TEM Journal 5(2) 175–179

Monitoring of the Production Process in Mass

Production of Dimensionally Accurate
Products
Jozef Dobránsky 1, Juraj Ružbarský 1, Dušan Manduľák 2, Eva Vojnová 2
1
Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies with a seat in Prešov, Štúrova 31,
Prešov, Slovak Republic
1 Presov Tool Making Company Ltd., Ľubochnianska 2407/2, Prešov - Ľubotice, Slovak Republic
2 st

Abstract – The main goal of the presented paperis to applicability. APQP advantage is that it focuses on
assess the capability of the measurement system and customer needs and expectations, while trying to
then evaluate the process capability in mass production connect them to the personal needs of the society.
of plastic moldings. The goal is to perform the To avoid financial losses or failure in fulfillment of
measurement of a dimension characteristic serving to
customer’s requirements (claims), it is necessary to
assess the capability of the measuring system or
measurement equipment and capability of production monitor the production process. Before the data
process. After the measurements were finished, collection for the calculation of index capability, it is
measurement capability was evaluated through the necessary to check the measuring system of the
analysis of the measurement system and capability of chosen quality character that the results obtained
the production process with the help of capability properly represent the true process capability.
indices C p , C pk . Based on the analysis of measurement Measurement system is a complete process for
system it will be evaluated if the capability of the obtaining measurement data that is set of operations,
measurement system is acceptable. procedures, instruments and other equipment,
Keywords – capability, production process, plastic software, staff used for assignment of numerical
moldings, dimension characteristics.
values to the measured characters. Assessment of the
measurement quality is made on the basis of
1. Introduction
statistical characteristics: measurement bias,
measurement consistency, repeatability,
At the present, great emphasis is placed on
reproducibility of measurement, measurement
providing quality products because the quality
stability and linearity of measurement. The most
ensures a good market position. The application of
important components are the measurement accuracy
advanced quality planning offers the possibility of
and consistency of measurement bias. This method is
competitiveness increase for the companies. APQP
used when introducing new products to the mass
was first introduced by automotive companies to
production, where bias and precision measurement in
ensure an increased quality of products or services
repeatability conditions are considered, which better
offered. It contains methods through which the
depict the actual conditions of use in measurement
process is monitored before performing the actual
system, because measurement conditions in practice
production, but also during it. Nowadays many
cannot be ensured - operator carrying out the
companies, regardless of the type of production, use
measurements is changed frequently. The method
this method for increasing quality due to easiness in
consists of measurements done by 3 different
operators who consistently measured 10 products in
DOI: 10.18421/TEM52-09 three measurement cycles.
https://dx.doi.org/10.18421/TEM52-09 A very important factor determining the quality of
products is quality of processes, through which the
Corresponding author: Jozef Dobránsky - Technical products originated. The quality of processes can be
University of Košice, Slovak Republic assessed through their capabilities - the ability to
Email: [email protected] permanently achieve predetermined criteria.
© 2016 Jozef Dobránsky et al, published by
UIKTEN. This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
License. The article is published with Open Access at
www.temjournal.com

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 TEM Journal 5(2) 175–179

Knowledge of the process capability is important by three operators. Each of them measured in three
for: cycles ten randomly selected parts of each cavity.

• customer who has proof that the product Table 1.Measurement distribution list
originated in stable conditions ensuring A B C
compliance with the prescribed quality 1 6 1 1 1 2
criteria,
2 9 2 7 2 6
• themanufacturer, allowing him to choose a
suitable process for the manufacture of 3 1 3 2 3 3
certain products, to estimate the risk of 4 7 4 4 4 8
nonconforming products, to plan preventive 5 2 5 8 5 5
and corrective measures and to assess their 6 3 6 10 6 7
effectiveness.
7 5 7 3 7 4
8 8 8 6 8 10
2. Experimental Procedure 9 4 9 9 9 1
Measured plastic molding 10 10 10 5 10 9

The measurements were performed on plastic The measurement distribution list shown in Table
molding, which is shown in Figure 1. It is the 1.determines the order of components in which they
molding which is often used in shock absorbers for were measured. After the necessary measurements
chassis of passenger cars. The product is made by for all cavities the evaluation of reproducibility and
injection molding, and after the removal from the repeatability proceeded. Based on the collected data
mold it goes to the finish where the rubber is the capacity of measurement system was assessed. In
deployed into the interior of the mold through order to consider the measurement system as
vulcanization. acceptable, the final value of repeatability and
reproducibility % R & R must be less than 10%.

Indices of process capability

If the index is C p = 1.0, it is expected that 99.73%

of the parts will be within the tolerance, provided that
the data are centered around the target. The higher
the value of the security, the more parts are within
the tolerance limits. For example if C p = 1.33, it can
be expected that 99.994% will be located within the
tolerance limits. Where C p = 1,0 within 100 000
parts, it is assumed that 270 from them are out of
tolerance. The lower the value C p , the greater the
failure.
C p is the only measure of quality levels. It does not
take into account whether or not the data is centered
Figure 1.Measured product
around the target. If the data is not centered around
the target value, the C p maintains the "False sense of
The material, of which it is composed, comprises security." Therefore, it is useful to use index C pk .
PA 6.6 polyamide (nylon), When:
polyhexamethyleneadipamide, and reinforced glass
fibers (30%) which make it resistant to the flexibility
• C pk < 0, the process is centered outside the
and the plastic coat itself has very good last.
tolerance limits;
• C pk = 0, the process is centered on one of the
Assessment of the capability of the measurement
tolerance limits;
system – MSA
• C pk < 1, unsuited production process - a
process unable to meet the prescribed values;
The measurement consisted of two phases. For the
verification of the measurement system, the • C pk ≤ 1.25, the production process is good fit
measurement was performed, which was carried out for everyday products;

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 TEM Journal 5(2) 175–179

• C pk ≤ 1.45, it is introduced production 0.000 or 0.010. In the case of operators A and B, the
process or well-run production process value of the margin was 0,010 in five parts and the
related to the security and is good fit; operator C has scored it in six parts.
• C pk ≤ 1.6, introduced production process
related to the security that is well capable.

3. Results and Discussion

Assessment of the capability of the measurement

system – MSA

Prior to evaluation of capability of the production

process, it was necessary to perform the assessment
Figure 3.Graph of the range for measured values for
of the entire measurement system. For this
verification the MSA method was used. cavity 1

Figure 4.shows a graph of average values, so-

called control chart in tolerance limits between UCL
equals the value of 39.757 mm and LCL with a value
of 39.746 mm.

Figure 2.Geometric dimensions of measured panel Figure 4.Graph of average values for cavity 1

Before the evaluation it is important to note that For operator A the two parts (panel 1 and 3) occur
the present injection molding part is manufactured in in the tolerance limits, the penultimate is found in the
double injection mold, so randomly parts of the two upper limit of tolerance limits (UCL).The operator B
cavities were selected for better measurement system shows 8 parts outside the tolerance limits. The
evaluation. In the figure 2.can be seen that the operator C recorded the smallest fluctuations in the
dimension of 39.85 mm with a tolerance of ± 0.15 UCL and LCL.
mm was measured.
Measurement was carried out by three operators: The cavity 2

• A - Operator 1, From the cavity 2, ten random components were

selected. In the calculation, the same procedure was
• B - Operator 2,
used as in the cavity 1. The resulting value of the
• C - Operator 3.
repeatability and reproducibility is the percentage of
7.14%. This value falls below 10%, so the system
The cavity 1
can be assessed as acceptable.
For length measurement of 39.85 mm (cavity 2)
On the basis of measurements and calculations, it
the graph in Figure 5.is shown. The first operator A
is possible to assess the measurement system as
shows the numerical value between the values of
acceptable as the percentage of the final repeatability
0.000 and 0.010. Half of the measured values has a
and reproducibility is 5.73%.
numeric value 0.010 mm.
UCL is the upper tolerance limit and equals 0.014
For the second and the third operator (B, C), the
mm, and in either case has been recorded crossing
first panel exceeds the upper limit of the tolerance
the limit. From the interval graph shown in Figure
margin and reaches up to 0,020 mm. Other parts are
3.it is visible that all operators reached the margin of
under the UCL, and parts 2,3,8 and 9 reach the zero

TEM Journal – Volume 5 / Number 2 / 2016. 177

 TEM Journal 5(2) 175–179

range, the remaining parts have a value of the margin

0.010 mm.

Figure 7.Histogram – cavity 1 (39.85 mm)

For dimension measurement of 30.0 mm the same

Figure 5.Graph of the range for measured values for formulas as in the previous dimension were used. In
cavity 2 this case, the tolerance is ± 0.10mm.
Capability indices (C p = 6.954, C pk = 6.502) are in
In case of cavity 2 the average values range value excess of 1.33, confirming that the process is in
similarly to the cavity 1 - beyond tolerance limits well controlled state not only in terms of the potential
(UCL = 39.768 mm and LCL = 39.755 mm). The aspect but as well the practical one too.
operator C recorded the greatest variance of average
values in the measurement and the smallest was
recorded by the operator A.

Figure 8.Histogram – cavity1 (30.0 mm)

The cavity 2
Figure 6.Graph of average values for cavity 2
In both dimensions (39.85 mm and 30.00 mm) the
Assessment of the capability of the production capability indices C p and C pk are in excess of 1.33.
process The process is therefore in well controlled state. The
process is still able to meet the main prescribed
The Cavity 1 tolerances, but does not meet the tolerances that have
been designed for Gauss’ curve.
After the measurements the calculation was done.
When measuring the length dimension of 39.85 mm
with a tolerance of ± 0.15 mm the upper and lower
tolerance limits (USL = 40 mm; LSL = 39.7 mm)
were set up. When selecting the maximum (X max =
39.75 mm) and minimum (X min = 39.74 mm) values
from all measurement data the range was determined,
which is the difference between these two values (R
= 0.01 mm). Arithmetic mean value (μ) is equal to
39.7735 mm.
After determining these fundamental values, the
indices of the first class - C p and C pk were estimated Figure 9.Histogram – cavity 2 (39.85 mm)
further. The value C p is equal to 5.111 which means
very good compliance with the process capability.
For accurate determination the C pk was used and this
confirmed that it is a good fitted production process.

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 TEM Journal 5(2) 175–179

By size measurements 30 mm in the cavity 2, this Acknowledgements

value was recorded up to 62 times from the total
number of 100. Therefore, the histogram peak is The research work was supported by project VEGA
located at the nominal value limit (Fig. 10.). Normal 1/0381/15.
distribution is in this case a bell-shaped, however the
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TEM Journal – Volume 5 / Number 2 / 2016. 179