A day after the collapse, the roofs, along with attached gutters and satellite dishes, remained intact on the sidewalk of the 600 block of North Ninth Street, between Allen and Tilghman streets. The sidewalk was barricaded and caution tape was placed on front doors of the damaged homes, along with signs from the city to raze or repair.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Monte Alto family remains flooded over one week later KGBT-TV
It’s been over a week since the heavy rainfall last Monday and now the Calderon Family says all they want is for this water in their home to go away. «You can …
source http://valleycentral.com/news/local/monte-alto-family-remains-flooded-over-one-week-later
Q: The concrete steps at my house are moldy and kind of green on the risers, except where I applied a concrete sealer. I did it badly, so you can see areas that look like drips. How can I safely clean the concrete?
Hyattsville, Md.
A: When you ask for a way to “safely” clean concrete, you don’t say whether your goal is to protect the concrete, yourself or your plants. Luckily, it’s possible to do all three.
The least expensive option is to use a little chlorine bleach (just $2.78 for half a gallon at Home Depot) diluted in water. Bleach solution doesn’t damage concrete, but it isn’t something you want in your eyes or on your skin or clothing. You could wind up with spots of white or odd colors because bleach affects fabric dye colors unevenly. So before you start working on your steps, put on old clothes, long rubber gloves and goggles, and have a bucket, a sponge and a synthetic scrub brush handy.
[Two enemies of outdoor wooden sculptures: Rain and sun]
(On a small job such as cleaning a couple of steps, there’s probably little risk of splashing a lot of bleach solution onto nearby plants. But just to be safe, you can cover the plants closest to the steps with an upside down cardboard box. Don’t use clear plastic tubs or a sheet of clear plastic, especially if it’s a sunny day. Enough heat can build up under the plastic to wilt the leaves or even kill the plants. Or, instead of covering your plants, you can mist the leaves with water before you apply the bleach solution to the concrete. This is the best approach when there is a lawn right next to concrete that needs cleaning. Pre-moistening dilutes any splashes, protecting the plants.)
When everything’s ready, sweep or vacuum the steps to remove loose dirt and debris. Then mix three-fourths to a cup of bleach with one gallon of water, and sponge it onto all the areas where you see the green stains. Keep sponging on more as needed so the concrete stays wet for five to 10 minutes. Scrub with a synthetic brush, then rinse thoroughly. Repeat the process if the concrete is still stained. Rinsing with a hose will dilute whatever cleaning solution is still on the concrete, so it won’t harm plants where the water drains.
If you don’t want to use chlorine bleach, there are other ways to kill mold or algae, but don’t use vinegar, which is often touted in advice pieces online. Vinegar is acidic, and acids degrade concrete. Stick with cleaners that have a neutral pH (seven) or are alkaline (above seven). Acids are below seven, and those that have a pH of three or lower are especially harmful to concrete. Distilled white vinegar has a pH of 2.4 in the 5 percent strength sold in jugs at grocery stores.
One product that’s labeled for use on concrete, as well as numerous other materials, is Wet & Forget Moss, Mold, Mildew & Algae Stain Remover ($24.38 for a half gallon at Home Depot). It’s designed so that you can dilute it and spray it on, then just wait for the growth to die and the stains to disappear; no rinsing necessary. The directions say to use a pump sprayer, but for a small area, such as your steps, you could probably make do with a spray bottle.
Or you can try using a non-chlorine bleach, such as OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover ($13.48 for a 7.22-pound box) or Scotts Outdoor Cleaner Plus OxiClean ($10.98 a gallon). These products are appealing because you don’t have to take any precautions to protect plants or worry about any splashes damaging your clothes (although you still need to protect your eyes and skin). However, if you read the information for the Scotts product, you‘ll see that it doesn’t actually kill mold; it just takes out mold stains. Does that distinction matter? Probably not, because killing mold is a rather futile goal. There are so many mold spores floating around in the air that when conditions are right, mold will grow. Whether it’s dead or alive, you just want it off your concrete.
If you already have OxiClean that you use for laundry, see if it works. Mix four scoops of the powder with a gallon of warm water. Apply and scrub as if you were using a chlorine bleach solution, except wait 30 minutes before rinsing. Or if you buy a specialty cleaner, follow the instructions on the package. If you get the surface clean, it worked. If not, use chlorine bleach or a cleaner that says it kills and removes mold.
Whatever method you use, once the concrete is clean and dry, apply sealer to the risers so they get the same protection that you’ve already given to the treads. Although you look at your steps now and notice the drips of your “bad” application, the sealer clearly did work: The drips aren’t moldy, nor are the treads.
Joyce Wessel Raezer is the outgoing executive director of the National Military Family Association.
Military families are at risk once again.
After suffering untenable living conditions, rodent and other infestations, loss of property and chronic health problems, military families dealing with mold in their privatized, on-base housing now face another challenge: moving.
While installations and contractors move ahead with remediating dangerous living conditions, many families must simultaneously navigate an unusually complex PCS season. And the damage done by the mold in their houses is affecting not just their furniture and their health, but also their ability to complete their PCS move on schedule. Shortages of movers as well as potential housing delays at installations where remediation work continues further complicate an already stressful time.
Moving companies, appropriately unwilling to assume the liability of moldy belongings that could create higher costs for themselves or safety problems for future customers, are now backing out of pack-outs in homes where mold is present, according to a story in Military Times. That includes the homes of thousands of families whose very safety has been affected by substandard conditions.
With orders in hand and report dates looming, families are put into another bind: Will they be forced to abandon or dispose of their household goods in order to PCS? Will they go into credit card debt to buy safe mattresses for their children to sleep on in their new homes? How ready will the service member be to carry out the mission of the new unit if the family arrives with few household goods or increased credit card debt because of the housing problems at their last assignment?
Military families aren’t just caught between the housing contractors and the military that’s supposed to oversee the contracts. They are now also caught between the military, the landlords and the movers.
This is unacceptable.
The National Military Family Association (NMFA) has repeatedly called for an independent, neutral third-party arbiter to ensure that military families have somewhere to go when they can’t get the help they need to remedy a problem with their housing.
Without that trusted third-party with the authority to cut through the red tape put up by both contractors and the military, families remain stuck in the middle. Military families need solutions, not a finger-pointing blame game.
NMFA is pleased that military leaders and housing contractors have worked together over the past few months to improve housing conditions. But impending PCS moves require them to step up those efforts and work with transportation providers to support these families.
Families whose homes are still undergoing remediation need help now.
Their service member has orders and those orders must be followed. Someone — that independent arbiter — is needed now, empowered to deal with not only the housing contractor and installation housing officials but also to have the authority to deal with the household goods transportation office when ongoing housing issues could affect the move.
NMFA believes the position of an independent, neutral third-party arbiter needs to be put in place at every installation now.
We have asked that this position be identified as a key component of the new military family tenant bill of rights now being circulated by the Department of Defense. This arbiter must have the authority to enforce actions by the government, housing contractor and family.
Without that help, families will remain in the middle and continue to face unsafe living conditions and potentially dangerous financial ramifications.
— The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
© Copyright 2019 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This article was updated June 29 to add clarification to a quote from Randolph AFB.
On May 29, Army wife Becky Vinales got the news: their moving company was refusing to move their household goods because of the mold contamination in their house at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.
“We were frantic,” said Vinales. “We had put in our notice to be out of our house by June 15, and were scheduled to leave on a plane for Hawaii on June 30. We didn’t know what to do.”
One day later and not far away on Randolph AFB, workers had loaded about one-third of the Daniels family’s household goods on the truck when Air Force wife Barbara High-Daniels got a call from the moving company’s headquarters, asking her if she knew there was mold on their belongings. Within a half hour, company officials had ordered workers to remove the Daniels’ household goods from the truck and place them in the front yard alongside another third of their household goods waiting to be loaded.
In California, Marine wife Samantha Keller and her family have moved to a house in the community near Camp Pendleton for her husband’s new duty assignment – while their entire mold-contaminated household goods remain sealed in their previous home at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.
These three military families have been battling with their privatized housing companies, trying to get their mold problems addressed. Now they – and an unknown number of other military families – are finding the problems of mold are reaching further into their lives.
For some, an already difficult PCS season has become even more challenging thanks to the presence of spores.
“It’s a spot where housing issues are colliding with PCS issues,” said Megan Harless, an Army wife and veteran who is part of an advisory group providing input to the U.S. Transportation Command to help improve the moving process for military families.
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This year, some service members have already had problems scheduling their household moves for various reasons unrelated to mold, such as shortages of capacity in the moving industry. The sheer volume of military moves, along with shortages of trucks and labor with the improving economy have made it more difficult, especially in certain regions.
In the case of the Vinales family, their joint personal property shipment office worked for several days before they could find another company to move the shipment, contingent on clear mold tests.
Over the past year, as first reported by Reuters. and testimony by military families have brought attention to black mold growing out of walls, floors and ceilings, with entire families getting sick and frustration in getting families problems addressed.
While these three spouses said their mold issues are not entirely resolved, they did report one positive development: Once they were out of their houses, their families’ health has dramatically improved.
Across the country, hundreds of military families across the country have been affected by problems with mold, vermin and other issues in their military housing. It’s not known how many of those are moving this summer, but at some point in the future, they will move.
This issue with mold affecting moving is apparently not being tracked, so information was not available about how many military families have faced the issue. U.S. Transportation Command officials said the issue has not been raised at their level. But families said their local personal property officials have been working with them to help them get the situation resolved and get their household goods moved.
“This is about to get bigger, because the moving companies won’t wrap up and put furniture on their trucks if there’s visible mold on it,” said Crystal Cornwall, executive director of the Safe Military Housing Initiative.
“Where does this leave military families?» she asked. «DoD is not looking ahead to the bigger, broader, macro picture.”
Whose responsibility is it?
“My heart sank. I was in a panic,” said Becky Vinales, remembering the day they got the call from the government Joint Personal Property Shipment Office, or JPPSO, that their moving company had backed out of their move because of the mold. The personal property offices are the government liaisons between service members and the moving companies.
She said she understands why the moving company wouldn’t want the liability of moving the household goods, which could possibly contaminate other shipments, too. And the moving company didn’t cause the problem, she notes.
According to TRANSCOM, if mold is identified before household goods are packed or picked up, it’s the responsibility of the resident to have a mold remediation firm inspect and clean up the property. The families interviewed by Military Times said their privatized housing companies have been arranging for and paying for remediating the mold on their property, although the families aren’t necessarily satisfied with the results.
And according to TRANSCOM, if mold is identified at delivery, the remediation is the responsibility of the moving company.
“We instruct the movers, that if they identify something that appears to be mold, not to load it, because we could end up with significant liability for home cleaning or medical issues caused by that and we didn’t do anything to cause the mold to begin with,” said Scott Kelly, president of Suddath Government Services, a moving company that does a lot of military move business.
“We also risk contaminating other people’s shipments,” he said.
It could cost $20,000 to $30,000, Kelly said, to get rid of mold contaminating a large shipment of household goods.
Kelly said the company has a claims manager who has become “quite knowledgeable on the subject of mold over the last couple of years, because it does seem more prevalent. I don’t know the reason for it. I’m not suggesting it’s military housing causing it, because I could not say one way or the other.”
At Randolph AFB, the environmental team can conduct a pre-move inspection six to eight weeks before move-out, working directly with the personal property office and Hunt Military Communities officials, according to a statement from the installation. “Our participation allows families to have peace of mind that standards are met, or, solicit expert advice if cleaning is needed.”
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The issue is not common at Randolph, officials said. “With 34 homes scheduled for summer move out, and only two [of those 34] having issues of visible mold, it is an uncommon occurrence. Even so, our team is driven to provide families assurances that their household goods are ready for transport.”
When Barbara High-Daniels saw her move stopped in mid-loading, with her household goods being removed from the moving van because of the mold issues, she said, “Out of this entire situation, it was probably rock bottom.”
The stress, the Texas heat became too much. “I lost it,” she said. She called their point of contact in the Randolph AFB management office for their housing company, Hunt Military Communities.
She said the government’s personal property officials, and Hunt officials came to the house. “Nobody knew whose responsibility it was.”
Hunt Military Communities “takes the safety and security of our residents extremely seriously,” said Cindy Gersch, spokeswoman for the company. “As with every situation, we responded quickly and are working closely with the family to ensure their home and items are safe and healthy.”
Defense Department spokeswoman Heather Babb referred to the general procedures in place for damage to household goods: “Service members who experience damage to personal property in their homes, whether on or off base, are encouraged to request assistance from their installation’s government housing office.”
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You might be the one paying for your expenses related to mold contamination. But check out all your options.
Families were upfront about the mold
Barbara High-Daniels said she had told the moving company during the pre-move survey that she and her husband were moving because of the mold.
Vinales said, she, too was upfront with the movers about the mold when they did the pre-move survey. She explained that she and her husband were getting rid of all their mattresses and other items with porous, mold-friendly surfaces, such as couches and chairs, and those items wouldn’t be moved. JPPSO personnel “reassured me that I did the right thing in telling them about the mold,” she said.
“As military families, we have to have integrity and be honest,” she said.
JPPSO personnel have been proactive and supportive, Vinales said. “If it weren’t for them, I think our stuff would be out on a curb by now.”
The JPPSO personnel kept in contact with them. “They said it’s the peak season, and it’s hard to get movers,” she said, “but they completely followed through, and they got us a mover.”
Those personal property officials also notified their counterparts in Hawaii that they will need to do a quality assurance inspection when their household goods arrive, to check for mold, she said.
Their privatized housing company, Hunt Military Communities, had begun mold remediation in their house, Vinales said, before the first movers were originally scheduled to arrive. During that time, the family chose to stay in their RV, to make the time before they moved more fun for their kids, while also living in a comfortable, familiar place. Hunt officials had offered to pay for them to stay in a hotel.
After the remediation, Hunt provided a report from their mold assessor saying that it was okay to move the Vinales’ household goods. But there was a close call the day before the new movers were to start packing, when Vinales and her husband found more mold. “There were 10 vehicles at our home until late that night,” she said.
That included key Air Force leaders at the base who, along with Hunt housing officials, were helping the mold remediation company clean the Vinales’ furniture.
On June 24, more than three weeks after their furniture was removed from the moving truck, the Daniels got clearance from Hunt’s mold assessor following more remediation, and they are in the process of working with the JPPSO to get their move rescheduled.
What happens at the other end?
At least one military family has found that the mold moved with them. Florida Attorney Natalie Khawam said one military family who had moved from MacDill Air Force Base to a new duty station contacted her to say that when their belongings were delivered to their new house, they were covered in mold. Family members are getting sicker. Two mold remediations had been completed on the house and the contents before the family moved, Khawam said.
Becky Vinales said their shipment was loaded on June 15, and is on the way to Hawaii.
The fact that the JPPSO notified their counterpart in Hawaii about the shipment is good, Vinales, said, “but I don’t know what that means. ….
“I don’t know what’s going to happen at the other end. My fear is that we’re going to open up the crates to a petrie dish. All we can do as a family is have our pictures and irreplaceable items, and leave the rest to God at this point.”
Vinales said they bought large plastic containers for those family photos and other irreplaceable items.
The fact that they’re moving outside the continental U.S. “has probably been the hardest part,” she said, getting emotional. “We can’t just pick and choose and put it on a truck and move ourselves. We’re stuck,” she said. “You get to a point where you have to almost tell yourself and accept that you may not have this stuff any more. It took a lot of time to get to that point.. .
“It feels like your house has caught on fire with no homeowners or renters insurance. It’s just a loss,” Vinales said.
Since the mold was through the heating and air conditioning system, USAA doesn’t cover for the loss due to mold damage, she said.
“Here we are in our 40s, starting over, buying furniture for our family, moving OCONUS,” Vinales said.
Hunt has offered them a settlement for the replacement of their household goods, but she and her husband don’t believe the offer comes close to what their household goods was worth, Vinales said. Some of the items looked “really good” after the cleaning, but others were damaged, she said. So they are now in the process of working through the military claims office. But since they are an Army family living on a joint base where the Air Force is the lead agency, they are still sorting out whether they need to file a claim with the Army claims office or the Air Force claims office.
Samantha Keller and her Marine Corps husband are also in disagreement with their privatized housing landlord. They never got to the point of scheduling a moving company, because they think their household goods are so contaminated with mold, they don’t want to move them to their new house near Camp Pendleton. They believe the mold in their house at Monterey affected their children’s health, especially their infant daughter, she said. They also contend the mold contaminated their household goods. So aside from their vital documents they retrieved, they didn’t take any items with them when her husband was transferred to Camp Pendleton.
“We told them to trash it. We couldn’t chance it for our children,” she said. They’ve started replacing some of their necessary items, such as mattresses.
Their housing company “said our stuff is fine. We’ve told them no, and that’s where we’re at,” Keller said.
“That’s where the dispute resolution piece comes in,” said Ron Hansen, president of Michaels Management Services, which operates the housing where the Kellers lived at Monterey. “There has to be a third party the resident trusts – that both sides trust – who listens and comes to a resolution we can live with,” he said.
A dispute resolution process is one element the military services are working on to address the problems that have come up as military families complained about issues of mold, water leaks, vermin and other problems in their homes.
Becky Vinales said she is concerned about how these situations are affecting other military families.
“If this is happening to a field grade officer, I can only imagine what’s happening to the young enlisted families. I know we will make it through this. We will live with less. We have each other, and that’s the most important thing,” she said.
“But these families that don’t have the income to bounce back…. My heart goes out to them.”
Q. I purchased my co-op four years ago with a master bath that had been remodeled seven or eight years ago by a previous owner. It appears that water/moisture is seeping into the foyer wall on the opposite side of the shower stall and is causing the plaster to raise and peel, which is affecting a custom paint job. The shower tiles do not show any signs of cracking, opening or warping. Who is responsible for the repairs, considering the bathroom was redone that long ago and by a different owner? Also, who is responsible for mold (assuming that there is any)?
—Seeking to Find Who’s at Fault
A. “The short answer is it depends on the source of the damage to the plaster in the bathroom, which adds a preliminary question of who pays to solve that mystery,” says attorney Andrew Weltchek of the New York law firm Cohen Hochman & Allen.
“The reader says: ‘It appears that water/moisture is seeping into the foyer wall on the opposite side of the shower stall and is causing the plaster to raise and peel [and damage] a custom paint job.’ We don’t know if that is truly the source of the damage to the shower, nor do we know whether the foyer wall is part of the common areas in the co-op or part of an adjoining apartment. But we have to start somewhere.
“So we start by testing whether is water really coming from the foyer wall and, if so, how? If the foyer wall is part of a common area, then the co-op board should pay for that investigation or, at least, allow the shareholder with the shower problem to perform the testing at his or her expense. If the foyer wall is part of the shower owner’s apartment, he or she pays to find the cause. If the foyer wall is in another shareholder’s apartment, then that shareholder should pay to find the cause – or at least allow the shower owner access to the foyer owner’s apartment to find the cause.
“If the ultimate source of the water is some common area of the building, then the board should pay to fix the problem and reimburse the shareholder for the testing and the damage – including mold, if any. Otherwise, the shareholder where the water is originating should pay.”
FIG 1 Typical range bolt.
Jim Fattori
Let’s start off by clarifying two frequently misused names given to shoulder bolts. If the function of a shoulder bolt is to limit the distance a plate or any mold component travels, it is referred to as a range bolt. In addition to limiting travel, range bolts also serve as a safety feature. They ensure a floating plate won’t slide off its guide pins or leader pins during mold assembly, disassembly, or maintenance within the molding machine. Range bolts are almost always used in three-plate molds to control the distance that the “X” or “X-1” plate travels when stripping the runner off the sucker pins. They are also used in stripper-plate molds for the same purpose—to limit the distance the stripper plate travels when ejecting a part. Figure 1 depicts a typical installation of a range bolt.
If the function of a shoulder bolt is to pull a plate or any mold component, then it is called either a stripper bolt, or a puller bolt. Since there is an exception to every rule, sometimes a shoulder bolt has a dual function, where it can be both a range bolt and a stripper bolt. A common example of this is in three-plate molds, where a shoulder bolt is located between the X-1 plate and the B, or B-Retainer plate. The bolt first limits the distance between these two plates so that there is enough, but not too much, opening for the cold runner to fall freely out of the mold. As the mold continues to open, the bolt, which has now “bottomed out” in its counterbore, pulls the X-1 plate to strip the runner off the sucker pins.
Shoulder bolts in three-plate molds often take a beating out on the production floor. This is due to an inherent design flaw in standard extended nozzle bushings. The bushings create a solidified cold sprue between 0.390 in. and 0.453-in. long. These small sprues have a nasty habit of hanging up on the ID of the mating runner stripper-plate bushing when the mold fully opens. For this reason, processors intentionally open the mold quickly, so that the “X1” plate slaps against the heads of the range bolts. When the “X1” plate suddenly stops, the runner will then dislodge from the runner stripper plate bushing under its own momentum.
Occasionally, this same plate-slapping technique is used with stripper plates—typically with machines having hydraulic ejection. To avoid premature failure of the range bolts, add thermoplastic washers under their heads. The washer will absorb some of the impact and still allow the fast mold opening or stripper-plate ejection to be effective in removing the part or runner. These plastic washers—or bumpers, as I like to call them—are also terrific at reducing the deafening sound of metal striking metal, as well as preventing a plate from becoming hobbed by the heads of the bolts.
I have seen a few molds where springs were used instead of thermoplastic bumpers. That is usually not a good idea. Springs break when they are overly compressed. However, it can be useful in certain situations, such as when it’s advantageous to have a stripper plate or core insert return to its retracted position prior to the mold closing, or to allow for multiple ejection strokes.
FIG 2 Shoulder Bolt with Impact Washer Assembly.
Thermoplastic washers can be made out of many different types of material. Urethane seems to be the industry standard. It’s available in various hardnesses, ranging from 40 to 95 Shore A. The higher the number, the harder the material. A Shore hardness of 90 is commonly used for range bolts, as well as elastomeric springs. Urethane is rated for use at up to 150 to 200 F, which is fine, in most cases. If you are running hot oil through a mold, you might consider using a different material, such as PC or nylon. Keep in mind, the harder the material, the lower the impact absorption. There are no hard-and-fast rules as to how thick the bumpers should be. It really comes down to the hardness of the material and the amount of force you expect they will be subjected to. For hard materials, such as PC or nylon, 0.20 in. is usually sufficient, whereas softer urethanes should be at least 0.30 in. thick. I like to use thinner bumpers, but stack two or three of them together. That way, if one fails, the bolts are still somewhat protected.
To be effective, thermoplastic washers need to be supported—typically by a flat steel washer— as shown in Fig. 2. Let’s talk about washers for a minute, so that you know which type is best for this application. The most common types of flat washers commercially available today are USS (United States Standard); SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Type A, in thicknesses of N for narrow and W for wide; ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Type B, in thicknesses of N for Narrow, W for wide and R for regular; Mill-Spec (Military Specification); and General Purpose.
Despite this wide selection, none of them are available in ideal sizes for this application. But don’t despair. You won’t have to make a custom washer. Some industrial suppliers offer exactly what’s needed: black-oxide-coated, case-hardened, flat steel washers, with a tight ID, an ample OD and a generous thickness. Granted, these washers will cost you $1 to $2 each, but this is not somewhere you want to cut corners.
Even though range bolts are easy to remove on the bench, there are occasions where you want to remove them in the press in order to gain access to something within the mold, or simply to remove just the floating plate. Unfortunately, there is often not enough room to install an Allen wrench in the head. Adding wrench flats or spanner-wrench pin holes to either the shoulder or the head of the bolt, will solve this problem.
FIG 3 Counterbored Shoulder Bolt.
Range bolts are not designed to have a side load applied to them … but they often do. Since the thread neck under the shoulder is much smaller in diameter than the rest of the bolt, if a side load is applied it will not take a lot of force for it to fail at that location. The most common side load occurs when the bushings or leader pins that support the floating plate start to wear.
That wear, along with the original clearance, allows the plate to sag or tilt. If there is insufficient through-hole clearance and the range bolts are fairly long, the entire weight of the floating plate can rest on the range bolts when the mold is in the open position. There is a simple method for minimizing a side-load issue—counterbore the shoulder in the mounting plate to a depth of one-quarter to one-third of the shoulder diameter, as shown in Fig. 3.
There is another cause for lateral loads on shoulder bolts—thermal expansion. Ideally, all the mold plates should be at the same temperature, but processing issues often arise and the temperature of some of the plates are intentionally changed to resolve them. This is not an issue on small molds, but large molds can be problematic. In large molds, counterboring the shoulder and increasing the though-hole clearance are the best options.
How much clearance should there be around the shoulder? Ideally, you want the through-hole to be as small as possible to provide the maximum amount of bearing surface. Since the concentricity and parallelism between the shoulder and the thread of a standard shoulder bolt can be out by as much as 0.005 in./in., the amount of clearance should be based on the length of the bolt. Additional clearance should be added to account for any angularity of the tapped hole the bolt screws into: 1/32 in. for shoulder lengths up to 4 in. and 1/16 in. for shoulder lengths up to 8 in. is usually sufficient.
Not only should range bolts be located symmetrically about the centerline of the mold, they should be in close proximity to the component that is pulling or pushing the floating plate. For example, if you use ejector return pins to advance and retract a stripper plate, locate the range bolts alongside them. If the range bolts are too far away, the floating plate might bend permanently. It should go without saying that the location of the range bolts should also take into consideration the need for manual, automatic or robotic part removal, as well as accessibility to the parting line during start-up.
FIG 4 Custom Shoulder Bolt.
In last month’s article, I discussed how shoulder bolts often come loose because they have a very short effective length—the distance between the last thread and the underside of the shoulder. The effective length controls the amount a bolt will stretch. A stretched bolt is in tension and resists unthreading due to vibration and impact. If a range bolt unscrews during a production run, serious damage to the mold can occur. The best way to prevent this from happening is to make a custom range bolt using a standard alloy-steel socket-head cap screw and a standard ejector sleeve, as shown in Fig. 4. This design is especially helpful for very long-range bolts, where standard lengths are not available.
Many of you are probably thinking that making a custom-sleeved range bolt is overkill, and that some thread-locking compound will solve the problem. That’s usually not true. There are several reasons the sleeved design is more advantageous. Many thread-locking compounds are fairly viscous. A shoulder bolt’s Class 3 thread has almost no clearance with the tapped hole, so you won’t have enough compound to be effective. Less-viscous compounds work a little better, but now you might have to use a torch to loosen the bolts. Additionally, standard shoulder bolts don’t often come in the exact length you want, so you are forced to use ones that are longer than you need. That can create an issue with the molding machines daylight, which is the maximum distance between the platens. Standard shoulder bolts often break when someone changes the mold opening speed or has an incorrect mold open position setpoint—especially on hydraulic machines that can’t stop on a dime. A standard shoulder bolt can’t handle the load because it has such a small effective length. The sleeved bolt design is much more forgiving in these situations.
The last thing I want to mention is that if the shoulder bolt or ejector sleeve is large enough, and the counterbore is deep enough, you can install a bushing on the shoulder to support the floating plate. This eliminates the need for additional guide pins and bushings. It can allow the mold base to be smaller or simply free up some room for other components. While I don’t recommend this type of design, there are times when a mold needs to fit in the smallest machine possible, or the smallest machine available. Since the hourly rate of a molding machine is typically based on the machine size or tonnage, space-saving designs can help lower the cost of the part.
Jim Fattori is a third-generation injection molder with more than 40 years of molding experience. He is the founder of Injection Mold Consulting LLC, and is also a project engineer for a large, multi-plant molder in New Jersey. Contact jim@injectionmoldconsulting.com; injectionmoldconsulting.com.
source https://www.ptonline.com/articles/part-2-why-shoulder-bolts-are-too-important-to-ignore
Bayamon, Puerto Rico, July 1st, 2019 — Earlier this year, the Secretary of Education in Puerto Rico at the time put the cost of repairing all of the islands’ schools and bringing them up to school building standards at $11 billion. This includes work at over 850 public schools, many of which were damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria two years ago.
One area of focus mentioned was mold remediation. This issue has been a growing concern as damaged schools lacking sufficient air conditioning and suffering from structural leaks have allowed for moisture and mold growth in many schools. In fact, the secretary announced she was trying to quickly secure $100 million of unspent Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to pay for mold remediation and other urgent health and safety concerns in school buildings.
“Students, teachers and faculty should not be in a position where they need to worry about exposure to high levels of mold or other IEQ issues in Puerto Rico’s schools,” said Harry Pena, President of Zimmetry Environmental. “The presence of airborne allergens, irritants and other respiratory concerns are all detrimental to the learning experience. Indeed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that evidence from schools and office building studies demonstrate that various environmental conditions are closely associated with the incidence of measurable adverse health effects and that indoor air quality problems can result in increased absences because of respiratory infections and allergic diseases from biological contaminants.”
Helping public and private schools in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean to identify and resolve indoor air and IEQ concerns are the building science professionals at Zimmetry Environmental. As a local company, the team at Zimmetry are experts in local building issues and identifying and resolving water damage and mold contamination problems.
To learn more about Zimmetry Environmental and their indoor air quality, environmental, and compliance testing and consulting services, please visit http://www.zimmetry.com, call (787) 995.0005 or email info@zimmetry.com.
About Zimmetry Environmental
Since 2002, Zimmetry Environmental has been providing environmental consulting services to building owners and managers, architects, engineers, EHS professionals and Fortune 500 companies. The company is based in Puerto Rico and provides services across the Caribbean and Central America. The professionals at Zimmetry offer environmental compliance, indoor air quality, asbestos, lead-based paint, Phase I ESAs and general environmental consulting services.
By Trisha Gedon
Oklahoma State University
With the abundance of rain the High Plains has received over the last several weeks, farmers and ranchers are likely dealing with moldy hay and spoiled feed.
Moldy or spoiled feed can present a health risk for a multitude of species, said Kris Hiney, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension equine specialist.
“Hay can be unfit for livestock due to excessive moisture while baling or exposure to the elements, such as excessive rain or flooding. Molds present in the feed may contain mycotoxins, which can cause significant health issues,” Hiney said. “While only some molds produce mycotoxins, these are visually unable to be differentiated, and the presence of mycotoxins is difficult to assess.”
Animals that consume contaminated feeds can experience liver and kidney damage, neurologic disorders and estrogenic effects. While mycotoxins may not always cause clinical diseases, they can interact with animal stressors to decrease efficiency and reproduction and increase disease incidence, which may not be directly attributable by the producer to the feedstuff.
Adverse weather conditions during or post baling can allow mold growth, as it grows and thrives in warm and wet conditions. Hay with 14 to 15 percent moisture is subject to mold. Humidity, along with prematurely baling or excessive rain and flooding events can promote mold growth.
Hiney said it is important for producers of all forage consuming species, including cattle, sheep, goats and horses, to carefully monitor animal performance when weather conditions have increased the likelihood of spoiled or moldy forage.
“While mycotoxins typically are associated with grains, forage also can contain disease-causing agents,” she said. “Ochratoxin is typically associated with only death in young calves, as it’s rapidly degraded in the rumen in more mature animals. However, this mycotoxin has been associated with cattle deaths and abortions believed to be due to disruption phenylalanine metabolism.”
A fumigatus is a mycotoxin found more frequently in hay. Animals that consume hay containing this mycotoxin will exhibit symptoms similar to those of protein deficiencies or malnutrition, including poor haircoat, immunodeficiency and poor performance. Animals already stressed by environmental conditions may experience suppressed immune systems if they consume contaminated hay.
Hiney said producers must look beyond harvest forages because pastures also are susceptible to mycotoxins.
“Unfortunately, mycotoxins are not easily verified, as their distribution in feed may be highly variable,” she said. “Samples must be handled carefully prior to analysis. Visual appraisal may not be useful for producers and the use of black lights is not encouraged as a detection methodology.”
Producers concerned with the presence of mycotoxins or mold spores can send samples to a diagnostic lab. Dairy One laboratory can perform mold and yeast counts, as well as a mycotoxin panel, for a fee.
If the presence of mycotoxins is unable to be verified, producers should carefully monitor herd health regarding reproductive efficiency, feed utilization and gain, and overall health status. Keep in mind even if mycotoxins are not present, the presence of mold can decrease the digestibility of feeds and result in nutrient loss. Hiney said cattle may experience a reduction of 5 percent in ability to extract energy. The overall nutrient composition of the diet may need to be increased in compensation.
“Horse owners should be more vigilant when feeding moldy hay compared to cattle, sheep and goats. Ruminants may be better protected against mycotoxins due to degradation in the rumen. However, chronic exposure in the ruminant can be deleterious and may depend on other dietary factors,” she said.
Alternative forage sources should be investigated, if possible. If moderately moldy hay must be fed, consider having it tested for nutrient content. Spoilage may be sufficient enough to be detected through traditional forage testing. Hiney said it is important to feed in a very well-ventilated area or steam the hay, if possible.
“This is especially true for horses that typically are fed in more confined areas such as stalls and barns. Mold spores and dust can cause significant respiratory disorders to both the animals and the humans handling the feed,” she said. “More importantly, moldy forage may decrease intake due to its palatability, further reducing performance efficiency. Don’t force animals to consume hay by withholding alternative feed stuffs.”
By Tiffany Tan, Manchester Journal
DORSET — An early spring storm brought $100,000 worth of damage to Dorset, the costliest storm the municipality has seen in at least a decade.
Areas of Dorset got up to 3 inches of rain in just two hours April 15, causing heavy floods from rainwater and snowmelt, said Town Manager Rob Gaiotti. East Dorset Village was hit particularly hard, with floods washing out parts of Mad Tom Road and Upper and Lower Squirrel Hollow roads.
The town to date has spent $60,000 from its general operating budget to fix the dirt roads, so it welcomed the recent news that it qualified for federal disaster aid.
The federal disaster declaration formally declared June 14 that six Vermont counties, including Bennington and Windsor, suffered a major disaster in the April 15 storm and flooding.
A preliminary assessment by the Federal Emergency Management Agency identified more than $2 million in eligible public infrastructure damage statewide, more than double the minimum for a disaster declaration.
«The areas of greatest impact included many small towns with limited transportation budgets,» said Gov. Phil Scott in a statement Monday. «This will help them rebuild roads and other infrastructure without experiencing a long-term financial strain on their town budget.»
The declaration enables municipalities and qualifying nonprofits, such as public utilities, to receive 75 percent federal reimbursement for storm response and recovery, according to a release from the governor’s office. The eligible expenses include debris removal and repairs to public roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
«We’re lucky that it was a FEMA emergency and that we’ll be able to get reimbursed for the event,» Gaiotti said. «If it wasn’t, it would be very difficult.»
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He described the federal aid as «a huge deal,» because Dorset only had a few thousand dollars set aside for contingency expenses.
Having to shoulder at least $100,000 for the unforeseen storm damage would have required the town to cut from other expenses in its general fund, Gaiotti said. Now, with additional financial assistance expected from the state, Dorset would end up footing only about $7,500 of the total bill.
Future work on the damaged roads would involve fixing their drainage and getting them ready for the winter would cost about $40,000.
Gaiotti said the storm was the costliest he has seen in Dorset in at least 10 years — worse than the town’s $15,000 toll from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, which caused statewide damage estimated at $700 million and is one of the worst disasters in Vermont history.
Weston didn’t rack up as big a bill in the April 15 storm, but the town is also planning to apply for the federal disaster reimbursement.
The municipality is spending about $3,200 to clean the mold and water damage in the town hall basement caused by flooding, as well as to repair the local fire department’s air compressor and boiler, said select board administrative assistant Cheryl Barker.
«We did have 2 feet of water in the road,» Barker said, adding that the last time this happened was during Tropical Storm Irene.
Tiffany Tan can be reached at ttan@benningtonbanner.com, @tiffgtan at Twitter and 802-447-7567 ext. 122.
If you’d like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.
source https://www.manchesterjournal.com/stories/towns-receive-disaster-relief,577707
Damage Mold 