Transfer mold vs compression mold melamine cleaner

Any­one using epoxy mold­ing com­pounds under­stands how dirty these molds get over time. Epoxy residues, resin bleed and sol­der flux residues all con­tribute to the residues that build up over time and that need to be cleaned off reg­u­lar­ly. Both trans­fer mold melamine clean­ers and com­pres­sion mold melamine clean­ers can be used to clean these molds. This arti­cle explains the sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences of these process­es and should help you decide which one is right for you.

Similarities between transfer and compression melamine cleaners

Before we get into the dif­fer­ences between the two process­es, let’s point out what each melamine clean­er has in com­mon. To start, both are melamine-based clean­ing prod­ucts, which is dif­fer­ent that rub­ber clean­ing sheets. This means that there is very lit­tle dif­fer­ence in price between the two processes.

Sec­ond­ly, the effec­tive­ness of the melamine clean­er will be sim­i­lar. This means that you can expect to remove sim­i­lar types and quan­ti­ties of residues with both types of cleaners.

Difference between transfer and compression mold melamine cleaners

Once we under­stand the sim­i­lar­i­ties between the two prod­ucts, we can start to look at their dif­fer­ences. When it comes right down to it, the dif­fer­ence between the two comes down to how you will use the clean­er. These dif­fer­ences are:
1. Time required to clean
2. Areas of the mold to be cleaned
3. Mold­ing equip­ment to be cleaned

How much time does it take to clean an epoxy mold using melamine cleaner?

Com­pres­sion mold melamine clean­er is sup­plied in pel­lets, or tablets that are approx­i­mate­ly 2 inch­es by 2 inch­es (5 x 5 cm). These pel­lets need to be bro­ken and put into the mold by hand over the areas of the mold that need to get cleaned. Depend­ing on the size of the mold, this process can take 5–10 min­utes. Each of these clean­ing cycles then clos­es the mold over the melamine and stays clamped for 3–10minutes. Since a clean­ing cycle often requires 5–8 shots of melamine, a typ­i­cal clean­ing cycle with com­pres­sion melamine can take more than an hour to complete.

Trans­fer mold melamine used pel­lets that are made to fit the trans­fer mold plungers. Since these pel­lets fit the equip­ment already, it doesn’t take more than a few sec­onds to throw the melamine into the plunger. The cycle time of the mold is still the same as with com­pres­sion-grade melamine, about 3–10 min­utes. This means that for the same num­ber of shots, the clean­ing cycle will take about 30 minutes.

The clean­ing process is basi­cal­ly split between apply­ing the melamine clean­er and pro­cess­ing it. Since the time to apply the com­pres­sion mold melamine is about twice the time of the trans­fer mold, and the pro­cess­ing time is the same, the trans­fer mold melamine clean­ing cycle takes about half as long.

What areas of the mold does the melamine cleaner clean?

Com­pres­sion mold melamine clean­er does not go through the plunger, and instead goes direct­ly over top of the mold. As such, it does not clean the plunger. It does how­ev­er, clean the mold cav­i­ties and the run­ners and as well cleans the vents, and the top and bot­tom sur­faces of the mold itself.

Trans­fer mold melamine clean­er on the oth­er hand goes through the same plunger as the epoxy mold com­pound. There­fore, it cleans the plunger as well as the mold run­ners and the mold cav­i­ties. Since it is not com­pres­sion mold­ed how­ev­er, it does not clean the top and bot­tom sur­faces of the epoxy mold itself.

Melamine cleaner can clean what kind of equipment?

Trans­fer-mold melamine clean­er is suit­able only for trans­fer mold equip­ment. Com­pres­sion-grade melamine mold clean­er is also suit­able for trans­fer-mold equip­ment, but can also be used on com­pres­sion mold equipment.

Con­clu­sions:
Now that we have looked at both trans­fer-grade and com­pres­sion-grade melamine clean­ers, what is the best clean­er for your process? If you only have com­pres­sion mold equip­ment, it doesn’t make any sense to use any­thing oth­er than com­pres­sion-grade melamine clean­er. If you are using trans­fer-mold equip­ment, you might want to exper­i­ment with both types and maybe ulti­mate­ly choose a com­bi­na­tion of both to prop­er­ly clean your molds.

Please vis­it us at www.caplinq.com to learn more about our whole range of epoxy mold clean­ers or to learn more about trans­fer mold melamine or rub­ber clean­ing sheets for epoxy molds. If you have any oth­er ques­tions about melamine clean­ing sheets vs rub­ber clean­ing sheets, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us.