A lot of the time we hear how critical a die's success rate is for aluminium extrusion and being able to improve this becomes a key objective for those involved with die correction.
After all if your die is expected to provide kilometres of profiles then a small percentage decrease can make a big difference. However, despite die maintenance being regarded as a tedious process it is critical to ensure minimal downtime on your lines.
What we have come to realise is that you can quite easily increase the success rate with a simple change to the die correction shop.
Having realised the importance of having very clean dies Vapormatt have been able to help extruders increase their die success rates and reduce the amount of time spent on manual inspection.
Using a highly controlled wet blast process you are able to ensure complete coverage of the bearing faces.
However unlike dry and shot blasting the Vapormatt wet blast process offers abrasive flow; flow which gives a very consistent finish.
By using water as a carrier for the abrasive you are able to prevent any geometric changes to the faces which may cause profiles to change and dies to be pulled. Having a wet blasting system also eliminates the need to remove the caustic from the die and also removes all dust from your die shop.
The benefits of the wet blast process are made apparent with one extruder’s increases the success rate by up to 4% whilst also saving several minutes per die at the inspection stage.
With a range of automatic and manual wet blast systems available Vapormatt have been able to supply extrusion plants with only one press and those with 200 or more dies to clean a day.
To learn more about the process or to speak to our application specialists feel free to get in touch.
