Plas-Tech Engineering, Inc. Saves $13k in Labor and More with Nanoplas Products
Customer:
Nanoplas Product Used:
HC™ Heat Cure | EXT Lubricating Ceramic Grease*
*This product is no longer available. For a similar grease, try Min-Lube™.
Problems Experienced by Customer
- Parts of different sizes causing under- and over-packing
- Parts rejected by the customer due to double shot condition from the part sticking in the front half of the mold
- Unbalanced inventories due to over-packed part sticking
- Existing grease bled into the tooling
Background and Solution
Plas-Tech Engineering was experiencing problems with a difficult glass-filled nylon part on a two-cavity family mold that was sub-gated and had no water in the front half due to the part configuration. Not only would the grease bleed into the tooling, but the part was also sticking, and they were experiencing packing issues. Looking for a solution, they tried HC™ Heat Cure, a semi-permanent barrier, which allows for easy part release.
Additionally, Plas-Tech Engineering was seeking a solution to their sealed drive units inside their injection molds under harsh conditions. These molds were a rack system running a polycarbonate material with extremely quick cycle times and excessive heat. Due to the high temperature, their existing grease was bleeding into the tooling and failing. The grease bleeding required the rack drive to be disassembled and thoroughly cleaned about once a month. Looking for a better grease, they applied EXT Lubricating Ceramic Grease,* which is similar to SYN LUBE™, a high-performance synthetic grease designed for the toughest industrial applications.
Results
Nanoplas HC™ Heat Cure and SYN LUBE™ helped Plas-Tech, Inc. save thousands in labor and time, reduce their maintenance costs, and cut their product costs.
- Saved $13k in labor
- Created 200 hours of free press time
- Reduced cycle time by 22 seconds
- Lead to faster start up time
- Improved process stability
- Eliminated double shot issue and related customer rejects
- Eliminated $200 in mold release agent, which was no longer needed, and the necessary mold cleaning due to associated residue buildup
- Cut maintenance costs in half, if not more
- Reduced maintenance time from every month to every other month
