Case Studies

December 27th, 2004

Thermal?s rapid action minimizes manufacturer?s downtime

?Downtime is a dirty word in our industry, and Thermal does everything they can to see that downtime is not a problem,? says a purchasing manager for the customer. The plant is an
operating unit of one of the world?s largest independent manufacturers of automotive components.

In this situation, a mold used to make a specific part had been out of service for several years. While in storage, moisture caused the mold?s heaters to fail. A mid-morning call to Thermal resulted in a late afternoon special delivery of six heaters, each with a different configuration. The manufacturer?s second shift installed the heaters and produced their customer?s order without delay.

Already a customer for Thermal cartridge heaters, band heaters and thermocouples, all tailored to meet specific production needs, he called on Thermal to create a large diameter cartridge heater.

?At my request, Thermal manufactured a custom 11/16" cartridge heater for a particular application,? he explains, and because Thermal had never produced a heater to those specifications before, ?they built and installed a full set of heaters as a test,? to ensure success.

Thermal?s commitment also extends to those rare but inevitable occasions when a part fails. ?Thermal isn?t hesitant to bear the cost of a failed part, or to send out an engineer to investigate an application problem. Thermal?s engineers work closely with our engineers to ensure that we get more even heat distribution across our tooling.?