Partnerships with Academia: Beaming with Success
Mercury Plastics and Kent State University designed a
win/win alliance that could be the model for any business strategy.
by Tom Andel, chief editor
Strategy is defined in The American College Dictionary as
"skillful management in getting the better of an adversary or attaining an
end." Bill Rowley wanted to achieve both components of that definition. As
president of Mercury Plastics Inc. (MPI), a Middlefield, Ohio-based
manufacturer of tubing used in plumbing products, his options for gaining a
competitive advantage were few. He made a commodity product. His strategy would
have to involve finding some property that would make his product special and
then produce that product affordably.
What can you do to polyethylene tubing? Plumbing
applications require durability, so that meant making the material withstand
higher pressures and temperatures. Rowley knew that one of three crosslink
techniques would help him achieve those properties. Two involved chemical
processes, the other crosslinked polyethylene material via irradiation under a
high-energy electron beam. That was a cleaner process, but it would require a
substantial investment of dollars and time. MPI would need a partner to share the
expense of doing its own beaming in-house.
Strategy told Rowley he didn't want to share beam hours with
a competitor. That would neutralize the competitive advantage he sought. The
best approach, he reasoned, would be to find a partner in the academic world
who could use this from an R&D point of view for teaching and training.
The right partner
Rowley visited several academic institutions and found
nearby Kent State University to have the highest partnership potential.
Coincidentally, KSU had also been searching for opportunities to partner with
industry and get involved in research and development (R&D) activities, as
well as in the use and applications of electron beam technology. KSU also had
interest in developing academic programs in radiation technology. Bill Rowley
and Dr. Carlos Vargas-Aburto, then assistant dean at the School of Technology,
promoted and gained support within KSU for the idea of a joint partnership that
would include the design and construction of an electron accelerator facility
used for both production and educational (instructional and research) purposes.
"The concepts on which these partnerships are based are
often simple and straightforward, but their implementation and management are
difficult," he says. "In some cases, the objectives of the
partnerships are unrealistic. However, there is no question in anybody's mind
that successful partnerships between universities and industry provide a
competitive advantage to the latter, and help the former more fully realize
their mission of providing meaningful education to the members of the
community."
Like most state universities, KSU can't leverage its assets
in any kind of business deal. That's when the Kent Regional Business Alliance
(KRBA), a 501C(3) organization, was invited to become involved and partner with
MPI.
The partnership between MPI and KRBA, named NeoBeam Alliance
Limited, entailed a 50/50 split of the $7.5 million price tag for the facility
and the systems inside it.
MPI paid its share up front while the university funded the
venture capital for KRBA. In return, KRBA agreed to sell future time on the new
facility and return the proceeds to KSU.
Material handling's role
A major portion of the success of this project is owed to
the selection of the two material handling systems that move the plastic
material through the 20,000-square-foot facility for irradiation. MPI produces
plumbing risers, cut to lengths of 12, 15, 20, 30 and 36 inches. These are the
connections between the plumbing under your floorboards and the fixtures in
your bathroom and kitchen. Mercury also processes bulk polyethylene tubing,
mainly for the manufactured housing industry.
A cart conveyor system supplied by SI Systems moves the
risers under the beam while the large spools of bulk tubing are paid out under
the beam by a capstan system consisting of a series of shivs, pulleys and a
take-up spool.
Key to the irradiation process is exposure timing
consistency. The carts move at a steady pace under the beam, driven by a series
of chain drives. Because exposure duration is so critical to product quality,
the beam intensity was designed to control the speed of the cart system. As the
beam comes up to full current, the cart system comes up to full speed. The beam
irradiates the risers through the corrugated containers in which they are
packaged. Yellow stickers placed on each case turn red after exposure,
indicating that the contents received their "dose."
Meeting challenges
According to Craig Sleep, SI applications engineer on this
project, the main challenge was to maximize the beam on-time and to avoid
irradiating free space. Therefore, the carts must be as close to each other as
possible as they go under the beam. However, to make sure workers are protected
from exposure to the beam, the carts must navigate through a labyrinth,
negotiating a series of turns to get to the beam. The carts can't be
nose-to-tail going through these maneuvers, so as they enter the labyrinth, the
centers on which they are mounted are far enough apart that the carts never
contact each other. When the carts reach the beam area, the gap between them
closes to essentially zero.
This is possible because the carts are driven by a series of
four conveyors, A, B, C and D. Conveyor D, immediately preceding the beam, is
the slowest. The cart behind the one traveling under the beam is still on the
faster conveyor, B, and the speed differential essentially closes that gap
between the two carts.
Another challenge was managing consistent beam exposure
while running both rotary and linear drive systems.
"In any conveyor system that converts the rotary motion
of a drive to linear, there's always some variation in velocity as the chain
goes around the sprocket," explains Sleep. "We designed a special
drive downstream of the beam that propels the carts through the beam. It has a
special pitch chain so that the variation in velocity as it goes through the
beam is minimal."
Partnership pays
The system speed can be anywhere from five to 55 feet per
minute, depending on the product. The products MPI processes on any given day
can vary, and each requires a different dosage. This is where the KSU
partnership really comes in handy.
"KSU helped us with dose mapping, measuring the amount
of radiation the products are seeing to give it the proper crosslink
percentage," says Scott Chapman, plant manager of the NeoBeam Alliance.
"We send that product over to plant 2 where the amount of crosslinking
induced by the radiation process is measured."
"We were trying to improve our processing but having
difficulties with the temperature," adds Ray Grella, manager of plumbing
products for MPI. "When you irradiate something, the temperature goes up.
We are looking for different ways to bring the temperature down while not
losing the intensity of the beam for crosslinking material."
With the dose mapping methodology worked out by KSU
researchers, MPI found ways to lower processing temperatures while increasing
throughput. As a result, MPI was also able to cut processing time in half.
"The more efficiently Scott can run this facility, the
more competitive we are in the industry," says Grella, adding that SI
Systems also contributes to this performance. That's not easy when the clients
you work with run on two different time systems.
"Academia and business work on two different
clocks," Grella admits. "What you say now, in commercial business
terms, is yesterday. What you say now in academia is two weeks from now."
Grella was hired for this project three years ago and
charged with getting it done on time and on budget. He answered to the NeoBeam
update committee, which consists of equal partners from KSU and MPI. At the
time, KSU was just starting its electronic beam technology program and looking
for the most appropriate material handling technology.
"SI came up head and shoulders above the other
conveyors out there," says Grella. "It had already provided systems
like this to other beam facilities. We were relying on their expertise to give
us guidance in this application. They guided us in selecting the casters,
bearings and greases, and helped us plan the maintenance. This environment has
a high level of ozone, so components must be stainless steel, concrete or some
other non-corrosive material."
The facility's design and construction added to the material
handling challenge. Electron beam processing resembles the operation of TV
tubes, except amplified by several orders of magnitude. That means the
integrity of the shielding has to be of the highest specification. There's a
sprinkler system inside the vault area and a six-foot grid outside the wall,
tied to a common ground for the highest shielding potential.
The process of getting product through the protective turns
to enter and exit the beam area is a feat of engineering choreography.
"The system has to pick up a conveyor that was just
loaded, take it into the beam vault as quickly as possible without causing
disruption to the conveyor, then once it gets to the beam, have a consistency
of pull across that beam," Grella explains. "Then as soon as it's
beamed, you want to get it out of there quickly. So, there's a rate going in,
going under the beam, and coming out. That's why there are three drives. SI
helped us determine the optimal speeds."
Two of the drives are located outside the vault for easy service
access, and one is inside the vault, in a non-strategic location that service
people can access and get out quickly.
Keeping it going
The NeoBeam facility has been run on one shift by two people
for a little more than a year. Staff consists of the beam operator who is
responsible for controlling the beam, and an assistant responsible for loading
and unloading material to and from the conveyor. KSU offers courses related to
electron beam technology and its applications. More than 100 FTE students have
already benefited from these courses, and from having used the facility for
their classes. The facility is also being used by some students (both
undergraduate and graduate) to carry out research activities where they blend
the knowledge gained in their classes with the practical experience of
processing material for a customer. NeoBeam periodically offers internships to
students so they can help with production, giving them hands-on involvement in
running the product for MPI.
Mercury Plastics' customers -- distributors, faucet
suppliers, and OEMs like Maytag, Frigidaire, GE and Amana -- are benefiting
from this partnership, too. They're getting components that last longer and
cost less. According to Grella, this wouldn't have been possible for MPI to
provide without its KSU alliance.
"If we were to pay for the beam ourselves, we would
have to amortize that cost into the price," he concludes. "We got
into this for half the investment. We're still learning as we go, but I believe
this is the beginning of a trend. Educational institutions are looking for ways
to generate income. Students are one, research is another."
Meanwhile, MPI is developing more products that will need to
be processed through the NeoBeam facility. That may mean going to a second
shift and expanding the building. Both MPI and KSU have promised to accommodate
each other's needs as they nurture this evolving partnership. Dr. Carlos
Vargas-Aburto says KSU has already received good international feedback.
"Of particular interest was the fact that KSU is
developing both undergraduate and graduate programs on radiation
technology," he says. "At present, industry has to resort to training
its own personnel. There doesn't seem to be another source of qualified people
with degrees in electron beam processing. That puts KSU in the enviable
position of filling this need at both the national and international
levels."
If the Mercury/KSU partnership continues to succeed, then a
model will be in place for industrial and academic partnerships.
