Aquapurge Poly Clear HMEX works for RPC Llantrisant

Leading purging compound developer Aquapurge has been successfully partnering the RPC Group at its Llantrisant site in the latter’s ongoing continuous improvement operational efficiency work. Aquapurge’s new Poly Clear HMEX in particular has been helping to get Monday’s blow moulding production off to a flying start. Aquapurge’s new purging product requires just a fraction of the time previously taken to clean out previous production runs. Aquapurge Technical Director John Steadman says that ‘we worked on white bottle production issues on start up after the weekend. Black ‘specking’ issues were at the time disrupting production and requiring manpower intensive inspection, sometimes for a two hour period. Our solution was to trial some 10kg of Poly Clear HMEX on a twin head machine making 2 x 380 ml containers. Within eighteen minutes we achieved clear production with no further need for remedial work.’ RPC’s Chris Walstow led the project from the client end. ‘We made great strides with Aquapurge on the machine purging front,’ he says. ‘All of this production work contributes to our company’s Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and our plant efficiency generally. We are now confident in the performance of Poly Clear HMEX in helping us achieve some of our production goals.’ Steadman says that ‘we were fortunate in having RPC as a client - with the vision and commitment to change things around and to stay flexible on the shop floor in search of the optimum solution.’ Steadman adds that ‘it certainly helped Aquapurge that we can number some key plastics processing industry names in our list of successful practitioners. We were able, for example, to use our recent polymer purging know-how with Hozelock and with Wavin as a good place to springboard discussions with RPC.’ Aquapurge is marketing its Poly Clear HMEX as the most universal and most effective purging compound that the company has developed for both continuous and accumulator blow moulding of polyolefins. Aquapurge is targeting sales on the global blow moulding sector and UK blow moulders have been first to take advantage. Plastic blow-moulded container applications, typically from 0.5l upwards are set to see immediate benefits, especially in saving downtime; material cost and colour contamination. Aquapurge’s Scrubber Freeze compound is still recommended for those in PVC blow moulding and John notes for those in that sector that – deploying this compound – ‘there’s no need to ever strip your blow moulding equipment again.’ Aquapurge believes that many blow moulders are currently tying up valuable time and money, simply by: a) not purging their equipment at all b) instead, simply running colour or tool changes through to clear for the next job. c) producing customer orders to an ‘ideal’ colour schedule d) scheduling tool changes simply to match the colour running at that time PRESS RELEASE Case Study Aquapurge Poly Clear HMEX works for RPC Llantrisant RPC Llantrisant factory The Aquapurge message for all plastics processors is that a practice of machine purging gives suppliers an opportunity to flex with market demand. A company that is enabled to quickly purge its machines can avoid losing business by having to make new customers wait in line. ‘Without purging, says John, ‘new business has to wait on the existing schedule.’ Aquapurge research notes that the majority of blow moulders work on a high volume and small margin basis. Added to this, increasing ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) requirements place extra demands on their capabilities. Poly Clear HMEX is therefore intended to insure and protect against any production disruptions that can harm the profitability of each order. ‘The accumulator blow moulding process,’ says John, ‘is sensitive to inherent hold-up points in all head designs and, over time, can contribute to black specking and loosened or degraded polymer or masterbatch. At Aquapurge we question the practice of taking a risk with all these factors – and Poly Clear HMEX is our solution.

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