Have a machine refurbished

An unreliable machine will most likely be losing you money in scrap mouldings, breakdowns, spare parts, lost time and engineer costs.  Traditionally there has been two options out of this dilemma;

1. Buy a new one with a big financial commitment
2. Buy a used machine from an advert and accept the risk.  After all, every machine is in “full working order”

Now there is a third way;

3. Have your own machine refurbished.  The safe middle road.  You know the history and you know the problem areas (we’ll be sure to find any others as well).

For a fraction of the cost of buying new, your machine can be given a new lease of life and help to prevent problems before they occur.  A refurbished machine should have less down time than a machine of the same age that has not been refurbished – a non-running machine is one that isn’t making money after all.

Used machinery can often come with an element of the unknown – How has it been run?  What has it been moulding?  Has it been serviced regularly?  Is the controller easy to use? And so on.  Refurbishing a machine that is known to you can provide confidence that the machine (with some TLC) can continue to run for many years to come.

It’s guaranteed fault and leak free.  All machines refurbished by us come with a 6 month or 1500 hour (whichever comes first) fault and leak free guarantee – 3 months (or up to 750 hours) parts & labour and an additional 3 months (or up to 1500 hours) parts only.  Once the machine has been refurbished and has returned to production, any faults within these timescales are our responsibility to rectify.

One of the most frustrating things being a used machinery dealer, is not having the right machine in stock for a client in need.  The used market can be a lottery and if a specific machine can’t be found to replace another, it’s often best to consider refurbishing a machine that is already doing the job

Assessment is key to being able to provide an accurate price and expected timescale.  Having the machine accurately assessed by one of our experienced engineers can be done in one of two ways;

Option 1 – We invite customers to have their machines transported to us so that we can conduct an assessment free of charge and provide a refurbishment quotation.  If the decision is to not go ahead with the refurbishment, then it is only the cost of transport (often less than an engineer’s daily charge) that is lost.  We can dispose of machines if necessary.

Option 2 – The engineer can come to you for a one off fee of £600.  As with option 1, we will carry out the assessment and provide a comprehensive refurbishment quotation.  This option is only available if the machine is able to dry cycle.  If you decide to proceed, you’ll need to get the machine to us for our skilled engineers to carry out the refurbishment.

Typically, a refurbishment will address all aspects of the machine, electronics, hydraulics and the cosmetic condition of the machine.

We start with what we can see; the machine is run (where possible) and we carry out a number of tests that we’ve developed over the years which gives us a good idea of any problem areas.  The end result is an overview of how the machine is performing.  Once issues are identified and diagnosed, we begin the refurbishment process, including stripping the machine of all guarding for access and painting. 

The steps of the procedure are highlighted below;

Initial clean and test of the main functions

Following a 2500 cycle test run on our purpose built test rig we evaluate the condition of the following:

• Plasticising and carriage units
• Clamping system, platen condition, ejector and core circuits
• Pump (s) / Electric drives
• Pistons, filters, seals
• Control system and safety circuits

Repairs and cosmetic work carried out

• Parts which fail our stringent tests are either repaired or replaced
• Calibration of transducers, temperature controls and pump(s)
• Replacement of any worn hydraulic parts including hydraulic hose
• Water circuits are free flowing and leak free
• Missing guards replaced, damaged guards repaired, damaged windows replaced
• Poor quality paintwork professionally prepared and re-sprayed
• Platens cleaned and platen holes checked and if necessary professionally repaired

Re-assembly and testing under production conditions

• A suitable sized mould is installed and each machine is run for an additional 2500 moulding cycles
• Any faults or leaks which arise during this phase are corrected and the test restarted
• Once we are satisfied the machine is fault free and leak free it gets a final clean
• A comprehensive test sheet is completed and made available to any potential buyer
• Completed machines are available for demonstration under production conditions
• We provide a completely transparent service. Every minute worked and every repair undertaken is logged on our internal system and is available to workshop visitors.

Ah yes, the BIG question. The quick answer is; we need details of the machine before we can quote.

It is almost impossible to give an accurate answer straight away.  Every machine is different; size, run hours, service history, general condition, functional or not and these all have an effect on the final price.  However, if the machine is an Arburg, BOY, Demag, Engel or Krauss Maffei, we can give you a ball park figure if you provide some basic information and a couple of pictures.  On average, we spend 120 hours refurbishing our machines to get them up to a fault and leak free standard.  Typically, a full refurbishment of a 15 – 20-year-old machine between 80T – 150T clamp would be around £10000 –  including a £1500 parts budget. 

Please contact us for a quotation, including the make, model and year of your machine.

Normally when a machine is working but is no longer fully utilised because of reliability and consistency issues.  An old and tatty machine does nothing for a company’s image.

Any machine can be refurbished but it all comes at a cost; some machines will be beyond economical repair.  If a machine is working (albeit badly), then it can generally be brought up to an excellent standard cheaper than purchasing a refurbished machine because you supply the donor machine.  A refurbished machine is typically 20% to 30% of the price of buying new.

If you think refurbishment is a good option for you then why not come to our workshop in Wellingborough, Northants and inspect finished examples of refurbished machines in production, to judge for yourself?

A refurbished machine will be in full working order, guaranteed to be fault and leak free.  It will be looking almost as good as new as well.  If the machine does develop a fault during the guarantee period, we promise to fix it quickly without any cost to you.  There are a couple of exclusions (as you’d expect), these are on our website or we’d be happy to discuss directly.

We are thorough in our processes so that every machine is in excellent condition when it leaves us, irrespective of original condition or age.  A machine that has had a complete reseal, pump overhaul and all major components checked (repaired or replaced if necessary), should give another 20,000 to 30,000 run hours without any serious problems – as we all know electronics are less predictable!  Below is a before and after picture of a refurbished machine, this of course only shows the cosmetic side of what we do but hopefully the difference is clear.