How Much Do You Know About Mold Management, Repair and Maintenance? (Part II)

Only by doing daily management can we respond to changing situations. How much do you know about mold management, repair and maintenance? As mentioned in How Much Do You Know About Mold Management, Repair and Maintenance? (Part I), mold management needs to master mold information in order to quickly achieve correct production scheduling and quickly respond to temporary changes in industry or customer needs.

For mold management, it is necessary to master mold times, mold common mold, mold replacement, abnormal movement of mold cavity, and number of healthy cavity, etc. How to organize the relevant information of so many molds in a regular way? In fact, we can use the two management mechanisms of "Mold Common Model Mechanism" and "Mold Management Process", cooperate with digital software system tools, and use digital transformation, industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing technologies and methods to assist the manufacturing industry in mastering the above five important mold information, to achieve digital and intelligent management.

Mold Common Model Mechanism

Solve the quantity control of one-mode multi-cavity and common mode during production.

1. Comparison management of mold product numbers:

A set of molds often has a male mold, a female mold, and a mold core. The arrangement and combination of different structures corresponds to different product numbers, which need to be recorded and managed.

2. Mold common mode management:

Molds often have multiple cavities or common molds, but the usage status, damage and health of each cavity are different, and must be recorded in detail, which is used as an important basis for mold output estimation during production scheduling.

Mold Management Process

After solving the upper mold, it was found that the mold was abnormal, so the mold had to be lowered to produce other products.

Each time the mold is used, mold spot inspection, production and return to storage, etc., the status records of different stages. For example, what is the status of mold spot inspection? After production, when the mold is put into the warehouse, it is necessary to confirm the production record of the mold, including the status of the number of holes in the mold and the production times of each hole, etc., as the basis for follow-up maintenance.

1. Mold condition management

The current status of the mold is in the warehouse, where is the warehouse? Or is it being used, by what order? Was the mold returned? Wait, the current status of the mold is displayed.

2. Mold management

Management of mold production use times, mold production quality status records, etc.

3. Maintenance management

If the production quality of the mold is abnormal during use, it needs to be repaired. If you ask an outside manufacturer to repair it, what is the status of the repair? When will the maintenance be completed and will it be put into storage?

4. Maintenance plan

Plan a maintenance schedule. After the mold has been used for a certain number of molds, for a certain period of time or other specific standards, regular inspection records and maintenance are required to ensure that the proper rate and availability of the mold can be maintained above a certain standard at any time.

5. Mold history

You can see what happened to the mold in the whole life cycle. Integrates the above 4 points, including the status of the mold, mold record, repair record and maintenance record, etc.

• Mold records: what has the mold been through? For example, the mold is composed of the combination of the male mold, the female mold and the mold core, the status of the mold trial, and what machine has been used to produce it.
• Mold records: plan the life and aging of the mold, and display the current status according to the mold production record.
• Maintenance records: statistical records of mold maintenance in the past, what maintenance items have been done? Which outside manufacturer is invited to carry out the maintenance? What is the state of repair? What parts have been replaced?
• Maintenance records: Regular time maintenance reminders for molds, elimination and replacement records of parts and accessories, etc.

If the information in the mold management process can be recorded in a complete, true and real-time manner, the current status of the mold can be quickly and clearly grasped. Digital software system tools can assist the manufacturing industry to quickly complete information records. In this way, in addition to accurately arranging the production plan, the mold can also be maintained or repaired according to the warranty plan to maintain the health and availability of the mold, so as to ensure the production quality and prolong the life of the mold.

Summary

Molds are very important to the plastic injection industry, and a factory may have hundreds or thousands of sets of molds. If the way of mold management is to use manual records, such as after production, then use paper or excel sheets to collect and record mold-related data, which will not only increase the workload of front-line personnel, but also make the data more accurate.

How to quickly grasp the status of each set of molds in the factory? It can be considered to use modern technology tools, such as automatic reporting tools and system assistance, to assist the staff to digitize the status information of the molds in the simplest way, so as to help grasp the current status of each mold at any time.

After the mold information is digitized, key reminder points can also be set in the production execution management system. Clean, repair and maintain the mold at a time point that does not affect production to maintain the health of the mold and prolong the life of the mold. Only by ensuring the proper rate of the mold at any time can the utilization rate of the equipment be improved, so that the mold can ensure the effective operation of the overall production capacity at important production moments.