Changeable Mold Base Offers Flexibility, Productivity While Reducing Tooling Costs

A mold base has been designed that provides faster production changeovers—reducing downtime at a fraction of the cost of multiple molds.

The Quick Change, developed by Mold Craft, Inc. (Willernie, MN)—a designer and builder of high-volume, single and multi-cavity, multi-mold projects for small intricate plastic parts—allows for flexible productivity at reduced tooling costs. “The custom design can hold single or multiple cavities offering a five-minute change out of the cavity set,” explains Justin McPhee, Vice President of Engineering at Mold Craft. “This is where the real benefits of adaptability and flexibility are realized. The Quick Change mold base stays in the press and the Quick Change cavity set (or dummy plates) are quickly and easily changed out for molding of different and unique parts. This combination of reduced production downtime, reduced labor for changeover and reduced tooling investments will result in significantly improved profits for our customers.”

 

How It Works

The Quick Change mold base is full hard, 420 stainless steel with water cooling in each plate. “The proprietary 2-stage ejector system is activated through the standard ejector cycle to strip and eject the parts and runners,” McPhee notes. “All components are full hard—including gibs and wear plates—for long-lasting production. The runner shut-off feature allows one or two Quick Change inserts to run simultaneously.

“The Quick Change cavity set also is full hard, water-cooled, 420 stainless steel with a self-contained ejector system,” McPhee continues. “The precision parting line guide pins and bushings reduce ‘A’ side to ‘B’ side mismatch within .0002”. To complement our two-stage stripper system, we also offer a Quick Change system with standard ejection built with the same production quality.”

According to Mold Craft Vice President Tim Bartz, the two-stage Quick Change base will cost $33 thousand, includes a prehard stainless dummy block for single cavity operation. “The actual Quick Change cavity sets are reasonably priced by quotation of cavity detail,” Bartz adds.

 

Applications

Applications include short production runs of multiple parts where the Quick Change cavity sets can be quickly and easily replaced. “This concept will allow for gained production time, less press downtime, lower labor costs and reduced tooling costs,” concludes Bartz.