Preventative maintenance for ALL the parts of the system keep things moving
Another benefit of having both mold design/build AND injection molding under the same roof is preventative maintenance. Injection molding is a system comprised of molding machine and mold working together to produce the part the customer has asked us to provide. While PM of the molding equipment, which is company owned, is obvious. PM of the mold, a customer owned asset, is just as obvious. With both functions under the same roof, the necessary knowledge base is there and both assets can be well looked after.
Production needs to technically assess the mold, both during and after their run in production, to maximize mold life and keep the floor running efficiently. That assessment is passed on to the mold maintenance staff to address while preparing the mold for the shelf post-run. If not, when Set-up technicians detect an issue at the start of a production run, the result is lost machine time, cost over runs and late deliveries.
While attention and focus can be primarily directed at the cavity/interior, the mold in its entirety needs to be assessed if the mold is going to be depended upon to work properly next run. Areas such as the sprue bushing and ejection pins require attention and correct cleaning if the mold is going to be dependable.
Lastly, adequate documentation is necessary to help determine maintenance history, run life (parts run since release) and maintains adequate costing information to gauge profitability.
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