Self-Venting Mold Steel for Defect Prevention

Quality assurance always begins with the end product in mind, so planning for quality in the design of a mold should always be the first step. One consideration is eliminating trapped gas in a mold using Vortex self-venting mold steel offered by Molder’s World. According to the company, complex parts, especially for medical, aerospace and automotive industries, typically have intricate details that are “difficult to fill,” largely resulting from said trapped gas getting in the way inside the mold cavity.

Vortex self-venting mold steel is a high-tonnage pressed and sintered, porous metal that is heat-treated to 43 HRC with porosity of 25% air by volume. A system of interconnected pores with an average diameter of 7 (0.0003″) microns is dispersed throughout the Vortex material to eliminate trapped gas.

Using Vortex in appropriate areas is said to eliminate gas buildup, reduce injection pressure, lower cycle times, gloss levels and substantially reduces scrap and reject rates.

“With deep ribs, or small details, it is imperative that the gases produced during processing have somewhere to go, in order to allow the molten plastic to completely fill out the cavity,” Valent Meluch from Colonial Patterns Inc., says. “If there is not a parting line or ejector pin at a location that requires venting, sometimes it is necessary to use porous vent stock in the mold. Proper venting is the only way to assure that good parts can be produced, and processing can be optimized. For venting, we only use Vortex.”