“The E-Multi’s precise shot weight and repeatability was a critical component to the success of this application”     

- Roberto Silla, President, EasyPlast (EU)

About EasyPlast

EasyPlast, a European based company, has been manufacturing molds and molding plastics since 1994. It specializes in multi-cavity molds for consumer products and in molding parts in PP, LDPE, HDPE, and LLDPE. Available components include caps, capsules, dispensers, ferrules, medical, houseware, packaging and more. The company manufactures over a billion molded items every year. EasyPlast is proud to create products of the highest quality for national and international markets.

EasyPlast produces a complex Carton style closure (HDPE 3-component screw cap, 2 -color). The current process involves molding each component in 3 separate cells with 3 separate molds. This specific closure design incorporates a cutter element that opens the aluminum seal once the closure is opened by the consumer.

As part of this process, from the mold(s) they are removed by robot to an assembly jig where the caps are finally ejected fully assembled.

Challenge

EasyPlast was hoping to improve the manufacturing process to improve overall productivity and efficiency to lower part cost by:

• minimize equipment utilization and manpower
• improving part quality
• Reducing cycle time (and handling)
• saving floor space
  
  

Technical Solution

EasyPlast had developed a unique 24+24+24 triple stack family mold and ultimately patented the technology. As a component of this solution an E-Multi (EM4) auxiliary injection unit and controller was utilized to inject the component with the 2^nd color.

The E-multi unit was mounted in a horizontal configuration almost parallel to the press (15° angle) utilizing a floor stand. The E-Multi unit was selected for its precision injection capabilities, repeatability, reliability and shot capacity.

Results

The customer estimates that the time to complete the injection and assembly process has been reduced by about 50% as a result of this new system. The shrinkage occurs to all three parts evenly after assembly leading to extremely high tolerances and excellent part quality. As a result of minimizing the handling requirements after molding, the scrap rate has been reduced by up to 75% (was 2%, now 0.5-1%). Overall, the customer reports that this new process has enabled him to lower part costs by about 40% and predicts annual savings of at least €100k.  The customer attributes these savings to the more efficient process (enabled by the E-Multi and special mold design) which requires 1 less person, 2 less molding machines, less cooling equipment, lower production times, lower assembly times, lower scrap rate and lower energy consumption.

In addition, EasyPlast expects to be able to further improve cycle times as the E-Multi has not been utilized to its full performance limit (it is not the bottleneck in the production process). The customer was very happy with the unit. It is working extremely well and there are plans to order another one for a future similar project. The controller is also favoured for its interface, ease of use and installation.