At UniTherm International it is our goal to provide outstanding experiences and solutions for our customers. If you are in the plastics industry this post can serve as a guide to the process of outfitting your facility with UniTherm products.
Our sales process almost always begins with a series of phone calls or emails to discuss the potential of installing UniTherm insulation jackets on your machines. Once a decision has been made on your end to move forward either into a purchase or detailed quote of insulation jackets, it may be necessary for a UniTherm representative to make a site visit.
Below is an overview of what you can expect during the site visit, as well as some additional services we have to offer.
- When our representative first arrives at your facility a meeting with the decision makers is generally the first item on the agenda. This is a great opportunity to answer any questions that may not have been covered during the preceding conversations and also to give the production manager, plant manager, financial director or company owner a complete presentation of UniTherm, its products and services. During this meeting we can also discuss key points of the process including possible incentives and rebates from your energy provider.
After the initial meeting, we’re ready to put our safety goggles on and get a little dirty out in the shop. We will bring everything we need to measure your machines for insulation jackets – we only ask that you give us access to everything you want insulated by removing any shrouds or other protective barriers.- For injection molding barrels, our jackets go directly on the barrel, right over the heater bands so we will measure the outer diameter (OD) of the barrel, and the width between thermocouples (Note: if you do not use terminal boxes, and have exposed terminal posts and bare wire, our jackets meet the OSHA requirements to go right over these items). Our representative will also measure the nozzle of your machine for DroolShields. It is important to note that measuring machines for our insulation jackets is not a difficult task. While we are happy to have a local representative come in and measure, many of our customers do this step of the process themselves and fill in our measure sheet.
In some cases we offer energy and thermography studies particularly if you require documented proof of energy savings to qualify for energy incentives. For these tests we will provide a set of standard insulation jackets simply for the purpose of getting before and after readings.
- The energy study primarily deals with the amount of energy consumed at the barrel before insulation and after our insulation blankets are installed. This test can take up to 4 hours to run and will require that the machine is operational and running a part during the study.
- The thermography study provides you a series of images showing the heat lost from machines without and with insulation. These images give a realistic look at just how much heat you loose (and therefore energy) when your machines aren’t insulated. They also provide a picture of the safety and facility cooling benefits insulation jackets provide.
Once we have all of your machine measurements, and energy and thermography study findings (where appropriate) we will assemble a detailed quote and payback/ROI analysis. Upon your approval of the quote and PO submission (or payment by credit card) we submit the job to our shop for manufacturing.- Manufacturing time is 3-4 weeks for most orders with options to rush the job if you require a quicker turnaround. (Additional fees apply for rush orders). Your order will be sent to you upon completion.
Installation is typically very straightforward and can be done by your staff, however we do offer installation services when it is necessary. We make installing the jackets simple by printing numbered tags on each jacket that identify which machine, and which zone of the machine each jacket belongs on. UniTherm insulation jackets do not use hook and wire or any similar cumbersome fastening system – they use a high temperature cloth strap and buckle and when necessary magnets to secure jackets around (or to) machine barrels, extruders, dies, and molds.- Part of providing an outstanding experience for our customers is to provide support for our products. If you have questions or concerns either a local representative or one of our UniTherm team members will be happy to answer questions or troubleshoot issues. We also offer a 5-year warranty that applies to all of our products that are used under normal operating conditions. Contact UniTherm either by phone at 800-657-9542 or email at info@unitherm.com.
- We love hearing back from our customers about how much energy is being saved and how our products are benefiting your facility. If you are interested in featuring your facility in one of our product case studies give us a call and our marketing department will coordinate with you to get that done. Of coarse referrals are also always appreciated and we hope you will tell your colleagues about UniTherm insulation jackets for plastics manufacturing.