Now You See It, Now You Don’t – the Magic of Dry Ice in Rubber Molding

For injection and compression rubber molders there is a great demand to increase the productivity of their equipment and the quality of their parts, while maintaining healthy margins. This can be a balancing act between using the most effective technology while working within a shrinking budget. Dry ice cleaning systems allow for cleaning molds in the machine, while they are still hot, faster, cheaper and in a non-abrasive and sustainable manner, thus increasing machine uptime, mold asset life and profitability. Molders no longer have to wait until the mold cools and remove it from the machine in order to clean it.

Cleaning mold cavities and vents of resin off-gasses, cured material and mold release agents can prevent a variety of molding problems: burn, sticking parts, short shots, plate out, contamination, blemishes and flash. But often times mold cleaning is delayed because traditional cleaning methods cause downtime, and often times involves the use of chemicals harmful to employees, and abrasive products that wear away critical mold tolerances.

Dry ice is proven to clean molds better, while reducing cleaning times up to 75% without causing mold wear, in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Dry ice does not create any secondary waste – it simply returns to its natural gas state upon impact. Now molds can be cleaned in a lean, clean and green method assisting in corporate TPM, 6S, Zero Landfill and, 5S, Kaizan initiatives. Dry ice cleaning systems can play a significant role in helping companies support organizational quality, service & productivity goals, meet industry and government regulations, and increase profitability.

This paper discusses the advantages of dry ice cleaning as a replacement for solvent and mechanical cleaning for the removal of contaminants from molds. The use of dry ice cleaning on various mold substrates, steels, aluminum, etc. are discussed. It is possible to remove contaminant layers from various common mold medals. The results indicate that dry ice cleaning is a good alternative to other commonly used labor intensive and abrasive methods.