PET preform mould maintenance is one of the key processes for efficient and stable preform manufacturing. All of the preform molders shall make sure their PET preform moulds are running at peak performance. Any long downtime cuts into efficiency would cause huge cost and nobody wants that.

Hence, here list the basic PET preform mould maintenance guidance, from the daily and regular maintenance.

PS: Though maintaining preform mould also requires downtime, it's on plan, it still keeps the efficient production instead of disordered state because of unexpected disastrous downtime.

Daily Maintenance

1. Clean mold.

When workers go off work, it’s basic to clean the PET preform moulds, including the mould cavities, cores and important parts, and keeps them dry and do the lubrication protection.

2. Check the hardware.

Before the PET preform moulds work, make sure that everything fastening your mold such as bolts, screws and plates should be tight enough.

Regular Maintenance

1.  Replace consumable parts regularly.

There are still parts eventually wearing out no matter how you do well on daily maintenance. Thus, find the spare part to do the replacement, make your PET preform moulds always being in good work state.

Such as:

a. Check the mold cooling system (The cooling water cannot be left in the mold cooling channels. It must be cleaned to prevent the mold from rusting and blocking the waterway to extend the life of the cooling channel.);

b. Check the wear plate, guide pin, guide bush;

c. Check hot runner valve;

d. Check hot runner thermocouple (to prevent abnormalities and heating);

e. Check the grounding of the hot runner heating tube.

2. Do right lubrication maintenance.

When mold is still working, do regular lubrication maintenance for moving parts, like lubricate guide pin and bush; cavity, core and lip cone surface and all ejection components with grease.

And if not use preform moulds for a long time, apply LPS2 or LPS3 spray to prevent corrosion.

Hope that basic guidance of PET preform mould maintenance is helpful.

We must keep it in mind that regular preform mould maintenance is very important for prolonging the mould life (more than 5Million shots based on the good quality and keep the efficient and stable production of quality preforms.