Custom injection molder reduces downtime 60% using Dyna-Purge® M.

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Situation:

IMCO, Inc. of Rochester, NY is a custom injection molding company serving customers in a variety of industries. The company operates molding presses ranging from 40 tons to 720 tons, including 21 Sumitomo machines with screw sizes from 28 mm to 80 mm.

IMCO's director of maintenance noted that the ISO 9001-2000 certified company is meticulous about continuously cleaning equipment to ensure the highest quality parts for its customers. They purge equipment whenever necessary, sometimes up to 3 times per day for color changes, or whenever there is any question of possible contamination. While often using sticky materials such as polyester and nylon, IMCO found their previous purging method of polypropylene or polystyrene regrind to be time consuming and laborious. With 21 machines requiring purging on a daily basis, the downtime really added up.

Solution:

Use Dyna-Purge® M, designed to clean faster and more efficiently than other purging options at temperatures from 350°F to 600°F (177°C to 315°C) using only a small amount.

Results:

• Using Dyna-Purge reduced downtime to about 8 minutes per machine, saving more than 2 hours per day for a 60% improvement.
• Dyna-Purge cut the cost to purge by more than half and drastically reduced scrap rates compared to previous purging methods.
• Changing to Dyna-Purge eliminated the need to pull the screws, which would require 2 people and up to 2 additional hours each time.