Your injection mould tool is a critical investment. It’s been running smoothly for years, churning out thousands of parts. But no tool lasts forever. Tools begin to flash, quality drifts, cycle times slow, or the tool may risk failure.
On the upside, proper maintenance prevents most of these issues, and experienced toolmakers who respond fast make the difference between small problems and big disasters.
Read on to learn why.
Why Tools Eventually Fail
Injection mould tools endure brutal treatment. Molten plastic is blasted under massive pressure, thousands of times over. Constant thermal cycling and mechanical battering wear components down, even in well-built tools.
Problems develop gradually – worn ejector pins start to flash on the moulding, damaged gates where plastic enters, eroded cooling channels killing cycle efficiency, worn slides in tools with moving bits.
Nothing breaks suddenly – it tends to be a slow deterioration. Regular inspection catches issues before they cause quality issues or production-stopping failures.
Fixing Things vs Preventing Problems
Reactive maintenance means waiting for failures, then scrambling for repairs. Preventative maintenance is considerably smarter – catch wear during inspections, fix things during scheduled gaps, and keep tools cleaned and properly lubricated.
This involves scheduling planned maintenance windows to disassemble the part, perform maintenance or repairs, and resume production on schedule.
At BEC Group, our toolmakers have 40-plus years of experience. We’d much rather schedule maintenance sensibly than experience tool failures or critical quality issues during a production run.
When Tools Need Changing
Sometimes tools need to be modified rather than just fixed. Design tweaks, material changes, and quality improvements – all might require adjusting existing tooling.
Common modifications include moving gates to improve part quality, adding venting to prevent trapped-air problems, adjusting cooling to speed up cycles, and tweaking cavities when designs change slightly.
Bringing Tools Home
More companies are reshoring tooling after offshore disasters. Long lead times, communication issues, and quality problems are all potentially expensive – not to mention posing critical risks for production. UK toolmaking is considerably more attractive- particularly as upfront costs are on the rise in the Far East.
We champion the Made in Britain philosophy at BEC Group, basing our operations out of Hampshire and working closely with clients across the UK to bring designs to life without the risk of offshore production.
Choose BEC Group for Tool Maintenance
Tool maintenance isn’t exciting, but it’s fundamental to reliable production. Manufacturers delivering consistently versus those constantly firefighting often differ in one thing – how seriously they take tool maintenance.
Ultimately, proactive maintenance costs money upfront but saves far more through robustly preventing downtime, consistent quality, and longer tool life. Emergency repairs always cost more – direct costs, lost production, damaged customer relationships when deliveries slip behind schedule.
Need tooling work? Contact BEC Group to discuss how our toolmakers keep production running smoothly.
