In 1963, Bob Dylan famously sang, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” While it is doubtful he had plastics processing in mind, the changes in our industry over the past 60 years have been staggering — and the pace of these changes is ever-increasing. How can today’s plastics processors keep up with technology and compete in […]
Category Archives
Plastics Technology
5 Rules of Processing
To put it bluntly, if your technicians and engineers are not following these 5 simple rules your company is losing money. Rule 1: Change One Aspect at at Time By allowing the change to take place, it allows you to be deliberate in your changes. Rule 2: Make Significant Changes If you believe something is […]
Quick Note on Safety with PVC & Acetal
For some reason we are encountering a large number of companies who’s employees are not familiar with extremely important safety concerns of running both PVC and Acetal (POM) in the same plant. Concern: Heated PVC gives off hydrochloric acid while heated, this acid will erode most metal surfaces that are not stainless or plated with […]
Testing Volumetric Feed Systems
Don’t assume that when you are getting consistent feed with your volumetric feed system as this needs to be tested. Situation: A customer was having significant issues with a PVC twin screw profile extrusion line where the line would break often during production without any obvious cause as well as provide profiles which would vary […]
Using Process Monitoring Systems
Process monitoring systems are a great resource for the Scientific Molder. Question: We already have a {brand-name} production monitoring system and are now considering using it to also monitor the process. My Response: In practice most companies use such systems helpful to look for individual short shots or analysis of past problems. This is essentially […]