FarragTech GmbH of Wolfurt, Austria, offers a Mould Area Protection system for faster hardening of coextrusion processes to manufacture automotive fuel tanks.
To make the tanks, a perform of molten plastic, including HDPE and EVOH barrier layer, is transferred into a blow mold and adjusted to mold contours using interior pressure. To cure the tank, the traditional method is cooling the mold using cold water.
But FarragTech officials said that cooling process step is costly and time-consuming, because low water temperatures lead to condensation on the mold surface, which can result in quality issues and increased scrap. The EVOH layer also can get damaged, they FarragTech said.
The MAP system supplies cold dry air, so the mold does not sweat. Heat gets removed from inside and outside the mold, preventing material stress.
“Cooling of the plastic product represents both one of the most critical and most lengthy sub-processes in the extrusion blow molding process,” CEO Aaron Farrag said. “Especially during production of multi-layer products such as modern fuel tanks, a lot of time can be saved and the EVOH layer protected against damages due to heat exposure.”
FarragTech also recommends using its Internal Air Cooling System (IACS), with an Integrated Blow Air Chiller (BAC), to cool the interior by using compressed air in addition to cost water for making multi-layer fuel tanks.
