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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.

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How Often to Train…

Earlier this week, I was asked this common question…

JR
How often should I train my employees?

My Response
I will address this in two ways… Frequency and Time:
Frequency of Training – When possible, try to train your employees at least once a week. This training could be an online course, focused on-the-job instruction, instructional presentation, or skill development exercise. This is crucial to advancing the behaviors and actions you wish to reinforce. Without frequency, people will become complacent.
Length of Training Session – Try to keep the training sessions around an hour or less at a time. Extended training sessions become cumbersome to the trainee, and their ability to retain information is significantly reduced over time. If you have a significant amount of information to present, break it up into manageable pieces.
Additional Thoughts
To ensure long lasing effectiveness of employee training, the key is to have routine and ongoing training sessions to promote a healthy atmosphere of learning.
-Andy 

How Much Re-Training…

Yesterday, I received a question I get asked all the time…

Jason
Should I do any re-training of my employees?
My Response
We recommend regular retraining of your employees for two reasons…
1) Each time someone takes the training, they will pick up, learn, or understand something new.
2) Retraining also ensures they do not lose track of the fundamentals, which can often happen over time.
Basically, your employees should always be learning and reviewing,,, especially in the complex and diverse field of plastics processing.
Additional Thoughts
Any good plastics professional should be should always be learning and honing their skills. What I know, and the approach I take to processing adjusts, and improves as every year passes. Likewise, when I refer back to educational and reference materials I have used in the past, I always find good information that I forgot or have not used in a while.
-Andy

Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Process Sheets…

I was recently at a customer with both open-loop and closed-loop molding machines…

BD
Can a standard, machine-independent, process sheet be used for all our molding machines?
My Response
In this case, the best way to process an open-loop machine is much different than a closed-loop molding machine. An open-loop machine should be full at the end of 1st stage… while a closed-loop process should be short-shot at the end of 1st stage.
As a result, molders who process both types of machines should have one machine independent process sheet specifically for open-loop machines, and one process sheet for closed-loop molding machines.
Additional Thoughts
It is always preferable to process with a closed-loop molding machine… and it is almost always cost beneficial to replace your open-loop molding machines when possible.
-Andy

Volumetric or Gravimetric Feeder?

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I recently received this question…

 

JC

How do I decide whether to choose a volumetric
or gravimetric feeder?

 

Note: A gravimetric feeder measures the flow’s weight and adjusts the feeder output to
maintain the desired set point. On the other hand, a volumetric feeders, by
definition, do not measure the weight of the flow.

 

My Response

Having said
this, volumetric feeders are inexpensive and simple but are open loop devices.
They will not detect or make adjustments for changes in material density. Because
they are open loop devices, volumetric feeders are also unable to measure the
flow for data acquisition. A volumetric feeder may be good for your application
if your material has little variation in density and pellet uniformity.


Most
materials do have variations in density great enough to warrant the use of a
gravimetric feeder.


Most feeder
manufacturers have the resources to determine whether a given material can be
fed volumetrically at a required accuracy or if a gravimetric feeder is
required.


You must
also consider what you will be feeding based on cost and concentration. If you
need to feed a material in at 1% by weight a gravimetric feeder is almost
always a must. Also, for expensive additives, the material saved by having a
gravimetric feeder may pay for itself.

 

-Andy

Avoiding Check Ring Leakage…

I was recently asked this question…

Joe
How do I avoid check ring leakage?

My Response
Many heated discussions have arisen as a result of check ring leakage, but the simple fact is: All check rings allow some plastic back-flow (leakage). There are specialized products on the market which try to eliminate check ring leakage, but they eventually cause excessive barrel wear… resulting in inconsistent leakage.
In most important factor with check ring performance is the consistency of check ring leakage. Inconsistent leakage can result in defects such as Flash, Short Shots, and Sinks. For this reason, it is important to routinely perform a dynamic check ring repeatability test to ensure proper performance.
Additional Thoughts
For more about this test, please feel free to read:

Conditions For The Dynamic Check Ring Repeatability Test


-Andy

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