Putnam Makes its Mark in Custom Injection Molding

Putnam Precision Molding Inc. uses 28 injection molding machines to manufacture custom high-performance parts and stock mechanical-drive components. Value-added services such as boring and metal insertion help distinguish this fabricator from its competitors.

BY KAREN M. KOENIG

It all started with a desire to manufacture a soft-faced hammer for the metalworking industry -- and through the years has evolved into custom molding of high-performance plastics.

Founded in 1934 as Danielson Manufacturing, today Putnam Precision Molding is known throughout the industry as a custom injection molder of close-tolerance, high-performance engineered resins and mechanical drive components. Its Plastock proprietary line of mechanical drive components includes pulleys, belts, sprockets, roller chains and gears. The Connecticut-based company also manufactures stock shapes plus various sizes of ball blanks and finished balls in engineering-grade and high-performance plastics.

Effective last year, Putnam is a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Ensinger Inc., a producer of extruded and molded engineered plastics.

Creating a Niche Market
Putnam specializes in injection molding high-performance materials, such as Torlon and Aurum. "In the injection molding business, there's a lot of competition, especially in the commodity-grade materials. But there's not a lot of people out there in the high-performance market. That's why we've made the high-performance materials our niche business," said Fred Mooers, vice president of sales and marketing at Putnam.

"In the custom molding field, we specialize in molding relatively small, thin-walled parts with close tolerances. The basic parts that everyone molds is not our forté," Mooers said.

"We use Torlon and Aurum for high-temperature components, such as laser printers and the fuser section on copiers. Some of our other markets are computer peripherals and weighing and measuring equipment, including conveyor systems, sprockets and chains. We're relatively diversified -- in this market, you have to be," he added.

Adding to Putnam's diversity is the Plastock line of mechanical drive components. "We acquired the Plastock line approximately six years ago in a desire to broaden our business and to have a product line which complements our custom structural motion components," Mooers said.

Putnam manufactures and sells its custom components strictly to OEMs. The Plastock line is sold through OEMs and distributors.

Engineering & Molding
Putnam runs three shifts a day, five days a week at its 59,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

"The nature of injection molding lends itself to continuous operation," Mooers said. "It can take each machine anywhere from two to four hours to start up. Some of the high-performance materials have a molding temperature of 400° to 450°F," he added.

Putnam has 28 injection molders on the premises, with maximum mold sizes ranging from 8.5 inches by 12 inches (40 ton) to 31.9 inches by 31.9 inches (500 ton).

"We can mold up to a 21Ú2-pound part on our largest machine," Mooers said. "Typically, the molded part comes out of the machine complete. No secondary machining is needed unless we have a special requirement that can't be molded in," Mooers said.

"Most of the time we work on blanket orders that allow us to ship on a just-in-time basis," Mooers said. "We can usually ship anything from our Plastock catalog within 24 hours. On the custom side, depending on the material, we can usually ship within two to four weeks, not including the time to make the mold," Mooers said. Lead times on molds are typically 12 weeks, he added.

When not in use, molds are stored in an 80-foot-long by 100-foot-wide, two-stories-high temperature- and humidity-controlled vault. "It's kind of an insurance policy for our customers. It also prevents rust to the molds," Mooers said.

Although Putnam does not build its own molds, it does have the capability to do the repair work. "We have a fully-stocked tool shop for repairs," Mooers said.

In addition to its molding and tooling capabilities, Putnam also offers full engineering services, including mold design and construction as well as material selection. Putnam's engineering team will formulate both proprietary and "open market" solutions to design problems. "Sometimes someone already has the item made in metal and wants it done in plastic, so we have to do a metal-to-plastic conversion. We'll also help design a part, or in some cases, redesign a part," Mooers said.

"We try to promote early customer involvement -- have the customer get involved while we're still in the concept stage," he added.

Value-Added Services
What distinguishes Putnam from many of its competitors is the variety of value-added services it offers on molded high performance products. These include: annealing, bar coding, bonding with adhesives and solvents, boring, drilling, metal insertion, tapping and insert molding.

"Finishing on the Plastock line usually involves placing two set screws, milling, drilling, tapping and some light assembly," Mooers added.

Putnam is applying for ISO 9002 certification, which it hopes to receive later this year. "Many of our large customers require it. Also, more and more companies like to know that we have the control procedures in place," Mooers said.

Included in the company's quality assurance program is operator level Statistical Process Control, molding process monitoring and 100 percent part inspection. Specialized testing is also available.

"Quality control occurs after each operation, with a final count taken -- including weight and measurement -- prior to packaging," Mooers said. "All of our employees are trained in quality control. Our operators all do their own charts, plus we have a final quality control person who verifies everything."

Currently, Putnam practices cycle time management. "Cycle time management is the process whereby periodically we review how we're doing and what we can do to improve our job performance. It's also a way of keeping people involved in the production process," he added.

The company also utilizes a computerized monitoring system with Tracker software from Bear Technologies. "On any given day, you have 15 or more jobs running in the shop. We needed a system to keep track of the jobs and the inventory," Mooers said.

"Each job is run off a central computer. We then use the computer to match up the job to the best machine by looking at a combination of things, including the right shot size, the right mold size and the tonnage of the machine," he added.

All the necessary ingredients, he added, to get the job done right.

Plastics Machining & Fabricating
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