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Changing from black TPE to clear HDPE on a blowmolding machine was the greatest purging challenge facing Cy Plastics Works Inc. The changeover would require pulling the head tooling for cleaning and take four hours using in-house resins. The company cut downtime by 83% by switching to Dyna-Purge B, which also eliminated the need to pull the head tooling for cleaning.
Cy Plastics Works produces injection-molded and blow-molded parts for the automotive, medical, business machine, and sporting equipment industries. Purging is necessary several times a day to keep pace with short-run demands encompassing a wide range of materials and processing temperatures. By switching to Dyna-Purge, the company lowered its cost to purge by 46%.
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Situation:
Cy Plastics Works Inc. produces a variety of parts for the automotive, medical, business machine and sporting equipment industries. Its plant in Honeoye, New York, utilizes twelve injection molding and two blow molding machines. Tonnage ranges from 15 to 420 tons on Van Dorn, Sandretto, and Boy models. Materials processed at temperatures from 350°F to 600°F include ABS, Acetal, Nylon, Polycarbonate, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, PPO, PPS, and TPE.
Operating in a fast-paced, short-run production environment, Cy Plastics Works would purge multiple times daily to change colors and materials. The company used virgin or natural regrind polypropylene for changeovers.
The greatest challenge was changing from a black TPE to clear HDPE in a blow-molding machine. This would require pulling the head tooling for cleaning as well as purging the barrel. The process consumed 65 lbs. of in-house purging material and took four hours. The calculated cost per purge was $321.00.
Solution:
Use Dyna-Purge B, a grade specifically designed to purge a wide range of resins from the barrel, screw, and head tooling of blow molding machinery at processing temperatures from 320°F to 575°F (160°C to 302°C).
Results:
- Streaking was eliminated in 40 minutes using Dyna-Purge compared to four hours using inhouse resins, an 83% improvement.
- Removing the head tooling for cleaning is no longer necessary, as Dyna-Purge cleans thoroughly on the first pass.
- At $174.00, the average cost to purge was lowered by 46%.
- Instead of using 65 lbs. of virgin material to purge, Cy Plastics Works saves material costs by using 35 lbs. of Dyna-Purge B grade.
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