Discover your next big idea at PACK EXPO Las Vegas this September
Experience a breakthrough in packaging & processing and transform your business with solutions from 2,300 suppliers spanning all industries.
REGISTER NOW & SAVE

Plastics maker tightens up on contamination

Engineering resins are costly, so consistent quality is critical. GE Plastics adds state-of-the-art metal detectors just ahead of resin packaging to eliminate this potential problem.

Rick Vavra, GE Plastics? materials and logistics manager (above), holds samples of the engineering resins made and packaged in
Rick Vavra, GE Plastics? materials and logistics manager (above), holds samples of the engineering resins made and packaged in

GE Plastics manufactures a variety of materials at its 1ꯠ-acre Mt. Vernon, IN, site. The CPP plant produces millions of pounds of Valox®, Xenoy® and Enduran® engineering resins that are used to make automotive parts, appliance housings and electrical connector products. These are costly, high-performance materials that are as different from commodity packaging resins as the moon rover vehicle is from a Ford.

The resins are produced round-the-clock, seven days/week and packaged in everything from 55-lb bulk bags to 1ꯠ-lb gaylords to railcars. More than two years ago, the company embarked on a six sigma quality effort as the CPP plant addressed critical-to-quality (CTQ) variables that are crucial to its customers. Six sigma is a measurement of the tolerance level for deviation at the company.

Because the end products are typically molded, metal contamination in the material can damage costly molds. "Shipping anything less than the highest quality is a cost we aren't willing to pay," states Rick Vavra, materials and logistics manager for the CPP plant. "So we work very hard on this."

Surveying the world

When the Six Sigma program began, "we were doing all we could about metal contamination with the technology available to us, using rare earth magnets plus detectors," points out Ray Kolberg, a leader of the quality effort. "To get to six sigma in this area, we realized we must use a new technology to get there."

The CPP managers began to search for that new technology. "We surveyed the world to find out what the best detection levels were in our industry," recalls Vavra. "Although we saw some pretty impressive detection levels in the Far East, those instruments didn't have the capacity to handle our size of extrusion line. So we went to several vendors and presented them with the capabilities we wanted."

Along with sensitivity and throughput, the Mt. Vernon plant offers some other challenges. First, the resin pellets move through the detector at a high temperature, fresh from the extruder and bath. Second, the environment is humid because GE uses water to clean out its compounding lines. Finally, the pellets flowing through the ring detector have a high static charge.

Annual Outlook Report: Workforce
Hiring remains a major challenge in packaging, with 78% struggling to fill unskilled roles and 84% lacking experienced workers. As automation grows, companies must rethink hiring and training. Download the full report for key insights.
Download Now
Annual Outlook Report: Workforce
Conveying Innovations Report
Editors report on distinguishing characteristics that define each new product and collected video demonstrating the equipment or materials as displayed at the show. This topical report, winnowed from nearly 300 PACK EXPO collective booth visits, represents a categorized, organized account of individual items that were selected based on whether they were deemed to be both new, and truly innovative, based on decades of combined editorial experience in experiencing and evaluating PACK EXPO products.
Take me there
Conveying Innovations Report