New conveyor setup increases speed, flexibility

Nyloncraft, a producer of injection-molded plastic parts for the demanding automotive marketplace gains important competitive advantages when modular conveyors free up the production flow process.

Responsiveness is more critical than ever to manufacturers in the ultra-competitive OEM automotive component business, where suppliers must be able to expedite production throughput and retool on the head of a pin.

This is especially true in the injection-molded plastics end of the business, where manufacturers of multiple components must retool quickly for new product runs, resetting molds and getting back online as soon as possible. Unfortunately, in many of these variable environments, production changes can be restricted to the set layout of a fixed conveyor.

For these manufacturers, if the conveyor system could be adjusted to accommodate changing workflow, it would hold promise to improve setup flexibility as well as make other improvements to the bottom line.

Such was the thinking of Michael Van Zant, manufacturing manager for Nyloncraft of Mishawaka, Ind., a tier-one custom manufacturer of a variety of injection molded under-the-hood parts and various types of exterior trim.

With a wide range of products and mold retooling done on a daily basis, a flexible alternative to fixed conveyors held a great deal of appeal.

Enjoying a unique market niche utilizing innovative two shot and over mold technologies, Nyloncraft has a highly dynamic production scheme, with production runs sometimes occupying multiple adjacent molding setups, and often just a single unit in between.

In late 2001, Van Zant considered the prospects of changing the conveyor systems from fixed metal conveyors to a new type of “modular” conveyor system for the three plants he manages. He foresaw the potential for a conveyor system composed of maneuverable, interlocking conveyor modules to provide several advantages over the traditional fixed conveyors used throughout Nyloncraft's operations in Mishawaka; Bowling Green, Ky., and Jonesville, Mich.

“The fixed conveyors we were using, coupled with the need to reset our production runs quickly, limited the way we could deliver materials to and from the presses. Fixed conveyors are fine for many manufacturers with dedicated production runs, but we are a custom house with few dedicated jobs, and need to change over our molds and floor layout frequently,” Van Zant said.

"Our presses are quite a ways apart to allow clearance for resetting our molds, which can occur every day or two,” he explained. “As a result, there was an operator at every press, even though most of our jobs run in 60- to 70-second cycles, which left the operators with nothing to do but wait much of the time. Due to the distance between the presses, there was no way to allow an operator to work two presses, even though they could have done so otherwise.”

At the Plastics USA show at Chicago, Van Zant noticed a new type of conveyor system, the DynaCon modular conveyor system, manufactured by Dynamic Conveyor Corporation of Muskegon, Mich.

“The first thing I noticed about the DynaCon system was that it looked very flexible,” said Van Zant. “The modules were set up so that they went to and from a machine with a variety of turns and went up and down over other equipment. I could see that this type of flexibility could be very useful to us, so I decided to give the modular system a try.”

Installation of the new system went very quickly, since DynaCon modules and accessories are readily available and set-up easily and quickly. Composed of lightweight, high-impact plastic units, this system offers standard units measuring 18 inches wide as well as a variety of special sectional accessories, all of which offer users maximum flexibility of configuration.

That flexibility allowed Nyloncraft to not only set up quickly in a layout that matched the production run, but also created substantial savings in labor costs.

“The DynaCon system allowed us to be creative,” said Van Zant. “Now I can run this job by sending one conveyor over to a second press. That means an operator can run multiple jobs without having to walk from press to press. With the DynaCon conveyors we’re able to bring the parts from the second press right to the operator.”

The ability to have a single operator manage production on multiple presses allowed Nyloncraft to decrease its labor force from approximately 20 people per shift down to about 16 people per shift, savings of twelve operators per day. The extra operators were quickly absorbed into other parts of the plant.

“If you figure $25K per operator, we’re now saving about $250,000 to $350,000 per year. And I think it will end up savings us 12 operators per day. So the payback on the conveyor system was fairly quick, I would say the ROI period was as quick as six months,” says Van Zant.

The flexibility and quick reconfiguration of the DynaCon system also enabled Nyloncraft to be creative with the production floor layout. 

“Our new system has a lot of sections running up and down, under and over equipment,” said Van Zant. “For instance, we have one area that has four presses that run the same product. We have these conveyors coming up the back side of the presses, underneath the platen feeding in one long conveyor in the back, and then takes all these parts to a feed-bowl where there is a vision system there that inspects every part.”

Van Zant says the modular conveyor system allowed Nyloncraft to squeeze more equipment into a plant. 

“The DynaCon system comes in very handy when we’re doing that," he said. "We wouldn’t have had much, if any, flexibility with the other fixed conveyors. With those, we were kind of at the mercy of the conveyor. And that’s not really what you want to be.”

For more information about DynaCon conveyor solutions, contact Dynamic Conveyor Corporation, 5980 Grand Haven Road, Muskegon, MI 49441; phone (866) 249-2641; fax (231) 798-7739; or visit the web site www.dynamicconveyor.com.

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