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What To Know About the Purging Material Process for Injection Molding Machines
Manufacturers who use injection molding machines know that keeping your machinery clean and in good working order is essential for continuing proper operations. If machines break down and stop functioning in the middle of a job, then you lose valuable time and money. Taking the time to maintain your machines helps you maintain efficiency in your systems and avoid stops in production.
One of the most important parts of proper machine maintenance is purging material from your injection molding machines. After extended use, material inevitably builds up within your machines and can cause malfunctions if not cleaned out properly. Because new resin cannot remove leftover material from a previous run, this purging process is a necessary part of running any injection molding machine. This article will give you an overview of the injection molding material purging process.
Stages of Purging Injection Molding Material
There are several stages to the material purging process for injection molding machines. The best way to clean your injection molding machines is to use a mechanical-grade purging compound. This substance can be run through the machine to help expel any leftover molding material built up inside the machine.
Before purging material from your injection molding machine, you need first to ensure that the hopper is cleaned and the barrel of the machine has been emptied. Then, adjust the machine’s screw speed to 30-50 percent of its normal condition to prepare the machine for cleaning.
Next, you can fill the hopper with the purging compound and run the machine through its entire sequence. Continue running the machine until all of the compound has been used up. You may need 1-2 full feed barrels of the compound to ensure that the machine has been thoroughly cleaned.
Your machine should be fully cleaned of any material from previous jobs. The final step is to run through some of the material for the next job to clean out all the purging compound. You can then adjust the machine settings back to their normal processing conditions and proceed with your next production job.
Final Tips for Purging Injection Molding Material
Whatever purging compound you are using to clean material from your injection molding machine, be sure to check the product instructions and information before using it in your machines. You want to ensure that you don’t miss any peculiarities in usage for a specific product.
Be sure to choose a purging compound that will work well for your machines. A quality compound should be easy-to-use with simple, straightforward instructions, so it helps boost your machine’s efficiency. You can look up customer reviews for different purging compound products to see which ones work well and keep your production processes running smoothly.
