Hi-Watt Helps Plastic Processor Reduce Downtime

Unplanned downtime can be costly, but the biggest challenge is discovering why it’s happening in the first place.

A local plastics processing customer approached Hi-Watt because they were experiencing multiple downtime occurrences per month with no known cause. Our customer needed help identifying and mitigating the problem as quickly as possible.

The Problem

After assessing the manufacturer’s thermal system, we determined downtime was caused by a combination of high wear due to frequent production cycles and inventory management. Hot runner cables were becoming damaged and unusable, and band heaters were degrading with no replacements available.

Our Solution

Hi-Watt helped our client take a proactive, rather than reactive approach to equipment maintenance. We not only established a dedicated spare-parts crib for heaters and thermocouples, but also provided on-site inventory management assistance and hot runner cable repairs.

Results

Our partnership helped the client eliminate recurring downtime and unexpected costs tied to heater availability, thermocouple availability, and hot runner cable failures.