Injection moulding
Injection moulding machine monitoring
Cycle time drifts by a second and nobody notices for a month. Mould change takes as long as it takes, because nobody has ever timed it properly.
Moulding is a capability page, not a case study. We have not deployed on a moulding floor yet, and we are saying so up front. What follows is what our hardware measures and how it would be fitted.
What moulding units tell us
- Cycle time is set once and never checked against what the machine actually does.
- Mould change time is a number nobody has measured, so job costing is guesswork.
- Startup scrap after a mould change is absorbed and never counted.
- Machines run unattended at night and the shift report is written in the morning.
What we would measure
The same machine states, with cycle detection as the important piece.
Running, idle, setup and breakdown
Per machine, per shift, recorded automatically.
Cycle time and shot counts
From cycle detection on a repeating movement or the drive current pattern. Confirmed at survey for each machine.
Mould change time
Setup kept as its own category, so a job with frequent changes can be priced for them.
Rejects
Entered by the operator on the dashboard, or from a custom sensor fitted for that machine.
Power per machine
Heaters and drives make moulding power hungry, so cost per machine and per order is worth having.
How it would be fitted
Outside the machine, like everywhere else. Nothing inside is cut, and the machine keeps running even if our device fails.
Current sensor on the drive supply
Separates running from idle and gives power consumption per machine.
Proximity sensor
On the clamp or ejector movement, which is usually the cleanest cycle signal on a moulding machine.
Optocoupler tap
On lamp or contactor signals that already indicate machine state.
4 to 20 mA loop
From a temperature or pressure transmitter the machine already has, where one is available.
What a rollout would look like
One machine first. We survey it, agree what a clean cycle signal looks like, fit it in a mould change gap and let you watch two weeks of data. If we cannot get a reliable shot count on your machine, we will tell you at survey.
To be clear: we have no injection moulding deployment yet. Our proven ground is textile looms, screen printing machines and mixed electrical and mechanical plants, on the same hardware.
Start with one machine
Tell us your machine makes, tonnages and what a typical mould change involves. We will tell you honestly what we can measure.
Related reading
Machine downtime tracking
Reason codes, mould change as its own category, and the Pareto that ranks them.
OEE software
Startup scrap and reduced speed are two of the six big losses. This page works the numbers.
Machine condition monitoring
What vibration and sound sensing does today, and what it does not do.
The LiveMach sensor device
What the device reads, how it is isolated and how it is fitted outside the machine.