Mold tooling technology is indispensable for the mass production of uniform products. Shinko Sellbic has not only designed and manufactured molds, but also devised various unique products related to mold tooling. The company’s advanced technology has culminated in the development of the super-compact injection molding machine the size of an A4-size laptop PC for which Shinko Sellbic was awarded the prize this time. The realization of this “mobile factory” utterly changed the commonly held idea about molding machines; that they are cumbersome, heavy, and costly. In addition, the development enabled “zero-waste” production by using resin materials only where necessary. This machine affords such wide-ranging benefits as saving resources, energy, space, and reducing delivery cost.
What led to this revolutionary development was a concept totally devoid of any preconceived ideas: “a tooling machine can come in any form as long as it can mass-produce uniform products.”
Shinko Sellbic Co., Ltd. http://www.sellbic.com/jindex.html
Established in 1987. The predecessor was Shinko Iron Works founded by Mr. Hiroshi Takeuchi and his father. Though business was smooth after the company’s foundation, the rapid appreciation of the Japanese yen drastically affected the situation. While many back-street factories were forced out of business, they successfully transformed the company into an “initiative-taking type factory” that specializes in the development of original products one after another, thus opening a new market and fully demonstrating their strength.
It took the company 17 long years to succeed in producing a super-compact molding machine that had previously been dismissed as being impossible. This machine was not realized through a single development project but through the accumulation of a number of elemental developments. First of all, Mr. Takeuchi developed the “Unit Mold”—the first product developed by the company. Basically, one mold is necessary for one part. Usually, a mold is prepared in which a molding section and frame are combined for mounting on a molding machine for plastic parts. Such a mold must then be replaced by another when molding another plastic part, thus entailing considerable time and labor. The Unit Mold separated the mold and frame, and made both replaceable. The concept is that the mold is like software and the frame hardware, similar to a TV game console and its game software. This facilitated the easy replacement of molds, reduced the time necessary, and above all contributed to the miniaturization of molds.
Another significant development about 10 years ago was the “Flattened Screw” that totally changed the shape of the screw (an iron bar on which a blade is spirally attached) used to push molded parts out of the machine. By doing away with conventional ideas and flattening the screw, an evolutionary injection molding machine unlike any designed before was born. This marked another development that greatly contributed to “miniaturization.”
“Hot Runner” was another of the company’s proprietary developments that was achieved in 1998. Conventional plastic molding machines are equipped with a passageway through which plastic materials are fed into the mold. The hardened plastic that remained in this section had to be removed and discarded. This development entailed the installation of a Hot Runner that heats up this passageway, thus realizing “zero waste.” Consequently, productivity was doubled and space reduced. All of these “inventions” of Mr. Takeuchi were integrated in the development of the revolutionary desk-top injection molding machine.
The main turning point of the company came in 1987 when they began selling the aforementioned “Unit Mold.” They broke away from the concept of “passive” manufacturing whereby they had simply produced what their major clients ordered them to make. With the new product developed in that year, the company transformed itself into an “initiative-taking” factory that devises new original products and creates their own new market. Ever since then, the company has developed 56 new technologies and products (as of August 2005), at the rate of three new developments every year. What is even more surprising is the number of patents they hold—130—a significant accomplishment for such a small size enterprise of just 13 employees.
Mr. Takeuchi also actively disseminates his ideas by publishing them in technical papers, and thus comes in contact with engineers from other manufacturers, entrepreneurs, university professors, and others with whom he is constantly exchanging information. This group of people is known as the “Idea Workshop,” currently consisting of 60 members who share ideas about new products with other members on a regular basis. They are more like a cross-functional team than a cross-industrial one, in single-minded pursuit of the kind of monodzukuri that can enrich people’s lives and widely contribute to society. In Japan, there is such an interesting group of engineers who got together across the bounds of industrial fields, business categories, and positions in society.
The “P-process” is a new production process developed based on the concept of “manufacturing without using molds.” Oddly enough, it was by Shinko Cellbic, a mold production company, which proposed this new process. The idea runs counter to the company’s own field of specialty, and achieves manufacturing without the support of molding machines, and in a sense represents an ultimate production process in terms of efficiency. The process involves melted plastic resin materials that are heaped up in layers as in the processing of candy, and then cooled down and hardened. Then the machining tool functions to shape the material into a desired product form. As long as the raw materials are prepared, the machine can continue the process all the way to completion, thus producing marketable products without using molds or molding machines. Moreover, this process significantly reduces the consumption of raw materials, 90% of which have conventionally been wasted in the form of chips and other waste products. This achievement gave the industry another major surprise.
According to Mr. Takeuchi, what is important is taking a standpoint of viewing things that are always doubtful regarding current situations, pursuing a relentless spirit of exploration, and having a somewhat adventurous mind. At this moment, he is working on the commercialization of a reducer that enables considerable power savings and improved efficiency. His mind is always full of new ideas. “When I try to improve a small point or solve a minor problem, I come up with a lot of new ideas (laughingly). Since we know what monodzukuri means, from the start to finish, we can develop any products and processes on our own. Our competitiveness is the ability to conduct a real development which money can’t bring about.” His remarks are truly weighty.
The machine measures only 12 cm in height, 29 cm in width, and 12 cm in depth. It is hard to believe that this is an injection molding machine.
A conventional screw is shown on the right. By adopting a round, flattened shape, drastic size reduction and higher efficiency were achieved.
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