For molding production, mold is a very important part. Quality of mold will directly affect quality of product. Therefore, more and more molding supplier have developed effective mold warranty mechanisms to ensure that mold is in optimal production. However, in actual production, it is difficult for mold warranty personnel to regularly perform mold warranty according to warranty mechanism. “firefighting team” approach has become normal state of mold warranty. This paper analyzes imperfections of “execution” level of traditional molding supplier mold warranty mechanism and proposes importance of system to mold warranty management mechanism.

 

In molding production, whether it is production supervisor or production staff, quality of mold maintenance directly affects quality of product. The better mold maintenance, the higher production yield, the longer mold life, and vice versa. The higher defect rate, the shorter die life. Data shows that use and maintenance account for 15% to 20% of factors affecting service life of mold. Service life of plastic injection molding can generally reach 600,000-800,000 times, some well-maintained molds abroad can even be extended by 2 to 3 times. However, due to neglect of maintenance, plastic mold manufacturers in china have a relatively short tool life, which is equivalent to 1/5 to 1/3 of foreign countries.
Loss of steel processing time, energy waste, as well as impact on product quality due to short service life of mold amounts to billions of dollars per year.

Improving quality of molds, regularly maintaining and repairing them, and extending service life of molds are important issues for molding supplier to reduce costs and increase efficiency. In this regard, many molding supplier have also developed a mold warranty management mechanism to ensure that mold is in optimal production.

1. Before plastic injection molding is installed, upper and lower surfaces of mold should be cleaned to ensure that mold mounting surface and press table are not subject to crushing, parallelism of upper and lower mounting surfaces of mold.

2. Mold will be opened after mold is installed. All parts of mold will be cleaned, especially guiding mechanism. For surface part mold, profile should be cleaned to ensure quality of parts.
3. Lubricate sliding parts of mold, apply grease, and inspect mold for damage and safety parts. 
4. During production, mold periodically grouts corresponding part of mold, and cleans waste of tsmall hole waste road of trimming punching die.
5. Make spare parts management for wearing parts in mold, regularly carry out inspection and replacement. 
6. After end of production, plastic injection molding should be thoroughly inspected, waste in mold should be cleaned up to ensure that there is no waste in waste box, and mold should be thoroughly cleaned to ensure cleanliness of mold.
In actual production, “execution” level is often ignored, resulting in a warranty system is just a piece of paper. When machine is installed, it is only responsible for debugging. It is often forgotten to do a comprehensive inspection or cleaning; production personnel are only responsible for operation of machine and production count. Only when an abnormality occurs, condition of mold is stopped. In mass production, warranty personnel are also unable to stop mold wearing parts and safety parts regularly, and only mold can only be tested or replaced when production is abnormal. In this regard, mold warranty mechanism has become a form, “firefighting team” approach has become norm for mold warranty in plastic mold manufacturers in china, which often results in mold becoming accelerated and damaged due to inadequate maintenance, affecting production quality and progress.

 

In view of painful form of traditional molding supplier mold warranty mechanism, mold warranty management system has been developed in the market to help molding supplier break formal management and enable warranty mechanism to be fully implemented.

1. When mold-holding personnel work in the machine, they can check up-and-down machine detection items in the system to remind molder to check one by one according to up-and-down machine test items when going up and down. System sets image upload function, molder can upload scene picture of machine to system to achieve purpose of self-test.
2. Mold warranty system can set different types of maintenance according to warranty mechanism of enterprise mold. When mold reaches current maintenance conditions in production, system automatically creates a warranty task for mold warranty personnel, and reminds mold warranty personnel to do timely maintenance. This allows mold to be regularly and effectively maintained in accordance with warranty mechanism during production.
3. System sets spare parts and life management for wearing parts and safety parts. When mold production time reaches preset spare parts life, system automatically reminds mold warranty personnel to make spare parts replacement. Avoid downtime maintenance caused by damage to wearing parts and safety parts in production process, regular prevention and replacement of wearing parts, which can effectively improve product quality and improve life of mold.
4. After production personnel receive production task, they can see all technical parameters, location, warranty, production and other information of current mold through mold resume. Through this information, production staff can quickly determine whether current mold can be produced on-board, saving personnel responsible for process of finding and testing.
5. When mold warranty personnel are in maintenance, problem type and solution of each repair of mold can be recorded in the system. Through accumulation and big data analysis, it can be quickly known that mold abnormality is caused by design, manufacturing, production or customer, so that to prevent abnormality analysis in advance when opening a new plastic injection molding. Make a record of maintenance measures, facilitate maintenance personnel to make a reference for next repair.
6. According to conditions of molding supplier warranty mechanism, system provides email intelligent reminder function, so that responsible persons of each department can receive reminder information, quickly make adjustments and deployments so that maintenance mechanism can be effectively executed.

A well-maintained mold can shorten assembly and adjustment time of mold, reduce production failures, stabilize production, ensure product quality, and reduce operating costs and fixed assets. When next production cycle begins, company can successfully produce quality qualified products. Therefore, for molding supplier, in current fierce market competition, effective use of management system to do mold maintenance can prompt competitiveness of molding supplier.