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This informative blog allows plastics professionals to discuss plastics training and technology. Brought to you by Routsis Training: the plastic industry's premiere training provider.

New Certification Programs for Injection Molders

Routsis Training has updated and expanded their industry-leading certification programs for injection molders. In addition to the Injection Molding Professional and Advanced Scientific Processor certification tracks, Routsis now delivers training, examination, and certification specifically targeted for Mold Setters, Quality Inspectors, and Maintenance Personnel.

All of Routsis’s certification programs are based on current industry standards and best practices, according to Routsis Training’s Vice President, Daniel Stephens. “Our certification programs are the perfect way to guarantee your employees know what they’re doing on the production floor.” Mr. Stephens also explained that the preparatory training for each track ensures injection molding personnel understand why they’re doing it. “In all honesty, that’s just as important,” Mr. Stephens continued.

“Our new certification tracks ensure injection molding personnel have the knowledge and skills to succeed in our industry. A certified workforce instills confidence in management and customers alike — letting everyone know that your workforce can meet the challenges of a modern manufacturing environment and continuously improve quality and efficiency.”

Daniel Stephens, Vice President of Routsis Training

Each of the 5 injection molding certification exams has a corresponding training package to help individuals prepare for their exam. Routsis’s Professional Certification Portals provide a convenient, cost-efficient way for injection molding companies to train, benchmark, and certify all their employees.

Certification for Injection Molding Professionals

Routsis Training’s globally recognized Professional Certification demonstrates a broad understanding of the injection molding industry. In order to attain certification, candidates must have a working knowledge of injection molding safety, machinery, processing, tooling, materials, quality, and current industry best practices. This certification track is ideal for machine operators, technicians, supervisors, engineers, managers — or anyone working in the injection molding industry.

Advanced Certification for Scientific Processors

Moving beyond the foundational concepts covered in the Injection Molding Professional exam, this certification level requires an advanced understanding of Scientific Molding. Participants must also demonstrate hands-on skills in order to attain certification. While the Advanced Certification is geared toward engineers and technicians, anyone involved with developing and optimizing Scientific Molding processes can benefit from this enhanced certification.

Certification for Injection Mold Setters

To attain this certification, injection mold setters must have a working knowledge of injection molding safety, die setting, robotics, drying, machinery, materials, purging, processing parameters, and tooling. Successful candidates must also demonstrate a solid understanding of the injection molding industry’s best practices. Anyone who performs or assists in mold changes should strongly consider taking this certification exam. In particular, every setup technician should be expected to understand the body of knowledge covered in the test.

Certification for Injection Molding Maintenance

Routsis Training’s globally recognized Injection Molding Maintenance Certification demonstrates a broad understanding of important maintenance considerations, concepts, and procedures. In order to attain certification, candidates must have a working knowledge of injection molding safety, robotics, drying, machinery, materials, purging, robotics, parameters, hydraulics, and maintenance — and demonstrate a solid understanding of current industry best practices. Maintenance technicians, managers, and engineers should consider taking this exam. Managers should offer this certification to benchmark their team — ensuring that maintenance personnel are confident, capable, and knowledgeable.

Certification for Injection Molding Quality

Delivering high-quality molded plastic parts to your customers is the main goal of any injection molding operation. In order to pass this exam, the candidate must demonstrate working knowledge of injection molding and quality assurance. Test topics include important safety concerns, the molding process, injection mold basics, plastics materials and drying, plastic part quality, mathematics, print reading, and the use of measuring tools for quality inspection. Quality inspectors, technicians, managers, and engineers should take this certification exam. Quality managers should strongly consider offering this certification as a means of benchmarking their personnel — ensuring they have a confident and capable quality assurance team.

Plastics Business Magazine: “Future Proofing” Your Production Workforce

In the latest issue of Plastics Business Magazine, Routsis Training’s Vice President Daniel Stephens discusses the importance of “productive uptime” and how plastics processing facilities and toolmakers can maximize this crucial variable.

In the article, Mr. Stephens explains that maintaining a confident, skilled, and knowledgeable production team — from management on down — is the key to handling the (often unpredictable) changes and challenges all plastics manufacturers will inevitably face.

“Every company that has survived for more than a few years has endured change. Many plastics processors started out decades ago doing something completely different than their current core competence. The key to not only survive but thrive is a company’s ability to handle change and preserve a state of profitability.”

Daniel Stephens, Vice President of Routsis Training

Mr. Stephens continues with a discussion of how to effectively use hands-on mentoring, benchmarking, and other tools to develop a highly-skilled workforce that’s able to adapt — not only to cope with impending change, but to take advantage of the opportunities such challenges present.

Click here for the complete article.

iOS and Android App Updates Available

New versions of our Scientific Molding Guide and LMSBridge™ apps are available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. These updates offer improved stability and support the latest mobile operating systems.

While many users have automatic app updates enabled on their Apple or Android devices, other may need to manual update these apps. We strongly recommend upgrading to the latest versions. Both apps are available free of charge for all users.

Our free Scientific Molding Guide app is available to the general public and puts critical processing information at your fingertips. Click here for more information.

LMSBridge™ was developed exclusively for Routsis Training’s customers — to enhance their learning experience on mobile devices and tablets. In order to use this app, you must have an active account and login credentials. Please contact us for more information.

Scientific Molding Skills Portals deliver affordable hands-on skills training

A Scientific Molding Skills Portal from Routsis Training combines foundational eLearning with critical skills-development labs. This in-house training system teaches your production personnel how to develop, document, optimize, and evaluate a robust Scientific Molding process. These portals deliver the same advanced processing training once reserved for expensive seminars and on-site training sessions.

“The great thing about these Skills Portals is that they allow technical employees develop real, practical molding skills that translate directly into increased productivity and profitability.”

Daniel Stephens, Vice-President of Routsis Training

32 courses on 1 powerful portal — available in 6 languages

Each Skills Portal comes pre-configured with 6 Scientific Molding 101 courses, 13 Intermediate SkillSet™ Labs, and 13 Advanced SkillSet™ Labs. Each online course and all related hands-on training materials are available in 6 different languages: English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Bahasa Malaysia, and Mandarin Chinese.

Employees are assigned to 1 of 3 learning tracks: Fundamental, Intermediate, and Advanced. All participants begin with the basics. Those assigned to the higher learning tracks continue on, performing our hands-on labs on your facility’s production equipment.

  • Fundamental Courses
    Our “101” courses establish a consistent knowledgebase while emphasizing safety — using the production terminology and concepts that every employee should learn.
  • Intermediate SkillSet™ Labs
    These labs provide skills-development instruction & worksheets for documenting and developing of a robust Scientific Molding process — from injection & packing to tonnage & recovery.
  • Advanced SkillSet™ Labs
    Your top processors learn how to test important aspects of the process; such as viscosity, deflection, and imbalance — as well as how to optimize cooling, screw recovery, and part removal. These skills can be applied immediately to improve existing processes at your facility.

For more information about Scientific Molding Skills Portals, please contact Routsis Training or visit the Skills Portals landing page.

Train & Benchmark Employees with Routsis Professional Certification

In early 2022, Routsis Training launched a unique, reliable, and cost-effective tool for workforce training and benchmarking — based on their popular Professional Certification Programs for plastics processing.

These Professional Certification Training Portals — or “Cert Portals,” as they’re commonly called — combine over 25 hours of powerful online training with a certification exam that evaluates the candidate’s understanding of important concepts that directly relate to their jobs.

“It’s an extremely cost-effective way to train your entire workforce. And these portals can be set-up very quickly, which allows companies to start seeing benefits almost immediately.”

Daniel Stephens, Vice President of Routsis Training

“The Cert Portals are becoming the go-to solution for on-boarding and employee development: particularly for small to mid-sized molders, extruders, and design firms,” stated Daniel Stephens, Vice President of Routsis Training. “It’s an extremely cost-effective way to train your entire workforce. And these portals can be set-up very quickly, which allows companies to start seeing benefits almost immediately,” Mr. Stephens said.

Routsis offers two different levels of Professional Certification for Injection Molding. There are also certification programs for Injection Mold & Plastic Part Design, Single-Screw and Twin-Screw Extrusion, and Extrusion Blow Molding. “If your plant runs multiple processes, we can easily create a custom solution that meets your facility’s particular needs,” said Mr. Stephens.

By default, each Cert Portal is configured to run two separate training tracks, geared toward different job positions and skill requirements:

  • Fundamental Courses
    This “101” course grouping benefits anyone in the facility by establishing a consistent knowledgebase, while emphasizing all aspects of safety.
  • Professional Certification
    These courses cover process parameters, lean manufacturing, troubleshooting, and other topics; benefitting Technicians, Supervisors, Managers, and Engineers.

Routsis Training will help you determine the number of active seats your plant needs. Once an employee has completed their assigned training, employers can use that seat to train another employee, according to Stephen Murphy, President of Routsis Training.

“Certification sharpens a company’s competitive edge and shows their customers that they’re committed to continuous quality improvement,” Mr. Murphy added.