Of all aspects of our industry, quality is inarguably most important. After all, if you are not delivering quality plastics products to your customers, your customers will go elsewhere. But how can plastics manufacturers guarantee quality parts? In those most basic sense, we need to inspect parts and ensure they meet customer requirements. To accomplish this, we need to use various devices — the most fundamental of which are measuring tools. Understanding Measuring Tools At Routsis Training, we see it time and time again: Most of the people measuring plastic products know almost nothing about ..read more

Does your company give lip-service to cleanliness and organization or does it take it seriously every day? In this post, we’ll take a look at ways in which tidiness can save your company time and money, and increase the safety of your workplace. Merriam-Webster defines cleanliness as ‘the quality or state of being clean.’ A clean workplace is one in which normal operations can take place without concerns of contamination or injury resulting from the current state of cleanliness. The expectations at each production facility are a little different, but the common expectations are as follows: cle ..read more

Routsis Training’s popular Scientific Molding Pocket Guide is now available in Spanish. “It’s really amazing how popular our Pocket Guide has become,” says Daniel Stephens, Vice-President of Routsis Training. “Our customers can’t seem to get enough of these,” Mr. Stephens continued — adding that over 50,000 copies of the English-language version have been printed to-date. “We were constantly being asked if we can provide this same information for Spanish-speaking employees, and we’re really excited to be able to deliver these to our clients.” This translation was developed in collaboration wit ..read more

As discussed in our previous posts, technicians are the key to implementing sustainable change. This is undeniably true. You need competent techs to succeed. And managers that insist otherwise are simply finding excuses for maintaining the status quo. We hear it all the time: “You don’t understand, it’s different here… we don’t have a lot of people to choose from in our area!” The truth is, you’re not alone: Finding and keeping talented techs is a challenge for companies all over the world. A contributing factor is this challenge is the fact that there are fewer and fewer publicly-funded avenu ..read more

There is an old adage that says, “A fish rots from the head down.” This is also true in the plastics industry: In the end, everything that goes wrong is management’s fault. Routsis Training has visited many processing facilities over the years and this is invariably true. For example, it is not uncommon that we talk to a plant manager in their messy office about how employees should learn the 5S System and organize their workplace! It’s not that management doesn’t mean well — but they need to understand they are leaders, and that the most successful leaders lead by example. Support from Manage ..read more

In 1963, Bob Dylan famously sang, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” While it is doubtful he had plastics processing in mind, the changes in our industry over the past 60 years have been staggering — and the pace of these changes is ever-increasing. How can today’s plastics processors keep up with technology and compete in the global marketplace? In this series, we will attempt to answer that question. Learning to Embrace Change Most plastics companies claim they are embracing change, yet the day-to-day actions of their technicians has barely changed in the past 5 or10 or even 20 years. Engineer ..read more

Just because the material has been dried at the specified temperature for the specified amount of time does not guarantee it is actually dried to the material supplier’s specifications. If you dry material in-house, you must have a method of measuring the actual moisture contained in the material. In most hygroscopic materials, water attacks the polymer — resulting in shorter, weaker, and more brittle polymer chains. While a part molded from such material may look good, it can fail miserably in the field. If you grind up these weaker parts and then test the material shortly after processing, y ..read more

Materials that need to be dried require a reliable supply of heated and dried air. The dryness of the air is measured using a dewpoint meter. In practice, there are several ways this can be accomplished. What is the best method? Which type of sensor is most accurate? In this post, we will answer some common questions about dewpoint measurement. Onboard Dewpoint Sensors Many desiccant dryers have the option of being purchased with an on-board dewpoint meter. We strongly recommend this option. Even though these onboard sensors are typically oxide-based — which means they can drift ±5° or even ±1 ..read more

The terms “QA” and “QC” are used frequently (and often interchangeably) in the plastics industry. But what do these terms actually mean? What is the role of each in delivering quality parts to your customers? In this post, we’ll demystify Quality Assurance and Control and explain how each plays an integral in your business. Having visited thousands of processing facilities around the world, Routsis Training has found this is more than mere confusion over the terminology. In fact, it’s quite common to see so-called ‘Quality Assurance’ departments that are actually just performing ‘Quality Contr ..read more

Routsis’s exclusive SmartTech training focuses on the science of injection molding — not just on the workings of a particular injection molding machine. The majority of training time is spent at your molding machines, making it a better way to help your company improve efficiency, profitability and its competitive position. Here are 5 ways in which Routsis Training’s SmartTech is the most effective face-to-face training system available to the plastics industry. 1.) Routsis Training is the only company to provide pre-requisite online training so your employees are prepared before the on-site t ..read more