Polyplas helps Lincat reduce service call outs for industrial pie warming range
Polyplas Ltd, one of the leading UK plastic extrusion companies, has been working with Lincat, a leading manufacturer of professional kitchen equipment since 2001. Find out how our expertise in plastic led to solving a problem that saved the company hundreds of hours of lost service time and restored valuable uptime to their customers.
The challenge
Lincat was having to handle a rising number of aftersales call outs because of rigid PVC profiles on their pie case glass doors softening at 60-80 degrees. For some time, Lincat had partnered with a supplier who could only offer profiles in PVC.
With food trolleys kept at a certain high temperature, it is universally recognised that a rigid PVC channel starts to deform when the door slides open and closed. At reaching and exceeding a 60 degree temperature, plastic profile melting meant mis-shaping and risked the glass doors shattering.
The approach
As with many projects that are presented to our team, the solution lay in researching, testing and changing the polymer. Because we are adept in working with a range of plastics, we trialled PPE + PSI (Luranyl) which had much higher heat distortion properties. In fact, it can operate in temperatures of up to 105 degrees.
Result
Polyplas solved a manufacturing problem that had a significant impact on the product quality and efficacy in the field. There was an immediate reduction in unscheduled callouts to inspect and repair failing equipment.
Comments
“We understood this was quite a challenge when it presented itself for the customer”, says Claire Tidman, office manager. “We helped Lincat reduce annual callouts down to just one in twelve months”.
“It was also the first time we had worked with PPE + PPS at high heat. Not only was it successful for this customer but it led to projects in other high heat applications. We’ve seen consistent work from that die and also in high heat to this day.”
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