System Cooling

The efficiency of the mold cooling circuits are critical to a stable process and the manufacturer of high quality, dimensionally stable parts. Now AST Technology’s new System Cooling platform gives molders the ability to monitor water flow and temperature circuits inside the mold.

“There are monitoring devices for mold pressure, injection speeds, cycles and cycle times, but there has not been a comprehensive system for tracking water flow and temperature through the entire mold until now,” explains Sujit Sheth, AST’s General Manager, Monitoring Division.

“Cooling constitutes 60% of a mold’s overall cycle time – that means it should be a factor we can harness to help reduce or control cycle times and stabilize part quality.” System Cooling fills that role by monitoring every circuit in the mold individually. With other systems one is only able to detect a pressure loss based on the time the water goes into the mold compared to when it comes out.

System Cooling can protect the mold and improve quality by quickly identifying cooling problems and alerting the user to various common cooling circuit problems, such as:

• No water flow from the mold heater
• Blocked waterways
• Scale / rust build-up
• Incorrect piping. Molders that run parts with critical tolerances and require consistency of mold cooling can generate reports to support their industry certifications using the system’s remotely mounted Touch Screen controller.
• The touch screen monitor displays the flow and temperature for every circuit and is used to: 
• Set warning and alarm limits for flow and temperature to all monitored zones individually View current status graphically or as text
• Feed alarm signal to an ancillary device – such as an alarm tower, hot runner controller or molding machine
• Store data and mold setups in the internal memory where they are time and date stamped for ultimate traceability.