How to solve problems using ΔT

A customer in the automotive sector had 25 inlet and outlet cooling channels, and two years prior to introducing Mouldflo, when the mould was made, their cooling time was 25 seconds. When they bought a new injection moulding machine, they did not invest in a new chiller. So, the old chiller did not supply a sufficient flow rate.

They decided on a temporary solution: increasing the cycle time to 40 seconds. This did not work for long since they were paid for producing one product per 25 seconds.

When the Mouldflo system was connected to the cooling channels, it was quickly discovered, that five of the channels did not have any flow rate. Firstly, the channels were cleaned on the suspicion of blockage. This was not the case.

For achieving optimal cooling/heating in the injection moulding process, the ΔT should be around 3-4°C. By using Mouldflo, they noticed that some channels had a flow rate of 7-8 liters/min and a ΔT of 1°C, while the other five channels had ΔT of 10-11°C.

To solve this problem, they added mini valves to the system, which decreased the higher flow rate by canalizing the water to the other five channels. This resulted in a reduced cycle time of five seconds on that mould.

Today Mouldflo is a regular part of the customers injection moulding process and assures that the cooling process proceeds according to plan, and to quickly identify the root of any sudden cooling problems!