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Definition: Troubleshooting: the process of resolving issues and or causes to defects. Performing: the process of doing, the execution of steps or acts
After one has established what the issue is and developed a plan of attack, it is to time act. As stated previously many times these functions are performed all at once and an example is the shot gun approach in that many things are tried to try to come to a solution. While it may or may not be quick there is in most cases a fix which than leads later to coming back and fixing again.
To begin with after a plan has been formulated or a procedure is to be followed remember that temperature is one of the last components one would want to change due to the time factor. That said one has to establish what the steel temperature is and melt temperature is and are they within the specifications for this mold/process. If they are found to be out of range than it is decision time to determine if they need to be changed for the issue that is trying to be solved.
Though they should have been checked are all the other process setting and results within the parameters set for the mold/process?
Changing a setting or condition should only be done one condition/setting at a time. Why? So that the participant can learn what is commonly referred to as cause and effect. While it is agreed that time is money it should also be accepted that one should be learning from the experience and that this learning should be shared, thus the opportunity to solve the issue is turned into a positive event.
While changing only one condition at a time it should also be in large steps so that a difference is noted. While caution has to be used so as not to damage the tool or machine, this change should be in steps that can prove or disprove a direction to take. Once a direction is determined than the process can be fine-tuned to resolve the issue. But if one is trying to find which direction than larger steps are needed as long as done safely.
If a change has no effect put the condition back to its original point / setting. The reason for this is so that the problem does not get compounded by the other changes which have been made to the process.
Allow time to take its effect on the changed conditions. With many machines today once a change is made to a condition it may be 1 or 2 cycles before one see's this effect registered on the process. Further once the change has taken effect allow the cycle to stabilize out a bit so see if it has had an effect, by allowing time to pass one can observe if this change is consistent, and not a 1 or 2 time product.
Changing temperatures is as stated a last step, and this is due to the time factor in how long it takes to reach and then to stabilize so as to notice if changes occurred. The following may help
If changing temperature start with known temperatures of your results. What this means is to know what is the melt temperature is and or steel temperature. Also to know what the settings are which are producing said temperatures. The one additional temperature to check and record is the product coming out of the press.
In raising temperature big steps should be taken, and it should be known as to what are the ranges for the material and mold as per manufactures specifications.
As the temperature is increasing and product is being manufacture one has to observe what is happening to the parts, and is it improving and or getting worst. In many cases as temperature increases one may notice for example that the parts got better and then got worst as the temperature continued to increase. Thus by monitoring the part temperature out of press and noting and recording your results one can than have a reference to go back to and or make a decision at that point that continuing is nonproductive and that such and such temperature gave best results. That temperature than becomes your solution, with the check being the part temperature.
Once the temperature setting have been established for the set points on the equipment than one must go back and measure actual temperature of the mold and material so that proper records are made of the results of the process.
While performing the testing to resolve the solution for an issue proper documentation must be done. This can be simply writing down what was changed and the results observed. This is even if nothing changed because that is a result. If a troubleshooting procedure was followed than a blank form would allow for documentation of what happened. This is the learning process.
To be continued:
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