ExxonMobil - hdpe molding

There are several different methods out there, a majority of which have zero repeatability. There have been some advances in ultrasonic technologies that may provide us an economically viable option in the future. Until then, we can use the machine’s outputs to help give us confidence that the melt temperature is similar to what it was during our validation runs.

A well-established process isn’t going to eliminate issues or part defects—nothing can prevent these from occurring at some point. We do not live in a perfect world: steel wears out; material viscosity changes lot to lot; equipment starts to break down; valves no longer perform as well as they once did; molds get dirty; and, yes, material can get wet. But making process changes does not fix or resolve these issues long-term.

Learn about sustainable scrap reprocessing—this resource offers a deep dive into everything from granulator types and options, to service tips, videos and technical articles.

In this three-part collection, veteran molder and moldmaker Jim Fattori brings to bear his 40+ years of on-the-job experience and provides molders his “from the trenches” perspective on on the why, where and how of venting injection molds. Take the trial-and-error out of the molding venting process.

Introduced by Zeiger and Spark Industries at the PTXPO, the nozzle is designed for maximum heat transfer and uniformity with a continuous taper for self cleaning.

Mold maintenance is critical, and with this collection of content we’ve bundled some of the very best advice we’ve published on repairing, maintaining, evaluating and even hanging molds on injection molding machines.

There are several benefits to understanding the interactions within our connected molding process. We can even use it to our advantage for some of the more difficult-to-monitor outputs of our process. The one that jumps out at me the most is melt temperature. It is by far the most difficult output to measure—we can build smartphones with terabytes of storage, but we can’t measure melt temperature inside a barrel accurately.

In injection molding, a seemingly minor change in a setpoint can have a significant impact on part quality and process robustness and repeatability. That’s why Scientific Molding focuses on process outputs, not setpoints.

Core Technology Molding turned to Mold-Masters E-Multi auxiliary injection unit to help it win a job and dramatically change its process.

August 29-30 in Minneapolis all things injection molding and moldmaking will be happening at the Hyatt Regency — check out who’s speaking on what topics today.

Speaking of part dimensions, most molding machines run a process that fills the part under velocity control and packs the part with pressure control. A velocity-controlled process without cavity-pressure control has no real-time control of hold pressure. If my machine requires more injection pressure to fill the parts due to a higher viscosity of the colder material, then my hold pressure would need to go up to maintain the same shot weight and dimensions. Since hold pressure is a setpoint that doesn’t adjust itself, with a few exceptions, my parts are no longer packed out the same, which could result in part dimension issues.

Short story: While I was process engineering manager at a medical molder, we discovered an issue in the middle of a production run for one of our largest customer’s highest-priority parts. This job had a dedicated screw and barrel that were supposed to be changed along with the mold when it came time to run, but this time that step was missed. So, there we were with several hundred thousand parts molded and a customer who needed parts—but could they use the parts we had?

Join this webinar to explore the transformative benefits of retrofitting your existing injection molding machines (IMMs). Engel will guide you through upgrading your equipment to enhance monitoring, control and adaptability — all while integrating digital technologies. You'll learn about the latest trends in IMM retrofitting (including Euromap interfaces and plasticizing retrofits) and discover how to future-proof your machines for a competitive edge. With insights from industry experts, it'll walk you through the decision-making process, ensuring you make informed choices that drive your business forward. Agenda: Maximize the value of your current IMMs through strategic retrofitting Learn how to integrate digital technologies to enhance monitoring and control Explore the benefits of Euromap interfaces and plasticizing retrofits Understand how retrofitting can help meet new product demands and improve adaptability Discover how Engel can support your retrofitting needs, from free consultations to execution

Take a deep dive into all of the various aspects of part quoting to ensure you’ve got all the bases—as in costs—covered before preparing your customer’s quote for services.

A recent column I wrote addressed whether there is a single process parameter that is more important than all the others. There isn’t—and that’s because in the injection molding process, all parameters are connected.

The aim of this presentation is to guide you through the factors and the numbers that will help you determine if a robot is a smart investment for your application. Agenda:  Why are you considering automation? What problems are you trying to solve? How and why automation can help Crunch the numbers and determine the ROI

Additive technology creates air pockets in film during orientation, cutting down on the amount of resin needed while boosting opacity, mechanical properties and recyclability.

Identifying what is normal variation allows us to establish control limits for the outputs. With these control limits, we can segregate parts made outside of them for further inspection or rejection. The point of process-control limits is not to establish limits that allow us to tweak a process—they should be established to ensure our process is running at the same outputs for which it was validated.

While the major correction in PP prices was finally underway, generally stable pricing was anticipated for the other four commodity resins.

Across the show, sustainability ruled in new materials technology, from polyolefins and engineering resins to biobased materials.

Multiple speakers at Molding 2023 will address the ways simulation can impact material substitution decisions, process profitability and simplification of mold design.

Starting as a mold fabrication company in 2019, Lakeshore provides turnkey services from engineering through to assembly.

Mike Sepe has authored more than 25 ANTEC papers and more than 250 articles illustrating the importance of this interdisciplanary approach. In this collection, we present some of his best work during the years he has been contributing for Plastics Technology Magazine.

Since we know the type of effects that changing just one setpoint on an injection molding machine can have on outputs, it is critical to ensure that your outputs are what we maintain. Once we have identified a robust process that provides output data with low variation, and outputs that the machine actually can achieve, we need to document exactly how much variation is normal for that machine, mold, and material within that process.

Another side effect of the lower RPMs could be less material mixing and a nonuniform melt. The higher RPMs could have been what was providing uniform color dispersion if I am using a salt-and-pepper blend, or was adding additional heat that ensured no unmelts in the materal flow.

Ultradent's entry of its Umbrella cheek retractor took home the awards for Technical Sophistication and Achievement in Economics and Efficiency at PTXPO.

Effective process monitoring is achieved through robust process development. Process-control limits should be large enough to compensate for normal process variation, but tight enough to prevent process changes and to segregate suspect parts.

In a sign of robust injection molding demand, Utah’s Lakeshore Plastics expanded capacity of its Orem manufacturing facility by about 50% to 12,000 square feet.

Exhibitors and presenters at the plastics show emphasized 3D printing as a complement and aid to more traditional production processes.

Let’s say I’m reviewing a process that is currently running acceptable products, but I’ve noticed that the screw is recovering the full shot several seconds before the cooling time is completed and the mold starts to open. Thinking that I am optimizing the process to reduce the residence time of the material, I lower the screw RPM, which increases the recovery to what looks to be a more ideal time—just moments before my mold opens. I am not advocating for higher residence times; I am just using this as an example of what can happen to our outputs with a connected process. So, let’s continue this thought experiment and start pointing out what we just impacted in this process.

I’ve often heard, “Well if I can’t adjust this setting during the run, what happens when my parts start showing ___ (insert defect here).” Once I was even told, “If I don’t have process limits, what do I do when I get wet material?” I was basically speechless at that point. It was one of those moments in life when you don’t know exactly what to say, but you’re sure you shouldn’t say anything if you don’t want to be asked to leave the building.

Despite price increase nominations going into second quarter, it appeared there was potential for generally flat pricing with the exception of a major downward correction for PP.

Formnext Chicago is an industrial additive manufacturing expo taking place April 8-10, 2025 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Formnext Chicago is the second in a series of Formnext events in the U.S. being produced by Mesago Messe Frankfurt, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, and Gardner Business Media (our publisher).

In this collection of content, we provide expert advice on welding from some of the leading authorities in the field, with tips on such matters as controls, as well as insights on how to solve common problems in welding.

Geoff Giordano is a tech journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in all facets of publishing. He has reported extensively on the gamut of plastics manufacturing technologies and issues, including 3D printing materials and methods; injection, blow, micro and rotomolding; additives, colorants and nanomodifiers; blown and cast films; packaging; thermoforming; tooling; ancillary equipment; and the circular economy. Contact him at [email protected].

While prices moved up for three of the five commodity resins, there was potential for a flat trajectory for the rest of the third quarter.

But our process is similar to the proverbial iceberg, where we see only 10% of the mass above the water, with the remaining 90% requiring us to look deeper to fully comprehend its size. There is so much going on below the surface of the injection molding process—thousands of interactions that influence our part quality. The deeper we dive into it, the more we start to understand why for so many years processing was considered more of an art than a science.

Join Wittmann for an engaging webinar on the transformative impact of manufacturing execution systems (MES) in the plastic injection molding industry. Discover how MES enhances production efficiency, quality control and real-time monitoring while also reducing downtime. It will explore the integration of MES with existing systems, emphasizing compliance and traceability for automotive and medical sectors. Learn about the latest advancements in IoT and AI technologies and how they drive innovation and continuous improvement in MES. Agenda: Overview of MES benefits What is MES? Definition, role and brief history Historical perspective and evolution Longevity and analytics Connectivity: importance, standards and integration Advantages of MES: efficiency, real-time data, traceability and cost savings Emerging technologies: IoT and AI in MES

While the melting process does not provide perfect mixing, this study shows that mixing is indeed initiated during melting.

After successfully introducing a combined conference for moldmakers and injection molders in 2022, Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology are once again joining forces for a tooling/molding two-for-one.

Discover how artifical intelligence is revolutionizing plastics processing. Hear from industry experts on the future impact of AI on your operations and envision a fully interconnected plant.

Gifted with extraordinary technical know how and an authoritative yet plain English writing style, in this collection of articles Fattori offers his insights on a variety of molding-related topics that are bound to make your days on the production floor go a little bit better.

I have discussed process limits with many molders throughout the years, and the pushback that I have received is still astonishing. I spent a significant part of my career trying to eliminate a certain type of process limits at medical injection molders. The limits I am referring to are large setpoint or output limits that allow for the process to be altered, what I call defect threshold limits.

Rising costs of resins and additives, along with higher demands for quality and use of regrind, place a premium on proficient blending. Here are some steps to get you there.

A connected process is one in which multiple parameters can have an impact on multiple outputs. This makes it difficult to come up with a parameter or setpoint that won’t have some impact on multiple process outputs of an injection molding process. This is the reason behind Scientific Molding—it puts a priority on process outputs rather than the setpoints. Even the most minor, well-intentioned changes to a setpoint can have a “butterfly effect” on an output or multiple outputs.

Lakeshore produces about four million caps annually and is adding equipment for cap lining. The company owns five injection molding machines (IMMs) from Absolute Haitian, ranging from 100 to 427 tons. Three of those IMMs are paired with top-entry robots from Absolute Robot. Lakeshore’s new manufacturing space can accommodate three more IMMs.

Of course, we also need to define what constitutes a process change. A modification to the hold-pressure setpoint during startup to bring the shot weight within range of the validated process shot weight is not a change to the process. An adjustment to the clamp open or closing settings that changes the output of mold open or close time is a process change. The former is an adjustment to reproduce one’s validated process and a typical part of startup after a changeover. The latter is a change that affects outputs—and not just the mold-open time.

technotrans says climate protection, energy efficiency and customization will be key discussion topics at PTXPO as it displays its protemp flow 6 ultrasonic eco and the teco cs 90t 9.1 TCUs.

In a time where sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, the food and beverage packaging industry is required to be at the forefront of this innovation. By adopting circular packaging processes and solutions, producers can meet regulatory requirements while also satisfying consumer demand and enhancing brand reputation. Join Husky to learn more about the broader implications of the circular economy — as well as how leading brands are leveraging this opportunity to reduce costs, increase design flexibility and boost product differentiation. Agenda: The cost and operational benefits of embracing circularity Key materials in circular packaging — including rPET and emerging bioplastics How to design a circular food and beverage package Strategies for selecting sustainable closures to future-proof packaging solutions Optimization and streamlining of production processes for enhanced efficiency How Husky Technologies can enable your sustainable success

Say “manufacturing automation” and thoughts immediately go to the shop floor and specialized production equipment, robotics and material handling systems. But there is another realm of possible automation — the front office.

Join KraussMaffei for an insightful webinar designed for industry professionals, engineers and anyone interested in the manufacturing processes of PVC pipes. This session will provide a comprehensive understanding of the technology behind the production of high-quality PVC pipes: from raw material preparation to final product testing. Agenda: Introduction to PVC extrusion: overview of the basic principles of PVC pipe extrusion — including the process of melting and shaping PVC resin into pipe forms Equipment and machinery: detailed explanation of the key equipment involved — such as extruders, dies and cooling systems — and their roles in the extrusion process Process parameters: insight into the critical process parameters like temperature, pressure and cooling rates that influence the quality and consistency of the final PVC pipes Energy efficiency: examination of ways to save material and energy use when extruding PVC pipe products

Second quarter started with price hikes in PE and the four volume engineering resins, but relatively stable pricing was largely expected by the quarter’s end.

This month’s resin pricing report includes PT’s quarterly check-in on select engineering resins, including nylon 6 and 66.

I am sure that many of us are aware of what the four plastics variables are: time, temperature, pressure and velocity. When I discuss the interactions of an injection molding machine’s connected process, what I am ultimately referring to is the connection between time, temperature, pressure, and velocity. These four variables interact to form the injection molding process, and our control limits ensure that they influence one another consistently from shot to shot and run to run. Every parameter in an injection molding machine is a method of setting one of these four variables. On the surface, the injection molding process may seem not so complicated to the outside observer—“heat, squeeze, and squirt” is a phrase that I sometimes hear.

The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) has released final figures for NPE2024: The Plastics Show (May 6-10; Orlando) that officially make it the largest ever NPE in several key metrics.

For mold fabrication, the company added a CNC lathe and three electrical discharge machines (wire, sinker, and hole popper) to complement its CNC milling machine.

Let’s think about the interactions discussed earlier: Increased mold-open time causes my mold to cool more, meaning that my steel temperature will be different when plastic starts flowing into the mold. This can cause my parts to shrink more inside the mold and less after they have been ejected, which could result in larger parts.

Plastics Technology covers technical and business Information for Plastics Processors in Injection Molding, Extrusion, Blow Molding, Plastic Additives, Compounding, Plastic Materials, and Resin Pricing. About Us

The key to Scientific Molding isn’t whether you run the correct experiments; it isn’t whether or not you have a rheology curve or a fill-balance study. It is about ensuring that outputs remain constant shot to shot, run to run. If outputs do not remain constant, then you can’t predict the end result of the ultimate process output: part quality.

Thousands of people visit our Supplier Guide every day to source equipment and materials. Get in front of them with a free company profile.

Let’s keep going: Lower melt temperature means parts are going to cool faster—less heat in, less time required to pull it out. Our cooling time, however, wasn’t changed, so now our cooler plastic shrinks to the core and after demolding (ejection) the shrink is reduced, potentially resulting in larger part dimensions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Robert Gattshall has more than 22 years’ experience in the injection molding industry and holds multiple certifications in Scientific Injection Molding and the tools of Lean Six Sigma. He has contributed articles to Plastics Technology and other magazines on multiple topics, such as scientific process development, process monitoring, and the effects of variation. Gattshall has held multiple management and engineering positions throughout the industry in automotive, medical, electrical and packaging production. In January 2018, he joined injection molder IPL Plastics as process engineering manager. Contact: rgattshall@gmail.com; 262-909-5648.

Mixed in among thought leaders from leading suppliers to injection molders and mold makers at the 2023 Molding and MoldMaking conferences will be molders and toolmakers themselves.

Across all process types, sustainability was a big theme at NPE2024. But there was plenty to see in automation and artificial intelligence as well.

More likely is the effect the mold-open time has on the residence time of my material—the material stays in the barrel longer, causing higher melt temperatures. My point here is that we must define what our process is and completely understand what can happen as our setpoints and outputs interact within our connected process.

Is it a perfect solution? No. It doesn’t give us a reading of what the actual melt temperature is, but by knowing that the other process outputs fall within our control limits, we can use data to support the assumption that the viscosity is equivalent.

Driven by brand owner demands and new worldwide legislation, the entire supply chain is working toward the shift to circularity, with some evidence the circular economy has already begun.

Baystar's Borstar technology is helping customers deliver better, more reliable production methods to greenhouse agriculture.

While prices moved up for three of the five commodity resins, there was potential for a flat trajectory for the rest of the third quarter.

That concept is the foundation of Scientific Molding. What troubles me is the fact that many of us know the effects of process changes on outputs—even the unintentional effects they may have on peripheral outputs that are not as obvious—yet we still insist on process limits.

Process setpoint limits that allow for technicians to make changes to the process throughout a run are counterproductive to a well-defined process. An injection molding process is a network of process interactions and it is nearly impossible to challenge each and every one of them.

First off, it is critical that process changes have not been made. Verify that your fill time, shot size and transfer position have not been changed. Now all we need to do is make sure that our injection pressure is still within the normal variation that we established during process development.

We can keep this experiment going, but I think the point is clear. I am not saying that we don’t want to optimize our process if something was missed during process development. We just need to do so knowing what can be affected and make sure that we challenge our changes to verify we didn’t take five steps back while trying to move forward. The above causes and effects do not have to be limited to just thought experiments; we know the relationships to be true based on predictions that were made and then confirmed through experiments we ran during our process-development protocols.

Sustainability continues to dominate new additives technology, but upping performance is also evident. Most of the new additives have been targeted to commodity resins and particularly polyolefins.

In this collection, which is part one of a series representing some of John’s finest work, we present you with five articles that we think you will refer to time and again as you look to solve problems, cut cycle times and improve the quality of the parts you mold.

Plastics Technology’s Tech Days is back! Every Tuesday in October, a series of five online presentations will be given by industry supplier around the following topics:  Injection Molding — New Technologies, Efficiencies Film Extrusion — New Technologies, Efficiencies Upstream/Downstream Operations Injection Molding — Sustainability Extrusion — Compounding Coming out of NPE2024, PT identified a variety of topics, technologies and trends that are driving and shaping the evolution of plastic products manufacturing — from recycling/recyclability and energy optimization to AI-based process control and automation implementation. PT Tech Days is designed to provide a robust, curated, accessible platform through which plastics professionals can explore these trends, have direct access to subject-matter experts and develop strategies for applying solutions in their operations.

In this collection of articles, two of the industry’s foremost authorities on screw design — Jim Frankand and Mark Spalding — offer their sage advice on screw design...what works, what doesn’t, and what to look for when things start going wrong.

Processors with sustainability goals or mandates have a number of ways to reach their goals. Biopolymers are among them.

Join Engel in exploring the future of battery molding technology. Discover advancements in thermoplastic composites for battery housings, innovative automation solutions and the latest in large-tonnage equipment designed for e-mobility — all with a focus on cost-efficient solutions. Agenda: Learn about cutting-edge thermoplastic composites for durable, sustainable and cost-efficient battery housings Explore advanced automation concepts for efficient and scalable production See the latest large-tonnage equipment and technology innovations for e-mobility solutions

There is so much about an injection molding process that is quite difficult, if not impossible, to control. That is why it is essential to monitor closely what we can control. I often think many of us confuse defect threshold limits with process-control limits, but there is a significant difference between them. One is the threshold at which a defect is created, the other is a limit that is established to prevent losing process control—thus the term “control limits.”

In this collection of content, we provide expert advice on welding from some of the leading authorities in the field, with tips on such matters as controls, as well as insights on how to solve common problems in welding.

This Knowledge Center provides an overview of the considerations needed to understand the purchase, operation, and maintenance of a process cooling system.

“In the coming months, we're making available specialized molds to easily swap logos and textures on numerous cap sizes to produce a custom closure at a much lower initial cost,” Pontius said.

This is what I still find to be amazing about the injection molding process: What seems to be a minor change can have a significant impact on part quality and process robustness and repeatability. This idea of the connected process and the interactions of setpoints is the genesis of focusing on the outputs rather than setpoints.

Since we were output-driven from a process prospective, I decided to look at the data from the run and noticed that all the outputs were within the validated process limits. Even with the larger screw and barrel, the setpoints were set to achieve the process outputs that we had identified during process development. During the run, parts were measured and visually inspected and they were not only acceptable, the distribution of the dimensions hit the requirements of 1.33 and 1.67 for CpK an PpK respectively. Armed with all the data, a risk analysis was submitted and approved by the customer. We were able to ultimately prove that even with a different screw and barrel, the process had not been changed.

“The benefit to customers of our turnkey experience is risk mitigation,” Pontius said. “From CAD modeling to in-house fabrication and repair to prototyping and mass production, the development cycle is under one roof. If a mold has an issue, rather than having it taken out of the machine and shipped away for repair, we can diagnose the problem and repair it in a matter of hours, minimizing downtime and maximizing production schedules,” said Pontius.

Lakeshore is helping many companies onshore molds or rebuild molds from a previous supplier that are difficult to remove. For these transitions, Lakeshore helps customers confirm mold and tooling compatibility with its facility, match material and color, review quality control requirements, and plan logistics.

When, how, what and why to automate — leading robotics suppliers and forward-thinking moldmakers will share their insights on automating manufacturing at collocated event.

Often, because our process is connected, the change we make to resolve one issue has that butterfly effect we mentioned above, and we have created more harm than good. By the way, going back to my being rendered speechless: I eventually told the molder that they should stop the machine and dry the material before continuing to run.

Coming soon are specialized molds designed to produce custom plastic caps in various sizes and textures at a lower initial cost.

When I visit an injection molder that has well-established process development protocols but then has process limits for production, I can’t help but feel that time has been wasted. All the time spent establishing repeatable processes—running experiments to identify fill time, hold time, hold pressure, cooling time, melt temperature, and more (often with multiple experiments for each of these process outputs)—and then to allow them to change during the run boggles my mind.

Successfully starting or restarting an injection molding machine is less about ticking boxes on a rote checklist and more about individually assessing each processing scenario and its unique variables.

Resin drying is a crucial, but often-misunderstood area. This collection includes details on why and what you need to dry, how to specify a dryer, and best practices.

Automation is critical to Lakeshore’s business. Removing high-end jewelry cases from a mold, for example, requires careful handling to maintain aesthetics, a task that is best performed by a robot. Molding polished parts of clear Tritan copolyester, which degrades quickly with any variation in cycle time, also requires automation. “The ARI top-entry robot is faster and more consistent at removing the part from the mold and prevents damage that could be introduced if a machine operator so much as bumps the mold when removing the part,” said Lakeshore CEO Kyle Pontius.

First off, I definitely lowered the melt temperature of the material. Lower RPMs means less friction, resulting in less heat. In addition, less time in the barrel for the material also lowers the melt temperature. Lower melt temperature results in a higher injection pressure requirement to maintain the fill time. Lower melt temperature results in a higher viscosity, which means more force is required to fill the mold. If the process was already close to being pressure-limited, this screw RPM change might be enough to put us over the edge. Now, we have lost our velocity control during fill.

So, if I am filling the same amount of plastic into the mold in the same amount of time, and the force needed to do so is within acceptable levels, then the viscosity of the material must be similar. We can say with some confidence that our melt temperature must be within the same range as it was during our validation runs.

Ultrasonic welding today is a sophisticated process that offers numerous features for precise control. Choosing from among all these options can be daunting; but this guide will help you make sense of your control features so you can approach your next welding project with the confidence of getting good results.