GW Plastics grows scientific molding development capabilities

GW Plastics, a global plastics and silicone injection molder and contract manufacturer, has expanded and upgraded its Process Development & Training Center in Royalton, VT. The company is now able to develop and debug entire manufacturing cells in a dedicated non-production facility. This expansion comes during the 20th anniversary of the Process Development Center, for which GW Plastics achieved RJG certification as a Mold Tryout Facility in 2012. It is currently one of eight companies worldwide to have this certification.

Established in 1998 as a dedicated facility for mold testing and process development, the GW Plastics Process Development & Training Center expedites mold testing and qualification and improves overall speed to market. 

The center is responsible for developing production processes for new molds that will be introduced to GW Plastics production facilities worldwide. When a mold arrives at any production facility, the technicians only have to duplicate the process that was developed in the center rather than develop a process from scratch. This significantly decreases downtime on production machines and increases speed to market. Within 24 hours of a mold being completed at GW Plastics’ in-house moldmaking facility, it is sent to the Process Development Center, eliminating production scheduling interruptions.

GW Plastics recently added two new hybrid electric injection molding machines with hydraulic tiebar-less clamping systems to the Process Development Center. The machines have both pneumatic and hydraulic valve gate controls, three hydraulic core pulls, 16 zone integrated hot-runner controls, and will be equipped with six-axis integrated robots for part removal.

The Process Development Center is now able to fully service GW’s engineering departments in the scientific process development and qualification phases for entire manufacturing cells, including the machine, mold and automation. The finished manufacturing cell is then delivered to a GW production facility as a completely automated and qualified manufacturing system.

GW’s Process Development & Training Center also serves as the education hub of the company, offering RJG injection molding courses open to employees and customers. GW Plastics conducts Master Molder certification training internally for GW employees.

Founded in 1955, GW Plastics offers precision tooling, injection molding and contract manufacturing for the healthcare, automotive, safety-critical and consumer/industrial markets. Headquartered in Bethel, VT, the company’s global facilities are certified to ISO 9001, SIO 13485 and ISO/TS 16949 and are FDA-registered. Plants are located in Bethel and Royalton, VT; San Antonio, TX; Tucson, AZ; Queretaro, Mexico; Dongguan, China; and Sligo, Ireland.