting.
9. How you handle rejects.
10. How and when youll communicate
with your customers.
11. How youll handle gratuities.
How do you get your customer to
agree to it? Simply be polite and firm.
Publish your manual. Assign serial num-
bers to each copy. Have the last page be
a signature page with the manuals issue
date and serial number on it. With every
quote, reference that customers copy of
your manual by serial number and date.
Before you do business with him, insist
on receiving a copy
of the signature page
returned to you
with the company-
authorized agents
(usually the buyer)
signature and date.
Dont accept a PO until you have
the signature page and a reference to
your manual on the PO. This is either
on the PO you accept, or a letter you
send after the PO is received asking for
an acknowledgement. He only has to do
this once. So long as you dont revise the
manual, youve set the ground rules for
your business relationship.
This will take a little insistence but re-
member: Youll get the job because you
can produce a continuous supply of good
parts on time. All this manual does is set
out the rules if this doesnt happen.
1. Whos in charge
Business is between a buyer and seller
only. There are no exceptions. Ulti-
mately it comes down to money. Your
policy manual should designate the au-
thorized representative on both sides of
this transaction. Shipping schedules, qual-
ity requirements, price changes, and so
on should only go between these two
individuals authority. It is their job to
disseminate this information to others. A
reject may be discussed with engineering
Contracts should be
fair, and as SIMPLE as,
You order, I build,
I ship, and you pay.
Horizontal Injection Molding Machines
715 Ton, 9.8 oz/17 oz, HUSKY HR 650 DRS55/50 RS45/42 (2002)
700 Ton, 80 oz, VAN DORN 700 HRS-80-F (1998)
700 Ton, 90 oz, REED TJ700 (1989)
500 Ton, 112 oz, BUCHER Thermoset (1995)
500 Ton, 60 oz, VAN DORN 500HP (1997)
(3) 400 Ton, 60 oz, VAN DORN 400RS-60F-HT (1991)
330 Ton, 21 oz, CINCINNATI MILACRON 330-R-604 Electric Roboshot (1999)
308 Ton, 29 oz, TOSHIBA ISGS-310-V10-10A (1994)
(2) 300 Ton, 21 oz, CINCINNATI MILACRON VH300 (1995)
250 Ton, 15.4 oz, ENGEL ES700-250 (1999)
200 Ton, 10.5 oz/3.8 oz, NISSEI DC200-25AN Two-Shot (2006)
120 Ton, 8 oz, VAN DORN 120-RS-8F (1993)
(2) 110 Ton, 5.4 oz, BATTENFELD TM1000/350 (2002)
110 Ton, 2.4 oz, CINCINNATI MILACRON VT-110-5 (1989)
90 Ton, 6.7 oz, HUSKY S90 (1999)
85 Ton, 5 oz, VAN DORN 85HT (1997)
67 Ton, 1.16 oz, HAITIAN Zhar VE600 All Electric (2008)
43 Ton, 1.11 oz, NISSEI NS40-5A (1998)
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IM1103 034 34 3/2/11 4:25:06 PM
MANUFACTURI NG
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and quality, but it has no weight in the
business relationship until the authorized
representative makes it official in writing.
Documentation must be traceable, ei-
ther in writing or electronic, so that any
question can be resolved by reviewing
the records. Todays business transac-
tions are usually done via two computers
communicating. There must be a person
involved in this loop to see that things go
smoothly.
This policy disallows engineering
from making unfunded changes, or qual-
ity from deciding arbitrarily to reject a
production lot without the authorization
of the person whose job it is to maintain
a steady stream of acceptable parts.
In Part 2 in the April issue, Tobin ex-
plains how to quote and get paid.
a
Plastics industry consultant Bill
Tobin is a regular contributor to
IMM. You can sign up for his
newsletter and fnd free downloads
to help your business at www.wjtassociates.com.
Dirty deeds
There are two kinds of molds that
maybe you just dont want. Watch out
for these.
Takeover tooling. This is tooling
someone else had and the buyer is
doing you a favor by giving you the
business. Why couldnt the other guy
run it? What kind of pile of junk are you
being given? If you dont have a spe-
cic policy on how youll handle this
adoption, youll spend a lot of time
and energy making the tooling work
and inevitably it will be pulled and
given to someone else.
Bundled quotes/tooling. This is not
quoting a single part but a family of
parts. This may be an assembly or just
a bunch of unrelated parts. Look for the
red herrings. In many cases there are
several excellent money-making parts
and one or more money losers that, no
matter how hard you try, will be impos-
sible for you to make protably without
rebuilding the tool at your own cost.
Your policy must be a stand-alone
policy. Each mold is independent from
the others.
CHAT.
((( (((
Your peers are online brainstorming
ideas, troubleshooting problems, and
sharing a plastics story or two at the
PlasticsToday Networking Forum.
Join them to access a great resource
that will make your job easier. Youll
have a whole new set of friends.
Ones that actually understand when
you talk about nozzle orice sizing or
tri-layer co-extrusion material bonding
or cushion monitoring tolerances.
Log in to the PlasticsToday Forum
Join the conversation at
PlasticsToday.com/forum.
See us at Plastec South, booth 1741
IM1103 035 35 3/2/11 4:25:10 PM
Materials
Software
Tooling
Machinery
Auxiliaries
Supplies
N e w S t u f f t o B u y
PRODUCT LAUNCH
After four years of
development, Evon-
ik (Essen, Germany) intro-
duced an antimicrobial acrylic
at the MD&M West show.
The company describes Cyro-
lite Protect as an acrylic-based
multipolymer compound de-
signed for FDA-regulated
Class I or Class II medical de-
vices and covered by 510(k)
PMN submission.
Evoniks initial target ap-
plications include luer con-
nectors, spikes, Y-sites, check
valves, and filter housings.
After consulting its custom-
ers, the company tested the
new compounds to a Japanese
standard, the JIS Z 2801 pro-
tocol. Under this test method,
parts made from the resin are
placed in a petri dish with live
bacteria for either 24- or 96-
hour periods. The bacteria
tested were staphylococcus
aureus, klebsiella pneumoni-
ae, pseudomonas aeruginosa,
and staphylococcus epider-
mis, two gram-positive and
two gram-negative bacteria.
Against all four bacteria, the
antimicrobial material achieved
a kill rate of log 4, meaning
that 99.99% of the bacteria
within the petri dish was gone
by the end of the test.
Cyrolite Protect comes as
a precompounded pellet with
silver as the active antimicro-
bial agent. In a final compo-
nent, the resin is translucent
with a slight green tint, a
property that Evonik officials
say will help distinguish com-
ponents made from the resin.
Peter Colburn, direc-
tor of business development
and innovation for molding
compounds/performance
polymers, told IMM that in
a hospital setting, IVs have to
be changed every four days,
which fits within Cyrolite
Protects 96-hour antimicro-
bial test performance.
Evonik Industries AG
www.evonik.com
Engels X-Melt tech-
nology has been ex-
tended to its liquid silicone
rubber (LSR) injection mold-
ing machines for the rst
time, allowing for consistent,
repeatable micromolding of
parts in LSR. The supplier of
injection molding machines
and automation debuted the
advance at the Plastec West
and combined shows in Ana-
heim, CA last month.
Joachim Krgl, Engels
manager of processing
technology, told IMM that
his company always saw a
potential synergy between
X-Melt and LSR. Based on
what we learned on the ther-
moplastic side, there are quite
a few advantages if we go into
micromolding or small-shot
molding with LSR, Krgl said.
The shot-to-shot consistency
is a big issue there, and
X-Melt, naturally, takes care
of that.
X-Melt technology works
by compressing the shot in
front of the screw tip, or al-
ternatively in the hot runner.
Because of the high compress-
ibility of the LSR, something
Krgl calls its spring charac-
teristic, LSR is actually more
suited to X-Melt
than thermoplas-
tics. You have a
lot less pressure
and you still have
a very decent
expansion rate,
Krgl said. You
can minutely adjust via pres-
sure to ll the part.
Just as with thermoplas-
tics, X-Melt brings LSR greater
consistency, says Engel, and
asserts that X-Melt LSR is be-
tween ve and 10 times more
repeatable on shot weight
compared with conventional
LSR molding.
Engel was supplied tooling
for the cell by Roembke Mfg.
& Design Inc. (Ossian, IN), and
metering technology from Flu-
id Automation (Wixom, MI).
During the show, the technol-
ogy ran as a fully automated
cell, including a six-axis robot
and vision-inspection system,
molding a tiny seal.
Engel | www.engelglobal.com/na
EVONI K I NTRODUCES ANTI MI CROBI AL
ACRYL I C
ENGEL PAI RS X- MEL T WI TH L SR F OR
I NJ ECTI ON MOL DI NG F I RST
IM1103 036 36 3/2/11 4:33:56 PM
PRODUCT LAUNCH
Micropellets a
big opportunity
For one supplier of blending
equipment, the rise of mi-
cropellets has proven a boon.
Eric Bullivant, VP of blend-
ing and dosing equipment
supplier Plastrac (Edgemont,
PA), told IMM that his com-
pany has been buoyed by a
shift in the market. Plastrac
has grown in recent years due
to the fact that additives and
concentrates have been re-
duced in size and increased in
concentration, he says. Our
competitors have not been
able to feed these micropellets
as effectively as Plastrac has.
Bullivant says his company
has a solid foothold in the
polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) and packaging markets,
as well as in medical molding,
thanks in parts to its patented
push-button gravimetric cali-
bration. Modular hopper units
allow its Auto-Disc blend-
ers to offer on-the-fly color
changes to reduce costs.
The Auto-Disc gravimetric
flood-fed series has five dif-
ferent models, ranging from
two to four components, with
compact and modular designs.
In two-component models,
one material can be flood fed
and one metered. In three- and
four-component systems, two
or three metered ingredients
can join a flood-fed material.
Drying, blending, and
conveying in one unit
Dri-Air Industries Inc. (East
Windsor, CT) has introduced
a system for drying, blending,
and conveying three different
components to complement its
well-established line of dryers.
Dri-Air says this system allows
individual drying parameters
to be set for three compo-
nents, such as virgin, regrind,
and colorant. The materials are
then mixed and conveyed on
demand, providing good part-
to-part consistency while cut-
ting material waste.
In some competitive sys-
tems, regrind and colorant are
not dried, the company says,
which can lead to part defects.
In some cases where these ma-
terials are dried, they are often
preblended so the entire mix is
dried at the same temperature,
which can lead to degradation.
Dri-Air notes that not only
does its system offer individual
temperature controls for each
component material, which
maximizes end product qual-
ity, but it also eliminates the
waste of premixed batches that
may not be used in the future.
The compact design com-
bines all technology onto one
frame and includes Dri-Airs
volumetric variable- and
fixed-rate mixing augers un-
der each hopper. Resins are
dispensed into a common
take-off box and conveyed
with dry air to eliminate any
risk of regaining mois-
ture. The dispensing
augers offer accuracy of
8 pellets on the colo-
rant hoppers at a pro-
cess rate of 100 lb/hr.
Dri-Air offers its pat-
ented four-bed, high-
performance dryer for
this system, which fea-
tures no moving parts
and dewpoint levels of
less than -100F.
Feeders target medical
Advanced Auxiliary Equip-
ments FlexMed Feeders now
offer polished stainless steel
construction with a clamped
design that the company says
makes changing color quick
and spill-free. The housing
can withstand 100 psi without
leaking air and dust, and the
system has an optional indus-
trial PLC for adjusting feeder
speed so that it matches the
feed cycle while maintain-
ing the set dose of color. The
control also can manage load-
ers such that they dont at-
tempt to load during feeding.
Advanced Auxiliary Equipment
www.dryers-loaders-blenders.com
Dri-Air Industries Inc.
www.dri-air.com
Plastrac Inc. | www.plastrac.com
AUXI L I ARI ES I N F OCUS:
GRAVI METRI C AND VOL UMETRI C BL ENDERS
Dri-Airs three-compo-
nent drying, blending,
and conveying system.
IMM Moldmaking Monthly
Stay hip to whats happening in the
moldmaking scene. Sign up today
and get the months top news
and technology announcements
impacting the design, manufacturing,
and maintenance of injection
molds around the world. Your
competitors read it. So should you.
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IM1103 037 37 3/2/11 4:34:07 PM
CLASSIFIEDS DAY
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MACHINERY
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TK Precision is specialized in making high precision molds for high volume production. With more than 25 years
experience TK Precision is in the possession of a unique competence in mold making. Our skilful co-workers in the
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TK Precision is providing first class molds for health care, packaging, telecom, electronics, automotive and
connectors companies. A lot of the major global brands are end customers to TK Precision.
TK PRECISION - The most cost-effective mold solution

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TEL:+86-755-3389 0008 FAX:+86-755-3389 2702 E-mail:sales@tkmold.com
TK MOLD LTD.
Room B2, 16/F, Block B, Kong Nam Industrial Building, 603-609 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong
TEL: +852-24113628/24141388 FAX: +852-24136041
www.tkmold.com
NOZZLES
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For information contact: Iris Topel (718) 478-8104 Fax (718) 478-8105 iris.topel@ubm.com
IM1103 038 38 3/3/11 5:02:44 PM
CLASSIFIEDS DAY
For information contact: Iris Topel (718) 478-8104 Fax (718) 478-8105 iris.topel@ubm.com
MACHINERY FOR SALE
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500-Ton, 80-oz. ENGEL, VERTICAL SHUTTLE 1997
500-Ton, 48-oz. ENGEL, HIGH SPEED 1999
300-Ton, 23-oz. ENGEL, WIDE PLATEN 2000
220-Ton, 16.5-oz. KRAUSS MAFFEI 1996
165-Ton, 10.5-oz. CINCINNATI, ROBOSHOT 1998
150-Ton, 6.8-/3.7-oz. ENGEL, 2-SHOT 2001
88-Ton, 8-oz. BOY, PROCAN CONTROL 1998
75-Ton, 1.7-oz. AUTOJECTOR, VERTICAL SHUTTLE 1998
66-Ton, 4.6-oz. ARBURG, U-FRAME 1997
40-Ton, 1.2-oz. ENGEL, TIEBARLESS 1999
CINCINNATI BLOW MOLDER 5-25LB as new as 2000
40 HP CUMBERLAND GRANULATOR 1993
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LABORATORIES, INC.
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10626 KINGHURST
HOUSTON, TX 77099
PLASTICS
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Phone: 847-494-2520
Toll Free: 1-800-797-9244
sales@elmgroveindustries.com
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classieds.plasticstoday.com
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to learn more about
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and in print at
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Contact: Iris Topel
Phone: 718-478-8104
E-mail: iris.topel@ubm.com
IM1103 039 39 3/3/11 5:02:50 PM
ADVERTISER INDEX INDUSTRY EVENTS
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INJECTION MOLDING MAGAZINE (ISSN 1071-362X) is published monthly,
except for February, May, July, and December, by UBM Canon,
11444 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064-1549.
Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional entry points.
Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement No. 40612608. Canada returns to be
sent to Bleuchip International, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 Canada.
Delivery outside U.S. by air service.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Injection Molding, PO Box 47461,
Plymouth, MN 55447. PRINTED IN USA
Find more by clicking on Events at plasticstoday.com/imm.
Absolute Machinery . . . . . . . . . . . 34
www.absolutemachinery.com
Arizona Instrument LLC. . . . . . . . . 10
www.azic.com
AsacleanSun Plastech Inc. . . . . . 9
www.asaclean.com
Asahi Kasei Plastics North
America Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
www.asahikaseiplastics.com
Burger & Brown
Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
www.smartow-usa.com
Dyna-Purge Div.,
Shuman Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
www.dynapurge.com
Engel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC
www.engelglobal.com/na
Gluco Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
www.gluco.com
Husky Injection Molding
Systems Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BC
www.husky.ca
Incoe Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
www.incoe.com
Moulds Plus International
(Ultra Purge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
www.ultrapurge.com
PCS Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
www.pcs-company.com
Plastic Process Equipment
Inc. (PPE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42, IBC
www.ppe.com
Plastrac Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
www.plastrac.com
Progressive Components . . . . . . . 17
www.procomps.com
Slide Products Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
www.slideproducts.com
UBM Canon Trade Shows . . . 15, 33
www.canontradeshows.com/expo/
March 15-16
MassPlastics
North Central Massachusetts
Chamber of Commerce
Courtyard by Marriott Hotel &
Trade Center
Fitchburg, MA
www.massplastics.com
March 16-17
Plastec South
MD&M Southern Regional Series
Design & Manufacturing South
ATX South
Aerocon
SouthPack
Green Manufacturing Expo
UBM Canon
Orlando, FL
www.canontradeshows.com
March 21-24
Automate 2011
Robotic Industries Assn.,
Automated Imaging Assn., and
Motion Control Assn.
McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
www.robotics.org
March 22-24
Medtec Europe
UBM Canon
Messe Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany
March 31
THE ABCs of IML: A Basic Course
RBS Technologies Inc.
DoubleTree Hotel &
Conference Center
Skokie, IL
www.rbstechnologies.com
April 6-7
BIOMEDevice
UBM Canon
Boston Convention & Exhibition
Center, Boston, MA
April 6-7
Medtec UK
UBM Canon
NEC, Birmingham, UK
April 7-8
SPE Thermoset Topcon
The Society of Plastics
Engineers (SPE)
Trump International Hotel & Tower
Chicago, IL
www.spechicago.com
April 12-14
LIMS/LSR Process Optimization
via Scientic Molding
Injection Molding Solutions
MR Mold & Engineering Corp.
Brea, CA
www.scienticmolding.com
April 13-14
Medtec France
UBM Canon
Micropolis Exhibition Centre
Besanon, France
April 13-14
Design-2-Part
The Job Shop Co. Inc.
Greater Philadephia Expo Center
Phoenixville, PA
www.d2p.com
April 20-21
Medtec Japan
UBM Canon
Pacico Yokohama
Yokohama, Japan
April 29
Automotive Plastic India 2011
Cerebral Business Research Pvt. Ltd.
The Lalit, Mumbai, India
www.cerebralbusiness.com
May 1-5
Antec 2011
Society of Plastics Engineers
Hynes Convention Center and
Marriott Copley Center Hotel
Boston, MA
www.4spe.org
May 9-10
ecoPack systems
PETnology/tecPET GmbH
Maritim Hotel Dsseldorf
Dsseldorf, Germany
www.ecopack-conference.com
May 12-18
interpack 2011
Messe Dsseldorf
Dsseldorf Fairgrounds
Dsseldorf, Germany
www.interpack.com
May 17-19
Troubleshooting Parts & Processes
Injection Molding Solutions
Incoe Research Center
Detroit, MI
www.scienticmolding.com
May 17-20
Chinaplas
The Adsale Group
China Import & Export Fair
Pazhou Complex
Guangzhou, PR China
www.chinaplasonline.com
May 24-27
Ausplas
Exhibition Management
Melbourne Convention Centre
Melbourne, Australia
www.ausplas.com
June 7-9
Plastec East
UBM Canon
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
New York, NY
www.plasteceast.com
June 7-9
Medical Device Polymers 2011
Applied Market Information Ltd.
Maratim Hotel
Cologne, Germany
www2.amiplastics.com
June 21-24
Expo Pack Mexico 2011
PMMI
Centro Banamex
Mexico City, Mexico
www.expopack.com.mx
Sept. 13-14
Medical Grade Polymers 2011
Applied Market Information Ltd.
The Hilton City Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
www2.amiplastics.com
IM1103 040 40 3/3/11 5:03:34 PM
R e f l e c t i o n s & D i s t r a c t i o n s
PARTI NG SHOTS
W
hen Joe Welchert visited with
IMM about two years ago, he
had a great idea for a new product: an at-
tachment for a wet/dry vacuum to accom-
plish a variety of tasks around the house
that couldnt be done with a regular vac-
uum cleaner. The problem was, Welchert
didnt know anything about plastics or
molds, or have a clue as to how to get his
invention manufactured.
Welchert had the idea when
trying to clean a chandelier at his
home. Wouldnt it be great if
there was a way to suction the dust
from the chandelier? he thought.
Then his wife came up with the
idea that it could suction hair and
debris from a clogged bathroom
sink. Other uses include blowing
up air mattresses, sucking the re-
maining water from a hot water
heater prior to repair, and remov-
ing dust and dirt from small crev-
ices that ordinary vacuum cleaner
attachments cant reach.
Through a series of con-
nections, including this writer,
Welchert met a plastics part designer in
the Phoenix area, Richard Dennis of
Plastic Design Resources LLC. Rich-
ard did a good job with the design of the
part, says Welchert. Called VaccUflex,
this attachment consists of adapters for
three different-sized shop vacuum hoses.
It comes with the tubing that permits
downsizing by inserting the various-di-
ameter vinyl tubes into the adapters.
Dennis worked with Welchert on the
products design, and unlike some inven-
tors Dennis had worked with, he found
Welchert had done a lot of research prior
to their meeting. When he first came
to me, hed already investigated what it
took to get things done, and had even
made a prototypea very
crude prototypebut it
provided me with a really
good idea as to what he
wanted, says Dennis. Joe knew where
he wanted to go and we had some for-
mal prototypes made for him so he could
get a better feel for what his final product
would look like.
During the first trial run of the mold,
the team discovered there was a mistake
in the drawing, and the attachments
didnt fit tightly because the diameters of
the adapters were a bit too large. So the
moldmaker, Archie Blazevich, owner of
Blaze Precision Inc. (Mesa, AZ), added
some ribs, which gave the product better
fit and function on the nozzle.
Three inserts make the nozzle adapt-
ers molded of Sarlink TPV (thermoplas-
tic vulcanizate) in a family mold. Dennis
notes that the team also added two air
vents in the top of the two larger attach-
ments, which helps provide good suction
without it being so strong that youd suck
your whole chandelier into the vacuum
cleaner, Dennis laughs.
An idea for an-
ot her us e ca me
from an employee
at PCM Custom In-
jection Molding Inc.
(Mesa, AZ), where
the parts are being
molded: pumping
oil from a boats
drain plug by putting a plastic bag
inside the shop vac and adding a
garden hose on the end. The
drain plugs of boats are difficult
to get to, explains Welchert.
Hes well on his way to reach-
ing the retail market with his in-
vention. At press time, he was
planning to send samples to home
stores like Home Depot and vari-
ous hardware stores. He also signed
up to have a space at the National
Hardware Show in a special area
for inventors, and hopes his product will
catch the eye of some retailers.
So far, about 1000 of the attachments
have been molded, and Welchert says
hes working on perfecting the pack-
aging. Hes also filed a provisional appli-
cation for a patent.
a
It takes a village:
A new invention comes to fruition
When a person who knows nothing about the plastics industry gets
an idea for a new household gadget, where does he turn? Well, to
lots of different people.Clare Goldsberry
The three sizes of nozzle components can turn a wet/dry
vac into a multipurpose household tool.
Blaze Precision Inc. | (480) 272-3825
Plastic Design Resources LLC | (623) 572-6648
Joe Welchert | wellisa@cox.net
IM1103 041 41 3/2/11 4:39:16 PM
TO ORDER CALL TOLL FREE 800-362-0706
CALL 1 NUMBER FOR 3 LOCATIONS.
CALL 1 NUMBER FOR 3 LOCATIONS.

PPE PPE
8303 CORPORATE PARK DRIVE, MACEDONIA (Cleveland), OHIO 44056, USA
216-367-7000 Toll Free: 800-321-0562 Fax: 216-367-7022 Order Fax: 800-223-8305
3615 Walnut Avenue, Chino, California 91710, USA
909-627-8511 800-258-8877 Fax: 909-627-8101
11218 Challenger Avenue, Odessa, Florida 33556, USA
727-834-8888 800-282-6783 Fax: 727-834-8873
Toll Free: USA, Canada & Mexico
800-362-0706
www.ppe.com e-mail: sales@ppe.com
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TO OUR COMPETITORS FOR A
SIMILAR CUTTER AFTER YOU
TRY OUR ULTRA-CUTTER!!
With Adjustable
Blade Stop
15
ANGLED
FLAT BACK
BLADES
ERGONOMIC
EXTRA SOFT
FOAM GRIPS
WERE NOT FOOLING!
OUR RED GRIP PREMIUM GATE CUTTERS
ARE SUPERIOR QUALITY AT THE LOWEST PRICES!
WERE NOT FOOLING!
OUR RED GRIP PREMIUM GATE CUTTERS
ARE SUPERIOR QUALITY AT THE LOWEST PRICES!
U
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IM1103 042 42 3/2/11 4:39:36 PM

A POWERHOUSE CATALOG COMPANY PRODUCT
A POWERHOUSE CATALOG COMPANY PRODUCT
PPE PPE
8303 CORPORATE PARK DRIVE, MACEDONIA (Cleveland), OHIO 44056, U.S.A.
216-367-7000 Toll Free: 800-321-0562 Fax: 216-367-7022 Order Fax: 800-223-8305
3615 Walnut Avenue, Chino, California 91710, U.S.A.
909-627-8511 800-258-8877 Fax: 909-627-8101
11218 Challenger Avenue, Odessa, Florida 33556, U.S.A.
727-834-8888 800-282-6783 Fax: 727-834-8873
Toll Free: USA, Canada & Mexico
800-362-0706
www.ppe.com e-mail: sales@ppe.com
PPE
SOUTH
PPE
W E S T
5 FLAT BACK
ECONOMY GATE CUTTERS
6 FLAT BACK
6 ROUND BACK w/ BLADE STOP
6 FLAT BACK w/ BLADE STOP
7 FLAT BACK w/ BLADE STOP
7 ROUND BACK
6
MODEL
EGC62FS
1-11 pair $6.50 ea.
12-23 pair $6.20 ea.
24+ pair $5.85 ea.
5
MODEL
EGC50F
1-11 pair $5.50 ea.
12-23 pair $5.25 ea.
24+ pair $4.95 ea.
7 ROUND BACK w/ BLADE STOP
5 ROUND BACK
5
MODEL
EGC55R
1-11 pair $5.50 ea.
12-23 pair $5.25 ea.
24+ pair $4.95 ea.
6
MODEL
EGC60F
1-11 pair $5.75 ea.
12-23 pair $5.45 ea.
24+ pair $5.20 ea.
6 ROUND BACK
6
MODEL
EGC65R
1-11 pair $6.00 ea.
12-23 pair $5.70 ea.
24+ pair $5.40 ea.
6
MODEL
EGC67RS
1-11 pair $6.50 ea.
12-23 pair $6.20 ea.
24+ pair $5.85 ea.
7
MODEL
EGC70FS
1-11 pair $8.50 ea.
12-23 pair $8.10 ea.
24+ pair $7.65 ea.
7
MODEL
EGC75RS
1-11 pair $8.00 ea.
12-23 pair $7.65 ea.
24+ pair $7.25 ea.
7
MODEL
EGC75R
1-11 pair $7.50 ea.
12-23 pair $7.15 ea.
24+ pair $6.75 ea.
BETTER QUALITY THAN OTHER LOW COST GATE CUTTERS
HEAVY FORGED FROM ALLOY STEEL & HEAT TREATED
HIGH QUALITY DEPENDABLE STAINLESS STEEL SPRINGS
PRECISION GROUND FINISH SLIM PROFILE GROUND BLADES
FLAT OR ROUND BACKS. 5-6-7 MODELS AVAILABLE
BETTER PRODUCTS BETTER PRICES DELIVERY NOW!
3/16 Opening at Base
5/8 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
3.5 oz. Weight
7/32 Opening at Base
5/8 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
3.3 oz. Weight
1/4 Opening at Base
5/8 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
4.4 oz. Weight
1/4 Opening at Base
5/8 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
4.4 oz. Weight
1/4 Opening at Base
3/4 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
4.3 oz. Weight
1/4 Opening at Base
3/4 Opening at Tip
3/4 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
4.3 oz. Weight
3/8 Opening at Base
1 Opening at Tip
15/16 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
7.6 oz. Weight
3/8 Opening at Base
1 Opening at Tip
15/16 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
7.6 oz. Weight
3/8 Opening at Base
1 Opening at Tip
15/16 Blade Length
17 Blade Angle
7.6 oz. Weight
BETTER PRODUCTS BETTER PRICES DELIVERY NOW!
H
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F
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F
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F
O
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H
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A
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Y
F
O
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H
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A
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F
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H
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A
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F
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H
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F
O
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A
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Y
F
O
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G
E
D
H
E
A
V
Y
F
O
R
G
E
D
WERE STILL NOT FOOLING!
PPE OFFERS THE BEST ECONOMY GATE CUTTERS
WERE STILL NOT FOOLING!
PPE OFFERS THE BEST ECONOMY GATE CUTTERS
P
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A
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L
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$
4
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9
5
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IM1103 043 43 3/2/11 4:39:41 PM
IM1103 044 44 3/2/11 4:39:45 PM

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