Plastic Injection Materials: Assessment

A company's material handling methods and supplier choices can be their best friend or biggest nightmare. This article addresses typical material problems and solutions for approaching issues as they arrise. Material can plague and bog down our daily operations.This article offers some insight into potential causes as well as solutions. It is important to understand the variety of properties that are associated with different material categories. There are many different grades and types of plastics, and each grade has its own set of rules and potential defects. It is important to always be aware of what type of material you are running and you should always refer to your MSDS when issues arrise that could be directly related to a material issue. A good material supplier performs extensive testing on the materials they produce, and you should always be able to get resource information from them regarding the molding properties associated with the material they are providing you. Some examples of data they should be able to offer you are as follows: -Mean melt temperature -Melt Window -Specific gravity -Temperature settings -Potential Problems -Velocities -Back Pressure/ Hold Pressure settings -Mold Temperature setpoints These are the basic ones of importance...there are others that sometimes need to be addressed as well. You can get some pretty intensive information regarding a specific material's properties from the following website: http://www.ides.com Materials sometimes require drying, and overdrying material for extended periods beyond manufacturer specs can lead to an array of other problems, such as splay and process variances. It is important to know what the minimum/ maximum drying times for your material should be, and when choosing a dryer you should calculate what the throughput of that dryer will be. There is a throughput calculator on the site that can help you determine this. Drying temperatures are also important. Material specifications exist because people put a significant amount of testing and time determining how a material performed optimally. There are times you can push material specifications to their limit...but such actions should be approached with caution and as a sample first. Changing your material procedure can adversely affect your end product's functional, aesthetic and dimensional properties. Materials that are susceptible to moisture should be considered when there are changes to your normal process. It is important to know what moisture level your material runs best at (moisture analyzer) and one of the first things you should check when moisture-specific defects arrise is the moisture content. Another thing that can result in a drastic process change is a change from one lot of material to a new lot. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for you to track your lots! Quite often a huge change in your process can be attributed to a change in lot properties. Material can make or break efficiencies and profitability of a company. Buying the cheapest does not always result in the most economic approach. If there are huge variances in your processes (resulting in scrap) that can be resolved by buying a better brand or a specific blend, then this may be the best approach to provide a long term solution.

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