Pre Heating/Stageing

[moldmaster]

Hi Guys and gals I just started working for a new company and come to find out that they have massive downtime in between mold preparation and mold preheat. They say it takes 3-4 Hrs to heat up there mold before it is a running temperature to start producing manufactured parts. Where I previously worked we had our mold at running temperature within 20-30 minutes using H20 they are using oil for there mold does that make a huge difference? Also the company wanted to design a mobile cart that allows the mold to be pre heated during production so when it is time for a new mold to be changed out there downtime will be significantly less. please let me know what you think I should tell this company its hard being a new member to the team and right off the bat start changing everything around, but if I can save the company time and money I'm sure they will be open to what I have to say thanks.

MoldMaster

[brentb]

preheating molds is a common practice,but can get messy with oil

KOM

brent

[Suhas]

Were the size of the mold in your previous company the same as this one? Using a hand held pyrometer, all you will need to prove is that the temps are up in the couple hours or so.
Adding to Brent, you do not want to contaminate the oil with water and vice versa.
Suhas

[rickbatey]

Most of the delay may be due to poor PID settings on the heating units. Using synthetic oil is MUCH better than the old oil based systems of the old days. You can preheat a mold but there may be limits due to what the required steel temp is. But I'm sure you can find a temp that's high enough to knock most all of the delay time off. You may find that they're using too few circuits or even the heater wattage is too low for the mold mass. I'd ask a supplier of the heating units come in and perform an audit on your needs. I prefer Conair units with integrated water cooling units and the appropriate quick disconnect fittings to save time.
Rick.

[moldmaster]

thanks everyone for your feedback. I am getting some quotes on new oil units i found out i am running at only 7.5 KW so i need a bigger unit for the size molds that we are useing

[moldmaster]

what oil do you recommend that is legal in the us and has a high flash point over 500 Degrees

[rickbatey]

Conair supplied a full synthetic oil that worked great without all the carbon flakes that attract nasty stuff. The entire system allowed us to get away from 40A, per circuit, electrical heating and be ready to run in 30 minutes versus 8 hrs for electrical heat up. Ask your supplier for what/whom they use.
Rick.