Meanwhile, the real culprit was just chilling in the pipes, probably laughing at all the process engineering meetings. Source: ChatGPT

For two years after I started, we dealt with a nagging problem in production at our family-owned injection molding company in rural Iowa. As the tooling manager, I was struggling with underfilled cavities in an eight-cavity mold that made water connectors for PEX lines used in homes. Even after tons of effort from the process engineers, we couldn’t seem to fix it. We ended up taking things apart and checking them carefully over and over, but still no solution.

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After a long troubleshooting process, I finally had a lightbulb moment and suggested sending the manifold off for a specialized cleaning in Northern Illinois. It was a pretty big commitment in terms of time and money, and there was some hesitation initially because of the costs involved. They cleaned the manifold several times, but nothing worked. Eventually, we did a video scope inspection and discovered the real issue: a ceramic insulator was blocking the channels from a cleaning job we did two years ago!

This long-awaited breakthrough was such a relief because we finally figured out what was causing the problem. Now, the mold can run at full capacity with all eight cavities going strong. After years of dealing with quality issues and pressure to keep up with production, this feels like a big win. It really shows that sticking with it and putting in the effort can really pay off when you're up against manufacturing challenges.

Sharing Manufacturing's Most Human Moments  

Canon Virginia Inc. celebrates the real-world moments that unite shop floors everywhere. We hope that by sharing industry stories together, we can all laugh, learn and grow. After all, even in world-class operations, things don’t always go according to plan — but that’s where the human side of manufacturing shines. So, the next time you’re stuck or something throws a wrench in your plans (perhaps even literally), reach out to us because Canon might be the moldmaking and manufacturing partner you need.
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