Plastic Injection: Optimizing Cycle Times

Establishing an optimized molding cycle is imperative to ensure a plastics company's profitability. It is important to remember that running efficiently improves overall part quality and helps a company increase molding efficiencies, as well as creates opportunities to accept more jobs by increasing your press efficiencies.

This article helps to define what processing variables strongly affect production cycle times and these factors can be fine tuned to develop strong cycles and increased productivity...
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Recording Process Changes and Monitoring Actuals

Plastic injection processing long ago made the transition from art to a science of replication.. as technology and understanding evolved, the industry came to recognize the importance of historical data and replicating key parameters. RJG, Paulson and John Bozzelli all helped to provide keen insight into methods of replicating process. This article addresses the need for process monitoring, as well as how and what changes made to a process should be recorded. Understanding these fundamental principles are paramount to global production facilities, and will greatly reduce waste of motion as well as improve scrap rates and improve efficiencies...

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Plastic Injection: Start Up Checklist

Start-up is one of the most important factors affecting your plant's production efficiencies. Low scrap, cycle times and standardization are key components of any plastic injection facility. The following article outlines many of the key components in a successful plastic injection start-up...

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Our weekly featured plastic molder.. We choose companies based on ironclad approaches, cutting edge technologies, or uniqueness in the products or services they provide to customers and communities...

Johnson Controls

125 year old Johnson Controls... a leading manufacturer in "green" technologies gives back to its Milwaukee, Wisconson community.. JCI is a global entity that strives for excellence in design, automation and ingenious approaches to solve complex problems through ingenious innovations in the automotive, construction and battery industries...

KAIZEN: Lean Manufacturing and the Environment

Kaizen, or rapid improvement processes, often is considered to be the "building block" of all lean production methods. Kaizen focuses on eliminating waste, improving productivity, and achieving sustained continual improvement in targeted activities and processes of an organization.This EPA article defines not only Kaizen in general terms, but offers information that directly applies to TS-16949 applications...

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Video: Introduction to Six Sigma and Kaizen

The following tutorial offers information of Six Sigma and Kaizen implementation into your plant's "lean manufacturing" strategy....(29:00)

PN: China Blog

• Beneficiaries of India's antidumping against Chinese presses
  Chinese press makers could do nothing but regret India's decision to impose antidumping duties on injection molding machines from China since last May. But the question is how their market share in that country has been replaced.Apparently, Taiwanese machinery firms are among those who benefit from this policy. Taiwan's Chuan Lih Fa Machinery Works Co. Ltd. saw its market share rise in India in 2009, which helped the company hold its overall sales during the crisis.Other major injection press exporters, such as Japan and Germany, probably have benefited as well, although I haven't found solid stats to back up the theory. Maybe presses from these countries are in a price range that don't directly compete with Indian or Chinese machines.I'm most curious about whether Indian local press makers have found the antidumping action useful or valuable.The only company that actively called for the antidumping probe was L&T Demag Plastic Machinery Ltd. of Chennai, although the government also mentioned three non-applicant companies -- Ferromatik Milacron India Ltd., Windsor Machines Ltd. and Electronica Machine Tools Ltd. -- when trying to justify the action.The ownership structure of L&T Demag Plastic Machinery Ltd. changed on March 31, 2009. Larsen & Toubro Ltd. bought out joint venture partner Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH's share and made the operation a wholly owned entity: L&T Plastics Machinery Ltd.I imagine that L&T is a poster child of India's fast growing manufacturing sector. For instance, the Mumbai-based conglomerate helped build India's first nuclear powered submarine, which launched in July.L&T chairman A.M. Naik was quoted in a Machinist article as saying, "Over the last four decades, L&T has played a crucial pioneering role in building India's strategic sectors by successfully executing several technology-intensive and challenging projects." Mr. Naik himself made BusinessWeek's "India's 50 most powerful people 2009."L&T Plastics Machinery Ltd. claims production capacity exceeds 1,000 machines per year, according to its Web site.
• It's tough to be a consumer in China
  Chinese consumers are very different than their American equivalents. I try to avoid making generalizations, but many Chinese consumers are not that sophisticated, due to cultural, historic and economic factors.Here is an example. Plenty of commercials still tout that products have passed the national standards. "Really, meeting the national standard is a minimum requirement to enter the marketplace, but many consumers believe that makes an exceptionally good product," said Chen Changjie, deputy supervisor of the Plastic Packaging Professional Committee of the China Packaging Federation.He was speaking at the Industrial Forum on Green Plastics and Rubber during last week's Chinaplas show.The reason why some consumers misunderstand the "meeting-standards" claim is because decades ago, when modern manufacturing just started in China, being able to meet national standards was a big deal. At least that's my version of explanation. But the truth is, although China has been making strides in manufacturing, especially for exports, the Chinese domestic market is still filled with subpar products.I have written in my blog about how widespread counterfeiting is in China, not just of luxury or brand items. Subpar-quality products are even more overwhelming. The government should take some blame for failing to regulate the market in an effective manner. The consumers also lack the awareness, knowledge, experience and support to defend consumer rights. Take the possibly toxic foam take-out containers I used the other day. Knowing that the containers were probably mislabeled and low quality, an average consumer doesn't have an efficient way to solve the problem or file a complaint with the authorities.Of course, I also notice some improvement during this trip. More retailers honor return policies, product design is getting better in general, the availability of foreign products and service is amazing, -- which makes sense given the number of Western expats in places like Shanghai.In that sense, it's more accurate to state that it's tough to be a grassroots consumer in China. The top of the pyramid should feel just as comfortable as anywhere else in the world.
• Green container, toxic container?
  One night during the Chinaplas show last week, I ordered takeout from a Cantonese-style restaurant in Shanghai. When the delivery was made, I saw that my meal came in one PP soup container and two (apparently) polystyrene foam containers - one with vegetables and one with rice.I was mostly amazed by how thin the PP container and the disposable spoon were -a typical sign of low cost and low quality. They barely held their shapes. The soup container was clearly labeled "microwave safe," but it was so flimsy that I wouldn't heat it up at all. Then, I discovered the foam containers were marked "degradable." Other than that claim, the only information I could find was the English acronym of the Chinese manufacturer's name, which is impossible to track down without an address or phone number.After I finished the meal, a hotel housekeeper came to take away the containers. So I consulted with her, "is it because of the World Expo that even these foam containers used in Shanghai are degradable now?"She took a look of the containers and answered with a shrug: "Who knows it's really degradable or not? You can never trust what they say on these things."From a business standpoint, it makes little sense that a restaurant would use extremely flimsy PP containers and degradable foam containers - most expensive than conventional ones - at the same time.From a technical point of view, degradable packaging is supposed to have the "QS" - standing for quality and safety -- mark on them, according to Chinese regulations. Without the "QS" symbol, an eco-friendly claim is most likely to be false.A recent probe by Beijing-based International Food Packaging Association (IFPA) found that 80 percent of the self-claimed degradable food containers in the Chinese market don't live up to the green claim.An authentic degradable food container costs about 0.2-0.25 yuan, while a fake one costs just 0.07 yuan, according to IFPA general secretary Dong Jinshi. "A lot of these fake degradable containers are made of recycled material and can be toxic," he wrote in his blog.
• Taiwan ships resins directly to Guangdong
  As mainland China and Taiwan strengthen economic ties and facilitate direct transportation, Hong Kong is no longer a must-stop on the shipping route across the Taiwan Strait. Containers of plastic resins are arriving in Shantou city, in East Guangdong province, this month, lowering raw material cost by 200-300 yuan per metric ton, local media reported. A local distributor has reached an agreement with Formosa, the Shantou Evening News said, to import resin from Taiwan with at least one ship every week.Shantou is about 210 nautical miles from Taiwan's Kaohsiung port.Shantou houses more than 5,000 plastic processors and consumes 3 million metric tons of plastic resins every year. These companies have been sourcing raw materials from other locations such as Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Ningbo, which adds to both transportation cost and lead time.The new shipping route is expected to increase the competitiveness of local plastic processors and help establish Shantou as a regional resin distribution center.
• India confirms press antidumping
  At last, India's government imposed definitive anti-dumping on imports of injection molding machines with clamping forces no less than 40 metric tons. The announcement came out in late March, confirming that the antidumping duty started on May 12, 2009, the date on which the provisional anti-dumping duty was imposed and will end on May 11, 2014.India started the probe in July 2008, started levying antidumping duty in May 2009, and announced final decision in December 2010. The 10 companies that responded to the investigation are charged duty rates in the range of 60-174 percent. All other Chinese companies face a universal rate of 174 percent.In the past two years, Plastics News has been following this issue in these stories and blog posts:India moving ahead on China press-dumping complaintIndia's duties on Chinese presses spur controversyL&T Demag's anti-dumping eligibility in doubtIndian group supports Chinese pressesIndia releases initial anti-dumping charges on Chinese pressesWho wants to keep Chinese presses out of India?