Moulding & Process Validation
Validation of the mould and process at the trialling stage is one of the key aspect of a project. Systematic and scientific approach for collection and reporting of data is critical, in order to avoid development delays and ensuring the project is within budget.
Plazology delivers effective mould and process validation both in the UK and globally. This includes engineering support to perform all the necessary checks; ensuring the mould is capable and functional, adhering to mould specifications. In some cases, for turnkey projects where the moulding machine and auxiliary equipment is also part of the validation, the team of engineers will support with IQ-OQ-PQ.
Over the years, Plazology have developed in-house methods in qualifying moulds driven from past experiences (over 400 moulds qualified in a 25 year industry career) and the Six Sigma approach.
Some of the methods used during validation include but not limited to the following:
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De-Coupled Moulding,
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Scientific Injection Moulding,
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Cavity Pressure Sensor Set-Up (Kistler),
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Design of Experiments,
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Process Window Studies,
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Gauge R & R/ANOVA
Plazology's engineers are confident to achieve the best replication of the approved mould and process set-up at the mould makers (SAT – Site Acceptance Testing), to final installation at customer or manufacturing site (FAT – Factory Acceptance Test). The engineers can also adopt customer's systems and fine tune them with Plazology's in-house best practice.
Detailed quality and process documents will be provided, along with Minitab dimensional analysis to understand the process capability of both the mould and the process. Data given will include the following: CPK, PPK, CP, PP, P-Value, Test For Equal Variances, Box Plots, Multi-Level Histograms, IM-R Charts and more.
In reality the qualification of the mould and process should begin at the very start of the project (not just at T1). Early involvement of Plazology helps accelerate mould and process validation.
Because the injection moulding process has so many variables it is often difficult to isolate the one parameter which is causing potential issues. Plazology can save you time and money with the methods and systems we have developed which can quickly highlight areas of concern in the moulding process.
Our team at Plazology can provide a totally unbiased “fresh set of eyes” to check out all those variables which can so often be contributing to a problem in the task of producing a new injection moulded product.