According to American Plastic Molding Corporation (APM), utilizing an Ion Series temperature controller from Fast Heat Inc. helped to increase output of saleable product by 10-15%.
Citing the production processing of an unnamed product, APM says part discoloration caused by burning, a problem that plagued the company, stopped almost immediately after connecting an Ion Series temperature controller from Fast Heat Inc. to a 16 cavity hot runner system that was producing 30% glass-filled nylon 6.6 parts for a Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry.
According to Alan Myers, APM Plant Manager, within two hours after installing the controller, the system was fine-tuned to the point where temperatures were reduced by nearly 70°F .
“Before we installed the Fast Heat controller, we were unable to reduce the temperature without having gates freeze,” said Mr Myers. “But within the first couple of hours, it became a question of ‘How low can the temperature go?’ We soon established a new temperature range of 430-440°F. The lower temperatures increased our output of good parts by 10-15% and eliminated the labor involved in sorting out parts that were burned.”
Fast Heat’s Ion Series controller has also increased productivity in other ways, explains Mr Myers. In startups it quickly tunes the system to the new set of molding parameters. And in the event of a zone shutdown caused, for example, by a heater failure, the controller automatically slaves the affected cavity to another cavity, running two cavities from the thermocouple in the unaffected one.
“In the past, when a zone shut down, we would end up producing from 15 cavities instead of 16, making that much less product during the typical three-day turnaround needed to replace the defective unit.” He said.
SOURCE : http://www.adsalecprj.com/Publicity/MarketNews/lang-eng/article-125593/Article.aspx