Acrolabs's Isoplatens provide high levels of thermal stability to press
platen applications and can be designed for electric, oil or steam
heating (the standard Isoplaten is electrically heated). Integral water
cooling lines for fast process temperature changes are available on all
models. The standard Isoplaten has an operating range of ambient to
250℃.
These units utilize an engineered bi-level array of Isobar® Heat
Pipe super-thermal conductors to redistribute and uniformly apply heat
provided to the platen either by oil or steam channels or through
series of standard electric cartridge heaters.
Isobar® Heat Pipes in the lower level of this array linearize the
typical non-linear output of the electric heaters. The upper array
provides a further uniforming of the energy residing in the platen. The
combination of the two levels of the Isobar® Heat Pipe array ensures
that the random point-to-point temperature of the Isoplaten is +-3℃
over 90 percent of the platen surface.
These results allow a substantial improvement in cycle times, start-up times, thermal recovery rates and improved part quality.
The Isoplaten's unique thermal uniformity permits the use of one
single-zone temperature controller for the entire platen - no special
multi-zone controls and multiple thermocouples are required.
Isobar® Heat Pipes accept energy inputs from any location along
their length and redistribute these inputs uniformly at high speed,
they therefore provide a unique advantage to the Isoplaten over
traditional press platens. If one heating element fails in a
traditional platen, a cold area immediately becomes apparent on the
platen surface adjacent to that heater. When a heater fails in an
Isoplaten, the distributive properties of the Isobar® Heat Pipe array
super-conduct energy to the cold region caused by the failed heater,
quickly compensating for the loss of energy in that region. The result
is a slight reduction in the amount of heat being generated in the
Isoplaten but no significant change in the thermal uniformity of the
Isoplaten face.
Existing platens may sometimes be retrofitted as Isoplatens when enough free space is available.
Acrolabs's Isobar® and Isoplaten technology provides the molder with the
first major breakthrough in processing high-quality molded parts at a
lower cost. This is achieved through faster cycle times, applying more
uniform cure rates at optimum processing temperatures, reducing
maintenance and lowering energy requirements. Returns on initial
investment vary from application to application; however as a general
rule, Isobars and Isoplatens are reported to return the investment in
less than six months.
Isobar is a registered trade mark of Acrolab Ltd.
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