The cooling towers and process chillers we provide to our industrial customers are used in a number of applications, from aluminum extrusion cooling systems to die casting. Let’s take a look at one of those applications in particular, plastic injection molding cooling systems.

Plastic injection molding companies can use both water towers and a chilled water system in their production process. The systems must include chemical treatment to prevent bacterial growth and system contamination.

A plastics company uses a cooling tower system to maintain the water at 70°F to 90°F. The water cools the machines in the plant to prevent exceeding a maximum oil temperature and reduce the temperature in the feed throat. Plastic is fed through the feed throat into a heated barrel. The process needs the feed throat cool enough to prevent plastic from melting too early as it enters the mold.

The chilled water system maintains a slightly cooler but consistent temperature to cool the tooling. The water flows through the tooling and molds to remove heat as quickly as possible from the injected plastic. Yet even though the chilled water speeds the heat removal from the plastic, the process is still often the longest phase of the production cycle. The plastic needs to drop from approximately 500°F to 140°F.

The process water temperature is generally different for each mold, depending on a part’s wall thickness, dimensions and type of resin used. Adjusting to these temperatures makes the accuracy of these process chillers vital.

Whether your company works in plastics or any of the other numerous industries we serve, Process Engineering & Equipment Company can provide the right equipment and system design for cooling towers and process chillers to meet the critical requirements of your application. If you have questions or need a quote, please contact us.