Products made out of plastic and rubber have become so common in daily life that they are a necessity. Everything from food storage to cars to household products use plastic and rubber; it’s impossible to go through a day without using something that relies on plastic or rubber.
This dependence on plastic and rubber products means that production lines need to be operating at maximum efficiency and producing as much as they can. However, cleaning the molds used in plastic and rubber manufacturing is typically a slow, labor intensive, and hazardous job. The use of dry ice cleaning on these plastic and rubber molds makes cleaning much more effective and easy.
Benefits of Dry Ice Cleaning Production Molds:
When producing these products the molds need to have release agents applied to keep the finished product from attaching permanently to the mold, but eventually this can build up into a waxy coating that creates blemishes, orange peel, or other deficiencies in the finished product. In the past, these molds would have to be pulled from the production line and hand scrubbed using harsh, dangerous chemicals and solvents. For other molding byproducts, such as hardened plastic build up, abrasive sand blasting cleaning would be used.
Increased Efficiency
The combination of being able to clean in-place and reduce cleaning time means the production up time is dramatically increased and cleaning labor costs are decreased. Dry ice cleaning is able to get into small or delicate areas without damaging them, and provides a clean that is a ‘like new’ surface.
No Mold Damage
Over time, the use of these chemicals and sandblasting will damage the molds, making them unusable for production. With dry ice cleaning molds can be cleaned while hot and don’t need to be removed from the production line. Additionally, it does not require solvents and is nonabrasive, extending the productive life of each mold.
Environmentally Responsible
Since dry ice cleaning does not require hazardous solvents like hand scrubbing, or create hazardous secondary waste like sandblasting, it is also an environmentally responsible choice for keeping a mold production line clean. Using environmentally friendly cleaning helps a company conform to ISO 14000 requirements as well.
Learn more about how Dry Ice Cleaning works HERE or watch the video below to see it actually cleaning plastic and rubber molds:
