How to speed up small boats production?

"Half of man hours is on polishing gel coat, really absurd in my side. "

says to me tunnels that they are REWORKING...something I am sure that you are familiar with in China...wasting time playing with the product after it is popped is a very real concern, to speed up production you HAVE to be productive.

I saw it many times over in China, the boat is reworked again and again, it is out of sequence, one person does something and then the others have to clean up, or polish or respray, wasting production time.

 

Seems obvious that if you have a swirl on the hull then you have a swirl on the mould. You can polish every hull or just polish the mould the once.

If your mould is white then you wont see it. If it was red or black you would see imperfections easier.

My 20c worth like it or lump it............

 

Coolgps,
If I read your original post correctly "the surface has some whirl prints which comes from mould whirl polish, and it it not very shining"

and in your later posting

"The mould does have some print beneath surface, i wonder it is mould making problem. We are producing boats having smooth surface but with print in gel coat."

It sounds as though your have two distinctly different problems here. The first appears to be related to either poor waxing technic or product misuse. The sworls can be produced when the wax is allowed to harden rather then just haze. This can happen if the worker is trying to wax a larger area then is possible under the conditions, or the wax application is simply too heavy.

The print is as you correctly identified a problem within the mold itself. While sanding and polishing the tooling gelcoat or even recoating it might provide some temporary relief I doubt it will provide you with a permanent solution. Your high production rate and use of a chopper gun may be leading to substantial heat levels within the mold which can bring the print to the forefront once a sufficient number of hulls are pull from the mold.

I would suggest that given your capabilities that you clean up a hull and use it as a plug to produce a new mold using only CSM in it's construction this should eliminate any further print problems in the foreseable future.

MM

 

Easy, just make 'em smaller

 

meguiar,Wax is one of the hardest waxs to use its hard to apply and hard to rub off and has to be left and then polished ! A simple switch to a easyer to use was is whats needed . TR wax is eas to apply can be left for long time abd then polished off and shines . we use it as a protection coat just rub on and leave it sometimes for months !! then polish and spray !! Meguiars used to be the prefered wax years ago but not any longer !! In the production od showers we had massive release problems with it !! one coat of Ceara wax and broblem instantly disappeared . TR wax is the most popular was i have found in ASian countries but Korea Johnstons floor wax was the only product that was compatable with there gelcoats !!so thats what we used 100% of the time . The biggest thing is the aplication and how much you put on !! the thinner the coat of wax the better !!'less is best "" use a damp sponge !!!!make the sponge wet under the tap and squeeze it well ,then use that to apply the wax, the little amount of moisture will spread the wax much better and more evenly and slows the drying so you are able to do bigger areas and then buff off by hand . Remember Less is best !!

 

I'm going to agree with Tunnels...OMG! I personally use Johnson floor wax now after trying Partall mold wax on a couple of molds. Just like Tunnels describes the Meguiar's product Partall was far too difficult for me to get a decent surface finish even using the technics he mentions to get a lighter wax coat. But good old JFW works perfectly first time every time with almost no effort....I love the stuff.

MM

 

Thanks,MM. Shiny problem is from wax.I found the Meguiar wax here is from a trader with very cheap price, the trader must blend in some impurity. I will turn meguiar to honey wax, or semi permanent wax.
About the print and wax build up problem, really need to make a new mold if we want to keep on producing.
Reworking is very common in China, one person messed up then other one has to clean up his ***, i almost feel dumb to this.

 

Well in the amount of time it takes for your guys to fix a couple of boats you can clean up one, make a fresh mold and hardly miss a beat in your production. It'll be a lot faster then grinding and rebuilding the tooling in the old mold...besides it won't take it out of production, so you can keep going if you have to.

MM

 

All my time in the industry i have never seen or discovered a semi perminat wax . I have used many types of wax during my time and am a firm believer of wax everytime !! i am also a firm believer in Pva as well !! its not for everyone but it to works and works every time its quick easy to use and for decks with nonslip is heaven sent as you dont have to spend long time trying to wax and even when its cleaned and polished theres always wax residue that left behind and no amount of brushing polishing with towels etc seems to get 100% of the stull off . One sprayed application of pva and its history and if there is anything water washs it off.
No wax build up from lazy people .
If you getting print could be simply the way you are laying the boat plus you will be using woven roving !! yes?? if you are what else can you exspect .
Rather than remaking a new mould why dont you resurface the mould ?? only takes a fraction of the time and if you use Duratech it will last for a long time and you will be able to get boats out much quicker !!
Does anyone in your company have any fibreglassing exsperiance or is the exsperiance all handed on from one person to the next like every asian company i worked in ?? Japan , south Korea , and China !! basic knowledge is usually reasonable but its only basic and non thinking stuff !!

Have you read your private mail ?? i will be gone from China in short time and would be prepaired to come to you company and see if i can help you if you would like !! but time is running out very quickly and i will be gone .Read you private mail top of the page right side corner , small box click PRIVATE MAIL !!.

 

Wow, i didn't receive the private mail from you about you are coming to my company. Terrific.

 

could have been interesting !!

Didnt get any messages so its passed its use by date !friday 28 is my last day !!