Carnauba Wax: Creating a sprayable epoxy mold release agent

Epoxy mold com­pound users know that car­nau­ba wax is an excel­lent mold release prod­uct as well as use­ful from many oth­er appli­ca­tions. His­tor­i­cal­ly, man­u­fac­tur­ers have used car­nau­ba wax exten­sive­ly in semi­con­duc­tor appli­ca­tions in sol­id form to get mold­ing equip­ment back into ser­vice after it has been tak­en out, or rub along the plunger when epoxy mold com­pound (EMC) sticks and caus­es it to seize.

Carnauba wax as an epoxy mold release agent

There is no won­der why car­nau­ba wax works so well as an epoxy mold release or ther­moset plas­tic mold release agent. It is because the car­nau­ba wax itself is most often the ingre­di­ent itself used in the man­u­fac­ture of these products.

Of course, in the man­u­fac­ture of epox­ies or oth­er ther­moset plas­tics, for­mu­la­tors use a sol­id ver­sion of the car­nau­ba wax. In sol­id form, car­nau­ba wax begins as a large sol­id mass that needs to be fur­ther processed in order to be used in an epoxy formulation.

Large, sol­id pieces are processed into chips or flakes or even into ground pow­der. This is the form that is use­ful to intro­duce a cer­tain per­cent­age of car­nau­ba wax into epoxy mold com­pounds.

How to turn solid carnauba wax into a sprayable liquid

Even in flake form, how­ev­er, this is not use­ful for mold release spray man­u­fac­tur­ers. In order to spray what would oth­er­wise be a sol­id, mold release spray man­u­fac­tur­ers need to turn a sol­id car­nau­ba wax into a liquid.

This is done by using two spe­cif­ic ingre­di­ents: a sol­vent and a pro­pel­lant. The sol­vent is the mate­r­i­al that dis­solves the sol­id into a liq­uid. Much the same as water is a sol­vent that can dis­solve a sol­id such as salt, the car­nau­ba wax sol­vent turns this sol­id into a liq­uid. The pro­pel­lant is the mate­r­i­al that then forces the liq­uid out of the can once pres­sure is applied.

CAPLINQ sup­plies a num­ber of epoxy mold release sprays that puts the won­ders of car­nau­ba wax into the sim­plic­i­ty of a spray.

For some rea­son though, not every­one knows that car­nau­ba wax is also avail­able in a spray ver­sion. This prod­uct does what every man­u­fac­tur­er was ask­ing for, to put the won­ders of car­nau­ba wax into a can so it could be sprayed. Chem­linq MRE-C909 a REACH and RoHS-com­pli­ant, sol­vent-based aerosol spray that puts the won­ders of car­nau­ba wax into the sim­plic­i­ty of a spray.

CAPLINQ is a spe­cial­ty chem­i­cals, plas­tics, and prod­ucts com­pa­ny that offers a vari­ety of car­nau­ba wax, sil­i­cone, non-sil­i­cone, and PTFE-based epoxy mold release agents includ­ing Chem­linq MRE-C909, MJ Gor­don Per­masil #909C, and Lin­qSil S‑100 mold release spray. Please con­tact us if you have any oth­er ques­tions about car­nau­ba wax or oth­er sprayable epoxy mold release agents.