Know-How
Troubleshooting Defects: Part I
Like the three other aspects of a typical mold clean/repair job (disassembly, cleaning, and assembly) there is usually more than one way to skin the cat of troubleshooting and correcting defects.
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How Much Horsepower Do You Need?
Most extrusion processors know that in order to boost output you need more power.
Read MoreToday's Lesson: Drying (Part 1)
Listen up, please: This is going to make your life easier.
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The Eight Stages of Mold Repair
While the mold was still being disassembled, two “cleaners” began pulling tooling out of plates and putting them into buckets in preparation for a good scrubbing—and I mean a scrubbing.
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How to Solve Uneven Clamping
Of the hundreds of variables involved in injection molding, clamping mechanisms and platens often get less attention than they deserve.
Read MoreHow to Determine Maximum Mold Cycle Counts
At my first production meeting with my new employer, I was told, “We want you to establish a preventive maintenance program that is based on maximum cycle counts for all our molds.” Then, before I could launch into an explanation of how best to determine maximum cycle counts, I was hit with the follow-up: “So, how many cycles do you think our molds can safely run before we need to clean them?”Leaving my crystal ball at home and unable to get my x-ray vision working, there was no way to answer this question with any real accuracy.
Read MoreWhy Not Just Let ’r Leak?
Here’s how a typical West Coast molding facility with 20 injection presses investigated the downtime impact of water leaks in the plant.
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Get a Handle on Stress-Cracking In HDPE Bottles
One of the first applications for blow molded HDPE bottles was the replacement of glass for bleach packaging.
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Find the Source of Visual Defects
The appearance of visual defects on parts such as cracking, crazing, grooves, ripples, wave marks, and flaky brittleness often indicates more than an aesthetic problem.
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Sticking Sprues or Parts? Lots of Possible Causes and Solutions
Material sticking in the mold can be a production killer, whether it is the sprue or the formed part in the cavity.
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