JOURNAL OF POLYMER ENGINEERING

Vol. 22, No. 5, 2002, page 305

MULTIPLE QUALITY CRITERIA OPTIMIZATION IN REACTIVE IN-MOLD COATING WITH A DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS APPROACH

Mauricio Cabrera-Ríos¹, José M. Castro^2,, Clark A. Mount-Campbell³

¹Postdoctoral Researcher, Email address: cabrera-rios.1@osu.edu

²Professor, Email address: castro.38@osu.edu

³ Associate Professor, Email address: mount-campbell.1@osu.edu

Department of Industrial, Welding, and Systems Engineering

The Ohio State University

210 Baker Systems, 1971 Neil Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA

Tel.: 614-688-4173

Fax: 614-292-7852

Abstract

      Reactive in-mold coating (IMC) products have been used successfully for many years to improve the surface quality of Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) compression molded parts. IMC provides a smooth, sealed surface used as conductive or non-conductive primer for subsequent finished painting operations. The success of IMC for SMC pans has recently attracted the interest of thermoplastic injection molders. The potential environmental and economic benefits of using IMC as a primer and, in the ideal case, to replace painting completely are large. Most optimization studies in Reactive Polymer Processing involve a compromise between different performance measures. In most cases the controllable variables have a conflicting effect on the relevant performance measures. IMC is not the exception. These performance measures need to be balanced, each against the other, in order to obtain the best compromise. The ideal compromise will depend on the final part quality requirements. In this work, the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is explored to identify the best compromises among several performance measures. We have selected two case studies to illustrate the use of this technique. In the first case, we apply DEA to select the locations for two IMC injection nozzles for a thermoplastic part to optimize two quality measures. In the second case, we study the simultaneous optimization of cycle time, surface quality, and dimensional consistency for SMC pans. The first case is aimed to demonstrate the application of DEA with a simple example; in fact, the best compromises in such example could have been identified graphically. The 'second case, however, provides an example where the multidimensionality of the problem makes the use of DEA critical to elicit a proper solution.

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