Guyson Corporation has designed and built an automated tire mold cleaning system that features a precision nozzle manipulator with three axes of movement. The custom pressure-blast machine is engineered to quickly and non-destructively clean both two-piece and segmented molds.
The roof-mounted nozzle motion system directs the blast from four pressure nozzles rigidly bracketed in position on the wrist of the programmable manipulator. The horizontal and vertical range of nozzle motion accommodates molds of various diameters and tread widths, while the third axis precisely controls the pitch or angle of impingement of the blast stream to facilitate rapid and thorough cleaning of details of target surfaces.
Twin powered turntables of 78-inch diameter and 6,600-pound weight capacity are mounted on a motor-driven transfer cart that rolls on tracks extending from each side of the blast cabinet. This table configuration allows unloading and loading of tire molds to be accomplished during the blast cleaning cycle using an overhead crane or hoist. Pneumatically actuated vertical sliding doors seal the cleaning chamber during the automated cleaning process. A manual touch-up station at the front of the machine is provided with covered armholes and a separate pressure-blast nozzle and is interlocked to prevent its use during automatic operation of the mold cleaning system.
Each different mold in the tooling inventory is associated with a programmed cleaning routine that synchronizes nozzle movements with the direction and speed of rotation of the mold. The mold cleaning system’s programmable automation controller (PAC) is capable of storing and recalling dimensional data and process parameters for more than one hundred different tire molds.
PAC control enables use of electronic sensor technology to monitor a variety of critical system functions, including detection of low media level, inadequate compressed air pressure and full dust drum. A custom-designed touch screen interface linked to the PAC graphically displays information on fault conditions, as well as process data such as nozzle position coordinates, moment-to-moment blast pressure and elapsed blast cycle time. The touch panel also simplifies password-protected entry of dimensions and set points for new mold cleaning programs to be added to the PAC.
To see a video demonstration and read a description of the innovative jog pendant developed for this multi-axis automated blasting system see the post on our air-blast systems blog. VIEW VIDEO
Prospective users of automated or robotic mold cleaning equipment are invited to submit sample molds for a free test cleaning and application engineering evaluation at Guyson’s factory in northeastern New York State.
