Proper mould maintenance takes more than just the right technology

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Henkel Corporation

Finding the preventive maintenance sweet spot

“Our troubleshooting checklist doesn’t have things on it like, ‘If you’ve got shorts or flash, here’s the process change you make,’” Gattshall says. “None of that.” Once the protocol has been followed and it has been determined that the validated process hasn’t been altered, a conclusion is reached. “Then we would have to make a business decision on whether or not we can take the tool out of production immediately, but most of the time we do, and we take it to our new toolroom where we have the ability to fix the issue.”

To keep tools from degrading to the point of flash, Henkel has also put in place a preventive maintenance (PM) program. At this time, it’s based on the number of cycles, but it, too, will evolve. After approximately 50,000 shots, Henkel’s toolroom will bring in a mould for a complete inspection. What happens before the next 50,000 shots depends. “If a tool doesn’t make it to 50,000 shots, the preventative maintenance frequency is too long,” Gattshall says. If at 50,000 shots, you tear the mould apart, start looking at the components and everything is clean as a whistle, you know that you can extend the preventative maintenance on that tool.”

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The sweet spot lies somewhere in between and depends on a variety of factors, including the mould’s cavitation, the part’s design and the material being run. “We don’t want to do preventative maintenance on a tool if it’s not required,” he says, “and we want to make sure we’re doing more preventative maintenance if it is.”

Even further down the line, he says the goal is to have its production monitoring system from Northhamptonshire, UK-based Intouch Monitoring Ltd. trigger when maintenance is required. But beyond a cycle counter or process-monitoring software, Gattshall emphasises that Henkel’s operators are most important to its maintenance program.

“Our operators might not be plastics experts, but they’re the process experts, because they run these tools every single day,” he says. “We rely on them with this troubleshooting checklist, and we actually empower them to make a decision.”

Understanding the value of onsite tool maintenance

Gattshall says the toolroom continues to ramp up and, despite only opening at the start of the year, its impact has already been felt on the company’s bottom line. He credits Krueger with having the vision to see the impact it would have before a single grinder was installed. Krueger’s background might explain why he made the choice: “Greg Krueger was a toolmaker - a tooling engineer,” Gattshall says. “He understands the value of having onsite maintenance tool.”

This article first appeared in MoldMaking Technology Magazine, courtesy of Gardner Business Media, Ohio, US.

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