Periodic Reporting for period 2 - cleanMOULD (CleanMOULD: Advanced low friction and fretting-resistant diamond-like coating solution)
Reporting period: 2018-10-01 to 2019-09-30
cleanMOULD will reduce the environmental impact of the industry by increasing the lifetime of moulding tools. The lifetime increase of cleanMOULD would result in raw-steel savings of approximately 200 kg per mould, which is equivalent to approximately 800 kg of CO2, only from the steel manufacturing. In contrast, the coating process results in a CO2 release of <10 kg. Furthermore, cleanMOULD will reduce the use of industrial lubricants in the industry, which are a heavy source of pollution.
The objective is to create a state-of-the-art, high performing coating for overall use in moulding tools, implement this into production, and create comprehensive characterization and performance evaluation of cleanMOULD in real production settings.
▪ Hardness
▪ Toughness
▪ Adhesion
▪ Smoothness
CemeCon has also developed a range of pre-coating procedures, which enable the thorough cleaning of any surface in preparation for coating. We have optimized our entire production pipeline, improving the throughput and optimizing procedures.
Furthermore, within the scope of the project, CemeCon has conducted a wide range of communication and dissemination activities, including fair and workshops in Denmark, Germany, China and Thailand. During these activities, CemeCon has experienced a large overall interest in the cleanMOULD project and has successfully attracted a broad pallet of end users from various industries. Together with a range of end users, CemeCon has tested the cleanMOULD coating under real production condition for moulding e.g. medical plastic parts and plastic parts for electric components.
This will directly impact CemeCon by increasing turnover, and thus over time create jobs directly at CemeCon, by attracting new customers. Furthermore, the increased productivity cleanMOULD provides will increase the competitiveness of the plastics moulding industry, which in turn will allow creation of new jobs, and the preservation of existing jobs in Denmark, Germany and Europe in general.
Additionally, a large positive environmental impact is expected as a consequence of the project. CemeCon will reduce the demand for tool steel and machining, as the lifetime of the moulding tools is increased. Furthermore, a reduction in the need for lubricants in production is expected, and scrap rates of produced parts will go down. Therefore, both energy, raw material consumption and pollutant release will be reduced due to implementation of cleanMOULD, allowing plastics production to become more sustainable