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Molding technology has undergone an evolutionary
cycle in response to a heightened interest in preserving
our environment while producing high quality custom plastic
parts or components. Aline Components, Inc. is one plastic
injection molding company that is taking steps in the evolution
by offering thermoplastic injection molding services featuring
hot runner molds. Our experience in hot runner molds and
other emerging technologies has proven invaluable to our
customers and the environment.
Today, emphasis has been placed on molding
products from virgin resins. With the introduction of hot
runner molds in thermoplastic injection molding, runner
scrap is reduced or in some cases eliminated so there are
no runners to sort from the parts, and no runners to throw
away or regrind and remix into the original thermoplastic
material.
Advantages of Aline’s
Hot Runner Molds
- Reduced energy costs
- Shortened cycle times
- Automated processing
- Increased material cost savings
Hot runner molds are two-plate molds with
a heated runner system contained in one of the plates. This
system consists of two parts: the manifold and the drops.
The manifold has channels that convey the plastic on a single
plane, parallel to the parting line, to a point above the
cavity while the drops convey the plastic from the manifold
to the part itself.
There are two types of hot runner systems
– internally and externally heated drops and manifolds
– that are designated by how the plastic is heated.
Externally heated systems have the lowest pressure drop
of any runner system and are better for color changes. Alternatively,
internally heated systems offer higher-pressure drops, more
difficult color changes, and better gate tip control.
Applications of Aline’s
Hot Runner Molds
Hot runner molds are ideal for applications where regrinding
can cause the material to yellow or detract from the material
properties. For example, in circumstances where long-lasting
transparency is required, hot runner molds may be utilized
for enduring clarity. Also, they are especially suitable
for custom plastic parts or components with many cavities.
In externally heated systems, there are no
places for material to hang up and degrade which makes this
type appropriate for thermally sensitive materials, whereas
in internally heated systems there are many places for material
to hang up and degrade, so thermally sensitive materials
should not be used. As a more expensive process involving
complex setups, hot runner molds are almost always used
for large volume orders of automated thermoplastic injection
molding production.
At Aline Components, we specialize in thermoplastic
injection molding solutions for a variety of custom plastic
parts or components problems. In addition to hot runner
molds we also offer cold
runner molds. The main difference between cold
and hot runner molding process is that hot runner eliminates
material retained in the feed channels of a cold runner
mold, which reduces the number of production steps and
saves in both material and energy costs.
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