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Monster stack mold heads to BrazilMonster stack mold heads to Brazil

October 7, 1998

2 Min Read
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Figure 1. Snider Mold Co. Inc. built this three-plate stack mold for a Brazilian structural foam molder. The parts are lids for 500-liter water tanks that sit on top of homes for water storage in Latin America.

In Latin America, in case you didn't know, most residents store water on the roofs of their homes in large tanks. The magic of gravity is then relied upon to deliver water to the house. In the past, tanks were constructed from concrete and asbestos, a combination that resulted in excessive weight and potential asbestos-induced health problems. Recently, injection molders in South America have realized the potential of this market and started producing light-weight tanks to replace the old concrete ones.

Snider Mold Co. Inc. (Mequon, WI) is into big molds and created this huge, three-plate stack mold (Figure 1) to produce covers for 500-liter water tanks. The covers, made by a Brazilian structural foam molder, are about 4 ft in diameter and stand nearly 6 ft tall when stacked one atop the other. Jim Meinert, director of international marketing at Snider, says the forged aluminum mold cost about $500,000 to build and runs in approximately 2.5-minute cycles. Construction was supervised by plant manager Dave Kriegel.

Figure 2. These 500-liter tank molds are made from forged aluminum; they cost about $250,000 each. The yellow-edged plate is the stripper plate. They run on a 1000-ton Johnson Controls structural foam press.

The covers have three accompanying tank molds (Figure 2) that cost about $250,000 each and also run on 2.5-minute cycles. They were designed by Brian Kiel, engineering manager at Snider. The machine the big stack mold runs on is a 1000-ton Johnson Controls structural foam press. The market for these tanks, says Meinert, is monstrous. As IMM went to press, he was quoting four similar applications.

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