StackTeck’s quick change system for moulds
To help brand owners achieve greater system flexibility, Canadian tooling supplier StackTeck Systems has developed its Quick Product Change (QPC) system that gives injection moulders the ability to perform complete product changeovers in as little as 30-50 minutes, even for large stack moulds. That compares to conventional mould technology in which changeovers often take an entire production shift or longer.
The mould design consists of interchangeable core and cavity modules housed in a hot runner carrier frame. To change the product being moulded, a simple change of the core and cavity modules takes place within the common carrier frame.
No additional hook-up of services is required as all the electrical, water and air connections remain permanently installed within the carrier frame. This results in significant savings in shot-to-shot changeover time and an overall increase in machine run time. Alignment work needed for product changeover is also eliminated by the QPC approach.
QPC makes short production runs economical and provides the moulder with the ability to “mould-to-order” instead of maintaining high levels of inventory, says StackTeck. By using high-cavitation modules, plant capacity is actually increased and production yields are higher.
Some of the advantages of QPC include minimal capital costs as the frame and hot runner are reusable for multiple products; colour changes can be done with zero waste by moving the QPC modules from one press to another; product change-over times are reduced, meaning the processor can maximise production up-time and reusability as volumes grow.
StackTeck adds it also incorporates its QPC approach in its modular IML automation to enable rapid product and label changes within 45 minutes.
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