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Situation:
Garlock Sealing Technologies, based in Palmyra, NY, is a leading supplier of high-performance fluid sealing products for the world’s processing industries. At their new production facility in Palmyra, they operate four injection molding machines, with the screw diameter ranging from 1 to 2.68 inches. Each machine has a conventional mold and the resins processed are urethane, nylon and TPR, with processing temperatures ranging from 400° F to 600° F (204° C to 315° C).
Garlock’s Senior Production Planner states that when changing from black to clear urethane, they were experiencing an excessive amount of degradation. Burnt material would come out when running clear parts causing an unacceptable level of scrap and downtime. He reported that they ran approximately $13,500 in scrap per year, due to changeovers. In addition, purging on average of six times per week at a cost of $170.85 per purge, represented over $53,000 in annual purging costs.
Garlock’s production team decided to undergo a rigorous review of its purging products and procedures to improve the efficiency of the operation.
Solution:
Dyna-Purge M was selected as the best grade for their needs. To achieve more consistent results, each operator, engineer and manager was trained on the proper purging procedure.
Dyna-Purge M can be used to purge a variety of resins from the barrel and screw at processing temperatures ranging from 350° F to 600° F (177° C to 315° C).
Results:
- Reduced purging costs (i.e. machine, labor, etc.) from $170.85 to $46.78 per purge – an annual savings of $38,710 or 73%.
- Eliminated contaminated parts due to changeover, a scrap savings of $13,500 per year
- Significantly lowered purging time from 90 minutes to only 20 minutes, a time savings of 80%
- Gained 360 hours of production time by improving their purging procedure
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