Polyplastics Adds More Product Development Equipment

Polyplastics USA is expanding resources for product development at its Farmington Hills, Mich., headquarters.

The firm just bought an X-ray elemental analysis machine to go along with other new laboratory equipment it installed after doubling space for its laboratory and injection molding area early this year, said Chief Operating Officer Lindsey Deal in a phone interview.

Deal said the X-ray analysis equipment will allow his company to identify metal atoms in engineering polymers. Analysis can detect contamination in plastics as well as indicate the chemical composition of additives in a compound being used by a competitor.

"We're not just a resin supplier, we provide solutions," Deal said.

Polyplastics opened its Farmington Hills facility in 2012 to support sales of its engineering plastics such as acetal, polyphenylene sulfide and polybutylene terephthalate to automotive, electrical/electronic and consumer electronics markets. Deal said Polyplastics is seeing rapid growth for its materials in U.S. markets. Applications such as electric vehicles and automotive sensors are increasingly using acetal and other Polyplastics materials.

Other lab equipment recently installed includes a digital imaging correlation machine from Correlated Solutions Inc. of Irmo, S.C. This machine has two cameras to give real-time, stereoscopic visualization of stress, strain and deformation in actual parts from the field. It can inform decisions on material choice and molding conditions.

"You can see the evolution of strain in a part, from where it is initiated and how it develops," Deal explained. "It can help analyze part failure."

Also new is a 110-ton JSW horizontal injection molding press to provide accurate tests and save time in testing and troubleshooting for molded product development.