Add a Title
The First Step to Industry 4.0 | Sodick and Friends Webinar
PLUSTECH IN THE NEWS
Plustech has made a commitment to delivering the highest quality machines, the strongest technical support, and the most experienced service team to ensure our customers’ profitability and competitive edge toward productivity in the high-demand injection molding manufacturing industry. That difference is newsworthy, and the industry media is sharing our stories of success. Learn what the buzz is about here. For more information, including Media Inquiries, email us.
Join Us at MD&M West
February 7 – 9th Use Plustech promo code MYGUEST3969 and come see us in Anaheim at our new booth! Come hear the best speakers in the...
March 17, 2023
Add a Title
Navigating Product Development in the Face of Supply Chain Uncertainty | Sodick & Friends Webinar
February 7 – 9th Use Plustech promo code MYGUEST3969 and come see us in Anaheim at our new booth! Come hear the best speakers in the...
March 17, 2023
Add a Title
Molding MicroNeedle Array Patches: What is Possible | Sodick & Friends Webinar
February 7 – 9th Use Plustech promo code MYGUEST3969 and come see us in Anaheim at our new booth! Come hear the best speakers in the...
March 17, 2023
Add a Title
QC Color in-line during the Injection molding process | Sodick & Friends Webinar
February 7 – 9th Use Plustech promo code MYGUEST3969 and come see us in Anaheim at our new booth! Come hear the best speakers in the...
March 17, 2023
Add a Title
1
PRESS RELEASES
Novel Multivariate Shrinkage Sensing Technology for Injection Molding – First Step to Industry 4.0
The rapid growth of the plastics injection molding market in the past couple of decades is also a growing pain for the manufacturers due to increasing quality and regulatory requirements in almost all the molding industry segments. Except for medical, automotive, and defense, all other molding segments have adopted the strategy of outsourcing of molding manufacturing from the USA that has badly hurt the US molding industry and will continue to hurt without smart factories and Industry 4.0. But, it requires real-time process monitoring and accurate quality prediction altogether. In-mold sensing technology can be beneficial in achieving Industry 4.0.
However, since 1982, the in-mold sensing technology has remained limited to cavity pressure or temperature measurement with no real-time quality prediction. Hence, current in-mold sensors are still considered as capital investment and only being used for process monitoring or part sorting. However, novel multivariate shrinkage sensing (MVSS) technology developed by Leonine Technologies Inc. measures actual in-mold shrinkage, cavity melt pressure, melt temperature, and mold temperature in real-time.
MVSS technology provides accurate part dimension prediction along with crucial process outputs such as melt viscosity, velocity, and viscoelastic behavior. The successful proof of concept of MVSS technology proves to be a leap forward to current in-mold sensing technology. Commercial level MVSS technology will not only reduce the manufacturing cost and time significantly also enable “TRUE” Industry 4.0.
Our Guest Speaker - Dr. Rahul R. Panchal
Dr. Rahul R. Panchal holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Gujarat University, India, and an MS and Ph.D. degree in Plastics Engineering and Polymer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. A “no limits” innovation mindset motivated him to invent the single-mode in-mode shrinkage sensor during his doctorate.
He founded Leonine Technologies Inc. after spending 12 years in different plastics industry areas such as product design, product management, project leader, technology innovation and scouting, and medical device industry. Recognizing the limitation of current in-mold sensing technology and the needs of the US molding industry, he converted the single-mode shrinkage sensor to a multivariate shrinkage sensor (MVSS).
Dr. Panchal successfully demonstrated the proof of concept of commercial level MVSS under a very competitive NSF SBIR Phase I grant. Dr. Panchal plans to launch the MVSS technology in the US market with further enhancements.
Dr. Panchal resides in the north suburbs of Chicago, IL, with his wife Gina and a daughter Ruby. He enjoys weight training, swimming, writing journals, Vedic astrology, and target shooting.
Dr. Rahul R. Panchal President, Leonine Technologies Inc.