NEW PAIL MOLD CAPACITY, PLUS OPTIONS FOR TURNKEY IML AND SUSTAINABILITY

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StackTeck Systems Ltd., a global manufacturer of multi-cavity, high-volume production molds, has successfully manufactured its first 5-gallon industrial pail mold using newly installed capacity that can handle all components of a pail mold in house. In addition, our new automation team has also produced our first IML robot for a pail, which was configured for both a single cavity 5-gallon pail, as well as a 1×2 mold for 5L pails.

According to Jeff Ngai, Engineering Director: “Leveraging StackTeck’s technology for sustainable solutions has allowed us to incorporate our TRIM technology when molding pails, reducing the weight of an industry standard 5-gallon pail by 120 grams. TRIM involves molding ultra-thin panels with flow leaders that assist with part filling and maintain part strength. This approach allows StackTeck to offer part weight savings that support a sustainable approach for injection molded pails in the market. The TRIMTM panels on this pail have been reduced to 0.059 inches.”

StackTeck began this pail mold development by benchmarking several different 5-gallon pail molds with thick rim features that presented a cooling challenge.  Most of these reference parts typically run in the range of 17-18 seconds.  For the standard pail design (see Fig. 1 above), two sets of collets were made using alternate materials  H13 and KoolTrackTM steel alloy.  With the H13 collets, a cycle time of 16.0 seconds was achieved.  Using the KoolTrackTM collets there was a 1.8 second cycle time improvement and a final cycle time of 14.2 seconds for the standard pail – refer to chart below.  In both cases, the ejection part temperature was measured by means of a thermal camera.

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The KoolTrackTM name encompasses a range of specialized cooling technologies that can be used to increase the productivity of StackTeck molds, by means of:

  • Optimized cooling channels following 3D part geometry based on heat transfer simulation
  • Proprietary bonding process in stack manufacturing enables maximum conformal cooling
  • Steel alloys that have high rates of thermal transfer
  • Use of copper alloy inserts at key positions where feasible

According to StackTeck’s President and CEO, Vince Travaglini, “We’re very excited to be able to offer our customers a one stop solution for their pail needs. We are committed to increasing our offerings that support sustainability and at the same time, we want to give our customers peace of mind, knowing that we are ready to deliver a fully integrated system as a complete IML molding solution. StackTeck is the only turnkey provider of IML Molds and automation based in the Americas.”

https://stackteck.com