Testimonials

The following testimonials were written by customers who have benefited from successfully implementing RJG's technology.

Quality, Again... and Again... and Again
Don't Leave Quality To Chance
Stay On Top With Knowledge
One Bad Part Is Too Many!

Quality, Again... and Again... and Again.

Continuing to be a successful business in the Custom Injection Molding arena is a considerable challenge. Our success at Advent is directly attributable to a focus on more complex parts, resins and processes. Systematic implementation of RJG equipment has played an important role in our ability to provide value to our customers by more efficient and effective molding operations.

Advent’s first RJG application was a high volume, very small, feature rich automotive part. Production volumes for this part were projected at 50 million parts per year, so relying on a traditional inspection plan would be cost prohibitive. A team was organized and given the task of defining and evaluating alternate methods. Through an exhaustive investigation and evaluation, an RJG solution was selected, tested and implemented.

The solution consisted of an Advent designed & constructed 16 cavity mold incorporating a cavity pressure sensor in each cavity. The team integrated the data collection equipment with an Arburg press. Then they developed the processing and monitoring parameters to assure parts were produced to print.

The results have been remarkable; since Advent started production of this part over 5 years and 250 million parts ago, we have not shipped a defective part to the customer. Based upon this success, the production team has upgraded 8 presses with eDART systems incorporating a wireless network for remote monitoring.

Since the initial tool, Advent has constructed and is currently running over 30 tools that incorporate cavity pressure sensors. Advent experience and demonstrated capabilities with RJG equipment has been instrumental in our successful bids for these projects.

The future is never certain; change is necessary and inevitable. Advent’s plan is to change faster than the natural rate thereby continuing to offer outstanding value. Technology is fundamental to this approach and RJG's technology has proven essential.

Ken Desrosiers
President
Advent Tool and Mold Co.

Don't Leave Quality To Chance

Years of continued partnership with RJG has shown us many reasons why we will continue to utilize their systems and technologies in our facilities. We have seen continuous improvement in our process and efficiency since implementing RJG’s cavity pressure technology. A few of the reasons for our success are:

The ability to CONTROL conditions inside the mold cavity.
The ability to MONITOR conditions inside the mold cavity.
The ability to set upper and lower control limits around the key process variables, allowing for SUSPECT PART SEGREGATION.
The ability to statistically evaluate the molding process on the fly, shot to shot - true S.P.C. which allows FINITE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT (MICRO TUNING).
The ability to set footprints (TEMPLATES) of cavity pressure curves and match them from press to press, plant to plant, continent to continent, regardless of the machine type or manufacturer.
The ability to access and see our processes from remote locations. Using REMOTE ACCESS, our senior process engineers can modem in, audit processes or offer help to other process technicians with real-time problems.
The ability to DISPLAY AND QUICKLY IDENTIFY PROBLEMS as they arise, no matter the source - Mold, Machine or Material!
The ability to RECORD, REPLAY and REVIEW the entire molding process after the fact using RJG’s DARTVision™ Analyzer software. This helps us identify and resolve hard to find, sporadic process irregularities.
The ability to ENHANCE OUR GAS ASSIST MOLDING PROCESSES.
The ability to EVALUATE INCOMING MATERIALS.

Any one of these reasons makes the system worth the investment. Bottom line, where we have implemented RJG’s Cavity Pressure systems, we have improved quality and lowered cost by reducing process variation. All of this is possible with the use of cavity pressure technology. Now we can see what is happening inside the mold from the plastic ’s point of view.

Glen Embry
Vice President of Injection Molding Operations
World Class Plastics

Stay On Top With Knowledge

Intec has not always used RJG’s Decoupled Molding^SM process but is now a firm believer that this is the only way to mold. It began when Intec was faced with the task of making a part in a four cavity mold using one of the best machines available and molding with an impact modified polycarbonate.

The part to be produced was 0.50 thick, 2 1⁄2 inches wide, and 4 1⁄2 inches long. This 4 cavity mold would need a minimum of 315 US tons of clamp, based on 7 tons per square inch of surface area in the mold. The machine that was purchased was only capable of 265 US tons of clamp. This machine also had the capabilities of very high plastic pressure and extremely fast velocities. This machine is one of the best available in my opinion. There were 7 concerns that we were challenged with:

Keeping the clamp closed without flashing the parting line
Filling the part consistently without degrading the material
Maintaining a consistent cavity pressure at the end of fill
Injecting without causing surface defects by the 2 gates, and about 1 1⁄2 inches down the part was a polished logo that would inconsistently have dull spots
Holding tight tolerances on width, length, and height
Developing a process that could do all of the above without purchasing a larger tonnage machine.
Holding a dull finish

I was just starting to learn about RJG’s cavity pressure system and DECOUPLED MOLDING^SM at the time and had to get assistance from Rod Groleau, Founder of RJG Associates, Inc. Intec had already performed DOEs for cause and effect, so we had some data to start with. We set up a fill using only three velocity profiles to 98% full then transferred by position. The packing phase was done to a cavity controlled hold until the gate was sealed. This solved problems 1 through 6, but had yet to resolve the problem of getting a dull finish. To solve this problem, we put a nicklon coating on the cavity. All this was achieved with only 30% degradation to the materials melt flow index after molding.

Without assistance from the people at RJG and setting up a DECOUPLED MOLDING^SM process, we would never have been capable of holding a standard deviation of 50 psi at the end of fill. This enabled any technician to start the machine and have a good product after the first 2 shots were produced, holding all dimensions stable. I am now a firm believer in processing with DECOUPLED MOLDING^SM and have worked with RJG’s experienced staff many times over the years with great success.

Daniel J. Holland
Technical Manager
Intec Group, Inc.

One Bad Part Is Too Many!

With all the variables in a molding process, producing a bad part is inevitable. But if you have controls in place to identify and segregate suspect parts, you can ensure those parts never reach the customer.

Six years ago, Winzeler Gear instrumented a tool with cavity pressure sensors for an automotive customer. We worked with our machine supplier to customize their controller so that we could read up to eight cavity pressure curves with the capability of making accept/reject decisions based on peak cavity pressure value. A robot was used to segregate any gears that did not meet the cavity pressure criteria. While this approach worked up to a point, we wanted to add a more scientific approach and record process data. We wanted to have a positive way of providing our customer the same parts in prototype and production and we felt that this was not only a data analysis need but also a systematic molding technique that we could teach to the entire processing group. When top management attended RJG’s Executive Overview course, we agreed that cavity pressure sensors and the eDART SystemTM could provide us with the data we had been looking for.

Winzeler installed its first eDART System on one of their existing automotive applications. We did a lot of in-plant training on DECOUPLED MOLDINGSM and the eDART System, and continued to add more eDARTs as we became more proficient. Our goal was to launch this approach starting at the management level and push it down through the organization. We have two Master Molders and plan to have our entire upper-level molding staff certified.

Today Winzeler has 15 eDART Systems and we use cavity pressure control in every tool we build. The plant runs high-shrinkage resins such as acetal and nylon, yet still holds tolerances of plus or minus a few thousandths. We are able to much more rapidly bring production tooling on line with the help of templates created from our prototype processes. We’re taking single-cavity prototype tools, developing a DECOUPLED MOLDINGSM process, using eDARTs to produce a molding template including cavity pressure, and then moving this straight to production. That’s how we ensure our customers get the same product in production that we gave them in prototype.

Winzeler uses cavity pressure sensing to monitor every shot. All process data is saved on the eDART System Server via wireless technology.
To tie this technology together, we integrated failsafe sorting using the signal from the eDART in conjunction with the machine signal to determine if a gear is good or bad, and then segregate parts with either a robot or a diverter chute.

Cost is what keeps people from diving into this technology, but you either pay for it now or later. The bottom line is that our customers never receive process related rejects and the overall quality rating for their end product is higher. You can’t catch everything with manual inspection, and one defective gear is too many in our customers’ eyes.