PROCESS LAYOUT

Mixing :
The plastic granules of LORAN , SAN (styrene acrylonitrile
copolymer) and PP (polypropylene) were the raw materials for the
pens manufactured in the visited factory. Both were imported in form
of granules and were colourless. The mixing process was to impart a
colour to the raw material.This was done by mixing a Master batch
of required colour with the granules in ratio 250 kg : 250 mg

Master batch and LORAN in mixer

Master Batch

Injection Molding :
Melted plastic is injected via a screw barrel arrangement
into a forcefully clamped permanent mold.
The injection molding unit has 2 components

a) Injection unit :
It has a hopper for feeding the plastics granules into the barrel.The
barrel is fitted with multiple heaters with different temperatures which
melts the plastic as it passes from one end of screw to the other.The
screw rotates and mixes the plastic and also acts as plunger to inject
the mix into the mold. There is non-return valve at the end for the
screw which prevents back flow.

Injection unit

b) Clamping unit :
One plate in this is fixed while other is movable so that the mold can be
opened and closed. The movable plate is attached with hydraulics so that
the mold can be closed with a certain pressure and the plastic, inserted
with pressure, doesnt seep out or pushes the mold open. Cooling
channels are also present to reduce the cycle time.

Clamping unit

The barrels , clips , caps and of different pen models were

observed to be molded , some of which are :

Extrusion :
It is the pulling of plastic through a desired shaped and sized

die.
The refills of all pens were observed to be extruded and the unit is
shown below

Extruding of refill

The extruded length was then cut into the required length of refill and
then was sent to the refilling department for filling of ink.

Printing :
The brand name and pens tip dia and edge were printed
using three different types of techniques.

Brand Printing

a) Screen printing :
In this technique a mesh was used to transfer ink
onto the clip except for the areas made impermeable for ink.

Screen printing

b) Pad printing :
In this a silicon pad with etched design is first
dressed with ink and pressed onto the clip.

Pad printing

c) Hot printing :
A heated die is mounted and clip is placed beneath it.A
foil is then sandwiched between the two. The dried ink form the foil is then
transferred to the clip.

Ink filling :
The ink filling process in the visited factory was
automated. The unit received the refills extruded earlier then filled
the ink in it via a long needle. The unit is shown below

Assembling and packing :

The barrels , caps , clips , refills were
assembled both via automated machines and by hand too. The
machine unit is shown below

Cooling towers :
In addition to manufacturing machines , the cooling
tower was also observed.The visited factory contained two typed of
cooling towers

a) Counter current flow type :

A counter current flow, bottle type tower
was installed as main cooling tower.

b) Cross current flow type :

A cross current flow , rectangle type
tower was also installed but wasnt in use in the visited hours.