What Spare Parts to buy for Mold

[SeanD]

Hi Everyone,

I got an injection mold made. The guy that made our mold is also doing our manufacturing. For a number of reasons I will be changing manufacturer once this production run is finished with (I bought the mold outright from the beginning and told him this was likely to happen).

My question is what spare parts should I get for the mold so that if something breaks, the downtime will be reduced and I will be less dependent on the mold maker.



Mold is 2 cavity with custom made hot runners. There are 2 gates on each cavity. The gates are not valve gates, I think they are hot tips instead. Each cavity also has 1 side core.

The part that is made in the mold is transparent and quite large with outer dimensions of 380 x 160 x 80mm.


Thanks for any responses/advice.
Sean

[brentb]

Questions:
Resin being used?
Cycle time?
PM Schedule?
Care given during run(mold protection etc)


Multi cavity hi speed molds like closures of 32 cavity + sometimes have 10 to 25% spare cavity and cores quoted. in your case a spare cavity and core might be too costly.
You have to weigh in any damage caused downtime.

KOM
brent

[SeanD]

Oh god, did not take any of that into account.

Resin: Transparent ABS- LG TR557
Cycle Time: 48 seconds
PM Schedule: This was our first order with mold running 3x11 hour days and 2x7 hour days. Don't know when our next order will be but when we get it the mold will probably run for 14 days straight (12 hour days).
Care to date: Nothing as far as I am aware. It will be cleaned and sprayed with rust repellent before shipping and put on a pallet. SHould I do anything else to prevent rust during sea freight which takes 6 weeks?

I wouldn't have money for a spare core as the part is so big.

I thought it would just be a case of a heater band for each hot runner and then heater band for the sprue.

Sean

[brentb]

Yes, heat bands, they go out a lot!
Spray, for trip and place desiccant bags in mold, and there is a wrap against moisture, kind of like a TYVEK, that many molders use to prevent moisture damage, long-term

KOM

brent