GW Plastics

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :25/05/2007 09:11:47

GW Plastics: Taking Precision Plastics to Perfection

Written and produced by James Buchanan & Patrick Harlow

Nestled in the tranquil Green Mountains, GW Plastics is using its Six Sigma successes to produce highly precise components for its clients

With its headquarters located deep in the Green Mountains of Vermont, GW Plastics has made doing challenging work a staple of its business.

“The more complex the better,” reads the company’s website. “That’s why so many leading companies in today’s high-tech markets rely on GW Plastics throughout the world for their precision injection molded plastic components, assemblies, and Six Sigma quality.”

Founded in Bethel, Vt., in 1955 by John Gavin and Odin Westgaard, two well respected early plastics pioneers, the company has grown to include six state-of-the-art facilities in the U.S., Mexico and China.

Its main focus is on precision injection molding, tooling and contract manufacturing of intricate thermoplastic components for the healthcare, automotive and consumer and industrial markets.

According to the company’s president Brenan S. Riehl, “We excel at close-tolerance precision molding within a matrix of competencies geared toward innovative problem solving and speed to market.”

Among the company’s customers are Robert Bosch, Siemens, Takata, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Pall Corp.

GW is a highly automated Six Sigma manufacturer with ISO-9001 certification that credits its use of leading edge technology with its growth over the past few years.

The company also credits its combined 300,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space, ability to assume single source responsibility for the most demanding production challenges, and program management capabilities have all contributed to its success.

When looking at its operations, GW has an advanced molding technology team tasked with assisting customers to reduce total production cost and improve quality through its up-to-date processing technologies.

GW’s robotic-assisted manufacturing is able to perform complex sprue removal and other secondary operations to ensure part-to-part consistency. Further, the newer robotic molding equipment at its Royalton, Vt., plant enables it to be a continuously operating, minimal manpower facility.

According to the company’s website, automated insert molding enables medium to high volume production of parts in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Its multi-shot molding capabilities provide customers with a low cost option through automated assembly and improved quality due to the consistency or production provided by the equipment. This aspect of the company’s capabilities also offers a wide choice of material combinations dependent upon the application, part geometry, and required bond strength.

Among its services, GW offers full service engineering consultation and support to suggest design modifications to enhance moldability and optimize the appearance and performance of the end product. The company can also assist with material selection and prototyping to minimize the time it takes for product development enhancing speed to market.

The company is also a firm believer in Six Sigma quality control.

According to the company, a quality engineer is assigned to work with a tooling engineer and other members of each program team throughout the entire planning, design, mold building and mold testing cycle.

Further, specifications, such as functional testing and gauging systems, are developed during the front end phase. Dimensional requirements, aesthetic standards and characteristics, which are monitored using statistical process control techniques are also delineated.

Once a mold is built, says the company’s website, a process capability study is conducted as well as a complete inspection layout to assure that specifications and requirements are where they need to be.

Within its Six Sigma efforts, the company seeks a CPK value goal of 2 or greater for critical dimensions. Control charts such as X-bar, P-charts and so on are used by GW’s quality assurance and manufacturing departments to monitor each of the SPC characteristics.

In-house molds are designed using Unigraphics NX2/NX3, PRO/E3.0 Wildfire and the company can work with IGES/DXF/STEP and Parasolid formats. Flow modeling software is also used so the company is able to predict material flow, part shrinkage, warpage and other variables.

Coordination of the company’s six manufacturing facilities is carried out through standardized equipment, layout, and manufacturing and quality systems at all of its locations.

In its healthcare market the company focuses on new product introduction, design for manufacturing, and enhanced quality assurance for devices used in endoscopy, surgical instruments, in-vitro diagnostics, filtration, and pharmaceutical applications.

For its automotive market GW’s focus is on highly engineered, close tolerance components such as safety critical passenger restraint systems, wire harness connectors, fuel system components, and electrical mechanical sensor and control motors.

In the consumer and industrial market the company produces precision gears for printers and computer peripheral connectors.