Injection Molding

There are many ways to be a sustainable company. In Part 3 of our in-depth look at the daily operations of the injection molding business of Xten Industries, our focus is on green design for more efficient manufacturing.

Xten Industries works hard at keeping its eye focused on productivity, profitability, efficiency, sustainability, and solving customers’ challenges with creative solutions. Opportunities for all of these exist in the various stages of the mold/molded part design, material selection, and the molding process chosen.

Based in California's Bay area, custom molder Jatco Incorporated has already gone international with a plant in GuangDong, China, and now it's going national with a new molding-centric facility that will open in South Carolina during the first quarter of 2011.

Medical device molder Pacific Plastics & Engineering, a contract manufacturer and custom injection molder, added another stand-alone 1000-ft² Class (7) 10,000 cleanroom within the facility’s existing footprint. The new cleanroom contains automated lines for assembly and secondary operations including pad printing, assembly, and heatstaking. This expands the company’s production line to include two Class (7) 10,000 cleanrooms, the first containing six presses, and five Class (8) 100,000 soft-walled cleanrooms.

It's a big promise but the supplier says it has customers' firsthand experience to back it up. This new and improved purging agent combines non-melting but softening thermoplastic scrubbing granules with an expanding proprietary additive. This combination removes color and contamination without leaving behind residue due to the combined power of the thermoplastic's scrubbing action and the expansion of the additive.

Onshoring is definitely happening, 
but offshoring continues.

Vertical injection molding machine supplier Gluco has announced a partnership with Chen Hsong whereby Gluco will be the Hong Kong-based company's exclusive distributor throughout the United States and Canada.  

Restriction to flow is the problem of the day.

The plastics processing industry in the U.S. remains under pressure by most accounts, but there's been a definite uptick for many, among them Anchor Plastics. The small custom molder has rebounded hard from last year's drop in sales and is looking to hire.

New to purging compounds? Or an old hand but know you could use a refresher? Here some best practices or troubleshooting tips beyond the set of basic purging procedures.

Vertical grooves and horizontal reinforcing ribs in the corners of a new rigid plastic container are at the heart of an innovative container sidewall strengthening system that has earned U.S. patent No. 7,740,149 B2.