In the plastic industry, the ice bank machine has a special place. This device plays an important role in achieving the best quality of product production. Therefore, in this article, we will introduce Ice Bank and its impact on plastic industries.
Injection molding in the plastic industry
The injection molding stage in the plastic industry is called the process of injecting liquid and melted plastic into the mold to create a solid piece. This process determines the shape of the molded part after cooling and solidification. The main steps of the injection molding process are:
Injection
Cooler
Discharge
- Injection
During the injection process, plastic granules are introduced through a hopper connected to the injection molding machine. The thermoplastic resins are then directed into a heating barrel, where frictional heating and ban heaters aid the melting process. Finally, through a nozzle, the obtained molten plastic is injected into the mold.
- Cooling
Immediately after injection, the molten plastic must be cooled at a certain and uniform rate so that the newly produced and formed part inside the mold hardens. So a coolant is needed to rotate in the mold, lower the temperature at a certain speed and ensure the rapid hardening of the plastic.
Alternatively, operators can use an ice bank device in injection molding to provide greater cooling efficiency. Other factors that play a role in the duration of cooling are the type of resin used and the thickness of the workpiece being created.
The cooling time in a cooling system like Ice Bank, in the form of normal injection, covers a large part of the cycle time (up to 60%). That is, when the molded part is not solidified enough to be removed, the cooling work does not end and the residue remains until the last moment of the process completion. This temperature can be between 200 and 300°C and after cooling down to about 60°C.
- Discharge
The final stage of the molding process in the plastic industry is the discharge of the produced part after the work is completed by the ice bank machine. At this stage, the ejector pins are collected and the molded part is removed from the mold. In general, the ice bank device plays an important role in the plastic industry.
What is an Ice Bank device?
It can be said that the ice banks system is a technology based on storing cooling capacity at night and using it the next day for cooling. At night, when electricity is produced at a lower cost and energy consumption is lower, chillers cool the fluid and typically store it as cold water or ice. During the day when electricity is more expensive and energy consumption is higher, the chiller is turned off and the stored capacity is used at night to meet the cooling load needs.
Lower temperatures at night allow cooling equipment to operate more efficiently than during the day, reducing energy consumption. In the ice bank device, a small capacity is needed for the chiller, which means less cost in the initial capital equipment. Using off-peak electricity to store cooling energy reduces daytime electricity consumption and eliminates the need for generators and other expensive additional power supply devices.
How does the Ice Bank device work?
An ice bank device has a set of pillow-shaped plates that are attached to the tank of the device. At night, when energy consumption is low, the ice bank plates freeze the water inside the tank. During the day when electricity is more expensive, the cooling is turned off.
When the ice bank device is activated, the ice will turn into ice water. This ice water can be used for indirect cooling of products such as plastic industry products.
Advantages of Ice Bank device
An excellent solution for thermal energy storage
It reduces electricity consumption during the day and peak hours.
Improved control characteristics due to low refrigerant volume.
It has a compact and compact design that can be used for various applications such as plastic industries.
Lower initial capital equipment cost is required due to lower chiller capacity.
Available capacity is constant compared to pipe systems whose capacity decreases over time.
Large heat transfer area compared to the required substrate
Saving energy costs
Easy maintenance and convenient operation
Ice bank machine and plastic industries
The ice bank device has an important function in the plastic industry, and it is in one of the phases of plastic product production, cooling or cooling this category of industrial products. In the plastic industry, after the plastic material is heated and completely melted, it is injected into different molds in the next step. After that, the molds should be homogeneously and uniformly cooled or actually cooled.
In the plastic industry, one of the important factors of the quality of the plastic product is the cooling method of the product after molding. Using the ice bank device due to its stable, high power and also the same coldness that it can give to all the products of the plastic industry will lead to an increase in the quality of different products of the plastic industry.
The structure of the Ice Bank device
The ice bank machine has different capacities, starting from about 200 liters and reaching 2000 liters and even higher. This device has various components, including:
tank
Refrigerating system of the device (which has various components such as compressor, water condenser, etc.)
Cooling plate
The performance of the refrigeration system in the ice bank device
The cooling gas (refrigerant) is compressed in the form of vapor and then cooled through the condenser in the refrigeration system of the Ice Bank machine to turn into a liquid state. It is then injected into a circuit in an evaporation tank through a “thermostat expansion” valve. The hot water resulting from the process is circulating in another circuit of the evaporator (evaporating device) and the heat of the water is transferred from one circuit to another circuit to evaporate the liquid refrigerant.
The thermostatic expansion valve controls the refrigerant flow into the evaporator according to the prevailing process heat load. Now in the form of vapor, the refrigerant gas returns to the compressor and the cycle continues. In this way, the water temperature is much lower than the ambient air temperature, usually between five and 15 degrees Celsius.
How Ice Bank works in plastic industries
Inside the mold, the molten plastic is cooled with cold water by the ice bank machine. In this process, cooling water is fed through many small channels inside the mold. As the cooling water passes through the mold through the cooling plate, it removes heat from the plastic and hardens it.
Cooling time in plastic industries
Time is essential in the injection molding process. Manufacturers are always looking for ways to maximize output and quality of finished products. They usually try to do this by optimizing the efficiency of the production process.
The cooling time in injection molding is an important part of the production process in the plastics industry, that is, the time it takes for the molten plastic to solidify. An adequate cooling system such as an ice bank device to transfer heat and lower the temperature from the mold, maintaining a stable cooling rate and guaranteeing the quality of the final products is always required in the plastic industry.
Use of the Ice Bank device
Ice bank is an ideal solution for supplying cooling water at a temperature of one degree Celsius. Some examples of the general use of this device are:
In milk industry units and milk collection: in the pasteurization process.
In the poultry industry, the need for cold water is not constant, but fluctuates depending on daily needs.
In the plastics industry: to cool molds and products during the manufacturing process.
In confectionery industries and the production of confectionery raw materials, which also produces a large number of different products and requires the use of cold storage with different temperatures in different periods of time with different refrigeration loads.
In food industries such as slaughterhouses, mushroom cultivation halls.
Production of various beverages.
Advanced industrial and production cold storages and warehouses.
Chemical industries from drug production to health and medical equipment production.
Also in air conditioning for large surfaces and large buildings that have specific cooling needs or fluctuate asynchronously, such as: offices, factories, hospitals, hotels, sports halls, etc.
Ventilation and cooling of the working environment of plastic industries
As mentioned, one of the advantages of using an ice bank is the ventilation of large surfaces such as factories, especially in plastic industries. Despite the existence of the best cooling systems, the ambient air in plastic processing factories is always warm and even hot. To help reduce the temperature of the environment and the comfort of employees and workers, you can take the help of an ice bank as an evaporative cooling system.
In this way, the air temperature can be reduced up to 10 degrees Celsius. The cost of installing such systems can be 75% lower than conventionally installed air conditioning systems and 90% lower than professional air conditioning systems. The performance of the cooling process by Ice Bank is as follows; A stream of warm air moves on the moistened surface, the water evaporates by absorbing heat from the air and will reduce the ambient air temperature.
Uniform cooling with a certain period of time in the injection mold and in the plastic industry is a vital factor that significantly affects the overall quality of the product. In general, it can be said that this optimized and calculated cooling can be provided by the Ice Bank device in the best possible way in various plastic industries.
References
Water chillers
Fbc
Ishs
Omega thermo products
Delta temp
