Increase Candle Production With Fil–Tec Wick

Candle manufacturers have lived with spools of wicking that have an average of 3 to 4 breaks per spool for decades. These same manufacturers have invested huge sums of money into automated equipment and machinery to boost productivity and stay one step ahead of foreign low wage competition. However, it is also understood by these candle manufacturers, that they can only run their automated machines continuously as long as their wick runs without a break.

Fil–Tec’s unique Patented wick construction and production method allows us to produce a continuous length of wick to fill a spool without breaks. Fil–Tec is able to guarantee 90% break–free spools.

STUDY 1. Pressed Pillars

Conventional Braided Wick Technology	New Fil–Tec Wick Technology
Average breaks per shift: 15 (breaks or spool changes)	Average Breaks per shift: 0.6 (breaks or spool changes)
Average rethread time: 2 min.	Average rethread time: 2 min.
Press line productivity: 1450 candles/hr.	Press line productivity: 1450 candles/hr.
Lost Production per shift due to breaks: 720 candles	Lost Production per shift due to breaks: 29 candles
Actual Candles Produced: 10,880	Actual Candles Produced: 11,571

Result: Fil–Tec candlewick resulted in an approximately 6.5% productivity improvement over conventional braided wick technology. A similar scenario is true in every automated manufacturing system from extrusion to wick waxing.

The question for review in this study is why would candle manufacturers who have invested $150,000 to $300,000 in automated candle press technology allow inferior candlewick to reduce the machine’s productivity?