In injection molding, ‘Short-time breakdown’ is a slang term for a brief stoppage or interruption. The term stands for ‘little stoppages’ and refers to temporary production line stoppages caused by small unplanned problems or issues. Choco stoppages are usually brief, lasting from a few minutes to a few dozen minutes, but depending on their frequency and nature, they can have a significant impact on production.
Causes of Short-time breakdown
・The main causes of chocolate stoppages include
・Mould problems: failure to remove the product from the mold or a blockage in the mold cooling line.
・Material supply problems: temporary interruptions in the supply of resin pellets or insufficient material flow.
・Minor machine problems: minor problems such as sensor malfunction or wear and tear of machine parts.
Human error: e.g. operator setting errors or inadequacies during set-up changes.
Disadvantages of a Short-time breakdown
Although Short-time breakdown are short stoppages, they have the following disadvantages
Reduced production efficiency: frequent chocolate stoppages reduce the efficiency of the entire production line. Stopping and restarting takes time, which interferes with the smooth flow of production.
Variations in quality: even short stoppages can cause variations in product quality when the injection molding process is interrupted. For example, there is a risk of dimensional accuracy changes or defective products due to changes in the resin residence time in the cylinder.
Increased costs: if production efficiency is reduced due to chocolate stoppages, costs increase accordingly. Increased operator uptime, energy consumption, machine wear, etc., result in higher production costs.
Strain on machines and molds: frequent stoppages and restarts are also hard on injection molding machines and molds. This can lead to more frequent maintenance and shorter component life.
Minimising Short-time breakdown is extremely important, as it directly leads to improved production line efficiency, cost savings and consistent product quality. Thorough preventive maintenance, operator training and regular maintenance of machines and molds are effective means of preventing chock stops.
There have been several cases in our company where resin pellets clogged in the hose during material supply, resulting in Short-time breakdown.
The cause was that the hose connecting the material hopper to the molding machine was crawling on the ground, which made the hose itself longer, and the hose itself had many bends, which made it easier for the material to clog.
(The line in red is the hose connecting the raw material hopper to the molding).
The layout was therefore changed so that the hoses, which had been crawling on the ground, could float by passing pipes through the middle of the wall.
(The line in orange is the layout of the improved hose).
This not only reduces the number of places where the hose bends, but also the length of the hose itself, which reduces the number of cases of material clogging in the hose.
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