Over the past few years, we've trained hundreds of technicians at our 3-day training courses across New England, the Midwest, and now at our new facility in Moncks Corner, SC. Our courses offer both specific training on Haitian and Zhafir machines as well as general courses on the best practices for troubleshooting and processing.
Thanks to our Training Manager, Dave Beaudoin, we've taught a lot and we've learned a lot about what attendees in our training courses need to run a smooth manufacturing operation. We sat down with Dave to ask him some questions about the courses, what attendees can expect, and what he's learned from teaching.
Q1: What do course attendees benefit from the most?
Dave: Hands-on training with practical applications is really the best way to set the baseline for how people work with machines. We do this by having attendees establish a new process from scratch and go through motions of the calculating shot size, injection speed, hold pressure, barrel temperature, etc.
Q2: What topics are most helpful to course participants?
Dave: We spend a good portion of the courses making sure that attendees can read and understand machine blueprints. Being able to read and understand a machine blueprint is less common than most would believe and hope in the industry. But they're great resources to really grasp how machines work and where to look when troubleshooting.
Q3: When it comes to plastic processing, what's the most common misconception from people attending the course?
Dave: There has been a lot of positive change, moving in the direction of a more common idea of scientific molding in the last decade. For many, plastic processing still remains pretty random or only based on experiences. We dig deep into the scientific approach to processing in our courses, and try to compliment the experience and gut feeling many industry veterans have with more precise calculations to provide the best parts.
Q4: What’s the most important aspect of troubleshooting?
Dave: Quickly diagnosing issues on a machine is partially about knowing the machine itself, and partially about having repeat experiences. We take a very practical approach to troubleshooting in our courses, and give attendees a sandbox to build hands-on experience. We will actually put the machine in different fault scenarios and help guide attendees to figure out what is wrong with it.
Q5: What’s the most common thing people are missing in their manufacturing procedures?
Dave: Plastics manufacturing is generally a little complicated than a lot of people believe, because there are so many variables that impact the manufacturing of good parts. I'd say, the most probable thing missing from most procedures has to do with resins. I still see a lot of people guessing what the processing solution is without knowing how the resin works, reacts to shear, heat, atmospheric conditions, etc. Those that do have a processing method always get to the right answer faster and produce good parts quicker.
We've got 3 more courses remaining in 2019! Register here or message Dave directly at dbeaudoin@absolutehaitian.com for more info.