Hi guys
I work for a small rubber moulding company and regularly have to repair or replace moulds that have been damaged or just wore out. Quite often the mould could be repaired if the the damage was fixed seamlessly.
The moulds are usually made from bright mild steel and have a working temp of 175c. They are under lots of pressure and are cleaned by glass bead blasting. I have means to MIG, MMA and silver solder in the workshop. The crux is that many of the moulds have sharp edges/corners that either round of or have pockets when soldered/welded.
The ideal solution is a softer than mild steel filler that I can bond to the mould preferably without melting the base metal. That way I can build up the repair and machine smooth. These repairs are sometimes just to get one rushed job done then a new tool is ordered. Mig spatter is also a problem.
At the moment I'm looking for aluminium/steel rods for the stick welder to try out. I'm thinking if they exist and are softer than mild steel they might enable me to sculpt the mould details as required.
Sorry for the long winded post. I'd be grateful for any suggestions/tricks of the trade you can give me. These repairs could be as little as 0.005" to 0.020" thick so things can be quite tricky at times.
Cheers
Tallen
I work for a small rubber moulding company and regularly have to repair or replace moulds that have been damaged or just wore out. Quite often the mould could be repaired if the the damage was fixed seamlessly.
The moulds are usually made from bright mild steel and have a working temp of 175c. They are under lots of pressure and are cleaned by glass bead blasting. I have means to MIG, MMA and silver solder in the workshop. The crux is that many of the moulds have sharp edges/corners that either round of or have pockets when soldered/welded.
The ideal solution is a softer than mild steel filler that I can bond to the mould preferably without melting the base metal. That way I can build up the repair and machine smooth. These repairs are sometimes just to get one rushed job done then a new tool is ordered. Mig spatter is also a problem.
At the moment I'm looking for aluminium/steel rods for the stick welder to try out. I'm thinking if they exist and are softer than mild steel they might enable me to sculpt the mould details as required.
Sorry for the long winded post. I'd be grateful for any suggestions/tricks of the trade you can give me. These repairs could be as little as 0.005" to 0.020" thick so things can be quite tricky at times.
Cheers
Tallen