Saving Scrap

All of us have certain molds that eject parts like a popcorn popper.  Parts fly in every direction, bounce off mold surfaces, tie rods etc. and then (in a perfect world) fall into the chute or conveyor.  But the world isn’t perfect. A collection of parts on the floor will build up as the mold runs.  Unfortunately most of these parts are now contaminated with the dust, dirt, grease and other stuff that is on the floor.  Your only recourse is to throw them out.  You don’t even have the luxury of tossing them in the grinder.  If you are utterly bored some evening, have an insane desire to crunch some numbers, and in front of your computer; you’ll find the profit you lost on that one part you threw into the trash, requires you to sell three more parts just to break even.  This means you’ve had to make four parts for free.  An ugly situation yes?  It is easy to fix however.  First, set your ejector system so it doesn’t do a Karate Kick each time it moves forward.  Second, small parts have a tendency to pop off the mold and fly around.  For a few hundred dollars you can put plastic curtains that stay between the mold halves during ejection.  This way if they bounce around, the curtains will keep dropping into the chute and not on the floor.    This is a simple fix whose payback can be calculated in hours.  Profitability is determined by saleable pieces per hour, which will go up dramatically as a function of saved ‘scrap’. Naturally, prior to this you allowed for this ‘spillage’ by calculating it into the scrap allowance in your part price.  This will significantly lower this factor.  One can only assume you’d be polite enough not to mention this to your customer and keep the extra profit.  Think about it.

Contact me with questions put in the subject line QUESTIONS.
Bill Tobin, WJT Associates, E-mail: bill4012@hotmail.com