Your mold maintenance strategy should include rust prevention. If you do not use the right methods to prevent your tooling and mold from rust, you may as well put paid to your manufacturing process. Once rust affects your molds and tooling, it will be quite expensive to get rid of. And this is one expense that’s unnecessary if you have the right mold maintenance.
Choosing the Right Anti-Rust Product
It’s important you choose an anti-rust product that is designed for industrial use. The product should be such that it forms a gel-like film in the mold and if it’s scratched or nicked, it should flow back to its original position.
Typically, a good rust preventive does not have wax or any similar ingredient because it can accumulate on the mold surface. If this happens, you would have to spend more time, money and effort cleaning up the surface of the mold. The preventive should have the ability to displace tiny droplets of water that condense on the surface of the mold, so that the water does not come in contact with the mold surface, leading to rust formation.
Rust Preventive Measures
There are several methods and techniques to prevent rust formation during mold maintenance. You can use one or all of these methods for optimal results.
Spraying the Mold: One of the most effective ways to prevent rust in injection molds is by spraying the right anti-rust product into the mold right after the molding process is over. At this point, the mold is warm and the product will adhere to the mold surface until it can be taken to the tool room for thorough cleaning. Once the mold is cleaned, once again the rust preventive can be coated properly on the mold. As a result, your mold gets a dual-layer of protection that will prevent corrosion at all costs.
Protecting the Sprue Bushings: While it is important to protect the interior of the mold from rust, you should never neglect the sprue bushings. If the bushings get corroded, you will find it tough to get a seal using the barrel nozzle. Even the exterior surface of the mold should be coated with anti-rust preventative to ensure optimal protection. This will prevent the bases of the mold from rusting. If the bases corrode just where they fasten onto the plates, it will be difficult to keep the two halves of the mold parallel.
Watch Out for Bleed-Out: Depending on the type of rust preventative you use and the method of application, the preventative can bleed-out solvents, oils, and anti-rust compounds when the mold is used. In such cases, you can use a solvent cleaner to remove the bleed-out.
When it comes to rust preventive, you should have a mold maintenance process that is carried out on a daily basis. The process should involve cleaning the mold at the end of the day with a high quality solvent cleaner followed by a coating of rust preventative.
For more information about rust preventatives and best practices for mold maintenance, please feel welcome to contact us.
“There is no better cost to eliminate than the cost of poor quality.”
Here’s a great article from Industry Week that outlines 5 steps to improving manufacturing quality. Some of them are organizational tips; others stress the importance of collaboration and a team mindset and culture. They’re all important points for any manufacturer.
“In order to best eliminate these wastes, a strategic approach to quality improvement is essential.”
Here’s a quick article that outlines the benefits of the manufacturing mindset that is changing the way manufacturing is being done. The implementation of lean manufacturing through trying to make value flow at the pull of the customer prevents and eliminates the 7 categories of waste in your processes: Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-processing, Overproduction, and Defects.
Learn more about lean manufacturing by reading the full article HERE.
Many complex and critical parts of machinery are difficult to make since they have challenging shapes and sizes. Furthermore, some injection molding companies do not always have the expertise, knowledge and equipment to make these complex parts. That’s why, when choosing your injection molder, it’s necessary to find out whether the molder has the specialization to mold complex parts using injection molding.
The Pathway to Molding Complex Parts
Molding complex parts of varying shapes and sizes and using a variety of materials is an art as well as a science. The molder should have in-depth knowledge of different materials and a thorough understanding of the injection molding equipment. This will ensure the end customer gets a high performing and precision part.
The Process of Molding Complex Parts
The process of making complex parts with injection molding depends on using scientific methods, the latest analytical tools and process technologies to ensure the resultant parts offer high quality performance. Usually, the process is divided into four stages. These stages are as follows:
Designing the complex part
Selecting the right material
Designing the mold
Process control
Designing the Part: It’s important that the part is accurately and precisely designed, taking into consideration its end use. Designing the part allows for changes and adjustments during the initial stages and this helps reduce the overall cost of making the part as well as the timeline to make the part. During the designing phase, more emphasis is laid on maximizing the design to ensure it can be manufactured seamlessly and fulfill its end-use requirement.
Material Selection: This perhaps is one of the most important steps in the entire process of injection molding. When it comes to complex materials, often multiple materials are required. Hence, there is a need to select polymers that are compatible with one another as well as ones that can bond permanently and offer faultless performance.
Mold Designing: During the mold designing process, it is important and critical to keep a close watch on the mold cavity parameters, such as temperature and pressure. This is the stage where changes and adjustments are made in real-time to ensure the resultant complex parts are consistent in quality and performance. The mold design is dependent to a certain extent on the end-use of the part and the materials being used to make the part.
Process Control: Based on the design of the product and end-use, the appropriate injection molding technologies are used. There is a wide range of complex molding process, such as overmolding, multi-shot molding and insert molding, that can be used based on design and end-use. For instance, if there is a need to make the part appear attractive and stylish and give it a good grip, overmolding is often used during the injection molding process. This helps to reduce vibrations, improves resistance to UV rays, and it also enhances electrical insulation, thereby increasing the longevity of the part.
Injection molding can be customized to make any type of part, complex or otherwise. Each part is made using a set of production processes that help to hasten the production and molding of the part while maximizing its performance and quality.
“The workhorse of any modern manufacturing plant, other than employees, is the equipment that makes the building hum. If problems arise, a plant owner will lose money by the minute. If equipment isn’t properly maintained, the plant owner will lose money over a period of time. Proper maintenance is one of the ways to keep your plant running.”
Here is a two-article conglomerate that offers lots of great tips and advice.
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