LINKING SERIOUS BUYERS TO THE BEST SUPPLIERS
Serving the UK & IE plastics industry
Having spent a number of years inspecting worn screw and barrels, I know from experience that people go well beyond ‘a few thou’ of wear before deciding it’s time for a replacement or refurb. A good setter can often work with little more than a stick rattling around in an oversized tube, but there is always a price to pay……
USA manufacturing is booming and riding the crest of the Re-Shoring wave. But I’m fearful we’re losing steam in the UK………
During my career I’ve supplied 100’s of new and used injection moulding machines. Determining what is best for your business depends on many factors but essentially the main considerations should be specification and up time requirements.
Scrap rates for the injection moulding industry are easy to calculate, but often painful to believe – it is simply the difference in weight between how much plastic you buy in, and the total weight of parts delivered. Typically this is as much as 10%, although when questioned about scrap rates companies reported to us the figures they wanted to talk about – such as “customer reject rates” of 4.5ppm or their “production reject rate” where we heard of 0.001%. These figures are just self-congratulatory and distorted.
After 20 something years in the plastics industry working for one of the larger extruder manufacturers in the world I am beginning to wonder when replacing critical parts like Barrels and Screws, do we look any further than the price?
It is fantastic to see UK Manufacturing enjoying a renaissance especially in the Plastic Injection Moulding sector where we have a new buzz word called ‘reshoring’. I can’t help wondering though whether too many businesses were quick to sell out to what was perceived to be the ‘Holy Grail’ in manufacturing in the first place. I wrestle with this question that is rarely asked…
I recall, as young plastic machinery sales engineer in the 80’s, how manufacturing was a pretty unpopular word amongst my friends. I also recall how government grants were often abused by companies, ordering equipment, then running off with the money, or asking suppliers to inflate invoices then keeping the uplift.
