(37).
1.8 Mold Cooling
For cooling a heated mold, a conventionally known mold-cooling system can supply a cooling medium, such as cooling water, to a medium flow path for a mold. In such a mold-cooling system, there has been a problem of the cooling medium supplied to the medium flow path of the mold heated to a high temperature being gasified in the medium flow path and the vapor being discharged.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a mold-cooling system for cooling a heated mold has been developed. This system supplies a cooling medium from a cooling medium supply source to a medium flow path provided for a mold, and a discharge side path connected to an outlet side of the medium flow path of the mold that can be communicated with a heat exchanger condensing the cooling medium gasified and discharged from the medium flow path.
This mold-cooling method suppresses the discharge of the gasified cooling medium and enhances the cooling efficiency. Figure 1.3 shows a system configuration diagram of the mold-cooling system.
The mold-cooling system is constituted in such a manner that a discharge side path 15 connected to an outlet 5 side of the medium flow path 4 of the mold 2 is communicated with a heat exchanger 20 condensing gasified cooling medium discharged from the medium flow path 4.
The mold-cooling system performs heating in addition to cooling of the mold 2. The mold 2 is, for instance, made up of a fixed mold and a movable mold; the fixed mold and the movable mold are respectively provided with the medium flow paths 4, 4 for circulating cooling medium. A supply side path 13 (a medium feeding path) is connected to inlets 3, 3 (medium feeding connection ports) side of the medium flow paths 4, 4. The discharge side path 15 (a medium returning path) is connected to the outlets 5, 5 (medium returning connection ports) side of the medium flow paths 4, 4. The supply side path 13 and the inlets 3, 3 of the medium flow paths 4, 4 can be connected by a manifold portion which divides a single supply side path 13 into plurality or by flexible piping members, such as a hose or a tube, which is connected to a plurality of connection ports of the manifold portion. The discharge side path 15 and the outlets 5, 5 of the medium flow paths 4, 4 can be substantially similarly connected by a manifold portion which branches a single discharge side path 15 into plurality or by flexible piping members, such as a hose or a tube, which is connected to a plurality of connection ports of the manifold portion. The mold 2 is provided with a temperature sensor 6 as a detection means for detecting the temperature of the mold 2.
Figure 1.3 Mold-cooling system (39).
The temperature sensor 6 can be constituted so as to detect the temperature of medium (cooling medium) on the outlet 5 side, a vicinity region of the outlet 5 of the medium flow path 4, a downstream vicinity region of the outlet 5, or the like. The mold 2 is provided with a mold heater 7 as a means of heating the mold 2. The figure shows an example in which the mold heaters 7, 7 are respectively embedded in the fixed mold and the movable mold of the mold 2.
The mold heating-cooling system has a control panel 21 including a control portion 22, which controls the mold heater 7, the cooling medium supply pump 11, and the valves 12a, 14a, 18a, 19a. The control panel 21 has the control portion 22 such as a CPU, a display operation portion 24, and a memory portion 23, which are respectively connected by signal lines. The display operation portion 24 constitutes a display portion and an operation portion for setting up, inputting or displaying. The memory portion 23 is constituted of various memories and stores information about conditions and values inputted and set up by an operation of the display operation portion 24, various programs such as a control program for executing the respective operations mentioned below, various predetermined operation conditions, various data tables or the like (39).
In an example of the operation, after a first cooling step constituted by the main cooling step, a second cooling step in which air is supplied to the medium flow path 4 of the mold 2 is executed. In other words, when the cooling medium valve 12a is closed, and the air valve 19a is opened, air is supplied to the medium flow path 4. Upon closing the cooling medium valve 12a, the cooling medium supply pump 11 can be stopped. An aspect can be such that a bypass path which connects the supply side path 12 with the discharge side path 15 is provided, a bypass valve provided for the bypass path is conversely opened and closed relative to the opening and the closing of the cooling medium valve 12a, thereby generally activating the cooling medium supply pump 11 constantly.
The first cooling step and the second cooling step can be respectively executed until the predetermined time elapses in such a manner that cooling medium in the medium flow path 4 is generally discharged (purged) by executing the second cooling step and without excessive cooling or the like. In other words, the temperature does not greatly fall below the target cooling temperature upon finishing the cooling step. Based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 6, the first cooling step can be switched into the second cooling step and the second cooling step can be finished. So, the air valve 19a can be closed.
In the second cooling step, in place of or in addition to air, a small amount of cooling medium can be intermittently supplied or steam can be supplied as in, for example, an operation in the second embodiment mentioned below. In such a case in which steam is supplied, a small amount of cooling medium can be intermittently supplied in addition to steam. When steam or a small amount of cooling medium is supplied as mentioned above, the supply can be appropriately controlled in such a manner that the total amount in the medium flow path 4 gasifies and almost all of the medium in the medium flow path 4 does not remain at the end of the second cooling step. For instance, heat quantity released from an inner wall face of the medium flow path 4 is calculated based on capacity of the medium flow path 4, mold temperatures before and after filling of molten material such as resin; it can be experimentally or empirically determined based on the heat quantity, gasification heat quantity of the medium, the target cooling temperature, or the like. Since gasification occurs in a mold opening or a demolding step, a relatively small amount of remaining medium can be allowed.
After the cooling step, in the mold 2, the mold opening and the demolding of the molded article are appropriately executed, and the heating step and the cooling step are repeatedly executed. The heating step in which the mold 2 is heated and the cooling step in which the mold 2 is cooled and executed as mentioned above, improve the transfer property (transfer rate) of the cavity face to the molded article and shorten the molding cycle. The mold-cooling system 1 (the mold heating-cooling system) in the embodiment and the mold-cooling method (the mold heating-cooling method), which is executed by the mold-cooling system 1 constituted as mentioned above, enhance the cooling efficiency while suppressing the discharge of gasified cooling medium.
In other words, the discharge side path 15 connected to the outlet 5 side of the medium flow path 4 of the mold 2 is communicated with the heat exchanger 20 condensing gasified cooling medium discharged from the medium flow path 4. Accordingly, gasified cooling medium is condensed in the heat exchanger 20 and discharge of gasified cooling medium is suppressed. By condensing in the heat exchanger 20, pressure raised by gasification of cooling medium drops. Consequently, cooling medium is easily fed into the medium flow path 4, cooling time is shortened, and cooling efficiency is enhanced (39).
1.9 Microcellular Foam Processing System
A microcellular foam processing system for a reciprocating screw injection molding machine has been successfully developed (40). The necessary conditions for creating and maintaining a single-phase solution in the overall system of the plasticizing unit are a supercritical fluid delivery unit and a hydraulic unit.
An
