| |
 |
|
Polyblaster cabinet located at the ToolingDocs facility is used
for a wide variety of cleaning needs. |
ToolingDocs’ services were recently called upon by Novatex, a rubber molder of personal care and medical products, to perform an emergency cleaning operation on a multi-cavity rubber mold that had become contaminated with degraded rubber in a difficult to reach area.
The degraded material was concentrated at the bottom of several 0.080” diameter x 1.5” deep blind holes within the mold cavities. Previous attempts at hand cleaning these small holes with brushes and pipe cleaners were unsuccessful, as the rubber had adhered strongly to the cavity and could not be dissolved or loosened with the use of typical solvents or cleaners.
To “get to the bottom of the problem” a custom nozzle tip was machined to fit the hose on ToolingDocs'
Polyblaster media blast cabinet. The nozzle was small enough to reach to the bottom of the hole and shoot a specialized, fine particle, non-abrasive plastic media directly at the contaminated area, effectively and quickly removing all traces of the degraded rubber.
“This was a very difficult tool to clean and our usual methods were not effective,” said Mike Donofrio, plant manager at Novatex. “We called ToolingDocs, described the situation, and sent the tool to their facility. They designed a nozzle for their
Polyblaster that was able to reach the very small cavity tips. Two days later, we were back in production.
“I’m impressed with ToolingDocs’ know-how and with the service,” he added.
Keep ToolingDocs in mind whenever challenging mold maintenance or cleaning issues arise. Visit
www.toolingdocs.com to find out more about how ToolingDocs can help.
|
