For nearly 40 years, Hayco has worked with some of the world’s largest consumer brands to design, develop, and manufacture their products. The company is one of the world’s leading plastics molding businesses, delivering 180 million products annually to customers in 59 countries.
Hayco is a fully vertically-integrated company that works with partners at every step of the design and manufacturing journey. From its three factories in South China and supply chain partners, Hayco’s plastics are used for products in areas like household cleaning, beauty, medicine, and bottled water.
Hayco’s new factory
To complement Hayco’s South China factories and operations, the company opened a new factory in the Dominican Republic in 2016. This location allows Hayco to develop products and parts closer to partner brands and consumers in Europe and North America, meaning more resilient supply chains and reduced shipping costs.
Named after Hayco’s late founder, the Donald Espie Hay Building employs over 2,000 people and serves as a key part of Hayco’s operations. The factory specializes in precision plastic injection molding and assembly for consumer goods and has already been recognized with a Platinum LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
However, building a new, state-of-the-art facility involves significant capital costs. Hayco met the challenge of providing stakeholders with the best return on investment, focusing on boosting productivity while cutting operational costs.
Low-constant-pressure process benefits
As a leader in injection molding innovation, iMFLUX worked with Hayco to leverage their technology in Hayco’s new factory. As a result, Hayco is utilizing iMFLUX built molds and process technology for its injection molding operations in the Dominican Republic.
By taking advantage of iMFLUX’s low-constant-pressure injection molding technology, Hayco has been able to save energy, produce faster, and have less wear and tear on molds and machinery compared to conventional molding processes.
iMFLUX and Hayco partnered to build the new factory’s molding process around the innovative system, incorporating both iMFLUX-enabled molding machines with molds explicitly designed for the low-constant-pressure process. As a result, Hayco’s new factory could maximize the benefits and achieve:
- Faster cycle times in injection molding.
- More cavities per mold.
- Less energy spent per injection molding cycle.
- More productive use of smaller and less expensive injection molding machines.
In addition, Hayco benefits from the fact that iMFLUX automates much of the work around configuring and monitoring the injection molding machinery. The process also means less need for operator adjustments, allowing Hayco to hire local workers with limited injection molding experience and train them on state-of-the-art technology.
Radical savings and boosted throughput
iMFLUX’s technology and processes markedly cut cycle times for Hayco, with an average time reduction of 16,% representing a significant cut in the cost-per-part produced in Hayco’s new factory. Hayco has saved several million dollars in operational costs as a direct result of implementing iMFLUX technology.
Most notably, the molds made to leverage the new process offered exceptional returns for output per injection molding cycle. Hayco was able to move from using 8-cavity molds to 12-cavity molds or a 50% increase in output per cycle. Altogether, the efficiencies unlocked by iMFLUX technology caused the throughput at Hayco’s factory to increase by 191% – a nearly three-fold boost.
Due to the lower injection pressure, iMFLUX enabled a lower clamp tonnage requirement; Hayco now uses smaller and less expensive presses. Instead of 500-tonne presses used in runs on select production lines, they are able to use 400-tonne presses. Altogether this has allowed Hayco to save $1.6 million in capital spending.
Find out how iMFLUX can do the same for you
Hayco’s standout story shows how iMFLUX’s injection molding technology up-ends the industry. By providing a means to improve throughput while cutting down operational and capital expenditure, the revolutionary tech, and processes represent a major advancement for just about every organization that leverages injection molding.Get in touch today if you’re interested to learn how iMFLUX and our low-constant-pressure injection molding technology can provide your team with tremendous cost savings and productivity boosts.
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