Primary Purpose of Position:
The Process Engineer is responsible for establishing, stabilizing, and sustaining robust molding processes that deliver safe, repeatable, and cost-effective production. This role owns process definition, control, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement across injection molding operations. The Process Engineer ensures molding processes are documented, controlled, trained, enforced, and partners closely with Operations, Maintenance, Tool Room, and Quality to eliminate variability, scrap, and downtime.
This is a hands-on, floor-focused role critical to plant stability and performance.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
- Establish scientifically validated process windows for PP, PC, and similar resins.
- Define and maintain golden settings based on melt temperature and shear, injection velocity profiles, pack/hold pressure and time, cooling efficiency and mold temperature control.
- Apply viscosity, shrinkage, and crystallization behavior (PP) and thermal sensitivity (PC) to process design.
- Own process setup sheets, standard work, and controlled parameter limits.
- Accountable not only for defining molding processes, but for training and mentoring the organization to run and protect them correctly.
- Lead engineering analysis of complex defects, including flow hesitation, jetting, sinks, warp, blush, splay, burns, voids, and dimensional instability.
- Correlate defects to material condition (moisture, degradation), mold design (venting, cooling, gating), and machine dynamics (pressure response, screw recovery).
- Use DOE, cavity pressure trends, and SPC data to drive permanent solutions
- Partner with Tool Room and Maintenance to optimize cooling circuit performance, venting and gas evacuation, ejection and part release.
- Support mold trials, steel-safe changes, and new tool introductions.
- Ensure molds are technically capable of running defined process windows.
- Provide engineering input on wear components and mold PM requirements.
- Own molding-related process capability (Cp/Cpk)
- Implement SPC on critical process parameters and part characteristics.
- Transition quality control from inspection-based to process-controlled.
- Support investigations into scrap, quality holds, and customer complaints with data-driven analysis.
- Support commissioning and validation of electric, hydraulic, and hybrid injection molding presses, robots and downstream automation, dryers, chillers, and material handling systems.
- Verify machine capability relative to material and mold requirements.
- Optimize cycle time without compromising part performance or mold life.
- Ensure compliance with all safety, environmental, and quality policies and procedures.
- Support shift coordination and effective communication to maintain process consistency.
- Other tasks as assigned.
Education and Experience
- Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Plastics, Mechanical, Manufacturing, or related)
- 7-10 years of hands-on injection molding process engineering experience
- Strong understanding of PP and PC material behavior in molding applications
- Proven ability to analyze data and solve complex process problems
- Preferred:
- RJG Master Molder I or II or equivalent scientific molding certification
- DOE, SPC, and Six Sigma exposure
- Experience in high-volume, multi-press manufacturing environments
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Deep knowledge of injection molding processes, mold design, material behavior, and process parameters.
- Proficiency in interpreting technical drawings, specifications, and process data.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience with statistical process control (SPC), root cause analysis, and quality improvement tools.
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
- Ability to work independently and take initiative on process improvements.
- Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement methodologies.
- Computer skills including MS Office and manufacturing