A primary producer of moveable bogs, sinks, tanks and totally different sanitary merchandise and tools was expert in just about the whole fundamental plastics processes. PolyJohn Enterprises started up in 1984 with thermoforming of roof and side panels of its moveable bogs. Then it expanded into sheet extrusion, rotomolding for bases of moveable bogs, and injection molding for accent elements paying homage to cleansing cleaning soap dispensers, paper towel dispensers and loo seats. Ensuing progress launched challenges that strained the boundaries of its current experience portfolio.
Presently, the third-generation family-owned company employs 275 people and has annual earnings spherical $100 million. The 140,000-square-feet headquarters plant in Whiting, Indiana, houses 5 rotary thermoformers, one sheet line, 5 rotomolders and 5 injection machines from 110 to 500 tons. One different rotary thermoformer is positioned at its Canadian plant in Orillia, Ontario.
How To Develop Functionality?
PolyJohn Enterprises boosted productiveness and prime quality by switching from thermoforming to blow molding for its customary moveable bogs. Proper right here, two roof sections are blown as one half on a Uniloy accumulator-head machine and later scale back apart. The cycle time is in regards to the equivalent as for one roof half to be thermoformed. Provide: PolyJohn Enterprises
By 2022, it grew to change into apparent {{that a}} functionality enlargement wanted to be thought-about. Demand had grown significantly for PolyJohn’s largest-volume merchandise —customary construction-grade moveable bogs — and the company was moreover attempting to broaden into contract manufacturing for various markets. Consistent with Sam Cooper, president/CEO of PolyJohn since 2022 and grandson of co-founder Ed Cooper, “We have now been pondering critically of buying one different extruder, nonetheless then we acknowledged, ‘Let’s take a look at our high-volume merchandise and make them faster, increased, cheaper.’ We started by looking at factors referring to labor costs and availability for extrusion and thermoforming.”
PolyJohn began working with blow molding specialist Uniloy Inc. “We met the engineering and product sales teams, who outlined the strategy to us,” Cooper recollects. “Blow molding is every an paintings and a science, and Uniloy truly helped tempo up our learning curve. They supplied us with a turnkey reply. They’ve been positively further a companion than solely a vendor.”
Cooper supplies, “We seen that, in contrast with thermoforming, blow molding saves inventory, work-in-process and labor. There’s no should run sheet, cool it down, after which reheat it and sort it, and the cycle time for blow molding is almost nearly as good or increased than for thermoforming.”
As quickly as PolyJohn decided to pursue blow molding, the next downside was the place to put it. “Whiting was maxed out in the case of home and electrical vitality accessible,” Cooper says of the company’s Indiana headquarters. “We felt hesitant to buy a whole new setting up for blow molding whereas understanding hardly one thing in regards to the course of.” Uniloy offered an shocking reply: It had 40,000 sq. ft of unused home in its headquarters plant in Tecumseh, Michigan. So PolyJohn subleased the home correct the place the machine was constructed.
As its first step into blow molding, PolyJohn put in a Uniloy Model UAI2900V machine with a 75-lb accumulator head, 325-ton clamp and some custom-made decisions, along with a quick-mold-change system with magnetic platens and molds on an indexing observe beside the press. It was up and dealing in September 2024.
PolyJohn’s customary construction-grade moveable bathroom with blow molded physique and roof panels benefits from higher prime quality than thermoformed variations – sharper nook definition and additional uniform hole placement for fasteners – along with higher productiveness. Provide: Matt Garno, Wingman Consulting
PolyJohn is now blow molding the roof, side panels and entrance panel for its flagship construction-grade moveable bathroom. “We’re capable of blow mould two roofs in a single shot and scale back them apart — all within the equivalent cycle time as for thermoforming one roof,” Cooper notes. “We moreover blow mould two side panels in a single shot — as soon as extra within the equivalent cycle as thermoforming one panel. So we doubled our productiveness in every situations. A fair greater downside was the doorway panel. It had been twin-sheet thermoformed, nonetheless we’re capable of blow mould it within the equivalent cycle time.
“In Whiting, we’re capable of make 75,000 customary bogs per yr with thermoforming. This one machine in Tecumseh may make 40,000 bogs a yr with six people.” Automated changeovers have moreover labored out successfully. “We’re capable of change every the mould and color in two hours versus taking a whole eight-hour shift. We might change each mould or color alone in perhaps 45 minutes.”
All instructed, blow molding realized substantial monetary financial savings within the worth of manufacturing a conveyable bathroom. Equally important, Cooper notes, “We have now been floored by the improved prime quality with blow molding. We get increased half definition — sharper corners — nonetheless part-to-part uniformity is rather more of a revenue. Thermoforming always had factors with variability in shrinkage, sheet sag, ambient temperature, and there have been factors with labor and adequate teaching to deal with handbook fixturing and proper hole placement.”
The latter has been solved with robotic trimming and hole drilling by a Kuka six-axis robotic and a modular fixture desk, which received right here on-line in November. The robotic has a WiFi connection to the supplier for distant troubleshooting. “Sooner than, we didn’t have sufficiently extreme amount to justify automated trimming and routing for our thermoforming traces,” Cooper explains.
Robotic trimming and hole drilling for blow molded panels has elevated part-to-part uniformity. Provide: Matt Garno, Wingman Consulting
And That’s Not All …
PolyJohn is exploring one different unfamiliar course of on the Tecumseh web page. The company merely put in a 500-ton low-pressure structural-foam molding machine from Milacron. Will most likely be used to make “skids” (bases) of moveable bogs, which now are rotomolded. Similar to PolyJohn’s experience with blow molding, the model new course of provides higher prime quality and higher productiveness.
Cooper says Tecumseh could be the headquarters web page for producing the company’s customary construction-grade moveable bathroom. The positioning now employs eight to 10 people, all new hires. That amount might develop quickly, significantly if PolyJohn supplies assembly operations there.
Cooper does not see labor being displaced by the model new, higher output processes. PolyJohn established two new divisions in 2024. One, referred to as Cooper Plastics, will present contract manufacturing suppliers to benefit from the thermoforming functionality freed up by blow molding. “We have some fascinating bids throughout the works from huge retail companies. So we gained’t lose any people.”
Quick-change system for PolyJohn’s new Uniloy blow molder permits a complete head and mildew change in two hours reasonably than a whole eight-hour shift. Provide: Matt Garno, Wingman Consulting
PolyJohn moreover has a model new Speedy RPS Division to offer merchandise for disaster preparedness and response — some made in-house and others purchased exterior. The model new line accommodates cots, laundry carts, storage containers, tarpaulin kits, hygiene kits, buckets, mops, bedsheets and, in reality, moveable bogs. “We have now been energetic in responding to hurricanes Helene, Milton and Beryl,” Cooper says. “It was most likely essentially the most rewarding points we did this yr.”
The Speedy RPS Division has moreover started work on merchandise for wildfire response in Canada and the Western U.S., along with mobile hospital merchandise, paying homage to a first-aid station constructed contained within the physique of a conveyable bathroom, outfitted with gadgets to take blood pressure and additional.
Cooper sees quite a few worldwide potential in these new ventures, and he foresees need for a further new facility of perhaps 250,000 sq. ft throughout the subsequent few years.