Meadville, PA - August 2006

What does it take to increase mold and tool room efficiency? Why is it critical to identify, classify and implement mold maintenance stages and couple these with accurate mold histories? These questions and more were recently addressed at an in-house training session at Tech Tool and Molded Plastics, Meadville, PA.

The students were exposed to innovative concepts that increase the speed and durability of molds as well as fundamental mold maintenance principles. Participants investigated methodologies and integrated tracking systems for mold maintenance that improve productivity and efficiency on the production floor. Newly built molds, old molds and transfer tooling from other sources were reviewed. The participants were challenged to continually improve mold performance regardless of the age, complexity and origin.

Mold maintenance techniques are not new to Tech as the company has had a preventative maintenance schedule in place for all molds and equipment for over 25 years. “At Tech, mold performance and durability is essential to the high standard of quality that we expect for our customer’s products. This involves thorough care of our equipment and assurance that molds function properly upon each start-up. We feel that it’s too late to wait until a mold malfunctions to fix it. Maintenance is preformed routinely and on a schedule.” states Dale Pringle Tooling Division Manager.

The Mold Maintenance Principles and Mold Relocation Considerations seminar was designed to advance the skills and techniques employed by the very best plastics processing companies. “Mold maintenance is critical to the quality of the final product. But, it is also important for our people to take ownership and become quality guardians through preventative measures that focus on our customer’s investment in precision molding and tooling.” said Scott Hanaway, President/ CEO.

Sixteen of Tech’s supervisors, quality assurance, designers, mold maintenance technicians, processors, and machine set-up personnel attended a day-long seminar. The program was taught by plastics technology specialist Brian Young. Brian is an Assistant Professor of Engineering of Penn State- Behrend, Erie, PA.