Experienced Plasticologist Saves Buyers Time and Money

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(Newswire.net — March 2, 2016) Anaheim, CA — If you listen to Grandpa or perhaps even your father, he might tell you that ‘I worked for that company for 40 years’, or ‘I was a company man’. It was common place for employees to start at a company, and work their way up the corporate ladder, and then retire from that company.

That employment model is long gone, and it is now much more common for employees to have a dozen or more jobs during their career. While many will stay in one field, most jump from opportunity to opportunity, and only stay in a vaguely similar style job focus.

This is certainly common, but not universally true. Some companies still work hard at gathering high quality employees, nurturing that staff, and retaining them for many years. One such company is Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc. of Anaheim, CA. The company was founded in 1975 with a focus on supplying high quality performance plastics to Southern California based machine shops and OEM companies. The management sought out the best talent in the industry to build a strong support staff, and building a top notch team of plastic professionals.

Currently, the sales staff consists of 3 field sales people, and 13 trained inside sales people. These are not just run of the mill, gathered from a wide variety of previous employers.

These 16 quality customer service people have a combined total of 306 years of plastic sheet, rod and tube experience. This means that when a client calls with an unusual inquiry, it is probable that one of these experienced staff members has worked on a project that is similar in the past. These years of experience are all in the plastic sheet and rod industry, and have continued their training while at Industrial Plastic Supply. The entire staff has been through the IAPD Performance Plastics Level 1 sales training program, and many have completed Performance Plastics Level 2 training as well.

Why does this experience matter?

There are over 80 standard plastic materials available in sheet, rod and tube. And more importantly, these materials are all different. They have different physical properties, and react differently to environmental, temperature and even machining forces. Some materials will work, and other may not work for the same application. Most consumers believe all plastic materials are UV stabled for outdoor use, and nothing could be further from the truth. Having an experienced consultant available to answer the tough questions often saves clients hours of time and hundreds of dollars in trial and error.

Where The Experience Meets Savings

One recent example of this is a client that called and asked for 5.0” diameter Dupont Delrin Rod. While this is an available item, the customer service person at Industrial Plastic Supply asked some questions. The first question was, ‘how long is the part’? And the second question was, ‘do you require Dupont Delrin brand rod for this part’? Why would they ask those questions? The answer is simple if you know the physical properties of Dupont Delrin in rod. The Delrin brand material is known to have center-line porosity. This means that at the center of a large diameter rod, there will be micro porosity. And the larger the diameter, the more prevalent the porosity is. In the 5.0” diameter Delrin rod, there could be an area, all along the length of the rod, where the center of the rod could have as large as 3/8” diameter of porosity. In many instances, the client just wants an easy to machine plastic, and the generic Acetal Copolymer will meet all the requirements.

It turns out that this customer was cutting 1.0” thick wafers of the 5.0” diameter rod, and was machining these ‘discs’ into finished parts. They needed the center to be solid, and could not have the porosity in the center. The experienced sales person offer a simple solution, they offered 1.0” thick sheet turned to 5.0” diameter. This eliminated the problem at the center of the disc, and the very minor porosity in the center of the 1.0” plate was not a problem.

Another interesting application was from a food processor. They produced fruit filled pies, and the stirring equipment they used to blend the hot cherry filling required constant repair. The paddles used in the mixer were made from a 40% glass filled PPS (referred to on the print as R4). Glass filled PPS is not a FDA compliant material and our field salesperson mentioned this. The customer was shocked, and did some research on their own to verify this statement. Within days, our team was working on replacement materials that would work. After evaluating the temperature, acidity of the mix and the pressures on the paddle, Industrial Plastic Supply recommended a PEEK (PolyEtherEtherKetone – commonly called Victrex 450g PEEK) material for the paddle. The client was unhappy with the price of the material, as PEEK is very expensive. Many other materials were tried, and all failed quickly, but after changing to PEEK, the problems disappeared, and the paddles perform significantly better than any other material and have lasted for many years.

What is a Plasticologist?

Over the years, Industrial Plastic Supply’s support team has been trained by IAPD (Certified), and most of the major manufacturers of materials. This training and extensive experience makes for a well balanced customer service person. About 10 years ago, several of Industrial Plastic’s clients started to call the customer service staff ‘Plasticologists’, because of the ability to solve difficult problems. With an average of 19+ years of plastic sheet, rod and tube distribution, most of the sales team would qualify as an expert, and the team is more than happy to share this industry insight. While these customer service people are not engineers, they can certainly supply the information needed to make an informed decision.

Contact one of Industrial Plastic Supply’s Plasticologists today for assistance with your difficult plastic requirements.

About Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc

Since 1975, Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc. has provided high quality plastic sheet, rod and tube materials to industry. Over 80 plastic material types in a huge range of sizes, all in stock and ready to ship. Cut to size parts and near net shapes are a specialty. When you need quality materials, and need them now, go to Industrial Plastic Supply.

Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc

2240 S. Dupont Drive
Anaheim, CA 92806
United States
7149783520
info@iplasticsupply.com
http://www.iplasticsupply.com