Automatic Mold Jacks
Test Case

The following three videos show a comparative before and after test with and without the Automatic Mold Jacks on a typical armload of parts. The spider consists of five molds of approximately 24" diameter x 8" tall with about 75" of parting line each. The crane was limited to about 1-ton of lift (2000 pounds). What you are seeing in the video is the bottom half of the mold spider frame being lifted by the action of the crane. The stationary section below the frame is the operator's platform. During normal demolding, with the crane hooked directly to the upper part of the spider, the crane lifted the mold, spider and machine arm about 1" before stalling; the molds were stuck at the parting lines and did not open.

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The machine operator used a pry bar on the spider to pry the molds apart.  When the molds separated, the bottom half of the spider and the arm came crashing down resulting in incalculable stresses to the cantilevered arm and the chains holding the upper spider.  The mold halves banged back and forth against each other creating the likelihood of parting line damage.

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The next cycle began with the machine operator transferring the chain hooks from the spider to the Automatic Mold Jacks. The crane then raised the spider less than one-half inch before the mold popped open with very little stress to the molds, spider, chains or molding machine.

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