All our machines are shipped on a pallet and crated unless you pick it up. Upon receiving the machine, inspect the crate carefully, making sure there are no signs of external damage. Remove the walls of the crate and dispose of all the packing material around the machine. Since the machine sits on a pallet use it to move the machine to its final location. You may want to leave on it but it is better to remove the machine from the pallet.
On the top of the front cross member of the machine by the heaters, there are 2 nuts with their fasteners to attach the fan that was shipped in a separate box. This box is usually shipped on the pallet in the front of the machine.
In all of our machines, there are usually two points of connection, one for compressed air and the other for electrical power.
In the far left corner of the machine, besides the main electrical enclosure, you will find a filter regulator, to this point you bring your air supply. We recommend that you use a quick disconnect hose or place a shut-off valve prior to the filter regulator. We usually ship the machines with the regulator pressure preset to 60-80 P.S.I
Next step is to supply electrical power to the machine. If you open the main electrical enclosure, on the inside of the door, you will find there a label with the model #, serial #, and power required.
On the top left corner of the enclosure, you will find a black power distribution block, which is the point where your qualified electrician has to bring power to the machine. We suggest you place the main disconnect close to the machine.
Once electrical power and compressed air have been supplied to the machine, you are ready to start testing it.
On the front side of the main electrical enclosure, there are three selector switches with their corresponding indicator lights besides them. They are labeled: power on, heaters on, and pump on.
Turn the power on, the yellow indicator will light up.
Locate the vacuum gauge of the machine, it is placed on top of the vacuum pump. Once you have identified the gauge turn the pump on for a few seconds. The needle in the gauge should be moving counterclockwise and show that the system is building up the vacuum. If the needle does not move, but the pump is running that means that the pump is rotating in the wrong direction, turn the pump immediately off and have your qualified electrician reverse two of the phases of the main electrical supply. This situation will not occur if you purchase a single phase machine, but it is always recommended to check that the pump is going in the right direction.
Having checked the above we are ready to start placing the machine thru its paces.
- On the operator interface console of the machine, you will find a selector switch with 3 positions, hand-off-auto. Place the selector on the hand position. The left green indicator should light up.
- Press the start button and the frame goes into the oven.
- Press the stop button and the frame comes forward back to the forming area.
- Press the up button once and the platen goes up.
- Press the up button again and the vacuum is activated.
- Press the up button once again and the fan will turn on.
- Press the down button (keep it maintained) and the air eject will activate and once it times out the platen will drop.
Try this sequence a couple of times to get a feel of the machine.
If you place the 3 position selector switch on the middle, you should have no green indicator lights on. This position is used when you want to set up your molds. If you press either the up or down button momentarily, you can jog the platen up and down.
When you turn on the machine the touch screen on the operator console will come on.
On the square of the screen where it says select recipe press it and select recipe 1. Do not forget that every time you change a setting on a particular screen, you need to press enter on the right side. If you make a mistake, you can use the CLR and put the right number.
That will take you to the second screen. If you press planning, it will take you to the next screen
Heat on time: you can change the preset by touching the center box with the seconds preset. This controls the amount of time that the frame will stay in the oven, both in hand or auto mode. Press next.
Bottom platen delay: once the frame, in auto mode, comes back to the front of the machine it will command the platen to go up towards the material. Usually, we recommend setting it at 0, press next.
Bottom timer: this is the amount of time that the platen will stay in the up position
Vacuum delay: this controls when the vacuum will come on. Once the clamping frame comes out of the oven and the platen is fully up there is an interval of a couple of seconds. You do not want to turn on the vacuum in the air. You want it to happen when the vacuum box edges have engaged the material.
Vacuum time: this is the amount of time that the vacuum will stay on. You want to set it a couple of seconds less than the amount of time you have on the bottom timer.
Air eject: this function helps you break the vacuum and in many occasions get the formed parts out of the cavities of the mold. The setting will tell the valve for how long to stay on once the bottom timer has timed out. Once the air eject times out the platen will drop. In the front of the main electrical enclosure, there is a pressure regulator that allows you to determine the pressure you want on the air eject valve, too much pressure will distort your formed parts
Length of travel: we usually set it to 5 secs, and the platen will drop all the way to the bottom of the stroke of the cylinder, but if you are running very shallow molds you may not want to drop the platen all the way down. By setting fewer seconds the platen will drop a proportional distance.
Mold cool time: sometimes your molds start heating up. In order to cool them down a little, you may want to use this function. If you set it at 6 sec, it means that the fan will come on for 6 secs while the clamping frame goes into the oven
Part cool time: this is a delay that allows the machine to form the part and once you determined that the part is formed properly you turn the fan on to cool the part. For example, if you set it at 10 secs, the platen will go up, the vacuum will engage and after 10 secs the fan will come on, it goes off automatically once form time times out
Heaters: for example, if you have a 24×24 machine, the screen will show 4 boxes. If you have a 24×36 the screen will show 6 boxes. The number of boxes tells you how many zones you have. The look of the screen corresponds with the zoning of the heaters. The left top box is the one that controls the back left heater. When you change the preset for example to 60 it means that the heater is running at 60%. We recommend not go above 75% because the material needs to absorb the heat.
The most important is the following: every time you change a preset or a group of presets press exit. That will take you to the second screen, then press save recipe and then use recipe. This way we make sure that the new presets have been loaded into the memory of the PLC.