Record sales of the latest MJ3 dryer Made by Matsui (more than 290 per month) have proven the re design has really hit the spot, Chris Siddall, Managing Director for Eastern Plastics Machinery writes about the challenges that JIT puts on suppliers, and how a simple approach can offer huge advantages.

The MJ3 dryer is self-contained and combines the loader

Most of us watch in awe as the F1 car rushes into the pit and in 3.5sec all the tyres are changed, so why do I have to wait an hour when I visit my local in Quick Fit tyre store you may ask? It all about what time is worth to you, the loss of time in Formula One can be worth millions, but the same can be said for losing a customer because you can’t deliver what he wants when he wants it, and just as important in a cost effective manner to you as the supplier. Car manufacturers today are looking for suppliers to deliver parts in ever smaller volumes and greater variety. If you think this is about the parts maker keeping them in stock with all the associated storage costs of warehousing business rates, double handling etc. then think again, it’s about creating a manufacturing process that can react to the customer needs to deliver within a few hours, what they want, when they want it!

To achieve this it is all about doing the timeconsuming parts of the operation “Off Line” the F1 car can’t wait for the tyres to be changed so they change the wheels with a new set of tyres on them, they can’t wait for one man to work from wheel to wheel so they have three on each wheel, the tyres are changed of course but off line from the critical part which stops the car winning the race. This is the same with your injection moulding process, machine up time can be destroyed if it takes too long to change from one product to another or one material to another.

The MJ3 dryer from Matsui tackles the problem from just this Philosophy, the unit is completely self-contained it incorporates the loader and the dryer in one compact unit, if you want to change two materials quickly have two dryers one with each material, the drying of the material is done “Off Line” while the machine is running with “Dryer A” the material change and pre drying of the next material is being done at the same time in“Dryer B” because the units are self-contained the material change can be carried out in just a few seconds!

Sounds obvious but the material loss on change is also very important,  Matsui’s APH hopper and dryer work together to only load a small amount of material to the machine at any one time, little and often, with this system we can reduce the volume delivered  to the machine to just 2 shots if required, the smaller volume, the less material being wasted and less time it takes to clean out on the changeover.

This MJ3 dryer has become a best seller for us and Matsui globally it solves the challenges faced by the trends towards smaller batch production and at the same type makes complete sense saving time, material and resources .

Background

Matsui manufacture a complete range of ancillary equipment and is Japans largest manufacturer in this field.

Chris Siddall has been working in the Plastics Industry for 35 years, Eastern Plastics Machinery Ltd is a supplier to many leading moulders in the UK and Europe but also as far afield as Poland, Russia, Mexico Columbia, India & China. He has both worked and lived in Japan during his career and his company represents Matsui in UK and Europe.

www.easternplastics.co.uk or chris@easternplastics.co.uk