Injection Moulding Tooling Preventive Maintenance
29 November 2021
With an increase of tooling and more frequent tooling changes, Tex Plastics have bolstered their tooling team with the appointment of Calum Fraiser, a time served tool making apprentice.
Tool preventative maintenance (TPM) programme
Callum has been appointed as a tooling improvement engineer and joins as a part of our TPM programme. The TPM involves scheduled maintenance and inspections for the injection moulds, which incorporates assessments, cleaning, repairs, and replacements of any worn-out components to keep the injection mould in tip-top condition and prevent avoidable part quality lapses and production interruption.
Why is preventative mould maintenance important?
Injection moulds are a critical and expensive part in the production of a plastic injection moulded component. Preventative maintenance methodically remedies minor issues on the injection moulds and resolves potential tooling failures pre-emptively, to ensure the injection mould reaches its optimal lifespan. Without preventative maintenance, small issues, which could have been easily taken care of, can blow up into major failure that will require serious repairs.
- Extends the working life of an injection mould by ensuring consistent, optimal functionality—and decreasing overall production costs for the lifetime of your product
- Reduces production of flawed components as potential issues are detected and corrected before defective shots are made
- Optimises part design because precision technical moulding processes and detailed specs can be carried out without fluctuation between production lines and product runs
Preventative maintenance extends the working life of a mould
When your injection mould breaks down, the costs of downtime, repairs, and financial damages resulting from delivering bad parts or not even able to ship parts at all, would make preventive maintenance a financially attractive option. Keeping track of these details can be time-consuming, but when weighed against the business impact of a mould breakdown, preventative maintenance is a worthy investment.