Why Anistek Mechatronic choose a single cavity design for the moulds of MONO500 ?
Designing something really innovative require to have a really open mind. So, the best way is to start to ask yourself: what are the most common problems in the daily life of aluminium foil tray manufacturing?
One of the answer is: cost of the tools. Yes, the molds represent a significant part of your business costs, and bigger are the moulds higher is the cost. More are the cavities and higher is the price.
Another answer is: continuous running of the machines. Everybody in the business of aluminium foil containers manufacturing perfectly know that more are the cavity more are the problem of running. More are the problem, more are the stops of the machines. And as consequence less production and increase of the costs.
This mean, that a single cavity mould have two big intrinsecal advantages: LOWER INVESTMENT and LESS PROBLEMS.
Considering that nobody is running a single mould in a single press is extremely evident how much the moulds are the real big part of the investments for each manufacturer.
Let’s make an example. You wish to produce 4 different shapes in multicavity moulds, this mean price / mould x 4 = 100% investment. Run it require a big press, and multiple line stacking unit, price as consequence (no less than 180/260.000 € for an european machine) .
A single cavity mould setup save you 50%. Yes, a MONO500 wrinkle wall mould cost in average the 50% of a multi cavity mold. The budget of the press in in the range of 40 to 60% less (list price) than other traditional equipments. This mean a strong save into investment.
The backside is quite evident: tha capacity of production. That’s why the MONO 500 is incerdibly fast… one of the reason is exactly the single cavity! Yes, is possible to run same mould shape in a range of 50% to 100% faster than any othe machine on the palnet. So it’easy:
Less cavity and higher speed = Lower investment and higher efficiency
Let’s explain. Refer to the most common and well known 450ml tray size (No. 2 UK ) .
4 Cav. mold can run at 60 spm in a crankshaft press = 240/260 pcs per minute, 14.400 pcs per hour. 1 Cav. mold can run at 120 spm in a MONO500 =120/130 pcs per minute, 7.200 pcs per hour.
This introduce the concept of “scalbility” of the MONO500. Yes, if you need more production, simply add another machine. In other therms first you can invest on the RANGE OF PRODUCTS , than add capacity of production without any compromise! In fact, all will came with maximum efficiency of running.
In the example above simpli double the MONO500 (and you are still saving big amount of money in the total investment):
4 Cav. mold = 14.400 pcs per hour. 1 Cav. mold x 2 Presses = 14.400 pcs per hour.
But, let’s consider the edfficiency, a MONO500 run with a minimum efficiency of 90%, a crankshaft press multi cavity, can’t exceed 70%. This mean that at the end of a shift of prduction you get:
4 Cav. mold = 14.400 pcs per hour. x 8 x 70% = 80.640 pcs 1 Cav. mold x 2 Presses = 14.400 pcs per hour. x 8 x 90% = 103.680 pcs
That is a extremely significant difference, basically 5x mono have little more capacity of real production of 3x multi cavity (4) crankshaft machines.
And, this is the main difference that nobody seems to easily understand: what is making the profit into the company are the machines that run, not the big amount of mould’s cavities parked on the shelf not running. So that’s why in an ideal factory the machines are running all the molds, in a real world a good investment is minimal on the moulds and maximal on the machines.
There are also some additional benefits of a single cavity design, like:
- less space occupied to store it
- less time to be installed on the machine
- less time to be manufactured an delivered to you
- easier to be serviced
- less expansive to mantain
- easier to set-up
- faster to set-up
- longer life of the cut (blanking) and more accurate, faster resharpening
The choiche is well justified, because the benefits that cames are:
Lower investment on the molds
Higher production and higher efficiency.
Author:
Marco Capra,
Anistek Mechatronic CEO
inventor of MONO500.
Published 10-Aug-2017
