Royal Plastics Tour

I was impressed with the organization and cleanliness with the new facility. The product flow would seem to be smooth but what if the out going product had to come from various bays? Another interesting thing I found was the heat exchangers for hot water. Water was used to cool the machines and was recycled through the large heat exchanger. One heat exchanger recycled the water for two bays.

Kinematics has got me always looking at the workings of the machinery. The dies provided some interest, but not much was involved. However, I was amazed at the polish job on the dies. The linkage that create the pressure on the dies was quite interesting. In talking with the guide, I was informed that the linkage was based after the vice grips. The gearing behind the linkage was to provide the proper lock position for the linkage on the dies. The position of the linkage was controlled by the program in the computer. Also interesting here was the sensitivity of the machine. If anything was in the way of the dies closing, the machine would not close the dies. Saves some big money from letting a machinist break a die.