Injection Molding Shutdown Regulations
In daily production, injection molding machine shutdowns occur from time to time, including short shutdowns and holiday shutdowns.
If poor management can cause problems or even accidents, the following is a summary of our many years of experience.
You can give it to the workshop supervisor to implement, or you can even print it out and paste it on the factory’s bulletin board for implementation.
Production Short Shutdown Regulations
(1) Turn off electrical devices such as motors, fans, lighting, etc. The theoretical electricity consumption for a domestically produced 248T kaiming machine for 1 hour is 41.3 kWh. Actual consumption (41.3 * 0.7 = 28.91 kWh).
(2) The ejector pins must retract to their original position to prevent spring fatigue.
(3) When the mold is being heated, it should be heated in the open mold state to prevent thermal expansion, which may cause difficulty in opening the mold.
(4) The injection nozzle must be at least 15 cm away from the mold gate, and the high-pressure mold closing should be avoided. Ensure that safety doors are closed, and the robotic arm is positioned correctly.
(5) Operators must clean the machine according to this 5 checklist before proceeding with the next task.
Note: It is incorrect that the ejector pins isn’t retracted to their original position and the motors isn’t turned off when the machine is shut down.
2. Shutdown Regulations On Holiday
(1) Close the feeding hole entrance, continue normal production until there is no material inside the barrel, or manually inject several times, until no more molten material is ejected from the nozzle.
(2) When producing materials with corrosion susceptibility such as PVC, POM, PPO, TPE, or materials with fire resistance and high-temperature properties, shutdown must be followed by cleaning the machine with PP material, empty the barrel, completely purging the old plastic from the material barrel, and performing empty rapid injections not less than 10 times with the melt PP length exceeding 100MM.
When shutting down, the screw should be retracted by 60MM.
(3) Separate the injection carriage from the fixed mold plate, with the mold opening distance between 0.5CM to 2CM.
The robotic arm should be positioned above the column in the designated location, and safety doors should be closed.
(4) Turn off the cooling water pipes.
In the case of freezing water using for conditions, shut off the water in advance and use high pressure air to blow dry any accumulated water in the mold’s water channels.
Turn off the motors and electric heating.
When shutting down the last machine before holidays, ensure that the main power switch of the machine is turned off.
The decision regarding mold rust prevention work should depend on the specific requirements and the condition of the steel materials.
(5) Clean the injection molding machine, workbenches, and remove debris, oil stains, and dust from the floor, keeping the workplace clean and orderly with materials neatly organized.
(6) After the holidays, technical personnel should arrive early to prepare for machine startup.
The production schedule for the machines should be completed within 10 minutes of the operators’ arrival.
Attention:
①It is a serious mistake not to blow dry the water in the mold’s water channels during shutdown.
②Also, it is a significant error for technical staff not to arrive at least two hours in advance after holidays to initiate electric heating and perform startup preparations.