|
Wise men and women, an also countless fortune cookies, have said,
- “A wise man will learn from his mistakes, or get a chance to perfect them!”
- “Thorough knowledge of self today allows for growth tomorrow!”
What does all that have to do with raw materials? The third quote has no actual significance, but the first two do, so please read on…
The Mistake
As the economy worsened and companies far and wide began to tighten purse strings,
reduce overhead, etc., some companies in the world of polymer and plastics manufacturing
found themselves in precarious situations… because their resin suppliers made the
decision to cut costs and stop production of a particular material.
Sounds like an easy problem to rectify, but not if the manufacturers had trusted
blindly that they had an endless supply of the needed material and no clue as to
what to look for in a replacement resin. Unexpectedly, and at a time when production
downtime could easily spell doom for companies struggling to stay afloat in a sparse
economy, some companies discovered that their lack of knowledge about the previously
available raw material now put their operations in grave danger.
The Lesson
Simply by taking the time to understand a few simple, baseline characteristics about
the polymers you use to manufacture your products can save you many headaches should
any of those materials suddenly become unavailable.
- Thermal Characteristics -- Melting Temperature, Glass Transition Temperature, Degradation Temperature, Melt Flow Rate
- Physical Characteristics – Density, Hardness, Tensile Properties, Compressive Properties, Percentage of Inorganic Filler
- Chemical Characteristics – Identity of Base Polymer, Nature of Inorganic Filler
- Electrical Characteristics – Dielectric Breakdown Strength, Conductance, Resistivity, Dielectric Constant
The above list in no way suggests all of the possible polymer characteristics a
molder considers when selecting a material, but for companies with little or no
idea what they would look for in a replacement material, having the values for some
or all of those characteristics could drastically reduce the amount of time it takes
to find a suitable replacement resin, begin test runs, and get back to production.
Polymer testing labs have a large amount
of experience working with companies wishing to characterize their existing raw
materials and also with companies seeking to qualify potential backup materials
should their existing material become too expensive or unavailable.
Call a polymer testing lab and begin arming yourself with critical information
about your raw polymer materials that could help your company avert unwanted
downtime on its production floor.
|
