8 Key Steps of Mold Repair

To keep your molds up and running, they need to be properly maintained and repaired. By conducting periodic mold maintenance and repair, you can reduce downtime and save money. Repairs typically consist of building up worn or broken surfaces, repairing thin walls, accommodating changes by the engineers, or filling in cracks and small voids. In mold repair, structure is especially critical when working with many pieces of close-fitting tooling that are nested into plates. Remembering the type, fit, relational position of components, and the sheer volume of tooling in some molds can be overwhelming enough without adding confusion about where you are in the process of the repair.

Here are the 8 key steps of the repair process:

1. PREPARATION
Preparation, the most critical stage in mold maintenance and repair, provides the engineers and technicians a summary of all past issues and prior corrective actions making them aware of any longstanding issues. Skipping this step is not an option as knowledge is the foundation to properly repair your mold.

2. MOLD DISASSEMBLY
When disassembling the mold, a technician must have a level in mind, otherwise you could invite excessive handling of the components and thus increase the damage to the mold. A time-based disassembly level should be established prior to this stage (based on parts produced, hours, days or cycles) to optimize the bench time.

3. TROUBLESHOOTING
When troubleshooting, you must accurately identify past and current issues to ensure the technician can effectively and efficiently understand the production conditions (apparent with wear marks and residue) to historical data. Issues should be reviewed, researched and then corrected one by one.

4. CORRECTIVE ACTION
Depending on a technician’s skill level, tools, and experience, effective, efficient, reliable and corrective action steps are enforced. As problems are found, they should be corrected one at a time until all have been resolved or a next step has been decided upon.

5. CLEANING
At this step, the technician will turn their focus on how to best clean the tool. The method, type and frequency of mold cleaning should take in to account the production and cycles along with the mold’s specific factors (such as residue, tooling concerns, resin, etc.). The findings will dictate the cleaning level and process.

6. ASSEMBLY
Accurate mold and tooling assembly is a critical step in preventing breakdown and ultimately unscheduled operation downtime. More often than not, mistakes occur from lack of skill, focus, or disorganized habits. Effective communication between technicians is crucial to avoid any oversights in the repair process.

7. FINAL CHECK
Before a mold is released, it is important to run it through a few final quality checks for water leaks, machine fitment, etc. This will reduce the risk of unscheduled downtime.

8. STAGING
After each of the stages are compete and the mold has been analyzed, cleaned, fixed, and checked again, it should get a new status and then moved to be in storage, reset in the press or put as a backup mold for operations. If applicable, the mold could also be sent to another vendor for production or rebuild.

By following this effective repair process, technicians’ results are consistent, efficient and effective. See how mold manufacturer, Monroe Mold, can recondition or repair your mold by calling (734) 241-6898.