Mold cooling

Mold cooling serves to dissipate the heat of the molding quickly and uniformly. Fast cooling is necessary to obtain economical production and uniform cooling is required for product quality. Adequate mold temperature control is essential for consistent molding. The layout of the cooling circuit warrants close attention especially if you consider cooling typically accounts for two thirds of a products cycle time. Optimal properties of engineering plastics can be achieved only when the right mold temperature is set and maintained during processing. The mold temperature has a substantial effect on: Mechanical properties Shrinkage behavior Warpage Surface quality Cycle time Flow length in thin walled parts In particular semi-crystalline thermoplastics need to cool down at optimal crystallization rate. Parts with widely varying wall thicknesses are likely to deform because of local differences in the degree of crystallization.  Additionally the required cooling time increases rapidly with wall thickness. This calculation is shown in Cooling system equations. For detailed information: Cooling channel configuration Alternative cooling devices Cooling equations