Aluminium Tool life

[Jshoe]

a little over a year ago I've taken a new job at a company that runs all aluminium tools. This still being fairly new to me I have a couple questions. I have a new(ish) tool that is starting to wash out at the parting lines causing flash. The tool has roughly 200.000 cycles on it but I would like to get more out of it without having to trim flash. So what are some tips to extending tool life for aluminum tooling? We are not against welding up the parting lines and re cutting the tool, we will likely do that. But I'm also interested in finding new ways to get more cycles before we have to re work. One of the ideas we've tossed around here were plating, or anodizing the tool in an attempt to harden the shut off's hopefully extending the life. I'm interested in hearing what others may have done to extend the life of their aluminium tooling.

[Joel JS]

From a processing perspective, make sure molds are closing nice and quietly, and not slamming shut, and then using only the tonnage required to not blow open.

Joel

[rickbatey]

Run the ejector pins in steel sleeves to stop the pins from wearing the ejector pin holes. Hard insert the gates to reduce wear and make repairs faster. Lastly adopt the European style of tool building by using tonnage plates in the mold face to control clamping force and parting line wear. Make sure to use full perimeter venting to reduce gas trap/wear on the p/l.
Rick.

[Jshoe]

Rick,

Can you elaborate on these tonnage plates? I'm not sure I've seen these before.

[RichardB]

I've not heard of tonnage plates either, but with AL tools for structural foam molding we would put steel inserts in the parting line shut offs.

[rickbatey]

Rick,

Can you elaborate on these tonnage plates? I'm not sure I've seen these before.
So most German or European tools have steel plates mounted outside the parting line that limits the tonnage applied to the parting line. I don’t have a picture but I can try and get one.
Rick

[Swamp Dweller]

We've used a plating called NiBore from Bales Mold Service on aluminum molds and some of them have in excess of 250,000 shots on them with no visible signs of wear. We have them apply it .0003/.0005 thick. It also helps with sticking issues.