You Think You Know Your Molds? Try These 10 Questions ...

Dec. 09, 2024

You Think You Know Your Molds? Try These 10 Questions ...

A mold repair technician's job has always been to make molds run'anyhow, any way. Intangibles such as technique, methodology, maintenance efficiency, accountability, and continuous improvement have never been much of a factor in assessing the performance of a custom repair facility, a proprietary mold repair shop, or an individual's skill level. Performance was based on missed production schedules'period. Today, however, any company seeking to sharpen its competitive edge realizes that keeping molds production-ready and reliable is much more dependent upon proactive maintenance measures than reactive habits.

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To implement an accurate, efficient repair and to optimize downtime hours, repair technicians must have access to data that lets them quickly evaluate the mechanical and performance characteristics of any mold on which they work. Repair technicians should not be expected to recall from memory data relating to specific issues of maintaining and troubleshooting a stable of expensive molds. To do the job effectively, they need to know not only the smallest details such as minuscule tolerances and stack dimensions, but also the predominant long-term issues molds suffer as a result of design or construction features that cause problems during production or maintenance.

In today's economy, it is becoming more common for the customer to be asking these questions of their mold vendors, because they want to know exactly what is going on with their half-million-dollar mold and how their repair dollars are being spent.

Still, many shop supervisors feel that if nothing is broken right now'then all is well. But to make continuous improvements in mold maintenance and repair, the supervisor must be able to measure performance, and then set targets and goals for molds and personnel.

I am often asked what are the most important areas of mold performance and the maintenance criteria to be used by repair technicians, managers, supervisors, and customers. Here are 10 questions that will demonstrate the current level of data utilization in your company, in terms of data that is readily available for a repair technician, supervisor, manager, or engineer to use on a daily basis. The answers to the first three questions are critical for any hope of improvement and are needed to determine targets and set goals. If you can't answer the first three, you needn't continue on, because the following questions just drill deeper into your mold knowledge database.

1. What is your #1 reason for unscheduled mold downtime and what is the cost?

a. What is the total count and type of the most common unscheduled mold-stop reason?
b. What is the mold distribution for the #1 unscheduled mold stop reason? (Is it related to a particular mold style, product, or press?)
c. What is the time and personnel correlation with the #1 unscheduled mold stop reason?
d. What are the related corrective actions and costs (of tooling and labor) for resolving the #1 unscheduled mold-stop reason?

2. What is your #1 mold or part defect or quality issue?

a. What is the total count and type of that defect?
b. What is the mold distribution of the defect? (Mold style, product, or press related?)
c. What is the cavity I.D. or mold position of the defect? (Is it position related?)
d. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) for resolving the defect?

3. Which is your mold with the highest maintenance costs (per hour or cycles of run time)?

a. What is the mold description, style, and product?
b. What are the types of defects and frequencies for that mold?
c. What type of tooling is used by that mold?
d. What type of corrective actions are required for that mold (cleaning, replacement, reworking, restacking, shimming, etc.)?
e. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) for that mold?

Answers to the next three questions provide data for supervisors to better schedule mold repairs and match repair skills to job complexity'i.e., optimize downtime hours.

4. What are the average repair hours for each mold during the following:

a. Wipe-down level cleaning (level 1)?
b. General level cleaning (level II)?
c. Major level cleaning (level III)?

5. What is the workload of each of your mold technicians?

a. How many molds does each repair?
b. What types of molds does each repair'i.e., mold styles, products (a measure of repair skill)?
c. What is each technician's mold-repair efficiency? Do their molds always start up with 100% efficiency and no quality or production issues?
d. What are the average corrective action costs (labor and tooling) for each technician?

6. What is the total workload and mold-repair pace of your shop?

a. What is the total count of molds repaired?
b. What types of molds are repaired (mold styles, products)?
c. What are the average labor hours per repair?
The next four questions provide supervisors and technicians the necessary data to look farther down the road to recognize and monitor trends and patterns so as to budget more wisely.

Yihua Mould Product Page

7. What are your top 10 molds with the most unscheduled downtime events?

a. What are the types and frequencies of unscheduled mold-stop reasons?
b. What is the mold distribution for the unscheduled mold-stop reasons (mold style, product, or press related)?
c. What is the time and personnel correlation with the unscheduled mold-stop reasons?
d. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) for resolving the unscheduled mold-stop reasons?

8. What are your top 10 mold or part defects overall?

a. What are the defect types and frequencies?
b. What is the distribution of the defects (mold style, product, or press related)?
c. What is the cavity I.D. or mold position of defects (position related)?
d. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) for resolving the defects?

9. What are your top 10 molds with the highest overall defect count?

a. What are the defect types and frequencies?
b. What is the mold distribution of the defects (mold style, product, or press related)?
c. What is the cavity I.D. or mold position of defects (position related)?
d. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) for resolving the defects?

10. What are the top 10 molds with the highest maintenance costs (per hour or cycles of run time)?

a. What are the mold descriptions, styles, and products?
b. What are the defect types and frequencies?
c. What types of tooling are used by these molds?
d. What types of corrective actions are required (cleaning, replacement, reworking, restacking, shimming, etc.)?
e. What are the related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor)?

About the Author

Steven Johnson is the maintenance systems manager for Progressive Components and has his own business, MoldTrax, in Ashland, Ohio. He can be reached at or (419) 289-.

11 Questions To Ask Before Picking A Plastic Mold ...

When you're getting ready to begin the injection molding process, the first choice you make'and one of the most crucial decisions'is which plastic mold manufacturing partner you'll select. The partner you choose should, of course, deliver on all your mold requirements'but they should also prototype your part, help you with part design adjustments, warranty their work, and much more. And most importantly, the right partner will ensure you don't end up with a useless mold that doesn't produce quality parts'or, as we like to call a faulty mold'a boat anchor.

By asking potential plastic mold manufacturing partners these 11 questions, you'll all but eliminate any doubt that they will be a great partner for you.

11 Questions To Ask Your Plastic Mold Manufacturing Partner

1. Can you build a tool that will match my annual volume requirement?

Molds are most often constructed in one of three classes: Class 101, 102, or 103. Each class varies in the material it uses, how (or whether) it's hardened, the maintenance it requires, and the cycles it can tolerate before it requires adjustments. A class 101 mold, for example, is most often built from hardened stainless steel'but if you're only going to run 50,000 parts a year, a class 102 tool built from a different, less expensive material may be more appropriate for your part. A good plastic mold manufacturing partner will walk you through the benefits and considerations of each class of mold, and guide you to the class that is ideal for your situation.

2. Can we get a warranty on the tool?

Be advised: Many plastic mold manufacturing companies do not offer warranties unless you specifically request one. Even if they do, study the ins and outs of the warranty and precisely what it covers before signing on the dotted line.

At Micron, we typically warranty a class 101 tool, for example, for up to one million cycles without any cost to the customer. This means we'd cover any and all maintenance and/or expense on the mold up to that point. So if you have a 64-cavity tool from Micron, this warranty would last you through 64 million parts.

3. Do you do mold-making in house or are they made overseas?

Some plastic mold manufacturers simply broker a mold deal between your company and an overseas mold maker. There can be major differences between a tool created in China vs.the U.S.'check out this article for a full rundown.

4. Do you have the ability to rapid prototype or 3D print parts to reveal potential flaws in the design?

The creation of your tool is one of the most expensive parts of the injection molding process, so doing it wrong is not an option. You can make adjustments in the prototyping stage until the mold is correct'but otherwise, changes are expensive.

Here at Micron, once we have a tool order, we print a prototype of the part for free. Giving customers a chance to see alternate ideas, or flaws in the design, helps us both in making a better part.

5. Can you build a mold for the size part I need?

Not every molding manufacturer is equipped to mold extremely large or extremely small plastic parts. If you're building an injection molded car bumper, for example, some plastic mold manufacturers won't have the capability to mold something of that magnitude. If the company asserts that they can build an unusual-size injection mold, ask for examples of similar parts they've previously created .

6. What materials will the finished mold be able to handle?

If your plastic part will be molded using highly abrasive plastic material'or a type of plastic material that is injected at very high temperatures'you'll want to be certain the company you're considering can build a mold that will handle these requirements.

7. How do you achieve the right mold tolerances?

Specific mold tolerances may be critical for your plastic part, and understanding how the molder achieves and validates those tolerances is useful information to have. Additionally, if any part of your mold needs specialized measurements'say, an one-dimensional automotive part that needs to be extremely precise so there's no variation part-to-part'be sure to let them know ahead of time.

8. What is your process for high-cavitation molding?

If you need a high-cavity mold, find out how your potential mold manufacturing partner manages the mold building process. For example, to ensure that plastic evenly distributes in your high-cavitation mold, your partner should include a high-quality hot manifold (used to inject plastic into the mold) to assist with this distribution process.

9. Can you validate that the mold will work?

To validate what they build, your mold manufacturing partner will need to sample the tool to ensure it produces quality parts. If you're getting your mold separate from your injection molding manufacturer, be sure that the tool is sampled at the same cycle and cooling time you'll need when you move to production. For example, if your part requires a 30-second cycle time and the part needs to cool for 15 seconds, but the sample only includes a 2 second cooling stage, the sample parts won't be an accurate reproduction of what you'll get during production.

10. What specific molding capabilities can you accommodate?

If you need to fit a small metal bearing inside your plastic part, you likely need a vertical injection mold. If you're molding a computer mouse or a toothbrush with a hard plastic material and soft plastic grip, you'll need either two-shot or overmolding. Be certain your mold manufacturer can create a mold for the characteristics you require.

11. How quickly can you turn out a mold?

Everyone wants something fast, cheap, and high quality'but we typically tell our customers they can can have two out of three. For example, if you want a high-quality mold created fast, it'll cost you. And some mold manufacturers specialize in rapid tooling, but these molds are typically fast and cheap, not high quality. At any rate, be sure the mold manufacturing company you select can turn out a mold in the timeline you require. Here at Micron, if you need a tool built more quickly than usual, we can often partner with outside resources to save time. Or, if you need a mold built for less than our mold shop can create it for, we can partner with outside tool builders that will work under our quality and engineering guidelines.

You know what to ask a potential mold manufacturer'but what about your injection molding manufacturer?

In this ebook, you'll learn about 13 questions to ask an injection molding company before selecting them. Download it for free today!

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