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Maverick now offers injection molding preventative maintenance packages to the plastics industry! Repair, troubleshooting, and installation of injection mold machines and peripheral equipment.
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Customer Case Study: Lasko Metal Products |
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Lasko Metal Products - Fort Worth, Texas
 The following is an exerpt of the report provided by BJ Haffly at the conclusion of the laser alignment performed on Lasko's Merritt Davis 6" 46:1 barrel. Unlike most plastic industry facilities, Lasko equipment and machines were installed properly and the foundations for the machines met or exceeded OEM specifications. Sadly, this is not the norm.
During our initial inspection we observed that this was a very professional installation. The gearbox was level in both directions, frame was level the full length, professional isolated foundation, and the machine was grouted solid under the full length of the frame. This allowed our job of laser aligning the barrel to be quick and easy.
Lasko personnel provided access to the feed chamber, enabling us to determine the feed chamber offsets, which in this case matched the barrel input offsets within .001 to one another. The barrel output and the center support area of the barrel, however, had alignment errors out of tolerance enough to cause contact between the barrel and screw.
 We adjusted the center support area of the barrel and the barrel output to within .002 overall of the feed chamber offsets and that completed the barrel alignment.
All data was recorded and was provided to Lasko in our report. We then performed a barrel wear analysis, measuring the barrel every 12" for the full length and determined two areas of the barrel had up to .006 wear above the original specifications.
Lasko decided this was within their acceptance criteria at the time. Lasko personnel slid the screw in by hand. All this was performed in a 6-hour time frame, which is good time for a barrel of this length.
Not all installations are done as well as Lasko Metal Products. We have observed many extruders simply set on the existing floor, some anchored, some not.
For extruders to perform at their best, as always, it starts at the foundation. If the extruders aren't anchored to a good isolated foundation, the extruder can and will move. Countless times we have seen extruders sitting across expansion joints (40-50% of the time) which allows the extruders to move whenever the floor does.
I can't express enough the importance of a good foundation. Having said that, there are other ways available to correct existing installation problems. We often use Unisorb products to help isolate extruder bases as they have a full line of isolation pads and fixators specifically made for extruders and injection molding machines. Unisorb also has foundation grout and epoxy for filling voids under the bases. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 September 2005 )
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