electronics
incremental improvements for your adhesives process
Increasing productivity is often about small changes — slightly increasing yield, decreasing waste, reducing materials used or improving quality. It is not always about increases in output, or about overhauling an entire line to achieve it. Here Kevin Cook, technical manager at adhesives specialist Intertronics, explains how taking an incremental approach to improving an adhesives process adds up.
I
f you are looking to improve your adhesives process, the first step is understanding the process in detail to
establish the specific goal you would like to achieve. You can then identify areas of improvement and devise ways to meet the objectives. By identifying the main pain or pressure points, be it quality, repeatability or bottlenecks, you can plan a step-by-step approach that gets you where you want to be. It does not have to be a revolution —
rather than a huge step change and a large up-front investment, you can purchase a preliminary technology that gets you part of the way. Improving a process without a massive departure from the processes already being used is not only more manageable for production operators, but may also be much easier to justify from a return on investment (ROI) perspective.
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IdentIfyIng tHe paIn poInts One common pain point Intertronics works with its customers on is repeatability. It could be regarding dispensing volume, where we might recommend a dispense controller/valve, in dispense path, where we may recommend a robot, or in fixing the distance from the lamp in a UV curing process. Manufacturers often look to remove redundant steps in their process, which can be realised by purchasing material in a larger container to prevent an additional decanting stage, or adding equipment that enables them to dispense directly from the pot they already have. If cure time is too long and work in
progress is high, manufacturers can consider whether there is potential for a UV curing material or a Born2Bond cyanoacrylate adhesive, which cure quickly and therefore reduce work in progress and production times. Efficiency is a common reason for
Summer 2021 UKManufacturing
altering a dispensing process — manufacturers are looking for ways to do more with less. Dispensing is a complex field, but the
answer might be as simple as using a time/pressure dispensing machine — what is
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