Mold cleaning is a key process in the maintenance of injection molds, and it is also a bottleneck restricting mold maintenance. Because the speed of mold manufacturing and development is much faster than the speed of mold cleaning, and the mold will be ready for the next production immediately after rapid cleaning, so the time left for mold cleaning is quite limited.
When cleaning and repairing molds, some factories will hire some junior technicians or apprentices in the mold shop to do some chores of cleaning molds and templates, and then the molds and templates will be disassembled by maintenance technicians. But in fact, cleaning the molds and stencils also washes away the track marks, making it difficult for service technicians to spot and properly repair defects in the molds and parts.
It is true that cleaning molds does not require the skills of an advanced mold maker, but it would be entirely unrealistic to have a novice who is unfamiliar with the special features and defects of the mold or the characteristics of the critical sealing areas of the mold in charge of mold cleaning. An ill-considered decision. Unreasonable distribution of mold cleaning work will result in continued production of molds with performance defects, and at the same time will greatly increase due to increased seams, burrs, corners, premature plating or steel shifting and mold mixing, etc. Mold budget. These types of problems often originate in a “fire-fighting” maintenance culture that never monitors or accounts for defects and pinpoints the source of the problem.
Standardized cleaning procedures
Systematic mold maintenance is based on maintenance needs and continuity of maintenance operations. In order to achieve the goal of "cost-effectiveness", cleaning molds must pay attention: develop a detailed mold cleaning plan. When cleaning different parts of the mold, such as internal cleaning of the press, wiping along the edge, conventional cleaning, and main part cleaning, the cleaning operation methods used are also different.
After the mold has run for a certain period of time and has undergone visual testing of electroplating wear, track marks and mold residue content in vented and non-vented areas, technicians can determine the procedure and frequency of mold cleaning through visual inspection . Therefore, it is very important to understand the cycle of safe operation of the mold and to document the observation reports of the accumulation of residues and wear inside the mold.
Because molds have a certain operating cycle, all molds should be accompanied by relevant maintenance procedures and documentation of maintenance cycles.
