The electrical cabinets of the extrusion machine are in a mess. Does the control system need to be upgraded?

Unplanned maintenance of any production line indicates that there is a problem with the production line, but only by understanding the root cause of the problem can the severity of the problem be fully understood.

At the same time, it is necessary not only to understand the severity of the problem, but also to understand the risk of recurrence of the problem.

A good preventive maintenance plan can make the mechanical life of the #plastic extruder as long as 40 to 50 years.Almost all extrusion processors are aware of the warning signs on the equipment, which indicate when parts that are susceptible to mechanical wear and tear need to be replaced: barrels, screws, bearings, etc.Unfortunately, the evaluation of machine control systems is not always as simple as you think, and simple and crude repairs often put manufacturers in trouble.

Generally speaking, manufacturers rarely provide updates and upgrades to control products in electrical panels, which forces them to look for other people's upgraded products to keep the production line running.

Interestingly, most processors will not take action on this kind of problem that cannot be updated, but accept it because they do not understand the fundamental consequences.If the management responsible for production truly understands that this end-of-life method will eventually lead to long-term downtime, they will stay up all night worrying about losing customers in the future and assuming responsibility for faulty equipment related to worker safety.

Some maintenance personnel try to eliminate risks by installing single-loop temperature and discrete controls, in fact, they are technically regressing to keep the #extrusion machine running, rather than improving the production line.Although this method may allow the production line to run normally, it is not an engineering solution designed around UL or safety standards, and these standards are usually used in recent control designs, otherwise it is just kicking the can down the road.

In addition to control component failures, mechanical failures may also indicate that you need to upgrade.For example, a broken or locked screw may be caused by the operator starting an #extruder with a cold heater area.For inexperienced operators, this may happen even though it may have been explained to them during the training, but they are not fully aware of the consequences.It is best to use an updated control system to prevent this from happening, rather than training them to not do anything.

Over the years, we have adapted workers to machines.Although this was a successful method in the past, we must now start to adapt the machine to workers to reduce the possibility of scrap due to operator errors.Therefore, the operator interface needs to be easy to use and understand to reduce waste caused by errors and shorten the time required to train new operators.