Plastics Training: December 2009 Archives

Basically... Torque is a measure of rotational force. In other words, the force being applied to rotate something is considered torque.

The way torque is calculated is by multiplying the force being applied times the distance it is being applied. This is typically represented as Newton-meters (N-m) in the Metric system or foot-pounds (ft-lb) for Imperial measurements.

For a more detailed definition of torque, please feel free to visit wikipedia:

Technicians and mechanics often use torque wrenches to measure the rotational force being applied to a screw when they are being tightened. This helps prevent the platen threads from becoming stripped or damaged.

For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, please visit my previous blog:

-Andy

Believe it or not, this is actually a very common situation. The best way to improve this is to have the tooling personnel help cross-train your employees. This makes them partially responsible for the technicians knowledge  of tooling. This gives them a vested interest in helping the technicians rather than insulting them.

A great opportunity to do this would be during mold maintenance. If you have the technicians assist in the mold breakdown or re-assembly the tooling person can explain the name and purpose of each component during the process.

Much of this comes from the defensiveness on the moldmakers part since they seldom have a good knowledge of processing. So... don't forget to reverse the process and have the technicians teach your tooling personnel about processing.

-Andy

Ultimately, we recommend that you train your employees using a blended learning model which uses the best of a variety of training methods combined in a comprehensive training plan.

Aspects such as interactive training, focused on-the-job exercises, and training for specific skills are some of the best components to be included.

Ultimately, you should determine what specific skills are important… and devise training strategies to address those competencies.

Adults learn in many different ways. You should mix it up and always have a little fun during this process.

-Andy

You should try to get everyone on the production floor involved in your training initiative.

Aside from processing, quality, and tooling... you may also want to include other departments such as sales or engineering.

I often like to relay a story about one company who nearly had a mutiny by the design engineering department because they were excluded from the advanced process training.

Basically, don’t be afraid to ask around… we have many companies who thought people wanted to be excluded; only to find out everyone was hoping to take some of the training.

We always recommend you give your employees access to training. We figure the worst thing that can happen is they could learn something... which is really not a bad thing.

-Andy

None of the training out there applies to what my plant is doing.

I first asked him if his extruder had a barrel and screw... He said yes. I then asked about the barrel heaters, cooling fans, and temperature controllers... He again agreed.

He also agreed his extruder has an adapter, die, screw motor, reduced, feed throat, and so on. Then he explained that they used unique downstream equipment on their standard extruder. 

I explained that half of their process is the extruder and the second half is the downstream, in which much training is available. Lastly, I asked if his employees could improve their knowledge and abilities such as in math, quality, and problem solving... He again agreed.

The purpose here was not to sell training... but to get people to think about training materials as components of the overall training solution.

-Andy