A Molding Strategy Fit for a King

ITW Deltar first worked with RJG in 1992. At that time we were using another company's monitoring system which had limited capabilities. We cautiously decided to give RJG a try on just one machine at a time. We soon saw amazing benefits with RJG's system, so we became seriously dedicated to monitoring jobs with RJG equipment.

Applying the technology in a portable fashion across our plant from older machines to newer, sophisticated machines, we realized improvements in cycle time and solved processing and machine problems. It wasn't long before we realized that a portable approach wasn't convenient or efficient enough on a day-to-day basis, so we began mounting boxes on each machine in the plant, networking them together. Today five of our plants in three divisions are equipped with RJG.

The technology does many things for us. The first benefit is increased visibility of our process. Although we have some latest- greatest machines with every type of bell and whistle, none of them can replace the capability of the RJG system. Only RJG gives us the detailed process information we require in order to ensure quality parts for our customers. Now we can meet our corporate molding strategy on every machine, new or old.

Most importantly, using RJG has improved the quality of our parts. Being an automotive supplier, we can't afford even three or four bad parts per million, and you just can't catch suspect parts at this level by inspection. But RJG's DARTVision process monitoring software can and does catch even minor problems. It controls our process with cavity pressure sensors and watches each shot at the same time. Instead of settling for a sampled SPC program which, for example, may only check about 40 parts out of every 3200, DARTVision checks every cycle using in-mold pressure sensors in our multi-cavity tools. That's the advantage you get with the RJG system: the in-mold sensor information correlates to our part characteristics and we achieve 100 percent quality control.

ITW Deltar is now involved in a continuing education effort to promote disciplined use of RJG equipment throughout our organization. We don't want a job to run until it is within the "RJG window." Molders who use this strategy make much better parts than those who don't. And with DARTVision, we can see exactly what is going on at each of our machines from any location. It is clear to us that this technology is taking ITW and our customer base to a higher level, in a big way.

Doug Matheson Manager of System Operations
ITW Deltar, Mokena IL

RJG, Inc., 3111 Park Drive. Tel: 231-947-3111; Fax: 231-947-6403.