CASE STUDY
PVC PIPES AND FITTINGS MANUFACTURER
Raab Sales was contacted to assist a North American manufacturer of injection-mold PVC pipes and fittings. Over 50 years, this company has re-engineered the standard PVC pipe by using PVC derivatives like PVC-O to create pipes and fittings that can last for over 100 years and require 40% less material to produce than traditional PVC. They serve multiple industries spanning from municipalities to agriculture to turf irrigation.
This manufacturing facility is located in the central plains and prints essential data and codes on long stretches of PVC pipe in various diameter sizes.
CHALLENGES
With the company’s core focus on efficiency and sustainability, they are committed to reducing waste at every stage of the manufacturing process. Raab Sales was contracted by the head of production when significant reliability issues stated eating into the company’s bottom line.
The antiquated high-resolution inkjet printers used a specific ink formulation that was constantly drying on the surface of the printhead, causing clogs and illegible print. This required maintenance staff to regularly rehydrate the surface with expensive solvents.
SOLUTION
Raab Sales replaced their old technology with Squid CoPilot 128 printing systems with 500mL ink delivery systems allowing longer run times between refills. In addition, the non-porous, solvent-based ink also eliminated clogged printheads from the equation and provided superior letter-quality print.
RESULTS
Immediately after installing the CoPilot 128 printing systems, our customer experienced significant gains in efficiency. The new ink formulation is a fraction of the cost and substantially reduces the use of solvent/cleaner fluids, increases reliability, and improves letter quality.
