Making Refrigerator Injection Mold Machinery

Making Refrigerator Injection Mold Machinery

Mold Name: Refrigerator mold.

Final Product: Refrigerator plastic parts.

What is mold?

The mold or die refers to the tooling used to produce plastic parts in molding. Traditionally injection molds have been expensive to manufacture and were only used in high-volume production applications where thousands of parts were produced. Molds are typically constructed from hardened steel, pre-hardened steel, aluminum, and/or beryllium-copper alloy. The choice of material to build a mold from is primarily one of economics. Steel molds generally cost more to construct but offer a longer lifespan that will offset the higher initial cost over a higher number of parts made before wearing out. Pre-hardened steel molds are less wear resistant and are primarilly used for lower volume requirements or larger components. The hardness of the pre-hardened steel measures typically 38-45 on the Rockwell-C scale. Hardened steel molds are heat treated after machining, making them superior in terms of wear resistance and lifespan. Typical hardness ranges between 50 and 60 Rockwell-C (HRC).

Aluminum molds cost substantially less than steel molds, and when higher grade aluminum such as QC-7 and QC-10 aircraft aluminum is used and machined with modern computerized equipment, they can be economical for molding hundreds of thousands of parts. Aluminum molds also offer quick turnaround and faster cycles because of better heat dissipation. They can also be coated for wear resistance to fiberglass reinforced materials. Beryllium copper is used in areas of the mold which require fast heat removal or areas that see the most shear heat generated.