Plastics
Permanent Thread Repair Solutions for the Plastics Manufacturing Industry
Unlike all other thread-repair products, C-Serts are guaranteed for the life of the equipment they repair. C-Serts install quickly and easily, between 5 and 45 seconds. They reduce downtime, increase output, and ensure operator safety.
Why Do Threads Fail So Often In The Plastics Industry? Four Main Reasons:
- Metallurgy: The fasteners you use are much harder than the threaded holes in the steel or cast iron from which your equipment is made. The hardness difference is even greater for aluminum molds. As fasteners are installed and removed again and again, they can do some real damage.
- Operator Error: When a die setter carelessly uses a damaged or defective bolt, that bolt wreaks havoc on threads. It’s even worse if he forces a UNC bolt into a metric hole. This happens more often than you would think.
- Insufficient Training: To minimize damaged threads, operators should 1) visually check both the fastener and the hole, 2) start the fastener by hand, not with an impact wrench, 3) run the fastener in most of the way with an impact wrench, but finish it with a torque wrench, pre-set to the correct torque. Every molding press should be equipped with its own torque wrench.
- Production Pressures: Most operators are familiar with hearing, “This stuff’s gotta get out the door today!” or “There’s a quota to hit!” Such pressures lead to bad maintenance and bad practices, which in turn can lead to bad threads.
What Plastics Industry Equipment Can Benefit from C-Serts?
Any equipment where you’re installing and removing bolts frequently can benefit from a C-Sert, including platens, dies and die holders, molds and mold bases, and feed-screw housings. For injection and blow molding, a crucial application is platens. For thermoforming, it’s aluminum molds and bases. For extrusion, it’s dies and mounts. For compounding, it’s feed-screw segments. The C-Sert Lifetime Warranty covers all these applications, no matter how often fasteners are installed and removed, and even if damaged, defective, or incorrect fasteners are used.
Which C-Sert Product Is Best for the Plastics Manufacturing Industry?
For 80% of your problems where an OEM threaded hole is just plain worn out, our standard C-Serts solve the problem. The remaining 20% are a different problem, with a different C-Sert solution.
Here, the problem is that you’ve already tried to fix the hole with some other brand, for example, a “Keen Sert,” and the repair has failed. Maybe it’s even failed multiple times, and now the hole is too enlarged for a standard C-Sert. Our “Heavy Wall” C-Serts handle this situation thanks to their larger O.D. Like all C-Serts, they allow you to maintain your original fastener size, and of course they come with C-Sert’s Lifetime Warranty.
How Do You Install A C-Sert?
Every installation breaks down into 2 stages:
- Eliminating the damaged threads. This also creates a pilot hole for the C-Sert. When you use the system we recommend, this takes 12 minutes or less.
- Driving in the C-Sert. This takes seconds, 5 seconds to 45 seconds, depending on the C-Sert’s size.
What Pilot Hole System Is Recommended?
A magnetic drill is essential. You may have one already, probably a big, heavy one, but we offer our own proprietary C-Sert Installation System. It too utilizes a mag drill, but a very light one so that one person can quickly and safely make the repair. Our mag drills are made by BDS Maschinen in Germany. Our System’s other components are a 60-degree center to position the mag drill squarely on the damaged hole, annular cutters to open up the pilot hole, and paste lubricant, which works in both vertical and horizontal positions and replaces standard liquid coolant. The entire system is designed for one-man operation, to be light, to be fast, and to be safe. The annular cutters (“slugger bits”) are key because they produce much less tool pressure than a drill bit, and thus allow the mag drill to be far lighter and more maneuverable. The result is a perfectly concentric pilot hole in under 12 minutes.
What Tool Is Recommended To Drive In The C-Sert?
Smaller C-Serts (up to 3/4” and 18mm) can be installed with a large manual ratchet, but we strongly recommend an impact wrench, if possible a cordless electric rather than pneumatic. Impact wrenches are simply so much faster. Our C-Sert Installation System offers 3 different Milwaukee cordless models, a 1/4″-drive for small C-Serts, a 1/2”-drive for medium C-Serts, and a 1”-drive for large C-Serts. Install times are measured in just seconds.
Whether you’re an injection molder, a blow molder, an extruder, or a thermoformer, our C-Serts will work for you, and our team here at C-Sert will work with you to answer any and all questions. Bad threaded holes, whether in platens, molds, or dies, are your and our common enemy, so we’d be delighted to join with you to put an end to them, once and for all.