Purging 101

How Can We Benefit You?

TECHNOLOGY

Cutting Edge Performance & Product Quality

Asaclean® offers the world's best-selling purging compounds that are guaranteed to help you reduce scrap and downtime and save money.

Asaclean® Purging Compounds were developed by Asahi Kasei Corporation's world-renowned research & development in Japan.

Our formulas have been engineered, tested, and improved over the past twenty-five years to offer the best Purging Compounds on the market.

What does this mean for you? When you choose Asaclean®, you choose superior product quality, consistency, & performance.

It also means you have an unrivaled product line with a solution for every processing issue you might encounter.

If you're using a purge supplier, you're already experiencing cost savings. But we're confident that you will see better savings when you switch to Asaclean®.

But that's not what really makes the Asaclean® Difference.

EXPERT TECHNICAL & PRODUCT SUPPORT

Our Team Understands What you're Dealing With

While there are high-quality purging compounds available, we are more than just MRO supplier.

We offer world-class purging compounds with expert complimentary ongoing service and training to match.

Asaclean® Technical Service Representative offer a unique level of service not found in other areas of the industry. Many of our Purging Experts used Asaclean® as customers themselves before joining our team.

Your point-of-contact isn't a salesperson. They are a processor.

With over 200 years of combined processing experience, we understand your issue and can offer solutions. We've seen it all and are here to help you.

When you work with Asaclean®, you have access to free ongoing consultations with a subject matter expert.

We Will Train Your Team to Be Asaclean® Purging Experts

Asaclean® Purging Compounds are incredibly easy to use, but you will only see your best results when you follow our recommended purging procedures.

When it comes to purging compounds, less is more.

We do not want you to use more Asaclean® than is necessary to achieve your best performance. If you use more than we recommend, your cost savings will drop.

We want you to get the absolute best performance using the least amount of Asaclean®. That is why we place such a premium on training your team.

All molders are dealing with slightly different challenges, so it's important that you follow the correct instructions.

That's where we come in.

When you select Asaclean®, we will diagnose your issues, build out a free Purge Program, and train your shifts on how to use Asaclean® to get the best results.

We will help you trial our product, provide in-person or virtual training, answer any questions, and be available however necessary to help your team succeed.

Sometimes keeping good labor can be difficult.

Don't worry. As you find new hires, we'll train them as well.

RELIABILITY

Robust Supply-Chain & JIT-Delivery

Plastics manufacturers are acutely aware of the headaches associated with supply-chain issues. Resin and other supply shortages can completely sabotage your ability to succeed.

If you choose Asaclean®, you won't have to worry about supply chain issues.

All our grades are in stock at multiple, strategically placed warehouses throughout North America. We offer JIT and same day shipment. We are flexible and sensitive to your needs.

As part of Asahi Kasei, we have a robust network of production facilities and warehouses and incredibly consistent product quality. We work tirelessly to improve our delivery times, local support, and customer support to improve how we best serve your market.

If you choose Asaclean®, you are choosing a reliable partner invested in your success.

A Holistic Approach: How We Help Different Team Members at Your Plant

Help us, help you.

We stated earlier that we are not an MRO Supplier—we're a solutions provider.

When we work with our customers, we dont just try to help on the production floor.

Our Purging Experts work with different departments within your plant to make everyone's lives easier. Our value doesn't stop at scrap rates and downtime.

We always look for ways we can help other key members of your team. Here are a few examples:

Process Engineers/Production

• Easier and more efficiency changeovers.
• Reduction of scrap, downtime, and other processing metrics.

Maintenance

• Safer, easier, and scheduled screw pulls. No more surprises. Screw pulls using Asaclean® EX are incredibly easy and safe. Look at this video to see what a difference EX can make for your plant.

• Less reactive maintenance and more focus on preventative maintenance. Maintenance usually has a list of preventative activities over certain time periods. As a best practice, you should hit 90% or more of those activities. If you lose time with unplanned/emergency maintenance, you won't be able to hit your other goals.
• We help you stay in control of your efficiency. If your machines are down due to a lack of preventative maintenance, your problems compound.

Buyer/Materials

• Inventory control. If you use virgin/regrind as purge, your buying team can have surprises. Inventory will stop matching, and you may not have the necessary material to run enough parts.
• Keeping on schedule with parts and production. Delivery times should be between 95-100%. You need to ship a set amount of parts on a specific deadline. you're asked to keep under a certain budget. Purge has an upfront cost, but not using purge can be much costlier. If you can't finish because you ran out of resin, then two things can hurt you:
  
  
  1. You will have to change your production schedule which will cause more changeovers than expected increasing the chance of contamination issues. This will necessitate using more purge.
  2. Your inbound/outbound costs will rise. You will probably have to expedite shipments to hit your deadlines. This kills your profit numbers.
• Helping you keep costs down. Every pound of product needs to be converted to a final good part to sale. Using Asaclean® helps you get the most out of your production resin so you need to buy smaller quantities less often.

Quality

• Fewer customer complaints. Asaclean® will help you deliver better parts to your customers. Quality departments will have far fewer complaints when contamination issues are removed.
• Improved “cost of quality.” Your cost of quality is how many dollars you need to spend to have a good part—or to prevent a customer from receiving a bad part. A Purge Program can help you prevent any issues that could cost you.
• Embrace a proactive mindset. You should never wait until a machine is dirty to address a problem. Sealing with Asaclean® during shutdowns and purging during changeovers can keep you defect-free.

Human Resources & EHS

• Fewer accidents and injuries. Safer purge procedures and standardized best practices can help your team avoid injuries. Using products like Asaclean® EX Grade during screw pulls avoids difficult cleaning and burn risks.
• Train with best practices. We train all members of your team to use our products the correct way. When rules are easily-defined and enforced, you will have less risk of something going wrong.
• Asaclean® Purging Compounds comply with rules, standards, and laws. We have clear documentation for our product.
• Plastic Disposal Reduction. By reducing scrap, you will also decrease the cost of moving scrap out of the plant or to a landfill. We also reduce the energy lost during downtime or while running bad parts. You will have better efficiency with your raw goods and with the cost of running your machine.

Plant Managers & Finance

• Asaclean® will help your plant reduce scrap and downtime. This has a dramatic impact on overall cost savings. When you consider payroll, machine run rates, the cost of bad parts, and the opportunity cost of not being able to run good parts while you struggle with contamination, you may be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. Asaclean® will help you increase your profit potential.
• If properly measured, Asaclean® savings will be reflected in your P&L.

Hopefully these examples will give your team an idea of the impact we can have on your entire operation.

If someone on your team doesn't understand the value of Asaclean®, we are here to work with you so you feel you're getting what you need out of our relationship.

We only succeed if you succeed.

But maybe you're still not convinced. Maybe you think you know a better way.

Let's take a closer look at some of the “better” options we see when we visit plants.

When you try to take a shortcut, you may be doing more harm than good.

Virgin Resin & Regrind Are Not Designed to Clean

To save money, some plastics processing manufacturers turn to a cheaper, lower-quality virgin resin to address their purge problems. However, this tends to make purging problems even worse.

“Old school” purging methods — such as flushing the machine with the next resin or regrind — are time-consuming, material-wasting, and ineffective at removing color and carbon contamination. These materials are not designed to clean machines. When using regrind or virgin resins to purge, the material simply creates another layer over any existing resin layers, color deposits, and carbonized material within the barrel. The most common situation we run into is a plant using virgin resin or regrind to facilitate changeovers. Historically, they look at the price of the production resin and tell us that they're okay taking a little longer on changeovers because the cost of resin is cheap.

Over time you will have contamination issues that will bring production to a screeching halt.

Virgin Resin Costs Are Rising

The cost of production resin isn't so cheap anymore, and supply-chain issues make commodity and engineering resins much harder to come by.

You can't afford to waste production material.

It's scarce and costly.

Regrind Isn't Free

“We'll just use regrind. It's free.” These are famous last words.

Regrind will cost you in the long run.

We've already mentioned layering, but contamination occurs even faster with regrind.

Regrind has already been processed and probably has degraded slightly. You will end up with black specks and unplanned downtime. There are times when regrind is good enough to make end parts. But regrind will never clean your machine. The energy necessary to make the runners as well as the material cost itself are the first true costs of regrind.

Next, consider the energy and time needed to run the grinder. Also, if regrind isn't recycled back into the process at the side of the machine, these grinds will need to be managed. Overall, regrind leads to further energy, material and labor costs which are easily avoided with Asaclean®.

In-House Purge or DIY Options

DIY & In-house purge solutions vary widely, but they are largely ineffective.

Our team has seen it all. During visits we've run into processors using Tide, wood chips, water, hand soap, and soda to try to clean their machines.

This leads to contamination issues, usually requires more frequent teardowns, and may even damage your machine over time. You wouldn't pour olive oil into your engine or try to clean your laundry without detergent. Use the right product for the job. You'll thank yourself later.

With These Options, Your Machine Life & Performance Will Suffer

Over time, contamination can impact screw and die life which hurts your efficiency and puts more pressure on your maintenance team. Using a Purging Compound extends the performance and lifetime of your parts. That's why several injection molding machine manufacturers, hot runner system manufacturers, and extruder manufacturers recommend Asaclean® for keeping their machines clean.

Once your machine starts showing wear, you could be looking at much greater costs. Replacing molds, screws, dies, or barrels can destroy your profit margins.

After 25 years, Asaclean® has never had a customer report screw or machine damage due to using our products.

Auto-Purge Settings Sabotage Your Savings

Many new machines come equipped with Auto-Purge settings. With so many technicians involved with the purging and cleaning process of their machines, usually across multiple shifts, processors and convertors struggle with getting everyone on same page with using a standard operating procedure (SOP). It's reasonable and understandable how an Auto-Purge function can be attractive.

Unfortunately, there are 2 reasons why Auto-Purge usually hurts the performance of your purging compounds.

1. One Size Doesn't Fit All

The functionality on your machine makes generalized recommendations to 'purge' the machine-meaning remove the material inside- but do not consider how purging compounds are supposed to be used. These features are not specific to the suppliers' purge instructions. We recommend different procedures for different situations. Furthermore, Auto-Purge doesn't offer options for Chemical Purging Compounds. You could be destroying your savings with the push of a button.

2. Auto-Purge doesn't Account for Cost-Per-Purge

Auto-Purge may push material out of the barrel, but it simply doesn't take your Cost-per-purge into consideration. For example, it neglects to account for how long the purging process takes (overall downtime) and how much weight of purge is used for a thorough cleaning and to get the job done. This tracks towards taking longer while using more quantity purge to complete the purging process. This leads towards higher cost-per-purge, inevitably resulting in spending more money than needed.

Most reputable commercial purge suppliers put a tremendous amount of R&D work into their purge products. They've spent countless hours perfecting their purge process over many years. Unless you can pre-program the Auto-Purge function using the Asaclean®'s recommendations, we recommend you avoid using it.