White Papers & eBooks

INJECTION MOLDING 

MTD Micro Molding, one of the processors featured in PMM’s recent cover story (plasticsmachinerymagazine.com/21153492), explores “The 6 Sciences of Micro Molding: How to Achieve Better Long-Term Results and Faster Speed to Market,” including material selection, part design and packaging, to help medical manufacturers maximize the tools needed for efficient product development, consistent manufacturability in micro molding and creation of product breakthroughs. https://mtdmicromolding.com/white-papers/6-sciences-micro-molding/ 

Kaysun’s white paper “Metal-to-Plastic Conversion: Revolutionizing the Manufacturing Process” explores the potential for cost savings, improved performance and design flexibility in converting parts from metal to plastic, as well as material selection and testing and the role of scientific molding. Kaysun is a custom injection molder specializing in complex applications. www.kaysun.com/engineering-services/metal-to-plastic-conversions/metal-to-plastics-white-paper 

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING 

The average payback period for investing in a 3-D printer is three to five years, but Stratasys explains how to maximize the printer’s potential in “Production Floor Trends: Additive manufacturing for jigs & fixtures.” Replacing traditional manufacturing jigs and fixtures with 3-D printed versions reduces fabrication expense by 50 to 90 percent, while reducing labor and production times. Oreck Manufacturing Co. describes how additive manufacturing has benefited its production floor. www.stratasys.com/explore/whitepaper/2019/production-floor-trends  

COMPOUNDING 

Metal separators can prevent machine downtime, repairs and quality issues in compounding and masterbatch production. Sesotec’s “Keeping plastic compounds free of metallic contaminants” discusses common sources of metal contaminants, the problems they cause, preventive measures and key features to consider when choosing a metal separator, which should operate with high detection accuracy but also guarantee short cleaning times. www.sesotec.com/na/en-US/resources/blog/keeping-plastic-compounds-free-of-metallic-contaminants  

AUTOMATION 

As businesses around the globe navigate the repercussions of COVID-19, automation has emerged as a critical strategy, but making effective return-on-investment (ROI) calculations is complex. Deployment risk, operational risk, maintenance requirements and worker anxiety must be weighed against the flexibility, scalability, cost avoidance and occupational health benefits of automation. Universal Robots’ “Update Your ROI Formula” outlines how to evaluate collaborative automation, to help a manufacturer decide how to prioritize it in today’s uncertain world. www.universal-robots.com/media/1814105/universal-robots-roi-oee-and-ole-202009.pdf  

DATA ANALYSIS 

The manufacturing sector has lagged behind other industries in taking advantage of data analysis. Companies are faced with complex infrastructures that create data silos, integrating smart manufacturing processes and tools can be expensive, and even when initiatives are taken to extract and share data, the failure rate is high. In the “Democratizing Data: eBook, Machine Metrics discusses the concept of data democratization in the manufacturing industry using real-world cases and offers a three-step approach for enabling it. www.machinemetrics.com/data-democratization-ebook 

COVID-19 

The COVID-19 pandemic has put critical manufacturing under the microscope, showing how shifts in global sourcing and ever-more-complex supply chains have changed the way that the manufacturing economy adjusts to shocks. AMT, the Association for Manufacturing Technology, addresses these issues in the second and third reports in the series “Toward Resilience: Supply Chains in a Post-Shock Era.” The importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy, which components are critical links, and the weakness of single-sourcing are discussed in “The Economic Impact and Security of the Manufacturing Technology Supply Chain,” www.amtnews.org/why-mt-matters. “Strategies to Build Supply Chain Resiliency” examines current technology and other approaches to the challenges presented by the pandemic, www.amtnews.org/build-supply-chain-resiliency.