It’s an honour for MEGA Tech to interview Mr. Tanaphat Laohavisit, a young and visionary executive of Super Products Co., Ltd. and Super Polymold Co., Ltd. He briefly talked about the company’s background, “Super Products Co., Ltd is now close to 45 years since established. We are the biggest supplier of irrigation systems for agriculture in Thailand with more than 5,000 items of goods and 500 plus representatives across the country. We distribute our products to more than 20 countries globally as well. To respond to dramatically increases for demands, we established Super Polymold Co., Ltd. to produce molds and parts 4 years ago aiming to upgrade both the efficiency and effectiveness of mold processing.”
Mr. Tanaphat emphasized that “One of the very first thing we had to review because we aim to produce large number of new molds for our parent company, Super Products Co., Ltd. To quickly develop new products and produce tooling for those new products we looked at the parts which majority or our mold will require. Since we have a lot of products which are connectors, valves and sprinklers which deals with having slider mechanism inside the molds. The team reviewed together and found that one of the parts which is taking the longest time to produce was “Locking block (Wedge)” and “Slider base”. With the traditional method that the team used to make these part, each part would take between 4-6 hours per piece each. We implemented by ourselves methods which were able to reduce from 4-6 hours for each piece to less than 2 hours per piece. At the time we saw a huge improvement in our ability to be able to complete mold sets quicker than before. Though, it was still not satisfactory as it was still taking much too long when we reviewed it against the information we researched on the internet as to what tool technology is available and this is when we contacted Mapal to help support in developing process with their tools to further reduce the cycle time for producing this part.”
In the end it is the matter of the cost of tool per piece and the cost of machine hours per piece.
From the table provided above it would mean that per part Tool 1 cost per part would be 5,000 Baht whereas Tool 2 cost per part would be 3,500. Tool 2 can provide cost savings of 6,000 Baht per purchase of one tool from saving per part of 1,500 baht and tool life of each is 4 parts.
The example above is just to make the comparison simple assuming that the tool life is the same although these factors may vary and present slightly different results. The logic is that, if the tool can machine more efficiently, you will most definitely make a saving on cost per part. It is also important
to note that the example here neglected any labour cost savings which could also be considered as well.
“This case study has proven to us at Super Polymold Co., Ltd. that we are able to adapt advance technology to improve our efficiency just from working closely with our partners. This reinforces our beliefs that innovative approach to implementation of technology will allow us to produce good quality parts with excellent efficiency and be competitive in
the global market. Super Polymold Co., Ltd. has aspirations to become a prominent force and partner in helping to develop and produce molds for global companies that are located in our region.” Mr. Tanaphat concluded with sincerity.
MAPAL: Unique high quality tools with one stop service by experienced team
Mr. Kasidit Tangkijthavorn, Sales Application Engineer of Mapal Tooling (Thailand) Co., Ltd, oversaw the Locking block and Slider base project. He mentioned, “We understand that our customers currently spend about an hour to produce a single Locking block and are eager to reduce this time as much as possible. To address this, we gathered essential information including CNC specifications, materials used, and a 3D file in order to select the most suitable cutting tools. We then presented a proposal containing cutting tools, cutting parameters, and cutting simulation, allowing the customers to anticipate the results before conducting actual tests with the workpiece. As a result, this project has reduced the cycle time by 80%.”
Mr. Kasidit continued that another project that his company received from Super Polymold Co., Ltd. is to reduce the cycle time of hole drilling which requires H7 tolerance. Previously, it took about more than 10 minutes on average to make one hole. We suggested they use the peck drilling technique in each cutting process, which help reduce the drilling time to 1 to 3 minutes. They also face the challenge as each mold features many holes for ejector pins and each hole requires a long time to be produced. We then collect information like CNC specification, material type, cutting tools, and cycle time of each process. After analysis, we have selected the right cutting tools best suited for the customerʼs requirements. That led us to the MEGA-Drill-Reamer-Pyramid featuring 3-in-1 tools and comprising of Center Drill, Drill and Reamer which is called DrillReamer. This tool offers two cutting edges and self-centering. Its lateral tooth acts as a reamer for internal cuts with a H7 tolerance of the surface finish. Each hole requires only 2 to 10 seconds to complete depending on the hole depth. Again, this project can reduce the cycle time by 95 %.”
Mr. Kasidit ended this interview with pride saying that “Mapal Tooling
(Thailand) Co., Ltd, as a leader in cutting technologies with long experience,
from product design to productʼs special feature control, this allows us to provide products with high standard and products that customized for
customers requirement. We also provide complete services for the manufacturing process fulfilling our customer’s satisfaction”
Article by: MEGA Tech