Refrigerant cooled plastic molding, method and apparatus
AssigneesDart Industries Inc., Energy Systems Industries, Inc.
InventorsRobert C. Ritchie, Henry J. McKone, Richard H. Stamm
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and Apparatus for cooling a mold having plural parallel cooling passages therethrough, the mold having flow control means at the inlet and sight glasses at the outlets and being arranged for overfeed so that liquid is always present in all cooling passages to avoid hot spots in the mold.
Claims26
A method for molding hardenable material in a mold a molding machine subject to repeated and rapid variations in mold cooling requirements, the mold being of the type having one or more cooling fluid passageways formed therethrough, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a supply flow of liquid phase refrigerant to the site of the molding machine;
- distributing the supply flow into feed flows through the cooling fluid passageways;
- independently adjusting each of the feed flows to obtain a mixed phase flow consisting of a boiling liquid phase and vapor phase refrigerant mixture throughout each of the cooling fluid passageways;
- and
- monitoring each feed flow exiting each passageway such that a majority of such flow by weight is in a liquid phase.
A method for cooling the mold of a molding machine having repeated and rapid variation in mold cooling requirements, the mold being of a type having a plurality of cooling fluid passageways formed therethrough, comprising the steps of:
- providing a supply flow of liquid phase refrigerant at the site of the molding machine;
- distributing the refrigerant supply flow into a plurality of feed flows equal in number to the number of cooling fluid passageways;
- passing each of the individual feed flows through one of the cooling fluid passageways;
- providing metering means disposed in fluid communication with each feed flow for individual adjustment of refrigerant flow of each feed flow;
- adjusting the metering means to obtain a mixed phase flow consisting of a boiling liquid phase and vapor phase refrigerant mixture throughout each of the cooling fluid passageways;
- and
- monitoring each feed flow exiting its associated passageway such that a majority of such flow by weight is in a liquid phase.
In a method of refrigerant cooling of the mold of a molding machine having repeated and rapid variations in mold cooling requirements, the improvement comprising providing liquid overfeed of refrigerant to the mold through a plurality of mold cooling fluid passageways formed through the mold material, utilizing the mold as an evaporator such that a mixed phase flow occurs consisting of a liquid phase and a vapor phase with a majority of the refrigerant by weight remaining in a liquid state throughout each of the cooling fluid passageways and independently adjusting the flow of the refrigerant on each passageway and gauging the flow exiting each passageway to obtain the mixed phase flow.
A molding machine for molding hardenable materials, having a mold subject to repeated and rapid variations in cooling requirements, the mold having one or more cooling fluid passageways formed therethrough said apparatus comprising:
- means for providing a supply flow of liquid phase refrigerant at the site of the plastic molding machine;
- means for dividing the refrigerant supply flow into a number of individual feed flows corresponding in number to the number of cooling fluid passageways;
- means for separately conducting each of the feed flows through one of the cooling fluid passageways;
- means for independent adjustment of each of the feed flows to obtain a mixed phase flow consisting of a liquid phase and vapor phase refrigerant mixture throughout each of the cooling fluid passageway;
- and
- means for monitoring each feed flow exiting its associated passageway such that a majority of the flow by weight in in a liquid phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.