Delphi's new molding benchmark

Automotive Design & Production, July, 2004

The electronic signboard in Delphi Corp.'s Vienna, OH plant flashes these words: "Welcome to the most advanced and flexible injection molding center in the world." Hyperbole perhaps, but any competitor looking to challenge the claim would have their hands full contending with this plant that churns out 1.4 billion electrical connectors a year. Vienna has assumed the mantle of benchmark plant for Delphi's plastic injection molding facilities worldwide, and as such implements the company's best ideas under one roof:

* Electric molding machines. Delphi has jettisoned hydraulics entirely at Vienna where all 124 of the Milacron-Fanuc (Batavia, OH; www.plastics.milacron.com) Roboshot presses (which range in size from 55 to 165 tons) are electric. Delphi says going all-electric slashes their energy consumption by 55%; reduces cycle times by 16% because of faster parallel movements; and provides 15% higher throughput. And the electricity doesn't leak.

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* Advanced raw material handling. With an eye toward maximum processing flexibility, Vienna is designed to handle 23 resin families and over 80 different compounds of nylon, polypropylene and polyester. To ensure that the right compound ends up at the right machine, Delphi and Novatec, Inc. (Baltimore, MD; www.novatec.com) built a resin conveying, blending and drying system that uses 16 miles of piping and dozens of individual hoppers to transport up to 32 different materials to the presses simultaneously. Error-proofing strictures require that resin containers, presses and tools each be barcode-scanned before beginning a run; sensors in the machines will not allow a new compound to be loaded until all residue from the previous compound has been cleaned out, to avoid contamination.

* On-site recycling. Each press is equipped with a grinder to remove the sprue and runner waste. This material is then transferred to an on-site mixing area where it is blended with virgin material and sent back to the presses.

120 production presses (the other four are in an integrated test facility) are arranged in eight cells of 15 machines, each of which is operated by only one person. Eleven automated guided vehicles (AGVs) from Frog Navigation Systems, Inc. (Auburn Hills, MI; www.frog.nl), controlled via a grid of 7,000 magnets embedded in the floor, quietly shuttle bins of finished parts from molding machines to the shipping area. And a sophisticated e-manufacturing system based on Microsoft. NET tools allows presses to communicate with the material room and place real-time orders via an Ethernet connection. In fact, Vienna seems to come close to the once-idealized concept of the "lights-out" plant where robots efficiently produce parts unhindered by the flesh-and-blood limitations of their human controllers.--KEW