Abstract
The control and management of heat in injection mould tools is a vital requirement for obtaining optimum production processing conditions. This paper describes an investigation that compared conventional mould cooling methods with a relatively new technique called ‘pulse cooling technology' (PCT). The principle of PCT is the use of an intermittent flow of the cooling medium in the mould tool with accurate control of the mould cavity surface temperature during the injection moulding cycle.
A mould tool instrumented for cavity pressure, cavity surface temperature and mould background temperature measurements was constructed for the study. Results showing the effectiveness of PCT compared with conventional cooling are presented for polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate and filled PP with talc and aluminium powders. A reduction of up to 22% of the conventionally cooled moulding cycle time for unfilled PP has been recorded when pulsed mould cooling was used.
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