Tool Steel Selection Guidelines for High Volume Injection Moulding Tooling Baseline Fabrication
High-volume injection moulding baseline tooling demands martensitic stainless or pre-hardened steels matched to polymer abrasiveness and cycle volume.
Moldmax 39
Meaning
Copper-beryllium alloys of high strength offer extremely high thermal conductivity combined with high hardness for plastic injection tooling. Engineered for demanding moulding applications, moldmax 39 provides rapid heat removal that reduces cycle times for thermoplastic parts. This material is typically used in mould cores, neck rings, and gate areas where hot spots are most likely to occur.
Thermal Efficiency
Fast cooling is essential to shorten the injection cycle and increase production output. Using moldmax 39 allows heat to be extracted from the molten polymer up to four times faster than with standard tool steels. This rapid cooling reduces thermal stresses in the plastic part, preventing warpage and ensuring consistent dimensions.
The high thermal diffusivity of this alloy makes it especially effective for cooling thick-walled parts or difficult gate geometries that would otherwise require complex and expensive cooling line configurations.
Wear Resistance
Abrasive action from flowing plastics can erode softer copper alloys over long runs. To address this, moldmax 39 is hardened to thirty-nine Rockwell C to provide a high level of wear resistance. This hardness enables the alloy to withstand the high clamp and injection pressures typical of thin-wall packaging applications.
Economic Impact
High energy costs make cycle time reduction a major focus for injection moulders. The incorporation of moldmax 39 into the mould design can lead to productivity savings by reducing cooling time by up to forty percent. These thermal gains quickly offset the higher initial material cost of the copper alloy.