{"id":170,"date":"2015-08-04T14:17:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T14:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/?p=170"},"modified":"2025-06-04T08:03:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T08:03:38","slug":"has-our-building-site-now-become-a-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/has-our-building-site-now-become-a-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Has our Building Site now become a City?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The aim was to create a major resource for the plastics sector, one place to find everything you needed.\u00a0 From time to time, we need to review how we are doing, so for the purposes of this Blog, I have looked at things from the perspective of a new start company looking to develop an idea for a new `widget\u2019 that just happens to be most easily manufactured in plastic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stage One, from Idea to Launch. <\/strong>We do an Internet search on `plastic parts\u2019 and come across a site called PlastikCity.\u00a0 There is a section for Product Design and Development<\/a>\u00a0and we are pleased to find five decent companies offering their services.\u00a0 We choose one, and soon have a really well designed product and some mock-ups. We go back to the site, this time to a section for Prototype and Rapid Tooling Services<\/a>, and soon have some samples to show around.<\/p>\n

Stage Two, Ramping Up.\u00a0<\/strong>Our aluminium tooling won\u2019t cope for long with our enquiry levels, so we decide to invest in production tooling<\/a>. Again, PlastikCity gets us quotes from a number of top suppliers, and we\u2019re soon ‘cutting metal’.\u00a0 Numbers aren\u2019t that high initially, so we use the site to find a Low Volume Injection Moulding<\/a>\u00a0company.\u00a0 They use the site to obtain a Mould Filling Simulation<\/a>\u00a0for the twin impression tool being made, and see that their 100 tonne machine will do the job.<\/p>\n

Six months on and the tool needs to run long hours, so is moved to a Trade Moulder<\/a>\u00a0we found on the site.<\/p>\n

Stage Three, our own production facility.\u00a0<\/strong>We have some experience now, so decide to lay down some additional tooling while we set up our own moulding facility.\u00a0 We buy two used machines<\/a>\u00a0through the site, as well as find a specialist removal and installation company<\/a>.\u00a0 We use one of the listed specialists to fill the machines with suitable oil and filter their complete hydraulic circuits<\/a>.\u00a0 We also get quotes for replacement screws and barrels<\/a>, just in case we run into difficulties later.<\/p>\n

Through the site, we obtain our ancillaries<\/a> and mould shop consumables<\/a>, clamps, hot runner controllers<\/a> and so on. We advertise for and employ a process technician<\/a>\u00a0and send him to one of the listed training facilities<\/a>\u00a0for a refresher course (and receive a discount by using the site).\u00a0 The tools are moved to the new facility, but cycle times are longer than expected. We use PlastikCity to find a troubleshooting and process optimisation<\/a>\u00a0specialist, and are soon back on track.\u00a0 Production ramps up, and we use the site to make sure we get the best price for the Polymer and Masterbatch<\/a>\u00a0we are using more and more of.<\/p>\n

We decide to automate the machines and are able to get quotes for robots and grippers<\/a> through PlastikCity.\u00a0 We also start to use a locally based freelance service engineer<\/a>\u00a0we find through the site.<\/p>\n

This was only an exercise, but the reality was that I only scratched the surface of what the site now offers.\u00a0 If you are looking for a tool that gives you access to the best that our sector has to offer, then PlastikCity is a now an invaluable resource.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The aim was to create a major resource for the plastics sector, one place to find everything you needed.\u00a0 From time to time, we need to review how we are doing, so for the purposes of this Blog, I have looked at things from the perspective of a new start company looking to develop an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[75,65,80,76,8,78,79,77,16,24,7,10,73,74,66,50,54],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-plastic-industry","tag-ancillaries","tag-automation","tag-engineers","tag-hot-runner-controllers","tag-injection-moulding","tag-jobs","tag-masterbatch","tag-mould-shop-consumables","tag-mould-tools","tag-plastic-ancillaries","tag-plastikcity","tag-polymer","tag-product-design","tag-prototyping","tag-robots","tag-screws-and-barrels","tag-training","post-preview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2860,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/2860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plastikcity.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}