There's a saying at Brewster Plastics Inc., "We mold more than plastics; wemold relationships." Many of its key employees have been on board for morethan 20 years. So have many of its customers - customers like Prestone andHelicoil/Black & Decker. In many cases, Brewster Plastics is the solesource for all of its customers' tooling and finished products. Obviouslythe relationships Brewster Plastics molds are long-term.

Reliability is the name of the game in both total project management withcustomers and in right human relations with employees. Trust has beeninstrumental in Brewster Plastics' growth since it opened for business.Most of its sales have been through word of mouth. However, during the pastyear, its sales skyrocketed 20 percent. Company officials attribute thisgrowth to one thing and one thing alone - capital investment.

In January 1997, Brewster Plastics moved into a new 40,000-sq-ft facilityin Patterson, NY. Capital investment was $3 million, not counting theequipment. The company runs 13 machines there now, mostly late-modelArburgs and HPMs. The plant is set up to run up to 26 presses and islooking at adding 400- to 500-tonners. Robert P. Wallace, president,started Brewster Plastics in a filling station garage in Brewster, NYduring the oil crisis of 1971 to '72, then moved it into a 115-year-oldmill about 5 years later. His son, Brett R. Wallace, Brewster Plastics'general manager, grew up in the business. Both of them knew what theywanted in a new plant. Experience teaches you that. Now, under one roof,they have all any molder could want, and then some. Don't believe it? O.K.,let's tour.

Built-In Reliability

Brewster Plastics has invested in the infrastructure necessary to ensurereliable relationships with its customers and its employees. The new plantruns with the built-in, reliable, automated efficiency of a finelyengineered molding system. The layout and flow are immediately recognizableas being a professional job. The entire building is sprinklered. Theshop-floor ceiling is painted in a high-brightness white, and it hasskylights. There are banks of bright halogen lights up in its airy23-ft-high ceiling, above its two 2-ton overhead cranes. The cranes travelthe entire length of the plant, from the mold storage area to the moldingmachines, high up and out of the way of the Star Automation robots on themachines. Experience teaches you that.

The bulkhead walls are so well-insulated that propane heaters in the planthave seldom been turned on. And when the doors are opened on either side ofthe building, a refreshing, natural convection air current sweeps through.There are mezzanines over utility rooms on either side of the plant withspace for quality assurance and production control offices and storage.Brewster Plastics intends to build a training classroom upstairs. Plansalso call for putting centralized resin distribution up on one mezzaninewhen its three 115,000-lb silos are completed. The foundation for the siloshas already been poured. The company runs a wide variety of commodity andengineering resins for its consumer products and medical customers. Itsdrying system is from Thoreson McCosh. Resin conveyors are mostly fromConair.

The machines themselves are arranged side to side in two rows beneath thetwo cranes. The flooring underneath the machines is reinforced. All machineutilities are through an underground trench, out of the way. So is thewiring for the company's Intrac CIM machine monitoring system. All themachine water is treated in a closed loop system from Cooling Technology.Mold water uses algae-treater Chem Aqua. Mokon temperature controllers arepreferred.

Reliable Machines, Reliable Molds

Brewster Plastics is sold on Arburgs, because of experience withreliability. "I can trust Arburg to give me the straight story," saysRobert Wallace. He bought his first in 1984. Nothing has been done to itsince then, except for replacing heater bands and one broken gauge.Basically, it's been running 24-7 since 1984. Wallace says his Arburgs'reliability has played a key role in maintaining the company's reputationfor reliability, citing their deflection-free box-like clamp design andbuilt-in servocontrolled ramping speeds as being instrumental in repeatablequality production. Even running parts with tolerances within tenths, totalscrap rate is under 2 percent. All molding scrap, if any, is recycled.Speed is key. "Even with long-term relationships, you still have to keepprices competitive," says Robert Wallace. All of its molding machines haveBunting Magnetics metal separators.

Some of Arburg's latest technology is used on its newer presses, likeArburg's Selogica controller on its V series machine. Its Arburg 520 C isequipped with Varima control for running molds using Arburg's Varioprinciple. Brett Wallace says the company plans to replace its older,smaller presses soon, like the second New Britain molding machine everbuilt in the U.S., and to standardize on Arburgs up through their sizerange. The company has already standardized on Star Automationtraverse-type robots. It bought one of the first Star T-beam models sold inthe U.S. One removes parts of different sizes and lengths from a familymold and boxes them properly. The company also likes TEC Engineering'scounting index conveyor systems.

At one time, Brewster built all of its own molds. Today it outsources inexcess of $1 million worth of tools each year. Molds are often outsourcedat about four big houses, but mold design services and some captivemoldmaking still are done at the new plant. It uses CNC Bridgeports to makegraphite electrodes for its Eltee Pulsitron ram EDM, and for cores andcavities. There's a powered ventilation system in operation in the EDM andgrinding rooms. The walls are glued into place. When they harden, screwsget magnetic, attract grinding dust, and the walls constantly have to becleaned. Experience teaches you that.

Concurrent engineering is nothing new to Brewster Plastics. It has designedentire products, like the heads for the new Prestone brush cap for rugcleaners. The heads are molded in one piece in a four-cavity tool thecompany designed. It uses Mold-Masters hot runners. Each head has aliving-hinge snapfit brush with 1100 bristles. Previously, with the oldtwo-piece head design, people were taking the brush off in the store.Brewster Plastics has approximately 100 active molds, and changes themfrequently. Some are unit-frame MUD molds. Most cores and cavities for itsmolds are in hardened steel. Aluminum is used for short-run work. Prototypemolds are in aluminum or steel.

Reliability Builds Trust

In a lot of cases, Brewster Plastics does product and process designsimultaneously. It designed the entirely automated Arburg workcell for thePrestone product's process, for instance. It's programmable with a laptop,and operates unattended. The company even designs all of its own end-of-armtooling for its robots. Ken Newton and Brett Wallace, who are keen onautomation engineering, design much of the company's automated workcells,too. One cell automatically applies hot-melt adhesive to a cushioningmaterial, glues it into place on parts the robot removes, and boxesfinished products, 120 parts per box. The company carries no inventory offinished parts, so there's no warehouse. Boxes are automatically wrappedbefore shipping.

Walking around, you see a number of other details demonstrating the plant'sprofessional design. For example, there's a caster-mounted hose rack withall the fittings in place. Experience teaches you that. Then there's aportable hydraulic core pull unit that can be moved to any moldinglocation. And the loading bays are equipped with pneumatic dock levelers tohelp automate loading and unloading. There's even a small room off the maincafeteria where folks can clean their coffee cups. Another 25,000 to 30,000sq ft could be added to the plant. Any addition will be equally wellequipped. ISO certification is expected by year's end.

The new plant helps Brewster Plastics maintain the reliability of its mostimportant resource, namely, its people. Brewster Plastics employs about 45,working three shifts at least five days a week. Robert Wallace says thatimproving the working environment for his employees was one of the keyreasons for the move to Patterson. "Cleanliness and efficiency are likehonesty," he explains. "You have to have it, or your employees won't."Another benefit: promotion is largely from within. Janet Dohm, productionmanager, started as a machine operator out of high school, for instance.

Robert Wallace summarizes his management style: "I have an old Scottishbackground. I believe in trust. Everyone makes mistakes. I do, too. I sayyou can make any mistake you want, just don't make the same mistake twice."Experience teaches you that. Just look around Brewster Plastics' new plant.- Carl Kirkland

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