By Dylan Beach
Sustainability Manager, GOJO Industries

Is it possible for an organization to ramp up manufacturing while maintaining a commitment to sustainability? Last year, in light of the market-altering impacts of the pandemic on the hand hygiene space, GOJO took significant steps to expand its capacity to meet the exponential increase in demand for PURELL^® sanitizer, soap, wipes, and surface spray. These substantial investments help us be ready for future surges like we saw in 2020. 

As GOJO increased production, there were ample opportunities to retrofit machinery and change our ways of working to increase energy, water, and/or material efficiency. One such opportunity involves investing in new, high-quality injection mold tools or improving existing ones, which can lead to considerable waste reduction.

Just by improving one tool, we estimate that we will eliminate close to 75,000 lbs. of material from entering the waste stream annually, the approximate weight of garbage needed to fill 2.5 garbage trucks! 

What is an injection mold and how did we achieve these results?

An injection mold (see below stock photo) is one of the custom-machined tools used in plastic injection molding to form molten plastic into plastic products. Two plates with cut-out cavities press together while molten plastic is injected into the cavities, cooled into the final shape of the part, and then ejected.

Injection molding tools are classified from class 105 (lowest) to class 101 (highest). Higher quality tools can produce more parts (extending the lifespan of a tool) that are higher quality/precision at a faster rate (cycle times) than lower quality tools. Producing quality parts faster is more energy efficient because the tool is running in the press for less time.

Quality parts drive efficiencies

A small team at GOJO has been reviewing some of the tools we use to identify new opportunities for efficiencies. One example of their efforts is the refill for our ES8 dispensing system. These refills have a collar that goes around the bottle's neck that acts like a key that helps the refill fit into the specific dispenser for which it was designed. These collars are made through an injection molding process using an injection molding tool.

The original ES8 collar tool was a two-cavity, class 103 mold with a long cold runner system. The new tools are four-cavity, class 101 molds with a hot tip runner system. The chosen runner system affects the starting point where the plastic is injected and how far it travels through the mold to reach each cavity where the parts are molded. A cold runner system often has an injection point that is far from the cavity, resulting in a line of plastic that is outside of the cavity – that plastic is wasted unless it is reground and used again. A hot tip system typically injects plastic from tips right next to the cavity where the part is molded. Since hot runner systems have either less or no runner system that gets ejected from the mold with the part, less plastic has to be cooled to the ejection temperature before it gets ejected. This means less plastic wasted per production run and is an additional measure of energy efficiency.

More reduction to come

Considering the higher number of cavities, higher quality of the tool, and different runner system, we will achieve substantial material waste reduction per part – impact that magnifies as the number of parts produced increases. Given the success of the first wave of completed tool improvements, plans are underway for this team to investigate material and cost savings opportunities for all 1,300 molds that are used to make components for GOJO products. The material savings from every improvement will contribute to a world with less wasted plastic.

This opportunity is an example of how GOJO team members are empowered to create Sustainable Value in our roles every day, something we call Sustainable Ways of Working™. As we have infused sustainability into our processes over time, we have seen the real benefits in the innovation we bring to the marketplace.

Our next sustainable focus deep dive topic will focus on the role of third-party certifications in our products.

Special thanks to Keith Angel and Marlee Reynolds, who make this work possible.