Keeping your Injection molding machine clean is essential to increase your Injection molding machine lifetime, not only the lifetime also it boost efficiency, improves productivity, and protects your machines.
Likewise, cleaning a screw and barrel is also an important one. It can be by removing and cleaning the injection molding parts or by injecting a purging compound.
It is not that necessary to remove the Screw and barrel from the machine. However, it may be more cost-effective. So here are some guides which help you for better cleaning of your screw barrel.
Cleaning by using Purging compound:
The first step in the cleaning process is to stop the resin flow that is being processed before by pushing the slide gate at the bottom of the resin hopper close. Then the next step is to reduce the speed of the screw rotation up to 15 to 25 RPM. The requirement of HDPE is completely depends upon the size of the screw and based on your injection molding machine.
The important thing is to check the pressure gauge value to ensure the system pressure level and observe the Screw to ensure that it rotates at 15-20 RPM. In the purging process, once the die has purged completely, the rotation of the screw is stopped entirely so that the die on the extruder is removed, exposing the end of the screw.
Then the screw restart and rotate to 10 RPM, allowing the remaining HDPE purging resin to be pumped out of the screw.
Cleaning by removing the screw and barrel:
By removing the screw is also one of the vital things of cleaning the screw and barrel. For this, take all the purging compounds out and remove the screw.
After removing the screw, the rotary union, hose, and piping from the extruder’s back, you can attach the screw extruder mechanism to the extruder gearbox. The screw is press down after that; you need to push the screw about 4-5 turns to expose it for cleaning purposes.
With the help of fine cotton cloth, you can easily clean the screw, However, to clean the barrel, you can coat the bore of the plasticizing barrel in stearic acid,with the help of a round brush wrapped in copper gauze to push into the bore. You need to add some additional stearic acid before you complete it.
Once you have swabbed the barrel completely clean with the bundle of rags, once you complete this then the cleaning is almost complete. At last, the machine you are using is an expensive and necessary investment. Maintenance and cleaning must for machines as well as machine parts so that the machines continue to work in a proper way and improve efficiency.