Long story short see the pic, details below.
Molds cleaning is one of the crucial process inside the modern glass industry, it is from where everything begins to have an efficient and profitable plant; we serve this industry with more than 600 equipments installed worldwide. Speaking about the process here a typical efficient loading pattern, with blanks on the side and neckrings in the center:
Operator procedure:
Switch on the blaster main switch and run the dust collector;
(*)Upload molds onto the table, following the pattern;
Close the doors and push & hold pushed "start" button, cleaning cycle will automatically start, typical cycle time is 4 minutes;
Operator is free to handle the molds cleaned/to be cleaned while the blaster is cleaning, a cart may be helpful;
Cleaning cycle done, doors unlock safely, download the cleaned molds, eventually back to (*) and follow if more moulds to clean.
Control paremeters of the cycle are:
cycle time, usually between 3 and 5 minutes, use of planetaries short it close to the 3 minutes and even below;
media consumption about 1/2 kg per cleaning hour - about 1 lb, regardless the media used .
4/5 cleaning cycles/hour depending on the size of the machine due to the different timing of loading/downloading .
Service contract helps clients to keep all these parameters under control skipping unexpected stops and avoiding extra costs.
Rotating table blasters are the most commonly used in this application, specifically two sizes:
CM T10 - 1 meter (about 3 feet) diameter table, 1 Ton capacity, 3 complete molds sets can be loaded and cleaned in one single cycle .
CM T14 - 1.4 meter (about 5 feet) diameter table, 1.4 Ton capacity, 6 complete molds sets can be loaded and cleaned in one single cycle .
Capacity of T14 is double than T10, cycle time the same, loading/downloading a little longer due to major quantities of molds to handle, major footprint due to bigger size .
Medias used in this process and commonly approved by all our clients worldwide are two types, soft steel shots and zirblast B40 (AKA ceramic) . The discussion which one is the best it is endless and I came to the conclusion that it is a choice to make together with the end user, blaster can anyway converted, with a little cost, from one type of media to the other; result is guaranteed both ways .
Great of automatic wheelblaster is that operator is needed only to load/download, so cleaning performances are not depending on him like the manual blaster; as well one blast wheel running is significantly cheaper than an automatic air blaster, where to have the 100 kgs of media (about 200 lbs) per minute launched in the cleaning chamber requires till 6 nozzles using and abusing a huge quantity of expensive compressed air.
Some glass plants with our cleaners worldwide:
to learn more: silvioruiu@gmail.com
Comments