'Koolgas' increases plastic production by 40%

Many people think the most useful use of a cool gas in a product is as a key part of fizzy drinks, but researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group have found that cool gases also prove amazingly useful if injected into plastics.

Ordinary gas assisted injection moulding (GAIM) methods have been used by plastic manufacturers to reduce the weight of plastic products, or to increase the rate at which components can be made by using the gas to displace volumes of unnecessary hot plastic from the plastic component's core.

However, despite using gas to speed the cooling process when producing injected moulded plastics, few people had ever considered what extra benefit could be achieved by actually cooling the gas itself before adding it to the plastic.

Now, Warwick researchers have developed a new process, dubbed 'Kool Gas', that does exactly that. It uses a cryogenic heat exchanger to cool the high pressure nitrogen gas to temperatures as low as -150C before it is injected in to the plastic part.

The results are dramatic - Kool Gas has allowed the plastics parts to cool and form 40% faster than by normal methods. This means plastic manufacturers could produce individual components this way 40% faster than by current methods. No detrimental effect was observed in the moulded product and, in fact hollow components produced by this process provided a more controllable wall thickness ensuring consistent quality.