IS YOUR PRODUCT SAFE FROM POTENTIAL LITIGATION?
As a manufacturer in the Hot Air Tube Sealing industry the possibility of litigation involving your product or the relationship with your vendors never seems to be far from consideration. In an industry with few set standards and numerous different procedures in production, the opportunity to point fingers is all too easy. With large investments in brand building at stake it is curious how an entire industry has sidestepped Quality Control standards that prevent litigation.
Ask Yourself:
- Do you consistently check your product against standards through ALL manufacturing process?
- Do you consistently test your product’s packaging with a standardized or scientific measurement?
- Do you test and record the packaging parameters like burst pressure for plastic squeeze tubes?
- When purchasing containers like plastic squeeze tube do you specify the parameters like burst pressure to the container manufacturer?
- Do the container manufacturers provide test parameters prior to shipping for your approval.
- Do you test incoming packaging to insure it meets your physical requirements
If you answered NO to any of the above questions, it is potentially affecting your profitability as well as opening your company to potential litigation.\
How to Protect Your Brand With QC Data
AnC Precision has been helping manufacturers establish Quality Controls in their production process for over 20 years. In the Past several years our involvement in litigation cases has grown because of our industry knowledge and scientific measurements on Tubes done in our laboratory in Gardnerville Nevada. There are a few easy steps to help your company protect its brand in the case of immediate litigation case or future concerns of litigation.
- If Your company or brand are currently involved in litigation or need help in determining if your current tube lot is indeed causing a current defect or challenge to successful sealing process, you can contact AnC Precision for expert witness testimony, certification testing of tube lots being challenged, or to help set up standards for production with that particular type of tube.
- You can add destructive testing to your process as a layer of QC that can be measured, tracked as data is collected on every lot. This is both valuable to the tube manufacturer and the product manufacturer using the tube. As a tube manufacturer, your ability to certify a particular tube for production allows you provide industry standards for successful runs and help your clients eliminate mistakes and waste using your products. AS the product manufacturer, your ability to test your new batch of tubes on your assembly line, ensures that the tube can handle the speed, and settings of your current process and if not helps you identify the area that needs improvement.
In both cases data collection is key in preventing claims against or for your case in litigation.
One of the problems that are part of the Plastic Tube Industry is the lack of standards:
In the past 20 years in the Plastic Tube Industry there has seen many advanced developments in new types of tubes, often more complex in materials and technology, However, as a group the industry has done little to add the ability to validate, set specifications, or measure these new tubes in the very processes they were created to improve.
Many of the popular US tube manufacturing companies provide Companies like Albea and Essel Propack and others provide quality tubes to the industry. These tubes may be produced in places like China, India and other places around the world. They are shipped all around the world for pharmaceuticals, personal care, cosmetics and even food products. However, the packaging companies that receive these tubes perform only rudimentary testing (nondestructive). This often includes: weight, thickness of materials, and physical measurements of diameter. There is no destructive test made on the tube i.e. can the tube be sealed?; a rather important metric of the tube’s performance, however it is not tested, in fact is never tested.
The missing link is certifiable validation insuring the tube’s seal quality is a repeatable parameter which will clearly define what 
the tube is capable of achieving. This testing and validation should be done at the location the tubes are being manufactured prior to shipping to the customer, the customer needs to validate the product prior to accepting it into inventory, and randomly throughout the filling process.
In the tube filling process a number of things can go wrong causing a loss of productivity, product and time. The problem could be caused by: the tube, the machine, the setup technician, the choice of tooling, or the product compatibility. The more information that you have the faster and easier it is to solve. For example if the tube has been tested (destructive) and certified then it can be ruled out, leaving either the machine or the product. Most popular production machines provide little to no feedback on the sealing process. They may display temperature and time, but sealing pressure, sealing jaw gap distance and other useful information is not provided. This makes it more difficult for the technician to determine the cause of the problem.
Presently only qualitative testing (go/no-go line) is performed at the time of final sealing of the tube by the production workers. Primitive tests like hand squeezing, physically stepping on, or using a set pressure on an air cylinder to squeeze the tube is not adequate QC.
AnC RECENT LITIGATION EXPERIENCE:
In a recent case involving Brinkerhoff Law Offices in Casper Wyoming, AnC Precision was an expert witness in a case between two parties in our industry. Using the Scientific Instruments at AnC Precision (TS-100 and the PTS-100) and our Gardnerville NV Laboratory, AnC successfully helped a tube Manufacturer prove that their tube was indeed certified to handle the type of production it promised and that in this case the error was in the setup of the production process.
To win the Case AnC tested the same Lot of Tubes in question with a qualitative burst testing using our patented PTS-100 Instrument and duplicated the production process by customizing the settings on the TS-100 Sealing instrument to meet the exact specifications of the complainants machine. By discovering the Lots individual Fingerprint during the burst testing process were able to give the courts a qualitative and quantitative result that certified that the tube manufacturer had indeed produced a quality tube capable of handling the type of product and process that was being used in this case.
AnC is proud to help the industry resolve these issues and we are the only company that offers these unique abilities, and has one all prior expert witness cases.
Is Private Certification the Only Way
AnC Precision has been helping companies in the tube sealing industry for over 20 years. Their line of hot air tube sealing machines and test certification instruments are available for purchase and are designed to be small enough and affordable enough for every production facility large and small to use in either establishing a new production line or by adding to an existing line to enhance QC.
- Tube sealing: We produce the TS-100 https://ancprecision.com/our-equipment/ts100/ which seals tubes and measures and records all of the sealing parameters, heat, dwell, seal time, seal pressure etc. We even recently patented a new
visual method called “Fingerprint” that graphically shows all of the parameters in a visual format. - Destructive Tube testing: AnC produces the PTS-100 https://ancprecision.com/our-equipment/pts100/ that is a calibrated instrument, doing destructive measurable testing; recording exactly how much pressure is required for the side seam seal, header seal and/or the end seal to fail. The tube is tested in a chamber and small pinhole leaks can be detected as well.
AnC QUALIFICATIONS:
AnC began over 30 years ago as an Aerospace research and development manufacturing company. We are approved suppliers for Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, NASA, JPL, L3 Communications, and others in the aerospace and scientific industries. We are held to the highest manufacturing standards on earth, and privileged to work with the top scientific personnel here and abroad.
AnC began making precision tooling/change parts for a major global tube sealing equipment manufacturer over 20 years ago. This resulted in a change of direction for the company 15 years ago, seeing an opportunity in the packaging industry to diversify our goals. We have now helped hundreds of companies improve performance and profits with our customized services and QC instruments.
AnC LABORATORY TEST FACILITIES:
AnC Precision Engineering designs and manufactures the world’s finest tube sealing and testing machinery on the market. We also provide world class training and industry leading product testing in our laboratory. We have also set up an OEM tooling program utilizing our scientific expertise and capabilities for the Packaging Industry. This program has lead to lower prices and faster lead times for one of the largest packaging companies in the world, increasing profits as compared to other OEM suppliers and our goal is and has been a one day turnaround on all OEM tooling parts.
For more information about the tools and services offered at AnC or to contact us directly for a current problem you need solved please contact us on our website at www.ancprecision.com