Blast that dirty mould!

By David Reed, UT EditorLoveland, Ohio-Cold Jet llc, claiming to be the world's leading provider of environmentally responsible dry-ice (solid carbon dioxide) mould-cleaning technology, is offering a new precision cleaning system which it says is specially useful for makers of micromouldings.The firm points out that moulders serving the electronics, medical, telecommunications, and automotive sectors are seeing their already small parts becoming smaller and smaller as these industries evolve. These tiny parts have even tinier critical features, such as pinholes, pins, channels, and snap-fit latches, rendering them very delicate and easily susceptible to damage, says Cold Jet.Although dry-ice blasting technology has been widely embraced by the rubber and plastic moulding industries to clean moulds online, in place and at production temperature, Cold Jet says its application was historically limited to the surface cleaning of larger moulds or parts, such as polyurethane foam seat moulds or automotive tyre moulds. Small, intricate and complex moulds and openings, such as the micro-vents on tyre moulds or catheter tip moulds, had to be cleaned or finished by hand - generating high costs in labour and for replacement of specialised drill bits-and mould damage.The new unit, designated i3 Microclean, can overcome such problems, the firm claims. It projects a targeted stream of dry-ice particles shaved from blocks to thoroughly clean small, deep and/or complex cavities, moulds and crevices that traditional dry-ice blasters cannot reach. New nozzles, measuring 0.28, 0.35 and 0.48 in diameter, complement Cold Jet's larger dry-ice blasting systems for spot-cleaning large moulds. They also help the unit serve as a complete cleaning and maintenance system for smaller, more intricate moulds.Customers in various markets have been delighted with the cost and labour savings the Cold Jet i3MicroClean has afforded them, the firm claims. They are able to clean their tooling much more rapidly and with no damage, as opposed to their previous methods. The elimination of disassembly and reassembly time, of chemical solvents and drill bits, and of secondary clean-up requirements alone is saving Cold Jet customers up to 75 percent in cleaning costs; the fact that they can clean online and much faster has given some a 400 percent increase in productivity, the firm adds.For more information please visit the firm's website at www.coldjet.com, email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-800-337-9423 (for North America) or +32 2 467 41 01 (for Europe)."