veryone tells me I must haveguts starting a business dur-ing a downturn,” says RonErnsberger, president of20/20 Custom Molded Plas-tics. “But in fact, we were too

far along in our business plan to stopwhen the economy tanked. Moldingmachines have to be ordered 12months in advance, and at the time weordered, it appeared the economyknew no limits to growth.”

Despite the worst downturn inwhat some experts say is 10, 20, oreven (fill in the blank) years, Erns-berger, along with partners DavidBlosser, David Rupp, Jay Stuck, andToby Ernsberger (son), persevered atthe task of bringing a custom struc-tural foam molding operation to life.Their efforts have not been in vain.The fledgling facility, opened in Juneof last year and situated amidst a 36-acre field, is comfortably busy andprofitable.

LIKELY TO SUCCEED

Are there any factors that contributedto this plant’s success? For one, the dy-namics are different for structural

foam than for traditional injectionmolding. “There aren’t that manymolders doing it, so there is less com-petition and market saturation,” hesays. “There are a lot of good injectionmolders, probably 60 within a 60-mileradius of us, but perhaps only a dozencustom structural foam molders in thewhole country.”

Another reason could be experi-ence. Ernsberger has been moldingplastics since 1965. He began in com-pression and injection molding, andthen discovered the structural foamprocess in 1977. He proceeded tospend 22 years modifying two existingstructural foam businesses and open-ing a third, building them into pros-perous concerns. This is the first timethat he and his partners started froma greenfield site. “I’ve done this threetimes before and learned from the ex-perience each time. I believe we’vestructured this new business for suc-cess in just about every way possible.We want it to be the benchmark.”

To those who would predict thedemise of this process, Ernsberger of-fers another picture. For one, industrysales have tripled since 1985 on the

strength of new applications. For an-other, he has always found customersfor structural foam, and sees the pro-cess as advantageous during the cur-rent business doldrums. It uses less en-ergy and resin per part, saves on tool-ing because it requires only aluminummolds rather than tool steel, and re-duces production and per-piece costs.

SFM BASICS

These aren’t the only differences be-tween structural foam molding (SFM)and traditional injection molding.SFM is a low-pressure process that in-corporates nitrogen gas or anotherchemical blowing agent that is injectedduring the melting phase and dis-solves in the molten resin. Duringresin injection, the gas expands to fillthe mold with foam, pressing the plas-tic against the walls of the cavity sothat the cells on the surface collapse toform a solid skin.

Part weight reduction can reach 20percent, and because pressures arelower, sink marks are not an issue.SFM also handles large parts withease, and imbues stiffness by increas-ing the thickness of the part’s solid

IMM’s

plant tour

EThriving on perfect vision

Two 500-ton presses share one side of the plant with a new

1000-ton machine. A 45-ton overhead crane services the entire plant.

walls. Typical SFM products includereturnable shipping pallets, carts,buckets, containers, window shutters,cabinets for IT equipment, in-groundfiltration, and recreation equipment.

The injection phase for SFM is quitedifferent from IM as well. Althoughthe machines use an extruder, its de-sign is different from the injection unitwith which most molders are familiar.The extruder on SF machines consistsof a screw-and-barrel unit that feeds along manifold. Connected to this man-ifold are a large number of nozzles,

placed strategically through one of amultitude of holes on the platen, thatfill one or multiple molds arranged onthe opposite side.

With two extruders, these pressescan accommodate two different col-ored materials or two different resintypes, producing several parts in onecolor or resin, and several in another.Each extruder can deliver up to 2800lb of resin per hour, and shot sizes canreach up to 200 lb for a single part ona 1000-ton press.

20/20 VISION

Ernsberger and his partners had a clearidea of what they wanted to do with20/20 before the first spadeful of dirtwas turned over. For one, they believein buying American, and have a policyof buying only domestic tooling andmachines, one that began long beforeSept. 11, 2001. The new facility contin-ues a formula of using Maguireblenders and loaders with Uniloy andMilacron molding machines. “We builtour former facility with new Uniloymachines and used Milacron IMMs. Infive years, we didn’t have two weeks of

cumulative downtime from those ma-chines,” Ernsberger says.

Besides dependability, 20/20 relieson innovation to compete as a customSF molder. “They [Milacron] have con-tinually upgraded their product lines,and that’s very important for a custommolder. We’re different from captive,in-house molding operations in that wehave to stay cutting edge. People cometo us to prove out new designs andgain competitive advantages.”

For instance, 20/20 recentlyworked with Kaymac, a South Africaninjection molder, to prove out a moldand train Kaymac personnel on howto run a Uniloy 500-tonner. "Kaymachad just purchased a press identical tothe one we had, and before it arrived,they wanted to become familiar withit," he says. "So we provided the train-ing and invited Uniloy and Snyder

Long conveyor tables help the largeparts molded in this 500-ton press

to cool sufficiently before beingboxed and shipped.

Each platen contains holes that canbe filled by nozzles, giving theprocess a great deal of flexibility.

20/20 CustomMolded Plastics Ltd.,Holiday City, OHSquare footage: 40,000 on 36 acres; plans for a 30,000-sq-ftwarehouse in spring 2002Markets served: Automotive, lawnand garden, lighting, recreationRaw material used: 14 millionlb/yearNo. of employees: 50Shifts worked: Four 12-hour shifts,seven days/weekMolding machines: Three 500-tonUniloy Milacrons, one 1000-tonUniloy Milacron, three 375-tonCincinnati MilacronsSecondary operations: Assembly,drilling, hot stampingInternal moldmaking: NoCapital investment: More than$8.5 million on new facilityQuality: ISO 9001, 9002; QS 9000

VITAL STATS

Programmable nozzle controls allowtechnicians to choose from eight

sequences, or to program eachnozzle individually.

Mold to attend the mold trials.”When he first started equipping the

new facility Ernsberger looked for thesame kind of Milacron IMMs he hadused previously, but Milacron, in 1989,had stopped building the model hewanted. The machine combined a 375-ton frame with an extra-wide platentaken from a 500-ton machine. Erns-bergber searched the used machinemarkets and found two machines.When he went to Milacron to get themrebuilt he learned that the company al-so had a used machine in stock.

Ernsberger bought that machine aswell and had Milacron do a completeremanufacture on all three. The ma-chines were disassembled andcleaned, worn items were replaced,and each was fitted with the latestelectronic controls and hydraulics. Amodified nozzle allows the machinesto do either structural foam moldingor high-pressure injection molding for

greater application versatility, whilethe extra-large platen exploits thelarge-part capabilities of structuralfoam molding. Machines have either110- or 165-oz shot size capabilities.

When IMM arrived for this tour,20/20 technicians were also installinga 1000-ton Uniloy machine with a su-perwide platen that has single-part ca-pabilities of up to 200 lb. Two 500-tonUniloys are up and running, and athird was due to be delivered soon.These seven machines and the associ-ated areas needed to store and shipthe large parts produced here will takeup all of the 40,000 sq ft of floor space.

PLANT SPECIFICS

One of the 500-ton presses running atthe time of our tour was producingfour identical parts, each weighing al-most 17 lb. Four molds were hung onthe platen, and a bit of each mold

hung out on the side. With SFM, how-ever, this overhang is acceptable,thanks to the low pressures. Eachmold uses four nozzles to fill eachpart, and each nozzle opens in a pro-grammed sequence.

As with other custom molders, theadvent of the PC and programmablecontrols has given 20/20 some high-tech answers to its challenges. For ex-ample, the timing of resin injection viamultiple nozzles is critical to partquality. The opening and closing ofnozzles is now programmable on allof its machines, along with how muchmaterial each nozzle will inject andhow long the shot duration will be. Onthe 500-tonners, nozzle feed controlscan be preprogrammed with one ofeight different sequences, or each onecan be individually programmed.

At 20/20, a state-of-the-art nitrogensystem uses bulk nitrogen supplied to

The two orange extruders andaccumulators on this mammoth

machine can run up to 2800 lb/hr.

Extruders feed material to a manifold,shown here, to which nozzles are thenconnected and installed at appropriate

hole locations on the platen.

An impressive 1000-tonner will give 20/20 the ability to mold a single part that weighs up to 200 lb.

compressors at 6 psi, which then com-presses the gas to 3900 psi for use inthe extruders on the machines. Nitro-gen is introduced into the melt at thethird heating zone on the extruder,where it is mixed with the moltenresin. This is a critical stage in SFM,and one that is closely monitored.

All of the systems in the plant havea backup so that the plant can contin-ue running uninterrupted during anysystem failure. This includes the nitro-gen compressor, air compressor, chil-ler, and cooling tower systems.

Up to six different material compo-nents can be loaded and blended at the

presses for volumes that don’t dic-tate compounding, thanks toweigh scale blenders and a mate-

rials handling system (both Maguire).These components can include the neatresin, colorant, regrind, calcium car-bonate (a filler), and an additionalchemical blowing agent.

With four silos built and four moreto be added soon, 20/20 expects tohave approximately 1 million lb ofbulk material storage capacity. The si-los are pneumatically loaded fromtrucks currently, but will soon beloaded from rail cars when a pro-posed rail siding is installed. The abil-ity to store large amounts of materialis critical, according to Ernsberger,who estimates that the plant uses 2400

lb of resin per hour per extruder.Cycle times run from 80 seconds to

6 minutes at this facility, and any com-modity resin either filled or unfilledcan be molded via SFM. However,20/20 has designed its machines forhigh throughput using PE and PS ma-terials, so it generally sticks to thesetwo resins.—Michelle Maniscalco

Contact information20/20 Custom Molded Plastics Ltd.Holiday City, OHRon Ernsberger(419) 485-4358www.2020cmp.comrernsberger@2020cmp.com

Molds are hung on this side of the superwide platen.

Each system inthe plant has abackup,includingnitrogen,chillers, coolingtower, andcompressors.

a

Up to six material components can be blended atthe press using these weigh scale blenders.

Flexibility of ejector placement on the back sideof the moving platen contributes to the ability torun more molds simultaneously.

Reprinted from Injection Molding, February 2002 • Copyright © 2002 Canon Communications LLC