Looking to improve your mold maintenance PMs and not sure where to start? This article will identify low-cost tools and best practices to get you on your way! It will also provide secondary steps you can take to further advance your process.
By Bryan Whitaker, Technical Manager, iD Additives, Inc. – Bwhitaker@idadditives.com
Data = Dollars
Many shops that we visit have tooling technicians that have everything stored in their head; they know each tool by memory, because they have been servicing the same tools for years. Unfortunately, when those techs leave or retire, the information goes out the door with them. This scenario, compounded with today’s labor demand challenges, is an equation leading to extreme loss of productivity if you do not take the necessary precautions. Steve Johnson and Glenn Keith of Moldtrax (Ashland, OH), are notorious for driving the phrase, “data equals dollars,” into the heads of their class attendees. When I first heard them say that phrase almost four years ago, I did not put as much weight to it as was emphasized at the time. However, after over 200 hundred visits to different shops around the country, it became noticeably clear: the first key to any successful PM program is useful documentation. By that, I do not mean writing down how many pins, bushings, or O-rings you used on a scratch notebook, I mean inputting this data, so it can be tracked for future PMs or integrated with your ERP, saving valuable time when that tool lands on your bench next.
Do you have your eye on those more expensive components that management always says no to? Documenting just how many part failures/replacements you must perform on a tool allows management to see the hard data and do a cost analysis. More often than not, this gets your wish list the green light, saving your company money, and saving you time down the road on that tool.
Think you don’t have time to document everything you are doing while at the bench? It can be as simple as setting up a cataloging system for your spare parts. Think Dewey Decimal system plus a stoplight; separate your spare parts with colored cards. When you pull spares, pull the card along with it and write down the number used. Once your PM is complete, those cards get turned into your team lead, or whomever has the designated computer time to input the data. If a yellow card lands on their desk, that should be a flag indicating their order has not arrived and they can check with your supplier. If a red card lands on their desk, that warrants a deeper look into where your system failed.
On the flip side of this system, if you are allotted more time to PM a tool, having a mobile computer with software designed for mold maintenance can be a major game changer. There are a handful of companies that offer software to assist you with this, but I can personally speak to the MoldTrax software and set up being extremely cost effective and more importantly, easy to use and implement.
Must-Have Inspection Tools
Once you have the capability to document your PMs, you can extrapolate your needs from there. Aligning with the tooling side, I always tell people the two instruments with the biggest ROI on them, are an endoscopic camera and a flowmeter.
The camera will give you a visual representation of your cooling channels (and other auxiliary equipment running water). I primarily use this tool to gauge the amount of time that tool will take me to perform a descaling/flushing, but it can also help quickly identify contaminants. Keep in mind though, while contamination can collect within tools, it is not necessarily the source. It is, however, one of the best areas for data, as it is easily accessible and can help paint a broader scope of water issues.
It is common for a tech to simply shoot air through one passage, feeling for air on the exit side, and green tagging the channels as good to go. However, by not seeing inside the passage, you are allowing contamination to continue to build until the channel is completely blocked. One of the main contaminants is iron and allowing that to collect/solidify on the walls of your cooling channels is not something that can easily be reversed (if at all).
Having clean passages allows your process technicians to dial in their Reynolds Number and achieve turbulent flow instead of laminar flow; thus, you optimize part cooling and increase your product output performance. If these terms are unfamiliar territory for you, take a peek at Smartflow-USA (https://www.smartflow-usa.com/); they have free calculators online for turbulent flow and scientific cooling!
The camera I use is very inexpensive and waterproof (I found this specific camera after trialing many other more expensive models and this seems to perform very well, and comes equipped with an 8gb memory card…my current card has 600+ pictures and about 100 videos on it and am nowhere close to being full on memory): https://www.pcs-company.com/inspection-camera-bore-scope.
To capture GPM readings and benchmark cooling passages, a flowmeter is the best tool. I often tell companies that are starting to implement a PM program to take readings prior to descaling, so they know where they are at. Then, take another reading after the flushing occurs (and you can visually inspect clear lines), and that becomes your benchmark. The next time that tool comes out, you can hook up your flowmeter to determine if a flushing is necessary. This will just be dependent upon the GPM tolerances you deem acceptable. As an example, if I get a GPM reading of 3.2 after primary cleaning and the tool comes out for its second PM and reads at 3.0 GPMs, you may count that as acceptable vs a reading of 2.5 GPMs.
The flowmeter I carry is a digital Smartflow meter (Burger and Brown) and is equipped with a flow regulator. When I demo my Eco-Pro System, I am subject to the cavitation of the pump, so my pressure jumps two psi; having this regulator allows me to dial in the water pressure and provide a more accurate reading. If you have an existing water station that gets consistent pressure, you can just plumb in the digital readout without the need for a regulator. You will also notice on it, that I have male quick connects on it – this is so I can switch to individual lines quickly. On the bottom of that picture, you will see a different digital flowmeter (Keyence). It reads GPMs but does so using ultrasonic technology by clamping onto a pipe. The Keyence is more expensive, but its clamping ability also allows me to take it over and use throughout the facility (think water supply to heat exchangers, TCUs, etc.).
Flushing Systems and Ultrasonic Baths
For the most part, gone are the days of gun drilling out your tools’ water lines, as cooling passages are becoming more intricate with the advancement of conformal cooling technology. To help keep everything clean, I usually recommend one of two pieces equipment (although having both is not uncommon): a flushing system and/or an ultrasonic bath.
The system I represent is called Eco-Pro, which consists of the Eco-Pro 360 chemical and the Eco-Pro Cart. The chemical itself is safe to work with, is non-flammable, works quickly, and above all else, is reusable! My longest user has been using the same cart and chemical since February or 2019, and has only had a need to reorder filters, which keeps the chemical at peak performance. When designing the cart, we chose an air diaphragm pump for two main reasons. One, every shop has accessible air throughout their facility, and two, if the pump senses a pressure build due to a blockage, it will simply pause operation. Some electric pumps on the market will continue to pump a caustic acid until something downstream ruptures, and then it’s, “cleanup on aisle not fun.” The chemical is versatile, as is the equipment I flush when visiting shops; you can see it in action in various applications on our YouTube channel.
If you’re looking into ultrasonic baths for mold cleaning, I make no hesitations to tell my customers to look into Fisa (https://www.fisa.com). Their cleaning process will never damage your tooling surface, finish, polish, or geometry, and equally as important, doesn’t tie up a lot of labor. Furthermore, they have demo facilities for prospective clients to clean tooling and validate the process.
I hope this helps give you starting guidance on the path to creating a successful PM program. If I can be a resource to anyone looking for help, please reach out. I have been in many shops, have seen the major dos and don’ts, and if I can help your shop fall in the former category, I want to.
