Cleaning injection molds by hand is very inefficient, but dry ice blasting can drastically reduce the time needed to achieve a total clean and resume production.

Key Takeaways:

Silgan Plastics reduced the time required to clean its plastic injection molds by as much as 75% by switching its cleaning method away from hand cleaning with solvents to dry ice blasting. The process cleaned packaging molds quickly and efficiently without any damage or leftover residue.

Dry Ice Blasting Breaks the Strongest Adhesive Bonds 

Key Takeaways:

Dry ice blasting removes industrial adhesives using kinetic impact, thermal shock (-109.3°F or -78.5°C) and gas expansion (800x). Unlike scraping or solvents, it is non-abrasive, leaves no secondary waste, and allows for in-place cleaning without machinery disassembly.

Dry Ice Blasting: Cleaner Molds. Less Downtime. 

Dry ice blasting cleans injection molds faster, safer, and with less downtime than traditional methods — here's how it works and why it's the preferred choice for plastic and rubber manufacturers.

In the plastics and rubber industries, product rejection and poor part quality are detrimental to manufacturers. In injection molding, there is no margin for error. Every part must come out perfect, with tolerances measured in thousandths of an inch.

A dirty injection mold is the usual suspect when quality falls, causing issues that range from warped products to texture imperfections. No matter how small the defect is, it can potentially affect thousands of units, increasing scrap and costs when trying to meet production quotas.

Dry ice blasting cleans molds while still hot and in the press

Most would agree that the mold is the heart of any injection molding process. Injection mold cleaning is a critical component of producing quality products. Maintenance practices, including your cleaning techniques, can contribute to mold wear.

Plastic injection mold cleaning with dry ice addresses the most common goals we hear from injection molders:

• Reduce labor and cleaning costs
• Improve operational efficiency and quality (Quality OEE Score)
• Obtain faster cleaning cycles (Availability OEE Score)
• Extend service life of injection molds
• Be environmentally friendly and sustainable

Brinkmann Formenbau GmbH is located in the Lower Saxony city of Mühlen, Germany. With around 50 employees, the company manufactures spray-castable, stamping and foaming tools for the automotive, agriculture, sanitary and medical industries.

PET molders constantly need to improve their OEE Availability, Quality and Performance Scores, all while lowering costs, extending the life of their tooling and improving their workers’ environment and safety.

What if PET processors could produce 6.5 million bottle preforms more per year?

Find the answer in the article "PET molding is like car racing - speed and control are king. Cold Jet introduces a simple way to improve production processes" published in the issue 9 / 2020 of PETplanet Insider magazine.

Clean mold cavities and vents are a major concern for plastic part manufacturers in maintaining today’s high quality standards – and is a main priority for the Geiger group, whose customers are electronics and automotive manufacturers.

Preform Solutions in Sioux Falls, South Dakota specializes in the production of quality preforms for the food and beverage, oil, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The small, family-owned business provides custom preform injection molding services for customers across the country, as well as in Canada and Mexico.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world is facing a shortage of medical supplies and personal protective equipment.

To meet the demand for these supplies, the support of various industries as well as the coordination of upstream and downstream supply chains are becoming critical.