Research Help
gna...@gmail.com
I am doing some research work at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON.
I would much appreciate it if you can take few minutes to answer any
related question to your field of expertise. Thank you.
Gunalan N
gna...@gmail.com, or nad...@mcmaster.ca
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1. What is the nature of your business in injection molding industry?
2. What are the problems encountered in the injection molding machines
during manufacturing (relevance to mold, cavity, flash, pressure,
temperature, quality of parts, time wasted, cost wasted)?
3. How would the job be easier if you have this issue(s) (mentioned
above) resolved?
4. What is currently done in the company to resolve or work around
above mentioned issue(s)?
5. The current resolutions have any unsolved problems that can improve
productivity?
6. If there is a product to reduce the pain currently faced, would the
company be interested in investing in the product?
7. What is the cost range that company is willing to invest for?
<10000, 10000- 20000, 20000 - 30000, 30000- 40000, 40 +
8. What does the company look for when purchasing additional features
to the machine?
9. How long does it take before the operators realize the machine is
producing defective parts?
10. How long does it take for the troubleshooting and start production
again?
11. How much material is wasted?
12. Would it be ideal if there is a way of automatically recognizing
defect parts?
13. What if the machine can automatically adjust to the required
parameter to fix the defects in part?
14. Would be beneficial to the company if they can produce great
quality parts every time?
15. How much better would it be if you can achieve that?
Chris Wasel
impact of the investment. Typically if I can't prove a 6 month payback
for the company you can forget it. This means if I have an issue
costing me $10,000 every month and a solution that costs $60,000 to
implement it might be considered. Leadership would much rather I found
a $5,000 or cheaper solution. I've solved many manufacturing issues
with nothing more than scrap equipment and a little ingenuity. However,
if the 60k solution is used, the solution in that case better be a
SOLUTION and not a theory, so I would need proof to back it up. Also,
especially in these economic times we find ourselves in, convincing
leadership to spend that kind of money can be difficult even when it
seems the reasonable choice, and rightly so.
Some answers to your other questions: #12 = Yes, #13 = yes, #14 = yes,
and that is the goal In the real world, everything comes to an
assessment of cost versus benefit. Much to the tone of my answer to #7,
whatever it costs to create and/or utilize tools and new technologies or
"solutions" must be outweighed by their benefit. If it is cheaper to
make 1% scrap then to implement a solution to reduce or eliminate the
scrap, then the solution will not be considered.
For #1, automotive interiors.
For #2, typical issues include flash, short shots, splay, swirl, sinks,
etc...the general issues that typically are associated with molding plastic.
For #3, Obviously it's easier if you have no issues
For #4 - The best any company can do it to be pro-active...ie any
company dealing with molding that is worth their salt has a knowledge of
design standards to avoid the above issues. They will not only design
the parts to best fit those standards as much as possible but will
simulate through software the flow of the plastic as well as work
closely with the mold tool creators to review the feasibility of the
tool. If you start with a poorly designed tool there is little you can
do to fight some issues. I have seen competitors take molds that
wouldn't pack out correctly and put them in a press maybe 10-20% higher
than the rated tonnage, subsequently and to no surprise causing costly
damage to the tools in the long run.
I don't work close to the molding part of your business, but you could
say I'm an internal customer to the result of their successes and
failures. I'm responsible for the equipment that uses turns the plastic
pieces into finished products. Good luck on the rest of your research.
-Chris
Chris Wasel
is like 3 years old...haha...maybe it'll help somebody!