Equipment Cleaning, Purging

to mechanically remove the debris. In any of these cases, they run the risk of damaging the mold. The solution Mendel will be the first to tell you that mold makers are usually pretty suspicious, skeptical and critical when it comes to trying new things; they have seen many fads and gimmicks come and go. But because someone he trusted recommended trying Cold Jet to clean his equipment, and because Mendel is no stranger to taking risks—afterall, it’s brought him success—he put down his guard and brought in the Cold Jet i3 MicroClean for testing. Cold Jet’s dry ice cleaning system uses non-abrasive media in the form of recycled CO2 media (pellets or block) that won’t damage surfaces or equipment. The combination of dry ice blast cleaning’s kinetic energy and thermal effects break the connection between the dirt and surface, lifting away contaminants. Unlike blasting with other media, dry ice cleaning does not leave any secondary waste, as the dry ice pellets or particles sublimate – convert from solid to gas – upon impact. Dry ice cleaning is also safe and non- toxic, does not create downstream contamination, and reduces or eliminates employee exposure to dangerous chemical cleaning agents. The results After Mendel’s team tried the Cold Jet MicroClean machine, everyone was on board with using the system. Since implementing the Cold Jet solution, Performance Plastics has been able to extend the running life of the mold by cleaning it in place in the press—including the vent and ejector pins— extending time between complete teardowns. “Cleaning with Cold Jet will not roll parting lines, change or destroy the metal,” said Mendel. “And best of all, it allows our running time to be extended. We use it every day, on every shift.” Mendel said the ability to clean the part in place with the Cold Jet solution really saves time. A complete teardown can vary with the part – sometimes it takes two days or 16 man hours to complete, sometimes it takes less time. When running at extreme temperatures like Performance does, it’s not just the teardown itself that is time-consuming – it takes four hours to heat up the machine and four hours to cool it down. Time is money in this business, and it’s very expensive to shut down. The longer that a complete teardown can be delayed without damaging parts, the better. “I would say that using the Cold Jet cleaning process extends the running time of our molds by 200-500 percent,” said Mendel. “It saves us from cooling the mold down, removing it, disassembling it, reassembling it, putting it back in and heating everything up. That is a lot of time and risk for damage. We are very sensitive to the extension of a production run and our startup costs. Once we get something running we don’t want to stop.” When they do stop they use the Cold Jet solution, whether the mold is hot in the press or taken apart cold on the bench cold. The second major benefit Performance has experienced is that Cold Jet allows a lot of flexibility when cleaning the mold. They can apply just the right pressure to prevent damage, which is something they cannot always do when using solvents and wire brushes. To illustrate how exact the molds at Performance can be, the shutoffs on certain high pressure materials have to be 0.0004”—because at 0.0005” it will flash, and at 0.0002-0.0003” it can’t be vented and will destroy the metal. These molds are very delicate; 0.0005 equals one-sixth of the diameter of a human hair. “That’s pretty tight,” said Mendel. “And when you go in with a wire brush and accidentally take a little bit of the metal off, the mold can be destroyed.” Finally, because a cleaner mold equals a better part, and the molds at Performance can now be cleaned quickly while running, the part is vented more effectively. Scrap rates go down, and quality goes up. And Performance Plastics now needs only one person to clean the mold, versus two, so critical personnel can be directed elsewhere. “I would tell others to try this out,” said Mendel. “Certainly everyone in this industry is skeptical and you need some skin in the game to take the risk, but the benefits are well worth it.”