Ambient Air Temp. Measurement in Relation to Thermoforming Defects 2

[TryfanMan]

Hi,

I am looking for some general help on measuring the ambient air temperature within a thermoforming manufacturing environment.

At my place of work there has been a long standing assumption that there is a direct relationship between seasonal air temperature and various defects experienced on thermoformed acrylic.

Through the use of regular temperature samples of the ambient air in the factory I hope to prove, or disprove, this assumption.

Can anyone be kind enough to provide general tips and advice with regards to how I should approach this?

I am also looking for guidance with the following:

Sampling rate;
Location/Position of thermometers (Stevenson's box);
Number of thermometers;
Type of thermometer (with logging facility).

All help is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

TryfanMan

 

[controlnovice]

Sampling rate: I would think that hourly samples would be sufficient. Depending on where you are geographically, you can get severe daily swings in temperature also. I don't' know your process though.

Location: I think that one reading in the building, near the process would be sufficient. However, if the process is large, where you are feeding the raw materials at one end of a large warehouse, manufacturing with heat in the middle, and cooling it at the other end of the warehouse, then maybe three sensors would be better. It just depends what kind of variation you see in your building. If you are just concerned about outside ambient air, then just one reading is sufficient.

Number of thermometers: See above for location.

Type of thermometer: Since you will need to record this at some frequency, I'm assuming you will tie the signal to something that will record. I'd recommend a Type J thermocouple, or 100ohm platinum RTD

 

[m777182]

I would verify the assumption that there is a direct relationship (correlation) between seasonal air temperature and various defects experienced on thermoformed acrylic, a personal belif is maybe not a good start to undertake technical countermeasures.You probably keep records of failures and daily (or hourly )temperatures and you can check the hypothesis even by Excel. It may be as well the air humidity causing defects.
m777182