Mold cleaning is a process where major maintenance bottlenecks often occur because molds are pulled faster than they can be cleaned and made production-ready. I have visited plants where molds waiting to be cleaned line hallways and toolrooms, taking up valuable bench space.

Many times, in order to meet production demands, molds get reset dirty or the cleaning process is rushed, which subjects tooling to more damage through hurried handling. The question is asked, “Can we run it the way it is, or does it really need to be cleaned?” In companies where firefighting is the accepted culture, the mold will be reset and started; if all the parts come out clean, it runs. Once this happens a few times, management comes to assume that molds need to be cleaned only when the residue level is bad enough to migrate out onto the part, or until the mold locks (galls) up.

Some shops handle cleaning chores by enlisting non-skilled employees or toolroom apprentices to wash tooling and plates as quickly as the repair technician can take them apart. This practice works, unless the product has critical flash, dimensional or aesthetic specifications, or the mold has a history of maintenance, reliability or quality issues. It is difficult for the repair technician to accurate troubleshoot mold and part defects when all the track marks are washed off from the tooling and plates.

Standardize
Systemizing mold maintenance is based on establishing consistency in repairs required (performance) and repairs performed (maintenance). Cleaning is another area where individual techniques (freelancing) greatly affect mold reliability, part quality and the tooling budget. To be cost-effective, mold cleaning must be performed:

At specified cycle frequencies

Using specific instructions for varying levels (in-press, wipe down, general, major)

After troubleshooting mold and part defects

After repairs have been made

After new tooling has been engraved with position number and has been installed
Instructions on how (and how frequently) cleaning must be performed should be determined by visual inspection after a known number of cycles are run, looking for residue buildup in vented and non-vented areas of tooling, plating wear and track marks. Supervisors should ask mold technicians for their input on how many cycles molds can safely run. Observations concerning residue accumulation and wear should be documented to underscore the significance of accurate observations and to ensure mold cleaning is not taken for granted as a non-critical function, where expensive mold tooling is treated like rusted garden tools.

All molds should have in-press servicing procedures, including frequencies, and a maximum cycle count set that is strictly adhered to. A number of areas are critical to reliable production, including the internal grease level; the condition of gear racks, sliding cam blocks, internal pins and bushings, and other moving components; water line and bubbler contamination or blockage; manifold weepage; rust and corrosion from water leaks; or condensation. Excess grime can cause problems in many areas of a mold that won’t be first flagged by residue leaching out onto the part.

Attitudes
 Cleaning is unpopular with many employees who prefer the challenge of troubleshooting or machining. Cleaning is messy, sometimes monotonous, and can be a potential health risk. There can be prejudice in a company culture that associates the job of cleaning with a lack of talent. On the flip side, other repair techs live for the cleaning stage. It is an area where they can relax, crank up the radio and scrub tooling for hours, while passing managers are impressed with the technician’s diligence on the job.

However, a top-shelf toolmaker is usually not assigned to clean molds. This responsibility is often placed in the hands of a technician who is not familiar with the mold-specific defects and function, or the critical seal areas of the tooling. Doing so will often create continuous mold performance issues and inflate the tooling budget through the addition of dings, burrs, rounded-over edges, premature plating or steel removal and mixed up tooling. These problems, in turn, can ignite the fires that are fought in a reactive system that does not monitor or count defects to correct root causes.

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