• The values may be displayed as a percent difference or actual value by ticking or un-ticking the box at the bottom.


• You need to make sure that your sequence inputs are correct and that the fill volume is set correctly before saving the template. Otherwise some values may be missing or incorrectly computed.


• The Average Value / Pack Speed shown above only applies to 3-stage processes. If your process has more than 2 speeds.


• 
  Sequence Time / Plastic Cooling starts at the end of fill (fill volume as set by user or automatically) and ends at the end of mold clamped. You could also used Sequence Time / Mold Clamped but Plastic Cooling is closer to what the plastic actually sees. Sequence Time / Mold Clamped is a good mesure of how the operator set up the process.


• The Average Value / Stable Hold Pressure is the flat area of the injection pressure curve during hold. It is a representation of the machine’s set hold pressure. You might also use Average Value / Hold Pressure. In many cases this second value closer to what the plastic sees because it includes an average pressure over the entire hold time. This includes any response time issues at the start of hold (e.g. oscillations or slow response).

^† We intend one day to present them “un-normalized” so that you can see what machine settings will be required to match the volume and injection pressure values.

Additional Information

The Setup Notes tool can also display documents by clicking the “Documents” button under each of the different tabs.

• Each menu item in the “Documents” button list is a file inside the mold, machine or process folder.


• The menu selection text shown is the file name without the extension.


• Place the file in the appropriate folder and it will automatically get sent to the eDART (on job start in semi-auto)


• Allowable file extensions are .jpg (or .jpeg), .gif and .html (or .htm).


• Use .jpg files for photos, .gif files for precision graphics and .html files for fancy text.


• The .gif files are the smallest and appear clearest on the eDART.


• Keep pictures in the 800 x 600 to 1000 x 740 range so that they are not too large to view on the eDART.


• HTML files must be in HTML version 1 format to be viewed on the eDART. Some modern “Word” programs will not save html v. 1. A freeware program called “NVU” will.

Examples

Place photos of part quality problems such as short shots, splay etc. at the lowest level (“Process”).

Place photos showing sensor or gate location names in the mold or special plumbing instructions in the mold name folder.

If you have standard process setup sheets you can convert them to html v. 1 and place them under the lowest level (process).

Machine maintenance photos (such as the location of a filter or lube point) or instructions could go under the machine folder.

The Setup Notes tool on the eDART can be a significant aid to process stabilization: ensuring that Knowing the structure defined by Job Setup helps to understand how the Setup Notes tool on the eDART works.

You can “attach” the Setup Notes tool from the Architect’s “Applications” tab to a mold. We recommend that if you are going to use it throughout the plant that you drag it to the “Molds” folder under the Architect’s “System” tab. That way it will start for all molds.

You can type text into the box on the setup notes tool. When you hit the “Accept and Save” button the Setup Notes tool saves that text in a file called “Setup Notes.txt”. The cross-copy service sends it up to the server under the folder structure shown at the right. You can also create “Setup_Notes.txt” files on the server and place them in the folders to which they apply. There is actually a different Setup_Notes.txt file for each tab on the tool. Be sure to name the file Setup_Notes.txt with the proper case and underscore as shown.

Any changes made on the server will be copied to the eDARTs (only on job start in semi-auto mold). Any changes made on the eDART will be copied to the server for distribution to other machines in the group. Note that the Setup_Notes.txt file must be a simple text file and not a Word or other complex word processing document. They should be created and edited with Notepad or Wordpad.

Next tip: Part 2: Complex Documents under the “Documents” button

Examples

“Process”

Put the setup parameters for the combination of mold, material and cavity layout into the Setup Notes tool on the Process tab. Each time a job is started the technician can read the notes and set the proper temperatures and machine parameters.

If you have not entered a material or cavities on the Job Setup window then the “Process” tab notes will be the same as the “Mold” tab.

Mold

A mold may have some specific information about plumbing or maintenance or some sort of core operation. Anything related to the tool itself can go under the “Mold” tab and will appear regardless of what material or cavity layout is running.

Machine

Some machines have odd behavior that you may want to note under the “Machine” tab. Someone may leave notes about the last time a screw or filter was changed.

After sending that list of machine setup values Steve B. pointed out that I had forgotten a couple of basic ones.

Sequence Time / Hold Time

Average Value / Coolant Delta Pr.

Note: Saving a Template Also Stores Values

Notice that when you save a template on the eDART all summary values are saved with the template. You can add them to the “Cycle Values” tool and see quickly if there has been a process change on any of these machine setup parameters. Of course if you are graphically competent you can look at the cycle graph and see different slopes on stroke (speed changes), pressure during hold and such. Some would rather work with the numbers.

Details:

Sequence Time / Hold Time: This is the time that the Machine Sequence / Hold (as figured out by the eDART’s sequencer) is on. It is a fundamental process parameter that, if changed, can cause material to flow out of the cavity because the gate is not sealed or the part is not solid enough.

Requires: A knowledge of where hold starts and ends. The start of hold can come from setting the fill volume (in D2) or Seq. Module Input / First Stage or the V->P transfer. The eDART uses the end of Machine Sequence / Injection Forward for the end of hold. Note that this only requires a sequence input module for hardware.

Average Value / Backpressure: The average injection pressure over the screw run time.

Requires: Our “Delta Pressure” sensor hooked up with across the mold cooling lines. And it requires some sequence signal to cycle the eDART to collect data. Mold Clamped is usually enough.

This is a digression from the 4 plastics variables thread but is worth covering because it is fresh.

Remember the diagram called “Intermediate Variables” (Tip # 55, page 3 of attachment). Here is an abbreviated version.

Of course RJG’s philosophical position is and has been that even with a perfect machine and auxiliaries properly set up and running consistently the process inside the cavity will vary. This is due to those uncontrollable external inputs such as changes in material, weird hot runner anomalies etc. We have acres of data to show this.

But what about the other inputs? Those simple-to-set machine settings? Aren’t they constant?

Well… not as often as we would like. We like to assume that in a manufacturing process the team has its procedures set up to make parts the same way every time. But stories abound about the “secret process setup sheets”, the “our-shift-can-make-it-better-than-yours” syndrome, tampering with everything to fix a problem and so on. The point of this tip is that the eDART measures plenty of process setup values as well as in-cavity ones.

The focus of the eDART is in-cavity measurement. However, when hooked to the machine it creates a number of summary values that directly reflect the process setup: speeds, pressures, material mixing and so-on. You can add them as warnings (or alarms) to the “Alarm Settings” window. You may or may not want to sort parts on them. But you can monitor the alarm status over the network on the Windows side in the System Overview. When you get a warning you can check on the process to see what may have changed. The values are also all stored in the phlat-file data so that you can check in the analyzer for process setup changes.

The eDART Values for Process Setup Monitoring (Non-Plastics Variables)

Here are some of the most pertinent eDART summary values that relate directly to process setups.

Sequence Time / Cycle Time

Sequence Time / Mold Clamped

Average Value / Fill Flow Rat

Average Value / Pack Flow Rate (in D3)

Average Value / Stable Hold Pressure

Sequence Time / Screw Run

Average Value / Backpressure

Details:

Sequence Time / Cycle Time: This may seem like a value you would normally use for production. But to keep thermodynamic stability in the cavity it must be kept the same from setup to setup. Cavity surface temperatures can vary dramatically with cycle time.



Requires: Any last sequence in the cycle will do but Seq. Module Input / Mold Clamped gives the best stability in cycle time.

Sequence Time / Mold Clamped: Similar to cycle time. The time the mold is clamped (at least) must be the same from setup to setup to get the same cooling.



Requires: Seq. Module Input / Mold Clamped (or both Mold Opening and Mold Closing if Mold Clamped is not available).

Average Value / Fill Flow Rate: This is fill speed “normalized” for the screw diameter so it is the same from machine to machine.



Requires: Stroke Sensor, screw machine size set and the fill volume properly set. A Seq. Module Input / Screw Run saves having to zero the stroke.

Average Value / Pack Flow Rate (in D3): This is the pack velocity (V2) in a D3 process, again normalized to the screw diameter (volume).



Requires: Same as Fill Flow Rate plus the V->P transfer tool or a Seq. Module Input / First Stage from the machine to know where the transfer to hold takes place.

Average Value / Stable Hold Pressure: In plastic pressure this is the best estimate of the hold pressure set on the machine. It looks for the last flat spot on the injection pressure curve.



Requires: Plastic Pressure / Injection (or Hydraulic Pressure / Injection and intensification ratio set in machine size) and a knowledge of where hold starts and ends. The start of hold can come from setting the fill volume (in D2) or Seq. Module Input / First Stage or the V->P transfer. The eDART uses the end of Machine Sequence / Injection Forward for the end of hold.

Sequence Time / Screw Run: Simply the time the screw was running. This could indicate a change in material conditions, barrel temperature settings or screw RPM.



Requires: Seq. Module Input / Screw Run (or Revolution Rate / Screw Motor on Sumitomo Oscillograph interfaces)

Average Value / Backpressure: The average injection pressure over the screw run time.



Requires: Plastic Pressure / Injection and Seq. Module Input / Screw Run (or Revolution Rate / Screw Motor on Sumitomo Oscillograph interfaces)

If these values have changed from a template or out of an alarm band then something in the process setup has changed. Sometimes they must be changed to get the same in-cavity conditions. But if the operators are modifying them arbitrarily these “variables” can be detected.