Opening the door to new opportunities while increasing capabilities

New Berlin Plastics is more than just injection molding.  They keep in mind their customers business objectives, all while providing them with various methods of custom injection molding, as well as comprehensive, value added services.  New Berlin Plastics serves a diversified portfolio of OEM market segments.

GL30 at New Berlin.

New Berlin Plastics came across a new challenge.  They noticed a trend of smaller parts and closer tolerances coming through the pipeline.  They needed to open the door to more of these opportunities, but needed to add the right equipment first. “We made the decision to enter the market, and do it the right way with the right piece of equipment,” stated Joseph Mechery, VP of Sales.

New Berlin Plastics started their evaluation process of selection, and ultimately they decided to go with Plustech, Inc.’s Sodick GL30 horizontal injection molding machine.

They decided to go with the GL30 from Plustech based on machine specifications, mold trials and Sodick’s reputation. An additional benefit was the controls layout which is similar to their existing machines in the shop – thereby reducing operator training time.  The Sodick machine was also the only machine that had the spec range of mold and shot sizes that fit New Berlin Plastic’s needs.

The GL30 is a 4 to 44 ton horizontal injection molding machine.  It can accommodate mold thicknesses ranging from 5.9” to 14.1”, with generous tie bar spacing and has an injection rate of 3.4 in³ per second.  The maximum injection speed is 19.69 inches per second.  The machine has an 18mm screw and 16mm plunger with a total shot capability of 14 grams and is capable to shoot as little as one gram.

“The installation went great, as did the on-site training – the entire team has been very accessible with questions,’ stated Eric Pipkin, Sr. Process Engineer.

After six months of use, the operators found the machine easy to adapt to, and it performed just as it was promoted by the Plustech team.

The team at New Berlin is especially impressed with all the new capabilities the company gained since the implementation of the new equipment.  The GL30 is a high-response, high-speed, machine with extreme capabilities do produce thin wall and micro sized parts.  New Berlin is able to expand upon their product offerings with their latest machinery purchase.

“We feel that we purchased a quality machine to take on more business opportunities and the overall value of this machine has already been seen throughout our organization,” stated Pipkin.  He added, “The performance and flexibility to get into some markets we were not able to get into before has been big for us.”

The GL30 features small runner capabilities using a 6 inch low mass plunger, therefore it is able to move more material, faster.  This enables New Berlin to take on more precision small parts and know that the quality they are producing is second to none.  If they choose to they can even take on more exotic materials than they have before as the temperature upper limit is 800 degrees on all Sodick IMM’s.  “The capabilities are endless with the GL30,” stated Len Hampton, National Sales Manager, Plustech, Inc.  “This machine has been changing people’s mindset of conventional injection molding and improving processes all the time. We are very happy to bring these new capabilities to New Berlin Plastics.”

New Berlin Plastic’s now has a total of 39 machines ranging from 20 to 1,200 tons with vertical, horizontal, and two shot injection molding machines.