Performance Plastics Uses Automation to Assure Tight Tolerances

At Performance Plastics, we combine design expertise with automation to ensure tight tolerance part quality and consistency.  Automation allows us to efficiently inspect 100 percent of the parts we produce.

Automation is used on all our orders – high and low volume.  While automation is critical on high-volume orders, we utilize the technology on our lower volume for technically challenging, mission-critical applications to ensure quality.

Some of our mission-critical applications include:

• We make parts that seal off chemicals in order to prevent dangerous leaks in the aerospace industry.
• We manufacture parts used in plasma cutters that ensure two different types of gases are mixed correctly right at the nozzle for diversified industrial applications.
• We produce parts that are used to test tissue samples for the medical industry.

At Performance Plastics, we use a combination of automation across all our applications.  We incorporate automation where cylinders, vacuums, and other actuators are moving products from place to place around the production facility – always testing our tolerances throughout the product cycle.

However, automation does make maintaining tight tolerances a bit simpler. An example is in our over-molding process.  Many parts we manufacture include battery contacts that run internally, a metal base, or features made from something other than plastics.  Automation can be used to feed these parts into the process without an operator.  Less human interaction reduces the possibility of human error and/or injury. Automation places the part in the mold to be over-molded, pulls the completed part out, and then re-inserts the next part quickly and reliably.

Where automation really produces an advantage is at the bottom line – cost savings. For example, cycle times can be greatly improved because automation allows us to do multiple things at once, such as vision checks and leak checks at the same time.

When our reliability increases, our customers’ risk is greatly reduced. Higher reliability and repeatability result in a lower risk of non-compliance.

To learn more about Performance Plastics’ uses of automation, contact Rich Reed, our Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at (513) 321-8404 or [email protected].