PLASTICS PROCESSING



          With 50 years of plastics processing experience, Gary Casterline offers practical solutions to your processing problems. He has years of experience using the Delphi Problem Solving Process and has an Apprentice Certification in Shainin, which improves product performance, product reliability, and process performance through investigative strategies. He is also familiar with the implementation of Design of Experiments and the Taguchi Methods.



          Gary continues to be called upon for failure analysis of plastic components, including a recent industrial failure where an explosion of a vacuum venting system made of PVC piping in a elastomer processing area left several people injured from flying debris. Analysis might involve simple observations through optical microscopy, but may require FTIR, DSC, or TGA analysis from the lab or Finite Element Analysis to determine strain or stress levels on the components or MoldFlow Analysis to see whether the mold filling could lead to weaknesses in certain areas of a component.



          Among other accomplishments while at Delphi, Gary:



• Analyzed hundreds of failed plastic parts; successfully diagnosed the failure mode and suggested economical, robust solutions.
• Developed an electrical connector design change to fix a common breakage complaint where previously no solution was evident; eliminated a $250,000 quality problem.
• Implemented a process equipment change for making convoluted tubing which saved $100,000 in material cost during the first year.
• Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicle and wiring connector assembly line downtime and replacement parts through innovative temporary solutions to plastic related performance problems.
• Ran a development molding lab to determine a tooling and process strategy for a new plant which eventually turned into an implementation plan for three 60-machine precision molding plants.
• Made changes to a two piece, ultrasonically welded lamp socket that reduced the failure rate from 25-100% to zero.
• Trained over 1000 people in design of experiments (DOE) so various departments could have at least one DOE trained employee to guide their organization.