Big Data Keeps Production on Target
Mold manufacturers and molders can realize multiple advantages by employing these concepts within a mold monitoring system created specifically for production tooling. Such a system consists of three components. The first is a mold monitor—a small, low-cost, battery-powered device that is installed on a plastic injection mold. It records each time the mold is cycled and calculates average cycle times and efficiency measures for preceding weeks.
The second component of the system is a press module (also known as a radio frequency transmitter) that is installed on each molding press and wirelessly communicates with the third component, a “gateway” that is installed in each molding facility. The gateway connects via Ethernet to transmit a mold’s data in real time to a secure, remote database. From there, customers can log into a website and view information for each mold they have connected to the system, and they can do it without any geographic limitations.
What information is available? The monitoring system can be configured to provide real-time alerts when a mold is not operating within user-defined limits. For example, a user can set required preventive maintenance (PM) intervals and be notified if a mold is approaching required PM or if the mold is overdue for PM. A notes section allows users to record what has been done to the mold during maintenance. Real-time performance measures, such as cycle time and efficiency, are also tracked, and users are informed, in real time, if a mold is not performing within predefined limits.
In this system, each mold is a node on a network. Each of these nodes has information that can be acquired from it. The data that is generated by it is used, in real time, to drive the decisions made by each of the mold’s stakeholders. This is the application of Big Data concepts and the Internet of Things to molds.
The article comes from China injection mold manufacturer - Mold Best Assurance Company Limited, website is www.mbamoldanddesign.com
