The main wear in injection molds performing plastic production occurs as a result of abrasive (scratch) effect and corrosion.
The purpose of the coating is to delay the scratching and corrosion of the surface. Thus, the need to repeat the polishing process frequently, which leads to long downtimes and high costs during the use of the mold, is decreased. Furthermore, since the PVD coated surface reduces the friction between the plastic raw material and the mold steel, it also prevents the plastic from adhering onto the mold.
Moreover, when mold steel is selected correctly, PVD coatings also delay corrosion on the mold surface, especially in injection processes of plastics containing corrosive additives.
As a result of all these factors mentioned, through the application of PVD coating in plastic molds, decrease of mold wear speed, increase of raw material feed rate and easier removal of plastic part from the mold are enabled, and thus, mold efficiency is increased.
