Simplicity and Consistency Are Key to Molds in Motion
A free webinar reviews solutions for the majority of mold (plastics) and die (die-casting) movements, including couplers, cylinders and latch assemblies, and listeners were engaged for the hour-long presentation to learn how simple concepts can have a big impact on the bottom line in both dollars and time.
Richard Oles, President and CEO of ALBA Enterprises in Torrance, California, used webcam video, animation and PowerPoint slides to engage webinar attendees and immerse them in a family of technology options for mold movement. For example, hydraulic cylinder solutions engineered specifically for the plastic and die cast industries, mechanical couplers and plate actuation systems.
I’ve known Rich for a long time now and he is a wealth of practical information and experience when it comes to hot runner and mold component technology as they apply to mold builders, molders and OEMs. He also has a consulting company (ROI Rich Oles Industries) that he merged with the ALBA last November. ROI offers services supporting the plastic injection molding industry. Specializing in the thermal dynamic events in plastic injection molding, training, applications engineering and problem-solving.
Rich took a technical approach to the conversation, examining some challenging motions in tooling and some possible solutions … some of which are pretty innovative. Other topics included how to monitor the motion in your mold or die such as induction, mechanical and magnetic switches and how to diagnose these switches when wired in series. Lastly he looked at some failures when connecting a machine to a mold to move the ejector plate.
One tip involves a visual diagnostic tool for cylinders that you can mount on the mold, on the press or just have in the toolroom that indicates problems with specific switches using LED lights (green and red). It is a simple, reliable system to improve machine uptime.
The main takeaways from this webinar, according to Rich include understanding what’s possible with cylinders, couplers and latch locks, how technology suppliers are still inventing new ways to use these mold components to improve molds in motion, and the importance of innovation in these everyday products to save time with consistency.
Listen and watch this free archived webinar by clicking here and see mold motion in a different light and discover possible solutions to common preventable problems.
You can also learn more about Rich and Alba when I sat down with him and Tony Demakis of The Manufacturing Alliance to talk about continuous education, the importance of perception and engagement, helping the customer and finding and fixing problems.
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