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A manufacturing cycle is composed of the following sequences:
- mold placing and locking
- preheatin
- temperature adjustment and regulation
- injection
- cooling
- ejection and mold parting
For each part, the manufacturing parameters are mainly the number of imprints per mold, material composition, cycle times, set point temperatures, tolerance thresholds.
These parameters are entered in a recipe file with a code and a designation in plain text for each item.
The cooling cycle has about twenty specific parameters, grouped within subrecipes; these can be used in common by the basic recipes.
Indeed, it is easier to enter the manufacturing sheet for an item, to select a particular cooling mode, than entering all 20 associated parameters again.
When launching a manufacturing run, the operator is identified automatically by his log-on password. On the control screen of the press ready for manufacturing, he selects, in a sequencing file generated by an external application, the lot number to be processed, with its item code and quantities.
Traceability essential to the manufacturing process
As flawless traceability is required, Topkapi generates two types of reports. The first is the full list of all production lots, with date and time, quantities, press number, operator: after each manufacturing run, the operator enters the manufacturing parameters saved by Topkapi and adds his own comments.
Here, it is the Recipe module which is used, as it lends itself well to reporting all BATCH processes.
The second type of report is a detailed summary per lot, mentioning more particularly the temperature and pressure curves during manufacturing: if a part is faulty, it must be possible to analyze subsequently to determine whether the manufacturing conditions are the origin of this fault.
Here, we use Topkapi's report generator (LISTE function), printing in the HTML format, used to include temperature curves. One of the determining criteria of use of Topkapi for this type of application is the ability to run the application without scripts nor specific external developments: using a programming language is generally not a problem as such at the start, but it does become one when, later, each change requires reusing and controlling all programs.