Injection Moulding Machines & Servo Motors

"I infer that the company people are not using the machine to the full capacity."

The cost of modification far outweighs any benefit.

Get a clue!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only that, but the occasional overloads you mention might completely crap out the smaller motors.

However, you might try dialing up the feedstock input rate until you get an occasional trip, and then just back off a little. (Or maybe not, if a brief stoppage could cause solidification.)

Have you checked the thermal load of your motors? Thermal losses are proportional to ∫I²dt where I is the current.

Have you checked the mechanical fatigue load on the components?

Do not start from the idea that designers do not know what they do. They stay under a high cost pressure due to competition. The goal is to get the less expensive machine in order to maximize the difference between the market price and the cost to have either a higher gain or a higher margin to deal in case of price competition. If an apparently to strong motor was used is because a weaker would not satisfy the requirements as well from the cycle point of view as from the total cost of ownership which includes maintenance and production loss due to stops. The last being function of the MTBF. In the kind of machines you mention reliability and availability are most important.

GA vote for you.

I'll only add: a motor uses energy in proportion to the work it is performing. While there is a small loss of efficiency in an over sized motor due to a slightly higher magnetizing current, the concept of "over sized" is completely subjective, based on calculated decisions, not observational conjectures. Lowering your motor size has large potential downside risks, but infinitesimally small potential gains in efficiency.

I have worked on these types of machines and have a couple of questions what type of disc are you trying to produce cd or dvd. Has this machine had a modification as old cd machines have been modified to produce dvds and is the machine running at max speed or is it running at a slower rate?

We made sure that our machines had higher spec due to the cost of down time not only with scrap material but also with orders not going out. Our company found it better to invest in a higher spec so we did not have problems in later years

Injection Moulding machines have to run within a closely controlled "envelope" of parameters. If this "envelope" is breached, the machine fails, has to be shut down for cleaning & re-alignment - and the output is SCRAP!

These parameters include:-

Consistant feedstock quality.

Feed zone (or zones ) temperature.

Heating time, ie time for feedstock to attain required temperature - this setting is highly dependant on throughput time and cycle speed.

Mould input ( screw ) pressure - sufficient to completely fill the mould and exclude all air.

Dwell ( Cooling ) time - to allow the moulded product to attain mechanical stability when ejected.

I assume that these machines were properly designed to produce the desired products, and did'nt just get thrown together "Scrapheap Challenge" fashion - So - if you want to increase production - look to the above factors - and don't wreck a good design seeking a doubtful power economy. Good luck.