Plan Tech Utilizes Flow Waterjet For Tight Tolerance Waterjet Cut Urethane Parts

LOUDON, NH., March 8, 2018 —Plan Tech, Inc. utilizes Flow Waterjet For Tight Tolerance Waterjet Cut Urethane Parts.

Waterjet cutting is widely known for its ability to cut virtually any material to near net shape. These materials vary from rubber to plastics, composites to metals. Versatility is a benefit waterjet cutting brings to many businesses, including New Hampshire based company, Plan Tech. Plan Tech has been manufacturing urethane parts for over 30 years, providing products for diverse groups of industries. Urethane is a high-performance rubber that can be molded easily, shaped accurately, and offers many different finishing options.

Plan Tech has extensive experience manufacturing custom casting urethane products that are found in the automotive industry, or any other applications requiring a high-performance rubber-like material with superior physical properties. In the past, Plan Tech would cast each and every part by hand. This process totaled a cycle time of 30 minutes, completing 10 parts at a time depending on urethane hardness. Once we were introduced to waterjet cutting technology from Flow, it has made it possible for us to produce thousands of parts from just one sheet. We were able to increase our process time by blasting out about 10 parts in 10 minutes, decreasing our time by 20 minutes.

Our 4’ x 8’ cutting capacity Flow waterjet with a 60,000 psi HyPlex® pump has transformed how we design molds and high volume cut urethane parts. Utilizing FlowNest, Flow’s nesting platform, allows us to make thousands of parts from just one urethane sheet. The software saves us labor and wasted material with an increased level of accuracy versus hand casting parts.

Casting urethane products using traditional open cast method leaves room for error. If open cast parts are not de-molded in a timely manner, the finished size of the custom urethane products is changed. Being able to cast a sheet and let it cure to its final size before cutting on the waterjet takes all the guesswork out, yielding perfects parts every time.

Adding a Flow waterjet to our manufacturing capabilities has increased our production rate and has allowed us to work on other projects while the machine is cutting. Using the waterjet has eliminated issues with tight tolerance parts with our urethane parts. What took hours on a manual machine now takes minutes and delivers better tolerances, increasing our efficiency overall. Being able to produce high volume waterjet cut urethane parts with extreme accuracy, while reducing labor and lead time has greatly improved our profit and increased the quality the parts we deliver to our customers.

With Flow’s Dynamic Waterjet® cutting head we have the capabilities to cut hundreds of metal backed urethane sheets with no trimming necessary. The cutting head virtually eliminates the taper normally associated with waterjet cut urethane parts while improving cutting speeds, part accuracy, and tolerances in cutting flat stock materials. Having this capability contributes to our improved cycle time over traditional casting processes. Casting urethane products with traditional methods leave flashing that needs to be trimmed off each part after the product has cured. While trimming flashing might be a quick process, going through the process with thousands of parts requires a full-time dedicated employee to complete the task.

We recently quoted a new project for a glass manufacturing company that uses thousands of aluminum backed urethane pads to move large pieces of glass. We evaluated our options to help us determine which production process will work best for this project. Below is a chart comparing our two methods.

Our evaluation brought us to the conclusion that we were most competitive presenting the waterjet process when we quoted the customer. Our Flow waterjet gave us a significant advantage to process the order in one day in comparison to three days using other methods, improving our delivered lead time to our customer.

Our expenses to produce these parts on a waterjet in comparison to traditional casting is also considerably lower. The rate to run a waterjet for the duration of a project doesn’t come close to the value of a full-time employee. We were able to see a cost reduction by taking a full-time employee away from trimming flashing, giving us an additional 40 hours a week as a resource to tackle other projects.  As we continue to quote and manufacture more complex urethane parts, it is a key benefit to have the waterjet in our production capabilities.

Waterjet cut urethane parts are just one of the many cast urethane services that Plan Tech provides. We manufacture a wide variety of custom cast urethane parts such as urethane molded bearings, urethane sprockets, and rollers for industrial applications across the United States.  Almost every vehicle build uses urethane suspension bushings much like the one’s Plan Tech reproduces for antique vehicles.

Hope you found this interesting! If you’d like to learn more about waterjet cut urethane parts, you can Contact us for more information!