That’s because the company molds to satisfy customer orders for just-in-time programs. It uses more than 40 different resins, plus regrind, in widely varying part runs, and performs an average of seven mold changes a day on its 43 molding machines. The company’s BPCS MRP-II computer system virtually runs molding, scheduling machine times and setups, and backflushing resin through the molding operation, relieving inventory.

Sensus, a growing member of the multinational BTR Group, is a manufacturer of high-precision water measurement systems and equipment for the utility industry. The company traces its roots back more than 135 years. It manufactures automatic meter reading systems, meters, and accessories -- products that support measurement, control, and data collection. Its products are guaranteed to deliver flawless service and value, year after year. Captive injection molding of precision gears and larger internal components is but one part of the vertically integrated Sensus operations in Pennsylvania. It has, for example, a bronze foundry onsite at its 255,000-sq-ft facility. With 500 employees to care for, worker safety is more than merely a set of procedures for doing business. 

But Sensus is business minded, especially when it comes to capital investment. Two years ago, two consultants were brought in to evaluate whether or not Sensus should even be in the molding business. It has molded its own parts since 1964. Richard Burkovich, senior supervisor of the molding area and the man in charge of mold development, has been there right from the beginning. Both consultants agreed that the company would be better off keeping molding inhouse. Both were that impressed with its high-quality yield. With Burkovich and Rick Zozula, manufacturing engineer at Sensus, Fafalios had already attended NPE ‘94 to look for a vendor of a special kind of system, one that would allow the company to transfer materials into containers that could be brought to its machines. “We can’t have 40+ silos,” Fafalios jokes. Sensus had three key requirements for selecting a vendor:

• The vendor had to be able to supply stainless steel units. That’s because Sensus
often molds parts in abrasive glass- and carbon-filled grades of materials like PS,
acetal, SAN, and PC. Its parts have to be durable enough to operate under 300 psi
of water pressure and to maintain accuracy for the life of the 10- to 20-year
warranties that the company has established for its products.

• The second requirement was that the materials handling system had to be designed
for making easy changeovers: “We do seven mold changes a day, and I see that
number rising,” says Fafalios.

• The third requirement was that the vendor be innovative. Fafalios says Sensus was
looking for someone to team up with, so, together, they could develop something
uniquely dedicated to Sensus’s unique requirements. Sensus selected Comet
Automation Systems (Dayton, OH).

The system they developed has been up and running on the company’s 25 larger tonnage presses since October 1996. Since that time, a minor fuse problem has been the only trouble Sensus has encountered. “We ran trials trying to see how much carbon-filled material we could run before we jammed up the filters. There were no problems,” Fafalios says.

In addition to proactively preventing employee injury, the Comet system also has played an important role in Fafalios’ continuing setup reduction program. The molding area presently runs five days a week in three shifts, generally at 80 percent uptime, with only five machine operators per shift (90 percent of its machines run automatic). Productivity gains have convinced Fafalios to upgrade his Comet material handling systems next year to work with Sensus’s 18 smaller tonnage, vertical injection presses, which mold precision gears. Meanwhile, worker safety is still the real story. “Safety is not a procedure, it’s a value, a personal value.” Fafalios is emphatic on this point. -- Carl Kirkland

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