CPB 30603- QA & QC IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Task: From your field, choose any problem and apply QA & QC
(without data and no formula) and how to deal with this problem.

Assignment 1 : Vacuum forming of thermoplastic sheets

(Application of QA & QC in Chemical Engineering)
Lecturer Name : Dr. Abbas F. Mubarek Al-Karkhi
Section : L01-T2
Group Members :

No. Student Name ID Number

1. Shahrol Hamdan bin Halim 55213114244

2. Siti Hajar Mohamed 55213114225

3. Nabilah binti Nordin 55213114016

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Figure 1: Process of vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets

 Thermoforming is a manufacturing process.
A plastic sheet of thermoplastics is heated and operated in an oven
according to operating parameters of vacuum forming process which are
temperature and vacuum pressure, formed to a specific shape in a mould,
and cooled to a finished shape and trimmed to create a usable product.
Plastic sheet is fed from a roll and is inserted it through an oven for
heating to forming temperature. The heated sheet then moves into a form
station where a mould and pressure-box close on the sheet, with vacuum
then applied to remove trapped air and to pull the material into and onto
the mould along with pressurized air to form the plastic to the detailed
shape of the mould. After that, a burst of vacuum pressure is actuated
from the bottom side of the mould as to separate plastics sheets from
mould and assist the cooling of the plastics sheets. The formed sheet then
moves into a trim process. The remaining after the formed parts are fed
into an inline granulator for recycling.
In simplest form, a small lab size machine is used to heat thermoplastic
sheet and stretch it over a mould using vacuum pressure.
In large scale production, thousands of finished samples per hour
(hundreds samples per minute) can be produced depending on the
machine and mould size and the size of the parts being formed.
The thermoforming plastics is commonly used in pharmaceutical industry
and food industry such as pill palettes and chocolate case.
 OBJECTIVES
Medicine pellets are pack in a thermoplastic sheets. These thermoplastics
sheets are formed by vacuum pressing on the mould. By inspection of
thermoplastics, we may determine whether the thermoplastic sheets are
moulded properly. Thus, we can acknowledge when the thermoplastic sheets
are under cured or over cured. P-chart is set to improve fractions of non-
conforming thermoplastics sheets produced by this machine. Based on the
process of vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets, the details of process
are as below:

Samples size, n 50 samples

Number of sample, m 30 samples
Time interval of samples 15 minutes
 PARAMETER INVOLVES
Temperature
Pressure: vacuum pressure
 PROCESS

Process In Control (if)

Optimum pressure: The thermoplastics are cured and
follow the shape of the mould. The production of
thermoplastics is met requirements of products where
customers will buy the products (thermoplastics sheets).
Process Out of Control (if)
Overpressure: Thermoplastics becomes thinner and fragile
(easy to break). The thermoplastic becomes over cured.
Under pressure: Thermoplastics are not moulded properly
and squishy. The thermoplastics becomes under cured
 JUSTIFICATION
Types of Control Charts
The control chart that is used is attributes control charts. This is because the quality
characteristics of good quality thermoplastics sheets cannot be conveniently represented
numerically. The quality of thermoplastics sheets is usually classify each item inspected as either
conforming or non-conforming to the specifications on that quality characteristics as in this
vacuum forming of thermoplastics sheets , the non-conforming is inspected. The defective or
non-defective is used to identify these two classifications of thermoplastics sheets produced. The
quality characteristic of this type of conforming and non-conforming is called attributes.
Chart Used and Reasons
The type of chart used in this process is p-chart (control chart for fraction non-conforming)
actually to monitor the consistency of the products quality. The p-chart has three parameters that
must be specified which are sample size, frequency of sampling and width of control limits.
Through the p-chart, it is able to determine the quality of thermoplastic sheets and to determine
fraction of nonconforming or defectives product produced by vacuum forming process. P-chart
used in this process as it is the most applicable to production situations where;
The vacuum forming is not in constant total pressure of production so; the p chart is more
suitable for non-conforming analysis.
P-charts are used to determine if the process is stable and predictable
 STEPS OR ACTIONS
(if process is out of control)
First, the process must be stopped, assignable
causes of the process is searched, corrective action
is done (the machine is reset, do troubleshoot and
quality of samples is checked where random
samples will be picked from sample storage, control
chart is used to check which number of sample are
defects). Then, the process is restarted. The new
chart is calculated where the control chart is revised
(exceeded value is eliminated and then, data is used
for calculation of new chart).
 RECOMMENDATIONS

In addition, in terms of plant utilities and

maintenance, pressure alarm and sensor can
be placed to detect any over pressure or
under pressure of the machine. If the pressure
falls above or below the desired value, the
sensor will be triggered. Thus, the alarm will
appear on the panel screen. So that the
operator can monitor and set the pressure
back to its desired value.