Like cats and dogs, the production manager and the maintenance manager constantly feud for machine time in many plastic injection molding plants. Unfortunately, production usually wins because it generates revenue and maintenance is considered overhead. Routine maintenance on molding machines is sacrificed on the altar of profit. Of course, if maintenance is delayed too long… well, you know…
Filed Under:Uncategorized
You water your lawn, you put water in your radiator and you drink water (probably not enough!) Did you know you should water your plastic injection mold, too? Yep, that’s right. If you want to establish true process control in plastic injection, “watering the tool” should be as important a step as coming up with…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
You would think “they” (read: industry scientists) would have thought of this long ago: use computer software to simulate the plastic injection molding process, consigning “trial-and-error” testing to the plastic slag heap, and saving enormous amounts of time and money. At the risk of stating the obvious, plastic injection mold simulation utilizes software to simulate…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding Methods
The trend seemed as inexorable as it was depressing: for the past 20 years, China had dominated the manufacture of injection-molded plastic products in the medical technical field, mainly because of lower labor costs. But there are signs that the trend is not as inexorable as we once thought. In fact, many companies are returning their…
Filed Under:medical dental plastic supplies
Europe has always been a trend-setter when it comes to all things “green,” environmentally-speaking. So news that the consumption of biodegradable and compost-able plastic products in Europe is expected to increase 300% from 2015 to 2020 should be taken very seriously indeed by the plastic powers-that-be stateside. While plastic recycling is regarded as the height…
Filed Under:Plastic food packaging , Uncategorized
Coffee fashionistas probably don’t even think about it but they should: their precious, oh-so-trendy, and yes, expensive, single-use coffee pods are decidedly not green. In fact, they’re landfill-bait. How so? They’re made of polystyrene, which isn’t recyclable for a number of reasons, chiefly because of cost and food-safety concerns. That’s bad news for the environment…
Filed Under:Plastic food packaging
The U.S. plastic injection press market is pressing forward in 2016. What’s driving it? Well, automotive is certainly fueling some of the growth— the industry’s robust U.S. sales of 16 million to 18 million vehicles has powered the overall injection molding machinery business, but especially plastic injection molding, which produces everything from interior door panels…
Filed Under:Automotive Plastic Injection Molded Parts
It’s so obvious, we sometimes take it for granted: injection molded plastics are used in automated processes to reduce the manufacturing cost — it’s as simple as that. But, of course, it’s not that simple — there are other benefits, a whole host of them. Chief among them is the fact that Plastic Injection Molding…
Filed Under:Plastic Injection Molding News
Let’s “inject” some reality over the economic downturn in China: the world’s second largest economy is still hungry for automobiles and plastic-packaged goods, period. Ditto for India and Japan, all of which is driving the growth of the injection molding machine market in Asia. In fact, if current trends continue, the overall plastic injection molding…
Filed Under:All-Electric Molding
A long, long time ago (OK, not that long ago, really — 2001), our CEO, Al Zoller, bought the company that he would eventually rename AdvanTech four years later. The company’s original building, home to the former Plasticraft tool shop, covers 27,000 ft. and is more than 70 years old. Over the years, it’s been upgraded…
Filed Under:Plastic Caps and Closures , Uncategorized