Seminar Outline
- Introduction: The Strategy
- Purpose
- Perspectives on the plastics' industry, Manufacturing
- Staying Competitive
- Key components of a successful validation/plastics application
- Concurrent engineering and its benefits
- Organizing the hundreds of variables in processing/parts; four categories
- Machine conditions vs. Plastic conditions
- Validation Strategy
- Case History
- Piece Part Design Overview, You cannot violate laws of nature!
- Components of Design
- The "Golden Rule" for nominal wall
- Shrinkage, Amorphous vs. Semi-Crystalline
- Cooling and Warp
- Draft
- Venting
- Gating with respect to weldlines
- Polymer Overview
- Polymer Basics, making and breaking polymer chains
- Moisture Sensitivity relative to performance
- Critical for success
- Costs for replacement
- What data sheets tell you
- Single point data
- IQ (Installation Qualification)
- Medical Device Quality Systems Manual Reprints
- Check List
- Mold/Tooling Requirements
- Machine Calibrations
- Machine Function (Machine Audit)
- Clean room requirements
- OQ (Operational Qualification; Establish a Process, Document and Define Ranges/Window; Starting with a Pre-run or Baseline Process)
- Step 1: Optimizing First Stage: Plastic Flow Rate
- How plastic flows, viscosity
- Viscosity curve
- Viscosity vs. temperature, lot variations and injection rate
- Flow balance
- Cruise Control on injection molding machines
- Two stage molding
- Case history
- Non-return valve (check ring) and nozzles
- Nozzle tips
- Step 2: Optimizing Second Stage: Plastic Pressure
- Basic hydraulics
- Hydraulic Pressure vs. Melt Pressure
- Back Pressure
- Intensification Ratio
- Pressure Loss
- Gate seal vs. unseal
- Pressure vs. time graphs
- Clamp force
- Platen wrap
- Pressure Loss Documentation
- Step 3: Cooling Rate and Time
- Percent of Cycle
- Turbulent Flow
- Series vs. parallel circuits
- Cooling issues
- Infrared Thermography
- Cycle time optimization studies
- Step 4: Plastic Temperature
- The hopper
- Drying
- The feed throat
- Barrel vs. melt temperatures
- Screw components and design
- How plastics melt
- Back pressure
- Screw problems
- How to measure temperature
- Step 5: Challenge the Process
- When to start saving parts
- Force viscosity variations
- Different resins?
- Capability studies
- Step 6: Test the part; expect issues to develop
- Test Conditions
- Thermocycle
- Environment
- Metrology
- First article inspections (FAI's)
- Visual inspections
- Do the DOE's Necessary/Correctly
- What are the issues, problem(s) clearly defined?
- List factors
- Possible factors
- Recommendations
- Factors with respect to four plastic categories
- Do we know the response for any of these factors
- Select Factors (variables)
- Machine "Set Points" vs. "Plastic Conditions"
- DOE check list
- Screening DOW's to establish process window
- Documentation
- Set up sheet per machine
- Universal Set up sheet, mold specific
- Process Monitoring Recommendations
- First tier
- Second tier
- Step 1: Optimizing First Stage: Plastic Flow Rate
- PQ (Process Performance Qualification; Test production performance of the process under "production" conditions)
- Run established process for production, time 4 - 24 hours
- Lot variations
- Different Processors
- Shift changes
- Run on different machines
- Verify output, Dimensions, function, capability, scrap etc.
- Document corrective action and confirm
- Evaluate entire system, molding, secondary operations, labels, and document results
- Implement corrective actions
- Document process/equipment changes
- Process monitoring variables
- Obtain customer approval
- Run established process for production, time 4 - 24 hours
- Miscellaneous
- Universal Setup Sheet
- Optimization Guidelines
- Recommended resources and web sites
- Background
- Evaluation