How does your molder chill? A good question to ask when you are performing a supplier audit.
A significant factor to account for in processing is heat management. Presses need to be cooled, molds need to be heated/cooled, and the excess heat needs to be dealt with.
Molds will be set up with either a central or portable chilling system. Configured as they sound, a central chilling system manages water temp at one source and distributes that water through the plant. Portable chilling where chilling is managed on a unit per manufacturing cell scenario, independent of other cells.
Both set-ups have their pluses and minuses. Individual chillers can eat up floor space, be more expensive to run and by definition of reliability, leave more opportunity for breakdown. The breakdown event is confined to just that cell, the floor has more flexibility for being rearranged and would be less involved in start-up mode. A centralized chiller leaves all the presses it is hooked up to vulnerable to breakdown or process inconsistency. It has to be well planned to accommodate all sizes of press that it will service and is hard plumbing that needs to be modified when plant layouts change.
Whichever chilling methodology your molder chooses, inquiring about it will provide you some insight as to how they approach their manufacturing area, plans for the future, attention to operating costs, and maintenance capabilities.
As Woodrow Wilson said, “One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.”
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