Product category:
Plastics and Rubber Moulding Subcontracting Services
News Release from: A K Industries | Subject: Technical moulding
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 June 2007
Injection-moulded and sub-assembly
solutions
From its manufacturing facilities at Hereford, A K Industries (AKI) has been providing technically demanding, injection-moulded component and sub-assembly solutions to more than 50 industries.
From its manufacturing facilities at Hereford, since its buy-out in 1996 from the US multinational Nalge Nunc International, A K Industries (AKI) has been providing technically demanding, injection-moulded component and sub-assembly solutions to more than 50 industries In many cases AKI does the jobs which no other supplier is willing or able to undertake
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 May 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Value injection-mouldings - concept to production
A K Industries adds value to technical mouldings from concept to production, providing technically demanding, injection-moulded components and sub-assembly solutions to more than 50 industries.
Added value for technical mouldings
A plastics moulding and sub-assembly subcontractor, AK Industries of Hereford, undertakes technically demanding design and production for many industries.
Joint Managing Director Allen Green comments: "By taking on the most challenging development projects, we have created a continuous learning culture which benefits all our customers".
75 percent of AKI's 100 employees are engaged in production functions, in the air-conditioned manufacturing hall of a 60,000 sq ft site with some 30 injection moulding machines from 6 to 450 tonnes clamping force, plus a broad spectrum of robotic handling, ancillary and assembly equipment.
Annual turnover exceeds GBP6.5 million.
Further reading
Lowering injection moulding costs in E Europe
To help UK businesses compete in their markets a company has invested a considerable amount of time investigating an opportunity closer to home in the 'new economies' of Eastern Europe.
Invest in the future of injection moulding
Well trained staff give high standards of work, they understand what is important and can be relied upon to do the right things at all times which cuts mistakes and lowers costs.
Micro-moulder added to machine park
Injection moulding company has invested in a micro-moulding machine, which has fast change-over and small tool sizes allowing small parts to be produced quicker.
In recent times five application areas have predominated - second-tier automotive; plumbing, heating and air movement; life sciences and biotechnology; electronics enclosures; and health and fitness.
Some current major customers are Kohler Mira (showers), Harman Becker Automotive Systems (in-car entertainment, information and communication systems), Applied Energy Products (the Xpelair ventilation and Redring heating and shower equipment brands), Vision Alert (vehicle emergency beacons and light-bars), Malvern Instruments (particle analysis systems) and Biotrace International (bioluminescence trace detectors).
Furthermore AKI has been working closely with Pera at Melton Mowbray as a "prime partner" on a number of leading-edge innovation projects.
Three examples taken from the medical field are a sharp-safe, polymer syringe needle for insulin delivery; "Medi-Voice" spoken medication instructions for people with vision and reading difficulties; and the "Rapi-Heal" manually controlled vacuum device to assist the treatment of open wounds and chronic ulcers.
There again, AKI is involved in other innovations in the plumbing and heating sphere.
The "Warmit" device is a domestic heat recovery unit for retrieving heat from waste water, for example when showering.
It pre-heats the incoming flow of water where there is a continuous process.
This AKI product stemmed from an earlier Pera project, and the official product launch is eagerly anticipated later in 2007.
The "Warmit" appliance was a finalist at the inaugural UK National Energy Efficiency Awards held in London's Science Museum on 6th December 2006.
AKI is also engaged in a currently funded EU project to develop a sister product called "Low Heat".
Whereas the "Warmit" is designed to recover the heat in the waste water of individual showers and potentially dishwashers, the "Low Heat" will reclaim low-grade heat from the waste water of entire systems such as in hotels, sports centres and launderettes.
It will literally stop commercial and industrial heat going down the drain.
"Low Heat" was also a finalist at the UK National Energy Efficiency Awards and indeed highly commended for innovation.
More details of the technology are given on the Website of the Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (IPHE) www.lowheat.iphe.org.uk Routinely in the applications it serves, however esoteric they may be, AKI adds value to its technical mouldings through an extremely wide range of distinctive, in-house processes, assembly operations and finishes.
At the same time materials choice extends over thousands of engineering and commodity plastics, from ABS, polyesters, polysulphone and polycarbonate blends up to high-temperature, high-performance polymers, such as copolyamides with special properties for special applications.
This flexibility and versatility lie at the foundation of the company's ability to provide design and manufacturing solutions for almost any moulded components.
For the earlier stages of a project, the company offers a complete programme of services to assist the design and development of new products and the productionising of designs.
These resources and facilities embrace project management, design facilities such as SolidWorks and mouldflow, rapid prototyping from the CAD data and later production tooling.
Many of AKI's mould tools feature complex cores which operate at varying angles to the tool opening plane.
This enables designers to incorporate undercuts and other complex features into their designs by value engineering methods, thereby simplifying or even eliminating secondary operations, to achieve faster production rates at lower cost.
Some toolmaking, and all maintenance, modification and management of over 600 current tools, are conducted in-house at AKI.
The company also works with specialist outside toolmakers who are able to provide particular expertise.
They may be selected according to the technical parameters of a project or the properties of the plastics material specified.
Thus, as part of its single overall responsibility for a given project (in line with the current industry trend to reduce supplier numbers), AKI often calls upon its toolmaker to address one of a number of practical issues.
Three examples are as follows.
Firstly, high-content, glass-filled polymers will be abrasive for the tool and so need to be catered for.
Next, for components demanding a very high-quality surface finish such as Kohler Mira shower panels, tool steels have to be specially selected.
Thirdly, steels with a greater heat transfer coefficient would be the preferred choice where tool cooling may be a major consideration.
AKI procedures follow the "Pentamode", a code-of-practice for managing new plastics products from concept to delivery, developed jointly by the British Plastics Federation, Gauge and Toolmakers Association (GTMA) and Institute of Materials (IOM) as part of the Partnership in Plastics Programme.
Customers selecting AKI accordingly as a single supplier from first concept to final process, via product design and development, polymer specification, prototyping, mouldmaking, production tool design and validation, and processing, profit from AKI's collective years of problem-solving experience and expertise acquired on projects with similar features to theirs.
The wheel does not need to be re-invented.
The benefits of this cumulative "knowledge bank" include marked reductions in development costs and in time-to-market as well as the minimisation of rejects and rework.
In-house process technology and services include two-shot, two-colour moulding, vertical insert moulding, gas-assisted moulding, micro injection moulding, ultrasonic welding and cleanroom moulding and assembly.
Product finishing takes in five-colour CNC tampo pad printing of text and logos onto flat or curved surfaces as well as polishing.
Meanwhile plating and paint spraying - the latter whether for decorative, functional or EMI/RFI shielding purposes - are subcontracted to external partners on a project.
AKI is certified to both the manufacturing standard ISO 9001 and the medical industry standard ISO 13485.
Aimed at continuous improvement, quality assurance procedures such as SPC, traceability, sample inspection reports, process capability studies and FMEAs are controlled through a tailored document management system.
The jewel in the crown of the Metrology Department is a Johansson Topaz 7 CNC co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) with Renishaw contact probe.
This CMM is used for the dimensional checking of high-tolerance parts with complex 3D forms and the preparation of associated reports.
Meanwhile a stringent logistics management system ensures that customers get what they want when they want it.
They control the bins of finished goods at their end and use a modified kanban (faxban) call-off system for replenishment.
So what lies in store for the future? AKI is already supplying its added-value technical mouldings and all its associated services through manufacturing agreements and partnerships with Central European OEMs and subcontractors to open up new market opportunities.
Examples are in the Czech Republic (with the German-owned component supplier Zlin Precision) as well as in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
But these co-operative relationships will be expanded further.
What is more, AKI will be aiming towards new product applications for high-performance materials.
These are likely to include the development with Pera of nano-filled polymers for medical uses (such as single-use, disposable, surgical instruments) and a broader spread of low-volume applications in aerospace and defence, since AKI is an approved supplier to Britain's defence contractor BAE Systems.
By the same token, we can be certain that AKI will be at the forefront of the future transformation as biodegradable, plant-based plastics literally grow in use to replace plastics based on the diminishing resource of crude oil.
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