The task of an efficient mold cooling system is to guarantee an even temperature distribution across the individual cavities, which translates into appropriate dimensional tolerances and molded part quality.
Any temperature deviations caused by flow disturbances and/or the inability of the channels to effectively receive heat will, over time, translate into the quality of the manufactured product The walking medium circulating in the mold cooling system removes heat from the mold, ensuring an even temperature distribution, which in turn translates into adequate quality, meeting dimensional tolerances or cycle times.
Corrosion products, lime deposits and other deposits deposited on duct walls are a silent killer of our cooling system's performance. Deposits in the ducts reduce the cooling system's efficiency by reducing the duct diameter. To make matters worse, due to its very low thermal conductivity, even a thin layer of scale acts as an insulator, hindering the reception of heat from the molding cavity. Scale never deposits evenly, which can quickly lead to mold thermal disruption and quality problems. That's why it's worthwhile to regularly monitor the cooling performance in our molds and act preventively.
Note that the issue of cleaning channels and maintaining high cooling performance over the life of the tool applies not only to those made with incremental technologies, but also to classic drilled cooling channels. The only difference is that the complexity of the channel geometry and the small diameters of conformal-cooled channels make cleaning more difficult and require appropriate tools and methods. This does not mean, however, that classic designs with drilled channels are free from problems of decreased cooling performance or clogging. This is a very common phenomenon and, worst of all, it goes unnoticed.
