Telephones, PC parts, toys, electrical plugs, and other everyday products like shoes and pens are made with plastics using a process called injection moulding. The technology can produce identical parts at high volumes at a low cost per part. However, its start-up cost is relatively high, mainly because custom tooling is needed. An injection mould can cost anywhere between EUR 100 000 and EUR 300 000, depending on its complexity, material and accuracy.

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/418344-diamond-like-carbon-coating-offers-relief-to-plastic-injection-moulds

StackTeck's client selected the QPC approach with manufacturing flexibility in mind. According to Angelo Morra, business development manager at StackTeck, "This customer was looking for a way to mold multiple part types using the same machine and they have achieved a change-over time of less than one hour using StackTeck's proved Quick Product Change technology. They are using high performance Husky 1000-ton injection molding machines, and with stack mold technology they have reduced the number of machines needed for the program by half."

Prolonging tooling service life is of paramount importance for any moulding project since downtime for repairs jeopardises profit margins. According to estimates, around EUR 10 billion are spent each year for maintenance operations worldwide. During the moulding process, the friction forces developed between the closing surface and those contacting the injected plastic largely account for the damage caused to the surfaces. Ultimately, the mould needs to be scrapped. Put together, these significantly affect the mould’s service life. The EU-funded cleanMOULD project demonstrated novel coatings based on a multilayer diamond-like carbon formulation that prolong the life of injection moulding tools, offering corrosion protection, reduced wear and resistance to friction. “Importantly, our novel coating solutions increase mould performance and extend its operation before the need to take it out of service for preventive maintenance,” reports project coordinator Michael Hvam.

A QPC mold is designed with two major components: frame and modules. The frame is designed to remain in the machine with all water, air, and electrical hookups remaining in place. The modules consist of core/cavity assemblies and p0late systems. Every QPC mold can be converted from single fact to a stack mold configuration. The QPC approach has built-in features for the alignment of modules to the frame, as well as plate-to-plate connections for services. This dramatically reduces change-over time, Morra explained.

A new low-friction, high-hardness coating is poised to expand the range of surface treatments to help tooling stand up to tough moulding challenges. The new diamond-like coating can increase the mould service life by up to 10 times compared to the state of the art.

Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

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StackTeck announced an unconventional application for a big stack mold with Quick Product Change (QPC) features. This mold runs 2000 tons of production in a 1000-ton injection molding machine, in a 2x4 format enabling molding of eight large, flat panels per cycle of the machine.

StackTeck, located just outside Toronto, Canada, manufactures a wide range of injection molds for plastic parts such as closures, personal care, medical, thin-wall packaging as well as mold bases. StackTeck has dedicated R&D testing and part sampling facilities, in addition to plastic part design and prototyping capabilities.

A key attribute of the diamond-like carbon coatings is the ability to resist wear by lowering the friction between sliding surfaces. This largely eliminates the need for surface lubrication and post-finishing, which are deemed primary sources of pollutant releases to the atmosphere for certain industries such as pharmaceutical and food. The coatings are applied using a physical vapour deposition process called magnetron sputtering at temperatures as low as 180 °C. Due to this advanced deposition process, the diamond-like carbon coatings can maintain a very thin, uniform finish (1-5 μm) over the entire mould independently of its geometry. “cleanMOULD’s novel coatings optimise both surface hardness and lubricity to minimise the impact of fretting,” notes Hvam. The high hardness of the newly demonstrated diamond-like carbon coatings, which are 8 times harder compared to other coatings, allows the surfaces to become more resistant to scratches that occur during operation. It goes without saying that the absence of oil lubricants makes mould cleaning much easier: it only requires applying ethanol to a cloth for less than 10 minutes. cleanMOULD’s ‘mould breaking’ has the potential to become a key enabling technology for the entire plastics industry. Overall, the return on investment for cleanMOULD users is expected to be over 20 times the expected coating costs, thus providing a compelling value proposition. Pilot-test results demonstrated a sixfold decrease in the maintenance interval compared to state-of-the-art coatings. No fretting corrosion has been observed on any coated moulds. What’s more, “cleanMOULD’s coating demonstrated a decrease in the moulding cycle time of screw lids from 40 to 36 seconds, which is equivalent to an 11 % increase in productivity,” concludes Hvam.

Some of the advantages of the QPC technology include the ability to fulfill last-minute demand changes from customers; only one hot runner and frame needed per machine; reducing produce change-over times and maximizing production times. Additionally, growth of capital investment can be "cascaded" with "module-only" purchases as the market demand increases; and identical modules can be moved between multiple frames including a single face frame and stack mold frames up to four levels. Standard QPC modules heights and part pitches facilitate the use of robotic standards.

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StackTeck announced an unconventional application for a big stack mold with Quick Product Change (QPC) features. This mold runs 2000 tons of production in a 1000-ton injection molding machine, in a 2x4 format enabling molding of eight large, flat panels per cycle of the machine.