Contents
What Factors Influence the Cooling Time of the Plastic Injection Molding Process?
What is the Injection Molding Process?
What Factors Influence the Cooling Time of the Plastic Injection Molding Process?
Types of Materials Used
Mold Size and Shape
The Thickness of the Mold’s Wall
Mold Temperature
The Size of the Injection Molding Machine
How to Balance Cooling Time and Production Quality
Where to Find the Best Plastic Injection Molds?
Plastic injection molding is a rising star that could potentially become the top production method for many industries. Globally, the entire industry generated a massive revenue of $ 258.2 billion in 2019, making it a great field to invest in. If you are looking for a production method that is capable of producing high-quality complex parts at scale, injection molding is the perfect choice for you.
One of the key steps in the injection molding process is the cooling process. This is where the molten materials are cooled down and solidified to become finished products. To help you understand this process better, this article explores the factors that have a massive influence on the cooling time of the plastic injection molding process.
What is the Injection Molding Process?
The injection molding process is a manufacturing process where molten materials are injected into a mold so that they take on the shape of the mold after the process is over. The process begins with engineers heating up the materials to melt them, creating the stock for the process. The stock is then injected into the mold through a special needle, and it will quickly fill the mold, taking on its shape as well as size.
The engineers will then start the cooling process by running water as well as other coolants underneath the mold. This will help to quickly cool down the molten materials and solidify them, turning the materials into the finished products.
What Factors Influence the Cooling Time of the Plastic Injection Molding Process?
As the cooling process is quite important to the injection molding process as a whole, you will need to pay extra attention to the factors that come into play here. You will want a perfect balance between the cooling time and the quality of the end product, because if the molten materials are cooled down too rapidly, the end product might become too brittle. Conversely, if it takes too long to cool materials down, the entire production line will suffer in terms of productivity.
Types of Materials Used
The single most important factor that you need to take into account is the types of materials used for the stock. Each thermoplastic or resin material has a different melting point, so they will solidify at different temperatures. Make sure that you understand the melting point of your materials first before you start your production line. If you wish to speed up the cooling time, try to use materials with lower melting points.
Mold Size and Shape
Next comes the shape and size of the mold. If the mold is large and features complicated shapes, you will have to wait a bit longer for the molten materials to cool down. To ensure the optimal cooling time, you might need to cut down on the size of the mold.
The Thickness of the Mold’s Wall
The thicker the wall surrounding the mold is, the longer it will take for the finished products to cool down and solidify. You could try to reduce the thickness of the wall around the mold to improve the cooling time, but do note that this is a pretty dangerous approach. If the wall is too thin, warpage might appear, which causes damage to the finished products.
Mold Temperature
Because mold temperature also affects cooling time considerably, you could also opt for mold materials that cool down more rapidly. Plastic materials are the perfect choice here, as metal molds could take a very long time to cool down. By using plastic injection molds, you will be able to cut down on the cooling time considerably, speeding up the entire production line.
The Size of the Injection Molding Machine
Your injection molding machine also plays an important role in determining the cooling time of the molten materials. Generally speaking, the larger the machine, the longer the cooling time. If the production cycle takes up a lot of time, then the cooling time could also be prolonged as well.
How to Balance Cooling Time and Production Quality
The key to a good and consistent production line is not to reduce the cooling time to a minimum. Doing so will risk creating warped areas on your finished products, which could disqualify your products and make your clients unhappy. Try to find a good balance between optimizing cooling time and production quality.
Factors such as mold temperature and types of materials are among the safest bets, as you do not risk creating a lot of warpage with them. Mold size as well as mold’s wall thickness are factors that, for the most part, remain out of your control, because they will have to depend on the products’ specifications.
Where to Find the Best Plastic Injection Molds?
Plastic injection molds should be the superior choice for most production lines, owing to the fact that they are much more flexible and cool faster than metal molds. If you need to find the best plastic injection molds, check out our selection at KuiXing Shanghai. With over 20 years of experience in the field, we work with the best engineers to create high-quality plastic injection molds that work with various production lines. We also provide custom plastic injection molds if you need them. For more information about our services, don’t hesitate to contact us right away!
The most important factors that affect the cooling time in injection molding are types of materials, mold size and shape, mold wall thickness, mold temperature, and the size of your injection molding machines. Because a lot of these factors depend on products’ specifications, you might not be able to optimize all of them. Thus, the right approach is to find a perfect balance where you have reasonable cooling time with no risk of warpage caused by instant cooling.
Reference:
