The manufacturing expert shared insight he has learned in the seven years since Bradley Corp. took a systematic approach to reducing mold problems. “For a while, I was the entire mold program,” he quipped. “But now, everyone at the company knows about the issue—we’re all on board because we’ve seen the benefits.”

He used charts to showcase some of those benefits. For example, Bradley Corp.’s unscheduled repairs dropped from about 100 hours in 2006 to 56 hours in 2007 to just 20 hours in 2008. “We’re not putting out nearly as many fires—the unexpected problems we deal with aren’t as big, and not as often,” he said. “Companies that begin mold maintenance programs can get this big bucketful of time back, and spend it on other parts of their businesses. But more often than not, we’re our own roadblocks—we come up with excuses not to do it, or we start a simple program and don’t see it through.”

Piekarski likened mold maintenance to owning a car. The more you drive a car, the more you get a feel for how to handle it. “Same goes with mold,” he said. Also, the more a company ramps up production, the more preventative maintenance it requires, just as more oil is needed for a car that travels frequently.

Piekarski also shared a standard process to preventative maintenance: pulling the mold from production, cleaning the exterior of the mold, stripping the interior of the mold surface, repairing as needed, reapplying the release and returning the mold to service. He then spoke about the importance of using standardized forms to gather metrics, such as total time spent on mold problems and the ratio of time spent on mold issues to time spent on total preventative maintenance.

“Still, much success of mold maintenance lies on the shop floor and the way employees are trained,” Piekarski says. “Simply put, if they’re in a hurry, they make mistakes. I can’t stress enough the importance of making sure workers are properly trained and that you’re keeping tabs on what they’re doing. A little time upfront can yield major results downstream.”

Bob Baker, technical service director at Huber Engineered Materials, and Gary Rex, senior research scientist at J.M. Huber Corp., led a session at COMPOSITES 2010 about the vital role fillers play in the industry.

They discussed common and uncommon fillers that are used in developing the composites matrix. Filler chemistry, particle shape and size, and even location of where fillers are mined contribute to final part quality, they explained.

Baker talked extensively about the prevalence of calcium carbonate in everyday life, underscoring the point that fillers are integral ingredients in applications ranging from homes to shoes, but often go underappreciated—even by composites professionals.

To help educate the audience, he presented a quick-hitting science class of sorts, explaining where fillers such as calcium carbonate, talc and others come from, what their physical properties are (hardness, opacity, etc.) how they react differently with other materials and where they’re commonly used.

Rex spoke about the utility and value of ATH, a critical material in the production of aluminum metal, a raw material for production of alumina chemicals and a flame retardant for polymers.

Bob Lacovara, president of consultancy Convergent Composites, led a presentation about ways composites firms can reduce emissions and thereby improve the quality and safety of their facilities. He presented an overview of technology available to make that happen, and how it can be applied to different processes. “Environmentally friendly materials translate to low styrene materials, styrene alternatives and additives such as styrene suppressants,” he said.

The emissions from fiber reinforced plastics processors can be major sources of volatile emissions, including styrene, the volatile component of polyester resin and gelcoat; and acetone, a solvent used to clean tools and other surfaces contaminated with resin.

Some discussion during the presentation was about the potential for converting open molding into close molding, which sometimes is a possibility and other times isn’t cost effective because of production cost and volume, Lacovara said.

The benefits of reducing volatile emission are numerous:

• Fewer emissions implies better raw materials use, improving the bottom line
• Less concern about Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations related to worker exposure to chemicals, especially styrene
• Less concern about regulation of air pollutants as a result of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), and the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards
• Reduced disposal cost of spent solvents as hazardous waste
• Reduced risk of fires caused by high concentrations of chemicals in the workplace

Lacovara said no single option is likely to replace the plant-wide use of solvent or completely eliminate the source of volatile emissions, so it’s best for composites companies to examine alternatives that combine several options.

When considering a substitute, firms should keep in mind the following:

• Do the new materials pose a worker health or safety risk?
• How much employee training will be required for successfully implementing a substitute?
• What experience have others in the industry had with the alternative technology?
• What regulations need to be considered?
• What will the effect be on product quality and production levels?
• Will a new waste stream be created? If so, how will it be handled?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the BioPreferred program to establish new markets for bio-based products. Ron Buckhalt, program manager for BioPreferred, says that even as the industry is turning to greener ingredients, oil dependence is still a detriment. “Soybeans are being used more, but they’re a food, and when the oil prices go up, so do food prices,” he said.

One of the major initiatives Buckhalt discussed was the voluntary labeling program. The effort would also culminate in a system where green-eligible products would be stamped with an approved USDA label, much like the Energy Star system for electronics. What determines eligibility isn’t precisely known at this point, but Buckhalt said that whatever the level is should be an industry standard. “Companies don’t have the capability to go too high, but we could be looking at 30 percent,” he says.

The program is currently set up into five categories: acoustical panels, interior panels, plastic lumber panels, structural interior panels, and structural wall panels. But this is where the USDA is reaching out directly to the composites industry to help structure this area in such a way that benefits composites. “We need input from you as to how to categorize these,” Buckhalt said.

The program currently comprises 4,500 products from 1,000 companies in markets such as construction, food service, transportation, and facility operations/maintenance. Manufacturers currently involved include Agriboard, which manufactures structural panels from straw, and BioFoam Tech, which produces green surfboards.

The presentation began with the definition of color itself: a combination of light, object, and observer. To demonstrate this (particularly the latter characteristic), Howard pointed two lasers at the wall, one red and one blue. The blue one appeared to be further away, and Howard used this example to show how the mind plays a role in color. “Choosing the right color is part of the design of any composite part,” he said.

But light also plays a big part in the process. “The light source is the number one source of color variance,” says Howard. For example, daylight results in even levels of color, tungsten lamps feature decreased levels of blue, and fluorescent bulbs result in random spikes across the spectrum. How composites interact with the light depends on the geometric attributes of the product itself, which include surface smoothness. Because of this, Howard notes that composite products will not be able to look like another material. “Only metals look like metals,” he says.

Color matching is another important factor. “There are only a finite amount of available pigments, so they’re blended to reach the desired color and keep it under control,” says Howard. He went on to discuss some specific pigments and how they act as chemicals in color composition. Phthalocyanines and azos tend to accelerate the rate of cure in composites. Carbon blacks feature 100s of grades, and thus can accelerate or inhibit the cure depending on the grade. Ultramarines feature metal complexes, whose ions may react with composite components. Inorganic whites such as titanium dioxide and zinc sulfide are commonly used in composites, but not in outdoor applications because their intensity fades under those conditions.

Howard also detailed some appearance issues that pop up. A lack of pigment opacity can be resolved by using higher pigment dispersion concentrations. UV stability can be addressed by optimizing the full composite system to meet stability requirements, and also using additives to improve outdoor weathering performance. Glass fibers near the molded surface can result in color variation and degradation, and can be compensated for by using additional pigment dispersion. Regions of dry glass impact the structural properties of the composite. “Whatever appearance issue you have, realize it’s application-specific and must be addressed independently,” says Howard.

The story underscored the point of Rudersdorf’s presentation: Be prepared for OSHA visits before representatives arrive at your facility.

Rudersdorf, who serves Composites One as director of health, safety and environment, explained to attendees that OSHA penalties are based on four factors: gravity of the violation, size of the business, good faith of the employer and the employer’s history of previous violations. “The best move is to have documented organized training programs,” he said. “If your program has a ‘wow’ factor and your housekeeping methods look impressive, it’s much more effective.” Rudersdorf also recommended that attendees develop a hazard communication program that workers understand.

He was part of an expert panel that spoke about new developments in environmental and worker safety regulation and enforcement. The gist: Composites firms aren’t just looking to diversity their operations and grow revenue with new products; they seek to avoid trouble from regulators.

Marcus Bingham, vice president of Clarion Bathware, spoke about ways to incorporate safety incentives to help make safety an ongoing thought among workers. “The goal here is awareness—that’s the secret to reducing accidents.” He gave attendees tips and ideas on crafting memorable, fun employee-recognition programs.

Other panelists included Bill Holtzclaw, president of Holtec LLC; Jeff Austad, vice president of specialty unit sales and distribution for Magnum Venus Plastech; Dennis Fink, technical service manager for Syrgis Performance Initiators Inc.; Jack Benton, CEO of Benton & Associates; and Lowell Miles, founder and owner of Miles Fiberglass & Composites Inc.

In his presentation titled “Lean Manufacturing: the Path to Survival,” Bassett demonstrated  how his company used the Japanese theory of Kaizen, or team-based continuous improvement, produce more product in less time,  reduce inventory and more than double the production capacity of plant resulting in lower costs and more profits.

Lean production is not a new concept going back to Henry Ford’s mass production and time and motion studies in the early part of the last century.  The concept was taken up by the Japanese in automobile manufacturing in the ‘40s and “for 25 years, North America has been playing catch up,” he said.

The basic principals of Kaizen involving developing teams of employees and recognizing that those employees are experts on your production process.  Next, those teams must be empowered to question methods and act quickly to make improvements. “You don’t want to wait till the competition pulls ahead of you,” he said.

The first step in tightening the production process is observation; just standing back and watching the employees at work will identify many areas of “waste” defined by Bassett at any time spent that does not add value for the customer. Another valuable source of information is interviewing employees who know the product and production process intimately.  It is also important to conduct time studies to determine exactly how much man power is needed to perform each step in the process.

The idea is to identify actions that do not add to the value of the product but instead might produce defects, wasted motion or time or most important, according to Bassett, overproduction representing a waste of production capacity, manpower and materials.

All this information together is used to develop a TAKT Time, another Japanese term that relates to heartbeat.  Bassett defined TAKT time as available production time divided by customer requirements.  A simplistic example would be to say two workers have 80 available hours to produce a product and the company can sell 20 of those products each week.  Then the TAKT Time, or the time allotted to make each unit, is 4 hours. If the workers can produce more than four units in an hour, production capacity is wasted, if they produce less, then more labor is needed. That is, if there is no waste of time.

After time studies and examination, FormaShape, a company that produces huge water slides, was able to consolidate five work stations into three balancing out the time needed in each of the three areas. A materials team was developed to make sure all workers had the resins and molds needed without having to interrupt production. Once the TAKT time and goals were established, meters were installed throughout the plant to keep workers aware of how the “heartbeat” of the production line was going.

All the changes did not come easily.  There was a lot of trial and error in the process and some employee resistance, Bassett said and at first the product quality went up but production when down.  But once the Lean Production system was fully implemented, everyone agreed that the improvements were worth the trouble.  He did caution that it was important not to layoff workers whose jobs might be eliminated in the process because “it kills the incentive to participate.”  He also said it was important to build in a 25 percent buffer when establishing TAKT Time in consideration of employees’ morale.

The Lean Manufacturing process combines old-time production values with a new attitude that Bassett summed up.

“The optimist says the glass is half full and the pessimist says the glass is half empty but the lean manager says ‘I have more glass than I need.’”

Composites firms can lift (well, prevent) the fogging issue by using advanced multifunctional processing additives, Delay told a packed room at COMPOSITES 2010, which runs today through Thursday in Las Vegas.

That’s just one example of how composites firms can optimize SMC/BMC formulations and improve the entire compounding/molding process. “Traditional mono-functional internal mold release agents are difficult to disperse, and they do not contribute anything positive to the compounding process and merely provide a release from the tool,” said Delay, closed mold market manager at BYK USA, a supplier of adhesives for plastics, coatings, inks, sealants and paper surfaces.

In standard formulations, zinc stearate works as internal release agent and is essential to remove the molded part from the form. Newer technology improves the appearance of the molded part and guaranteed the thorough release, Delay said. “New multifunctional liquid processing additives allow the user to eliminate typical sources of scrap, improve overall quality and eliminate a nuisance material.” Other benefits include decreased shrinkage, enhanced gloss, better color of finished parts and improved anti-separation properties of the compounds, he said.

Delay’s presentation underscored a key value of the educational sessions being held this year at COMPOSITES 2010: They’re filled with insight on new technologies that composites firms understand, so they can advance their firms.

The accumulation of suspended, combustible sugar dust can spark an explosion, as it did in February 2008 at the Imperial Sugar Company in Port Wentworth, Ga., killing 13 people, injuring 40 others and causing a series of secondary explosions that spread through adjacent buildings.

Still, many composites industry professionals—even ones well trained in the safety routines of their facilities—are unaware of the hazards of dust, said Perry Bennett, Health, Safety and Environmental director at Molded Fiber Glass Companies. He spoke to COMPOSITES 2010 attendees about mitigating and controlling combustible dusts in FRP processes.

Bennett warned attendees that regulatory agencies are getting more serious about the topic. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will soon release changes to its principal dust document, “NFPA 654, Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids,” and Bennett recommended that composites professionals realize they can be cited for noncompliance with NFPA 654.

Part of the problem with regulating dust explosions is the confusion about which dusts can explode and under what conditions, Bennett pointed out. Even how much dust is a hazard is still unknown. (A large number of solid substances become explosive when in the form of a fine dust, OSHA says. These substances include organic materials, such as grain, sugar, wood, and coal; synthetic organics, such as plastics, dyes, foams, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals; and combustible metals, such as aluminum, magnesium, zinc, and iron.)

Generally speaking, the smaller the dust particle, the bigger the hazard. According to OSHA, an often-used rule of thumb is that dust of 420 microns particle size (40 mesh sieve) may serve as the fuel in a dust explosion. As a frame of reference, normal table sugar ranges from about 850 microns to 150 microns, with the bulk of sugar between 350 and 450 microns.

During his presentation, Bennett provided tips and methods for mitigating and controlling dust within facilities. Repeated points throughout his presentation include: Test your own dust with equipment that’s currently on the market. And because layers as thin as 1/32 of an inch (0.8 millimeters) or 1/16 of an inch (1.6 millimeters) can be problematic, “if you see dust, don’t ignore it. Instead, clean it, and examine where it’s coming from,” he said. Also, seal all openings in equipment to prevent the release of dusts into the work environment, he said. “The point is, stay on top of this issue before it lands on top of you.”

Evaluating a cutting machine comes down to two big questions: What can it cut and how much can it cut? At Composites 2010, Lectra will showcase its Vector Techtex FX, an automated cutting solution that can cut a single ply or up to an inch of stacked compressed material, including fiberglass, pregpreg, woven unidirectional materials, mylar, honeycomb and more.

Choosing the right cutting machine and software can help manufacturers cut cycle time and material consumption, says Melissa Vidakovic, marketing manager. A patented feature of the Techtex FX allows cutting to continue while the material advances. The cutters also leave a small buffer between pieces, so that waste is minimal. “In the composites industry, one thing that manufacturers face is reducing that material waste, because materials can be pretty pricey,” says Vidkovic. “If you’re using an automated machine, you’re using the most fabric you can.

The company will also feature the Design Concept TechTex., a design software solution that allows manufacturers to develop 2D templates from 3D shapes. The software enables users to create virtual models, develop templates, analyze feasibility, and it flattens pattern designs for cutting. “It’s specifically adapted to the production of seat interiors for the automotive, nautical and marine segments, but it has various applications,” says Vidakovic.

Lectra will exhibit at Booth #845