Case Study: Material Contamination

Case Study: Material Contamination Causing DelaminationThis particular case was at a molding shop that used mostly precolored material. There was one job that ran with natural base resin and a color concentrate. During an of shift the color concentrate ran out so the material handler went looking for more concentrate. They looked high and low and finally found what they believed to be more concentrate on a storage rack.They loaded up the “new concentrate” and started running parts. It was later discovered that they had grabbed an alternate material in black, not a concentrate, and were running contaminated parts. Close inspection of the parts showed an increase in scrap from splay and delamination because the materials were incompatible. All of the parts run during the shift were scrapped out due to the contamination. If someone had not assumed that the black material was OK to use, this problem would not have occurred.