Frontline Manufacturing, located in Warsaw, IN, is a large manufacturer of high-quality bath fixtures. Frontline Manufacturing provides fiberglass showers, tub-showers, and shower bases for residential, commercial, and RV uses.

The Challenge

Pacline was contacted to design and install an overhead conveyor system to improve the fiberglass mold handling process to reduce employee fatigue, product damage, and eliminate labor waste as well as increase production throughput.

The Solution

Pacline, in conjunction with Frontline Manufacturing, developed an overhead conveyor solution to carry the molds from overhead instead of the prior cart-based manual system. Since the molds can weigh up to 1000 lbs. The Pac-Max™ conveyor was an ideal choice, and the enclosed track offered protection against glass and resin build-up that could affect the conveyor trolleys.

Pacline provided and installed two manual push/pull trolley systems, with a total length of over 2200 linear feet of track. The mold carriers that hang from the Pacline conveyor have a spreader bar that keeps the molds from contacting each other, drastically reducing product rework.

The Result

Hanging molds on the conveyor systems have cut down on employee fatigue from moving heavy resin-built-up carts throughout the plant, making production more efficient.

Frontline Manufacturing can now stage molds for production the night before, hanging the molds in the correct order on the conveyor systems, which resolves human error and eliminates time used to search for molds during actual production.

Being able to hang around 90% of their entire line of products allows them to dictate which line runs what product helping schedule and eliminating the waste of moving molds from one line to the other.

All in all, Pacline created two conveyor systems that allow Frontline Manufacturing to implement more efficient production processes and reduce the amount of mold finishing repairs required at the final finishing stage.