NOLATO FOR EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS
Employee and customer programs
Nolato is committed to the development of our associates wishing to further their manufacturing skills, as well as our customers looking to learn more about injection molding.
Our available programs
Mold a better career path
Designed for current full-time Nolato GW associates, the manufacturing technology leadership program is open to those interested in advancing their technical skills by spending four years studying at Vermont Technical College in nearby Randolph, VT.
While working at Nolato GW, participants enroll in one class per semester for four years at Vermont Tech focused on a manufacturing, technology, and engineering curriculum, culminating in a final project during their last semester. The projects are selected based on improvements needed in their areas of responsibility, and are mentored by a Nolato GW manager. During the final presentations, each graduate highlights the workplace problem they investigated, outline the data they collected to analyze the problem, and what solution they tested or have proposed, along with the financial impact of their solution.
Graduates of the Manufacturing Technology Leadership program earn college credits that can be applied toward an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science in Engineering Technology at Vermont Tech. In addition to receiving college courses funded by Nolato GW, every graduate is awarded a bonus after each class and a 10% increase in their base compensation upon program graduation. After program completion, participants can then complete their Associate’s Degree by utilizing our employee tuition reimbursement program.
If you’re looking to boost your career in manufacturing, our Manufacturing Technical Leadership Program is the perfect start. Learn hands-on from the experts and gain valuable knowledge that can pay off for the rest of your life. And the best part is you can complete it while remaining employed!
Math for molders course
Enhance your math skills to ensure an easier grasp of techniques in the injection molding essentials course. Our math for molders course is an instructor-led class focusing on the math skills required to process scientific molding techniques. This course is an add-on day for the RJG injection molding essentials course. By adding the extra day of math, students will better grasp our molding techniques, and the knowledge proves a better foundation of skills for future RJG courses.
Course highlights:
- Calculating area for various shapes to understand square inches at the parting line
- Clamp tonnage requirements to understand using square inches with plastic pressure to establish clamp force requirements
- Ratios to calculate intensification ratio, screw design
- Pascal’s equation to understand how force, pressure, and area affect the process
- Speed versus time to verify the machine is capable of delivering the plastic to the mold
- Group activities for solving real mathematic problems with the molding process
Injection molding essentials course
This course is designed for anyone new to injection molding. It provides a solid foundation for understanding the injection molding process and the critical practice of good production techniques. Students are taught all major components of an injection molding machine, mold, and different cycle elements. They will understand the general properties of plastics and the economic impact of making rejects, blocking cavities, and cycle time variation, and will learn why the four key plastic variables are important when troubleshooting a process.
Course highlights:
- Nature and properties of plastics
- Basic injection molding
- The clamp, injection unit, and mold
- Elements of the cycle
- Molding for quality
- Introduction to instrumented molding
- Avoiding common molding problems
3-day systematic molding
This is an introduction course for anyone who wants to develop a systematic approach to molding at their facility from the plastic’s point of view, as opposed to the traditional machine’s point of view. Students gain a better understanding of how to develop a machine-independent process and make data-driven improvements to existing processes, as well as effectively troubleshooting with scientific and systematic approaches. Students will also understand the cause and effect relationships between the machine, process, mold, and material, and how and why polymer behavior is influenced. This will allow them to make informed decisions for sustainable solutions instead of quick fixes.
Course highlights:
- Mold and part design considerations
- The four plastic variables of injection molding
- The molding system
- The molding problem, simply stated
- Process control from the plastics point of view
- Introduction to instrumentation strategies
- Introduction to cavity pressure control
Decoupled molding workshop
This workshop is designed to provide students with valuable hands-on machine time to reinforce the methodologies they learned in Systematic Molding. It offers the same exercises as the MasterMolder I course, but with half the practice time and none of the testing. Students will learn about dissecting and rebuilding a process using data-driven methodologies, then document the return on investment and potential improvements using the current condition of the machine and mold. The end result will be the most robust process possible within the current conditions.
Course highlights:
- Machine qualification test
- Load sensitivity
- Pressure response
- Injection speed linearity
- Dynamic check ring repeatability test
- Clamp/mold deflection study
- Mold performance requirements and weakness identification
- Pressure loss test
- Perform a gate seal study to determine optimal hold time
- Identify the cavity balance at all injection speeds
- Create a temperature map of the mold
- Validate machine and mold capabilities
- Build and document a robust decoupled process with the current machine and mold conditions
Mold a better career path
Designed for current full-time Nolato GW associates, the manufacturing technology leadership program is open to those interested in advancing their technical skills by spending four years studying at Vermont Technical College in nearby Randolph, VT.
While working at Nolato GW, participants enroll in one class per semester for four years at Vermont Tech focused on a manufacturing, technology, and engineering curriculum, culminating in a final project during their last semester. The projects are selected based on improvements needed in their areas of responsibility, and are mentored by a Nolato GW manager. During the final presentations, each graduate highlights the workplace problem they investigated, outline the data they collected to analyze the problem, and what solution they tested or have proposed, along with the financial impact of their solution.
Graduates of the Manufacturing Technology Leadership program earn college credits that can be applied toward an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science in Engineering Technology at Vermont Tech. In addition to receiving college courses funded by Nolato GW, every graduate is awarded a bonus after each class and a 10% increase in their base compensation upon program graduation. After program completion, participants can then complete their Associate’s Degree by utilizing our employee tuition reimbursement program.
If you’re looking to boost your career in manufacturing, our Manufacturing Technical Leadership Program is the perfect start. Learn hands-on from the experts and gain valuable knowledge that can pay off for the rest of your life. And the best part is you can complete it while remaining employed!
Math for molders course
Enhance your math skills to ensure an easier grasp of techniques in the injection molding essentials course. Our math for molders course is an instructor-led class focusing on the math skills required to process scientific molding techniques. This course is an add-on day for the RJG injection molding essentials course. By adding the extra day of math, students will better grasp our molding techniques, and the knowledge proves a better foundation of skills for future RJG courses.
Course highlights:
- Calculating area for various shapes to understand square inches at the parting line
- Clamp tonnage requirements to understand using square inches with plastic pressure to establish clamp force requirements
- Ratios to calculate intensification ratio, screw design
- Pascal’s equation to understand how force, pressure, and area affect the process
- Speed versus time to verify the machine is capable of delivering the plastic to the mold
- Group activities for solving real mathematic problems with the molding process
Injection molding essentials course
This course is designed for anyone new to injection molding. It provides a solid foundation for understanding the injection molding process and the critical practice of good production techniques. Students are taught all major components of an injection molding machine, mold, and different cycle elements. They will understand the general properties of plastics and the economic impact of making rejects, blocking cavities, and cycle time variation, and will learn why the four key plastic variables are important when troubleshooting a process.
Course highlights:
- Nature and properties of plastics
- Basic injection molding
- The clamp, injection unit, and mold
- Elements of the cycle
- Molding for quality
- Introduction to instrumented molding
- Avoiding common molding problems
3-day systematic molding
This is an introduction course for anyone who wants to develop a systematic approach to molding at their facility from the plastic’s point of view, as opposed to the traditional machine’s point of view. Students gain a better understanding of how to develop a machine-independent process and make data-driven improvements to existing processes, as well as effectively troubleshooting with scientific and systematic approaches. Students will also understand the cause and effect relationships between the machine, process, mold, and material, and how and why polymer behavior is influenced. This will allow them to make informed decisions for sustainable solutions instead of quick fixes.
Course highlights:
- Mold and part design considerations
- The four plastic variables of injection molding
- The molding system
- The molding problem, simply stated
- Process control from the plastics point of view
- Introduction to instrumentation strategies
- Introduction to cavity pressure control
Decoupled molding workshop
This workshop is designed to provide students with valuable hands-on machine time to reinforce the methodologies they learned in Systematic Molding. It offers the same exercises as the MasterMolder I course, but with half the practice time and none of the testing. Students will learn about dissecting and rebuilding a process using data-driven methodologies, then document the return on investment and potential improvements using the current condition of the machine and mold. The end result will be the most robust process possible within the current conditions.
Course highlights:
- Machine qualification test
- Load sensitivity
- Pressure response
- Injection speed linearity
- Dynamic check ring repeatability test
- Clamp/mold deflection study
- Mold performance requirements and weakness identification
- Pressure loss test
- Perform a gate seal study to determine optimal hold time
- Identify the cavity balance at all injection speeds
- Create a temperature map of the mold
- Validate machine and mold capabilities
- Build and document a robust decoupled process with the current machine and mold conditions
Contacts
To learn more or apply to our employee and customer advancement programs please contact the Human Recourse department for Nolato Contour and/or Nolato GW.
