Plastic molding process with preconditioning and heat-treating of mold and plastic before rheological transformation

A molding process for producing a molded plastic product, said process comprising the following steps:

• (a) subjecting at least one mold to a mold preconditioning stage, said mold preconditioning stage comprises heating said mold to a temperature which is conducive for having a deformable plastic material molded therein,
• (b) introducing a deformable plastic material into or over a cavity defined within said preconditioned mold,
• (c) molding said deformable plastic material in accordance with a specific plastic molding technique,
• (d) heat-treating said deformed plastic material by subjecting said material to a treating temperature (T.sub.O) which is at least equal to about 1.0 times the value of said material's glass transition temperature (T.sub.g), when T.sub.g is expressed in degrees Kelvin,
• (e) subjecting said mold and said heat-treated material to a rheological transformation process preconditioning stage, said rheological transformation process preconditioning stage comprises adjusting the temperature of said mold to a temperature which is conducive for having said heat-treated material subjected to a rheological transformation process,
• (f) subjecting said heat-treated material contained within said preconditioned mold to a rheological transformation process, and
• (g) removing said molded product from said mold.