Question of the Week: Quick Mold Change

QMC is not a matter of increasing productivity and efficiency, some businesses even boast of increased safety by 100-fold. - Owner Built

If you want to see some guys who know something about this subject visit the Toyota molding facility in Georgetown, KY.

I was in there along time ago and they were changing molds in minutes on 800 ton machines, getting good parts on the 4th or 5th shot and working to reduce this. These guys are good.

QMC??

I'll tell you the old way:

Put all tools clamps, nozzle tips and hoses needed on a setup cart (Bill Tobin has another name for this)

Buy an overhead crane, as mentioned.

Standardize sprue bushing radius.

Switch to ELIMINATOR nozzle tips to reduce tip hunt time, if running engineering resins or other materials that require anything other than a GP tip. ((ELIMINATOR tips are not really that old).

Observe the setup crew with stopwatch in hand. (people video record the event now)and watched for wasted motion

Have a resin/color change crew seperate from the mold change crew.

Use common sense when scheduling.

The above costs little money to implement and cuts mold change time tremendously.

Brent Borgerson

www.matrixtooling.com

>Are these hotrunner molds? YES, PREHEATED TO 90% RUN TEMP.How many techs per set up? ONE UNLESS THE ENGINEER (ME) IS HERE, THEN TWO PER S/U. Are
>you using the same material for all 7 of the molds on both
>of these presses? YES, NATURAL IN COLOR. How are your set ups initiated ( lot
>board, etc.) ? S/U IS DONE AFTER THE SPECIFIED PIECES ARE RUN. Is your set up check off list followed step
>by step to the letter ? YES, NOTHING LESS IS ACCEPTABLE.Is the 30 minute set up you are
>talking about from last shot to 1st shot signed off by Q.A. ? YES, PART TO FIRST BLANKS RUN W/O CLOTH (TYPICALLY TWO TO THREE SHOTS). A FIRST PIECE IS DONE BT THE LEAD OPERATOR OR FLOATER; A QE ONLY GETS INVOLVED IF THERE IS A COLOR MATCH PROBLEM OR CUSTOMER COMPLAINT. AT ROECHLING, WE AVERAGED 40 MINUTES PER S/U; THIS INCLUDED 2,000t TWO K PARTS THAT HAD TO HAVE THE TOOLS SET IN HALVES DUE TO TOOL WEIGHT, PLUS COLOR/RESIN CHANGES. HOPE THIS HELPS, RICK.

Are these hotrunner molds? How many techs per set up? Are you using the same material for all 7 of the molds on both of these presses? How are your set ups initiated ( lot board, etc.) ? Is your set up check off list followed step by step to the letter ? Is the 30 minute set up you are talking about from last shot to 1st shot signed off by Q.A. ?

We use QMC. We have two molding machines (600t) with seven tools, and can change from last part to first new part in an average of 30 minutes. That includes changing out the EOAT, and two of those weight in at 70 pounds average. We are starting a project to change the EOAT faster with just one person versus the current two person change. We feel we can cut the change over time to 25 minutes on average. Rick.

We do QMC at our worksite. We are a just in time molding facility (JIT). We employ the use of magnetic platens and other aides (remote overhead crane, spring return ejection on molds, etc.) In an 8 hour shift we can change (on avg.) 8 - 12 jobs. Communication and preventative maintenance of equipment is key.