FAST HEAT, a global provider of customized hot runner temperature controller solutions, has announced that its Ion Temperature Controller has helped American Plastic Molding (APM), a Scottsburg-based custom molder, to address the problem of discoloration due to burned parts.
Sequence of five nylon 6.6 parts illustrating the problem that APM encountered with burning (far left) and how the problem was solved (far right) after installation of the Ion Series Controller
APM utilizes a 16-cavity hot runner system for producing 30% glass-filled nylon 6.6 parts. These parts were designated for a Tier 1 automotive industry supplier. APM’s plant manager, Alan Myers, stated that the company was not able to reduce the temperature during processing without gate freeze-off.
APM installed an Ion Series temperature controller from Fast Heat to address the issue. After installation, the production was run. The company found that it was able to reduce its hot runner temperatures without having gates freeze. It achieved a reduction of nearly 70 ºF within a period of two hours. APM fine-tuned the system and was able to designate a new range of temperature from 430 ºF to 440 ºF.
Earlier, APM was incurring labor cost for sorting out burnt parts. The company gained significant benefit from the controller and was able to increase its production output of good parts by 10% to 15%.
Fast Heat’s Ion Series controller also provided other benefits. Typical zone shut downs affected production at APM. During that period, the company had to produce from 15 cavities in the three days that was required for replacing the defective unit. The Ion Series controller automatically slaved of the defective cavity to another cavity and avoided negative affect to production. The controller was also able to rapidly tune the system when new molding parameters had to be set.