What Maintenance Rules Can Extend Hot Runner Thermocouple Service Life

Hot runner thermocouples as precision susceptible parts, not only is the service life defined by the product quality, but also is strongly tied to the daily inspection, standardised disassembly, frequent cleaning and scientific use norms. Clear maintenance guidelines may effectively slow down the speed of ageing, reduce the drift and failure likelihood, double the service life, and lower the long-term replacement and downtime costs for organisations.

Daily inspection Daily inspection should check temperature controller display value every shift, watch whether there is random leaping, gradual temperature rising and frequent over-temperature alarm. Check whether the lead is worn, burnt, squeezed and pulled, whether the wiring terminal is loose and oxidised, and deal with abnormal phenomena in time to prevent running with concealed problems. Regularly clean the surface of the probe and the wire groove oil mist, carbon deposition and plastic dust, to avoid the dirt isolation layer impacting heat conduction and producing temperature variation.

Regular calibration is a must. According to diverse operating conditions, calibrate with professional standard temperature sources every 3 to 6 months to rectify progressive drift errors, restore temperature measurement accuracy and prevent hidden quality problems caused by invisible variation. For the moulds manufacturing the corrosive plastics and the high temperature engineering plastics, the calibration cycle should be reduced properly to monitor the ageing state of thermocouples in advance.

Disassembly and assembly must meet operating specifications: forbid pulling leads by force, forbid bending probes sharply and forbid over-tightening extrusion installation. 2. During replacement, the probe mounting hole should be kept clean and smooth, minimise metal debris blocking the gap, have a moderate clearance fit, and protect the internal alloy structure from mechanical damage. Model, installation time and zone number shall be marked for each thermocouple for subsequent traceability and unified management.

Idle moulds shall be good job of moisture-proof and dust-proof sealing storage, prevent long time placement in high humidity and oil mist workshop environment, preheating inspection and low temperature trial operation before resuming production. Adhering to these systematic maintenance standards will minimise more than 80% of premature failures, keep the performance of thermocouples consistent in long term, and produce stable economic benefits for hot runner mould production.