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The Power of Product Design Collaboration |
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A major outdoor equipment manufacturer contacted PlastOcon at the “brainstorming” phase of the project to develop a very robust, but inexpensive wheel for their pressure washers. A project engineering manager along with a technical sales specialist from PlastOcon was assigned direct responsibility to work with the customer’s designers and product development engineers. The team involved all participants in the project including toolmakers, resin suppliers, and a variety of experts to work on part and tool design along with resin selection to meet the design and functionality requirements. Many roadblocks were encountered. All were systematically overcome, using a variety of inputs including mold flow analysis and finite element analysis (fea)! 3 other suppliers, including wheel specialists, had also been contacted by the customer. At the end of the day, PlastOcon's concept (which others said would not work) met all the project requirements including low tooling costs and we were awarded the project. All other competitive options were too complex, too expensive, or did not meet the design criteria. Prototype tools were built that ultimately served as bridge production tools. At the same time, production tooling was initiated. The project was a major success being on time and on budget. The key to the success of the collaborative effort was the close working relationships with the customer and the PlastOcon Engineering Project Team. |
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A Sterilant Cup Success Story |
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A worldwide organization is a company that produces sterilizing equipment for surgical and medical instruments. For years they put up with the high cost of plastic thermo-formed containers for their chemicals. Realizing the economic advantage of injection molding, they embarked down the path of developing injection molded containers. Unable to achieve this with their current supplier, they turned to PlastOcon for help. Help in creating a container that not only was injection molded, but pushed the envelope of conventional molding limitations. The part has a thin membrane on the bottom of the cup that is is only .010" thick. Mold flow analysis and mold designers said it couldn't be done, but PlastOcon knew it could. |
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A Water Softener Valve Success Story |
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A prominent water softener manufacturer came to us when they needed a molder to help them develop their new series of water softner control valves. PlastOcon helped them through the many design and performance problems every new endeavor faces. In the end, together we developed precision molds and processes that are helping make their new water softner control valve series a success. |
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Office Partition Success Story |
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A Wisconsin office furniture maker needed someone to develop 14 parts for their new office partition system they were launching. These systems were to be the cream of the crop and would be found even in the Pentagon. They turned to PlastOcon. Working together, we learned their part requirements and tweaked their designs to fit the injection molding process. PlastOcon then simultaneously managed 14 new molds, all of which ran right out of the box. But we didn't stop there. When they found they needed to improve the performance of some of these components, PlastOcon was there with the solutions, including some that saved them money. The caption shows the 14 parts mentioned, we also received an excellent report card for our shining performance in supplying these parts. |
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A Diffuser Success Story |
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A water treatment systems manufacturer came to us when their current molder could not help them improve their product. We showed them how to turn their concept into an injection moldable part. In fact, we even completed the design for them. Working together, we were able to engineer one component out of their assembly thus saving them about $0.75 an assembly, resulting in over $750,000 in savings. We also showed them how to remove cost from their assembly operation by adapting the part design to allow for friction welding. This will save them from using hundreds of gallons of costly, dangerous, and environmentally hazardous chemicals used for gluing the assemblies together. Also, we were able to save them additional tooling expense by designing the parts and tooling creating a single mold that is capable of producing up to 11 different configurations. |
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A Hydraulic Fluid Reservoir Success Story |
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A well known hydraulic power company needed a supplier that would provide the quality and service their products required. They chose PlastOcon. We took in their existing tools, found their problems, and corrected them. All without interrupting their supply chain even in the midst of transferring so many molds. |
