Example · Manufacturing

Holding tolerance on a recycled-content polymer

Rideau wanted to injection-mould a part using a recycled-content polymer, but the material's inconsistent melt behaviour blew past dimensional tolerance and no known parameter set held it.

Rideau Composites (fictional). This is a fictional educational example. It is not a customer claim and is not tax advice. It illustrates how to structure and reason about a SR&ED narrative — not text to copy into a claim.

Technological uncertainty (T661 line 242)

Weak

We wanted to use a more sustainable material but it was difficult to get the parts to come out right.

Strong

It was uncertain whether the recycled-content polymer could hold the ±0.05 mm tolerance in production, because its melt-flow index varied batch to batch in a way the standard moulding parameters couldn't compensate for, and no published parameter window existed for this material at this wall thickness.

The strong version quantifies the tolerance and names the specific material behaviour that made the outcome unknown.

Technological advancement (T661 line 246)

Weak

We figured out how to mould the recycled part successfully.

Strong

We advanced our understanding of moulding high-variability recycled polymers: an adaptive hold-pressure profile keyed to an inline melt-viscosity reading held tolerance across batches in trials, and we established that pre-drying alone — the obvious fix — did not resolve the variability, ruling it out.

The strong version describes the process knowledge developed and the rejected hypothesis, not just 'it worked'.

Evidence matrix

What backs a claim like this

Each claimed element ties to a source that shows it. This is the traceability a review tests.

SourceWhat it shows
Process-trial recordsThe parameter sets tried and their dimensional results
Scrap & yield dataThe out-of-tolerance rate across batches over the trial period
Material test reportsThe batch-to-batch melt-flow variation that drove the uncertainty
Engineering change notesThe dated reasoning behind each parameter change

The takeaway

On the factory floor the eligible work is usually the process development, not the finished part. Tie the claim to the trials and the data they produced.

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