System gauges cooling efficiency through flow pressure

July 10, 2019
A technology that provides insight into how efficiently a mold-cooling system is working has gotten an upgrade.

A technology that provides insight into how efficiently a mold-cooling system is working has gotten an upgrade, with a new capability to provide remote monitoring. Known as System Cooling or SysCool through U.S. distributor Progressive Components, the system monitors temperature zones throughout a mold and gives users a boost in terms of efficiency, molding quality and productivity.

“The cooling portion of an injection molding cycle accounts for a large percentage of cycle time and is mostly invisible to processors,” Progressive VP Peter Friddle said.

Progressive addresses this need with SysCool, a technology made by Mouldflo A/S, Søborg, Denmark, that monitors and records data from the individual water channels or zones of an injection mold through a manifold installed on the mold or the molding machine. The system features manifolds that mount next to each platen and connect to mold or machine water lines. A sensor on the manifold main supply monitors pressure and temperature; a sensor on the main return monitors pressure; and one sensor per water line monitors flow and temperature. This data is transmitted to an interface module that shows easy-to- understand zone- temperature graphics. With the system, alarms also appear on either the machine’s control screen or an optional touch-screen display.

The system is available with a choice of manifolds that can monitor four, eight or 12 temperature zones. Servers with the systems can handle as many as eight manifolds at once, which means that coverage of 96 zones per mold is possible. And, by adding servers or computers, users can even further extend the system’s capabilities. For instance, while designed primarily for conventional molds, the Mouldflo/SysCool platform can be adapted for stack molds. “We have a caps and closure tool that is running 200 zones,” said Rebecca Hamstra, sales account manager at Progressive.

Many suppliers offer mold-cooling controls, but Friddle said that Progressive’s system is different in that it not only measures water temperature, pressure and flow, but gauges cooling effectiveness by comparing the flow against the line diameter. The system assigns a measurement known as a Reynolds number to the water flow in each channel, thus determining whether the flow is turbulent or not; this provides an indication of how effectively the heat is transferring from the metal to the water.

The compact sensor in each channel works on the vortex flow principle. It has a triangular object that creates small eddies in the flow. By measuring the pressure differences within the vortices of these currents, a flow rate can be calculated.

Friddle said that SysCool works with water temperatures of up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which covers a broad range of thermoplastics, and is programmed so that any change — also known as a delta — in water temperature of more than 0.9 degree triggers an alarm.

“We always want to tighten the [delta] range, but if processors see they are operating outside the delta, they’ll know immediately that something is wrong,” he said.

As an enhancement to the system, Mouldflo is now offering its Cloud Solution, an IOT program for remote monitoring.

“Today, factories and expert teams might be in different locations,” said Jørgen Ole Kjær, chairman and CEO of Mouldflo. “Cloud Solution can help teams monitoring molds all over the world.” One benefit would be the ability of processors to calculate and optimize energy consumption in their cooling units. “Cloud Solution is ready and will be tested in coming months,” he said.

Mouldflo fabricates its manifolds out of corrosion-resistant anodized aluminum; it also offers stainless-steel manifolds for molders of medical products or other parts that require clean-room or sanitary conditions. The manifolds are equipped with a choice of sensors, depending on the needs of the molder: One type of sensor can monitor flow rates of 1 liter to 15 liters per minute, while the other handles 2 liters to 40 liters per minute. Stainless-steel manifolds have flow-rate monitoring of 1 liter to 20 liters, or 2 liters to 40 liters per minute.

The systems are designed for water-cooled molds; Friddle said they are not for molds that use glycol or oil for cooling.

Manifolds can be installed by OEMs on new presses or retrofitted on existing injection molding machines. “We work with machine OEMs on equipping machines with the system,” he said.

The systems can be wired into the display screen on an injection molding machine, in which flow and temperature data would appear as a separate page on the display. While the units are not designed to automatically correct temperatures that exceed setpoint, they can send an alarm to an operator or to a remote device or shut down a machine to prevent the production of out-of-spec parts. They also can generate trending reports, store production data and alert operators to maintenance issues.

The systems are especially applicable to high-speed, high-precision products, where small changes in mold temperature could adversely affect productivity, quality and part validation, Friddle said.

By monitoring mold cooling, the systems help protect the mold and ensure the production of quality parts. They allow users to quickly identify cooling issues, as well as cooling-circuit problems, including flow or temperature deviation and rust buildup.

Importantly, the Mouldflo/Progressive cooling systems fit in with the growing trend of plant automation. Friddle said they can be easily integrated with automated molding cells.

Pat Toensmeier, correspondent

[email protected]

Contact:  

Progressive Components 

Wauconda, Ill., 847-487-1000, 

www.procomps.com