| | www.johnstark.com | |
| |
Ventra Plastics : CAE Services CAE Services, a leading consulting firm offering advanced solutions and professional expertise for the plastics industry, announced its customer Ventra Plastics (Ontario, Canada) recently achieved major manufacturing success as a result of using CAE's Mold-Vac 10,000 system. Mold-Vac 10,000 is a mold evacuation product designed to eliminate entrapped air and gas within a mold cavity prior to and during plastic injection molding. Ventra Plastics, a plastic injection molder servicing the automotive industry, seeks innovative production solutions to ensure improved product quality, production efficiency and control, as well as reduced costs. Ventra process engineering Frank Massimino successfully reduced reject rates from 15 percent to one percent by using CAE Services' Mold-Vac 10,000. After reading an article that described how Motorola used Mold Vac 10,000 to successfully maintain their legendary Six Sigma quality standards in molding thin walled telecommunications components, Massimino called CAE Services for assistance. At that time, Massimino was working with a filled TPO material to mold an interior automotive trim component. He faced challenging operation parameters that included the heat profile of the barrel, mold temperatures, and fill speed profiles. All issues required a narrow molding window which resulted in unacceptable gas burns and knit lines on the part. According to Mark Solberg, CAE Services' vice president of sales and marketing, "CAE Services' industry-leading evacuation systems have helped molders reduce part defects and increase productivity for more than 15 years. The Mold-Vac 10,000 is the fastest evacuation system on the market today." CAE's engineering team evaluated the Ventra part and determined that because of the gas trap location, it was indeed a candidate for Mold-Vac 10,000. The system has been running in Ventra's Ontario plant for one year with impressive results. CAE's gas evacuation technology successfully opened the molding window and Ventra's product quality problems were eliminated. Reject rates declined from 15 percent to less than one percent following the Mold-Vac installation. In addition, as a result of implementing Mold-Vac 10,000, Ventra's mold maintenance costs have been significantly reduced. Massimino says, "Mold-Vac's unique blow-back control feature ensures that vented pins are cleaned and purged after every cycle. After installing Mold-Vac, we immediately noticed less build-up of volatiles on ejector pins and around part periphery. The vents on the mold required less cleaning. Therefore, we've been able to reduce our monthly preventative maintenance." To use Mold-Vac, a slight modification of the mold is required. Ventra Plastics installed a rubber seal around the parting line to eliminate all the gas from the cavity and core. The cost of the modification varies depending on the size of the mold and the size and geometry of the part. Massimino foresees many other applications for Mold Vac inside Ventra's 115,000-square foot production facility. Ventra is currently modifying a new front grille that Massimino suspects could encounter some gas trapping problems. Because Mold-Vac is a portable, self-contained system, it can be easily used on other machines. "Having the system in the plant enables me to troubleshoot new programs," adds Massimino. "I can identify blind areas in the design process which are difficult to see until we undertake a first shot." He advises other injection molders to eliminate high reject rates and expensive downtime. "We experience gas trapping problems with only five percent of all jobs in our plant, but they involve approximately 80 percent of our work force. With resources such as CAE Services' Mold-Vac available, there is no reason to experience production headaches," says Massimino. About CAE Services Established in 1981, Chicago-based CAE Services Corporation provides plastic processing engineering services. Serving various markets including medical, electronic, packaging, and automotive, its goal is to offer high-end services, personalized assistance, on-site consultation, and industry-leading technology necessary to identify and optimize part design and related molding concerns early at the design conception before costly, time-consuming errors appear during the manufacturing cycle. For additional information, visit www.caeservices.com. Author: Laura Carrabine |