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19-10-2019
Reading time: 4 min.
Welcome in our tool shop for mould maintenance
While many injection moulders used to make their own moulds in a tool shop, most plastic producers – including Rompa Group – nowadays buy their moulds from specialised suppliers. Both our Czech and Chinese production facility are nonetheless equipped with a tool shop to perform changes and repairs to moulds. Project manager Léon Brands will tell you more about this.
“Making moulds is a very specific business,” Léon explains. “That’s why Rompa has the moulds produced by selected tool makers in e.g. Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, and China. We do think it is important to perform repairs and changes internally, however. That’s faster and more efficient than going back to the tool maker.”
In-house expert tool makers
Amongst other things, you can find a lathe, milling machine, grinding machine and an electrical discharge machine in our tool shops. A team of expert tool makers works at both locations. They know all the ins and outs of the moulds and they know how to disassemble the moulds. What do they do exactly? Léon: “These people take care of preventive mould maintenance. They clean the ventilation channels, for example. These are very shallow channels of one-hundredth to one-two-hundredth of a millimetre, through which air can escape, but fluid plastic cannot. After a large number of uses, these channels will clog up, which means they have to be cleaned. If you do not do this, there is a chance of burning, which will in turn increase the wear on the mould, and this brings along with it a host of undesirable effects.”
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Grease and descale
“Other than that, our tool makers clean the ejector pegs and provide them with a new layer of grease, to ensure everything keeps running smoothly. This cleaning is done both ultrasonically and by hand. They also make sure the cooling channels do not get blocked by e.g. limescale. Thanks to the cooling fluid – usually water – in these channels, the hot plastic cools down quickly and evenly,” Léon says. “Thanks to our tool shop, we can perform these and other small maintenance jobs ourselves. That way, production can continue as planned.”
Repairs and changes
Unfortunately, it is possible that a mould gets damaged due to unforeseen circumstances or normal use. Because of the expertise of our staff, we can usually perform the repairs ourselves. This way, the time a mould is inactive can be kept to a minimum. Are there any product changes required? Based on the technical drawings, Rompa can apply these changes to the mould themselves, so that the changes are implemented in no time. You will then receive the new product version from us in a relatively short time. Quick and effective!
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Mould development at ITB in the Netherlands
Are you familiar with our tool shop at ITB Boxtel? It is where we develop moulds for injection moulding and metal injection moulding (MIM), as well as stamps for the punching of precision machinery. Our tool shop specialises in the design and development of the most complex tools. Think of e.g. moulds that demand a high degree of precision or moulds with many moving parts, as well as cutting and bending stamps for small metal parts.
• In-house tool shop (750 m2) with state-of-the-art machinery for milling, wire sparking, zinc sparking and grinding. The machines run day and night.
• From design to initial trial injection (depending on the complexity of the mould, this process takes an average of fifteen to twenty-five weeks).
• A team of specialists, including toolmakers, project engineers and project leaders, works on your mould and guarantees the highest degree of accuracy.
• Full service: product development, mould development and production, all under one roof. Due to the close collaboration, we can quickly anticipate changes.