Plastics Processing and Plastics Problems: 4plastics 411 blog

I'm going to switch gears with this blog a bit. Initially, I was just going to use it to update what changes were coming in regards to the site. I figured I would update it once a week...that way people who follow the site loyally would be aware of upcoming changes.

Today I realized that I could use the blog more effectively. Over the past 8 months, I've been writing content for the site in reference to scientific molding principles, plastics troubleshooting,
plastics defects, etc...and once the content was written, I would transfer that information into html as articles. This is a very slow and cumbersome process... There is already alot of content on the site, but I probably could have written about twice as much in the same amount of time.

Then it hit me...rather than add one post to this blog weekly...I could be alot more effective by writing my articles in this format, and leave HTML for the content that makes it easier for you to access outside sources, or other events that require coding to provide you with a simple approach to a specific task.

From now on, I am going to write articles in this format daily that address specific plastics topics for insight aimed toward novices in the field... as well as professionals. I am only going to say that there will be no specific topic other than plastics in general. This could be tooling, robotics, material, scientific molding... whatever topic I choose for the day.

I'm not going to promise that you will always agree with my insight... nor will I be able to cover some topics in the depth that they will sometimes deserve. I've always said that every molder is unique... and every processor has there own perspective pertaining to what was theory, fact or merely a molding myth. My point will be to pass along issues I've faced personally over the years, and approaches that we took to resolve problems. Sometimes we found quick and easy fixes to molding issues...occasionally we beat our head against the wall for months to find out we had been dancing around a simple fix.

One thing I learned over the years is that none of us is always right...and even the worst molder can sometimes have the best insight into how to fix a problem. The approach that I eventually followed was this...

Any information given to me as a pure and undisputable fact or method could possibly be untrue or not the best idea or approach. There is always the potential for a unique perspective or a new concept to be the best method of handling a problem. On the same note... it is important to remember that any notion that you as a molder have determined as concrete and seemingly never-changing could be wrong. It is important to listen to the ideas of everyone on the floor, and base your approach to a problem on as much information as you are able to collect prior to taking action. Good solutions are developed from complete and true knowledge of the overall issue.

Some might say, " We don't have time to dig deeper...we have to react!". I understand that feeling. I know that there are times on the floor when we as processors have to "bandaid" a crisis...because customer demand and thin lead times demand it to be so. It doesn't change our goal of "continuous improvement". We have a responsibility to our manufacturing team to iron out the bugs in every system.. and I believe that seasoned molders stay for 20 years due to the love of that chase. We have to make time to find solutions... to make the fire (crisis) profitable...to make the fire go away.

Here's to the chase...may we all merge on the winning side..
Garrett MacKenzie/4plastics411 Editor-in Chief