Plastic material handling equipment such as trays, totes, bins, and pallets can be manufactured in numerous ways, but structural foam molding is arguably the most beneficial and practical method.
Structural foam molding benefits plastic material handling equipment with impressive strength-to-weight ratios, lower tooling costs, and dimensional stability to name just a few aspects.
Port Erie Plastics offers some tips and considerations on how to ensure your packaging programs promote reusability with the right material handling equipment and manufacturing process
Utilize the Benefits of Structural Foam Molding
The benefits of structural foam molding blend well with what’s needed of plastic material handling equipment. Material handling equipment like totes can be created through structural foam molding and feature a high strength-to-weight ratio which allows for improved stiffness and durability but without added weight.
With material handling equipment being lighter, that helps out in a couple of different ways in shipping and logistics. The first being since handling equipment weighs less, it costs less to ship out. Secondly, it features less handling strain making products easily reusable and returnable.
Structural foam molding operates with low pressure in the manufacturing process which means tooling costs are lowered since less durable materials are needed for the molds. Your material handling equipment benefits from the structural foam molding process as well with consistent dimensional stability and impact resistance, as well as chemical and environmental resistance.
Design for the Full Material Handling Cycle
When thinking about design considerations for your plastic material handling equipment, it is important to focus on more than just the first usage of the equipment. Packaging programs are seeking reusable and returnable packaging solutions which means design considerations must focus on multiple shipments.
Key considerations to extend the service life of material handling equipment can start with wall thickness and ensuring walls have uniform thickness for proper manufacturing. Focuses on ribs and bosses, in order to best maximize load bearing capacity, allow for ribs to equal nominal wall thickness and keep ribs both short and wide.
Focus on Material Selection for Equipment
Material selection should be treated as part of the design process because of how products are impacted by the materials used to create them. For most plastic material handling equipment, polypropylene is going to be the likely choice.
Polypropylene is a rigid and lightweight closed-cell material. It is often chosen due to its excellent compression and impact resistance, and it offers resistance to chemicals and moisture across a wide range of temperatures.
These properties pair well with the demands and potential exposures that material handling equipment can face.
Factor Long-Term Production Support
A reusable and returnable packaging system backed by material handling equipment only survives long term when the production support is planned for the long term.
This can include routine mold maintenance to extend the life cycle of a mold and promote consistent manufacturing. Minimal design changes and sticking with the same material selection also can help with consistent manufacturing as there are minimal changes to the physical and dimensional properties of packaging materials.
Partner with Port Erie Plastics for Reliable Plastic Material Handling Equipment
Port Erie Plastics, located in Harborcreek, Pennsylvania, is one of the nation’s leading multi-faceted plastic processing manufacturers. What started off as an injection molding company has turned into multiple plastic manufacturing operations including extrusion and structural foam molding.
Manufacturing programs focused on the creation of plastic material handling equipment is deeply rooted in structural foam molding. Port Erie Plastics’ structural foam molding capabilities include part production up to 7.5 feet in length, wall thickness between 0.2 and 0.5 inches, machine platen size of 96×89 inches, tie bar spacing is 58.5×67.5 inches, and shot sizes up to 150 pounds.
We specialize in two material choices as well – polyethylene and polypropylene. These two materials give our customers plenty of versatility and unique material properties with polypropylene as the preferred choice for material handling applications because of its ability to resist chemicals and moisture across a wide range of temperatures.
Port Erie Plastics has decades of experience in the material handling industry and our customers in the market know our commitment to manufacturing excellence and quality management.
Contact our team today for more information on our plastic material handling equipment procedures and how we can best serve your reusable packaging program.