The cleanMOULD project aims at developing a new coating solution for plastic moulding tools, addressing fretting wear, abrasive wear and corrosion, as well as cavity wear and demoulding issues. cleanMOULD combines the best properties from current state-of-the-art coatings to provide the single best solution. cleanMOULD therefore improves the lifetime of moulding tools significantly, while reducing the downtime of the production, the number of scrapped tools and the need for maintenance. These properties will result in an increased productivity of the plastics moulding industry and increase the competitiveness. The plastics moulding industry employs approximately 1.5 million people in the EU, and plastics are today an important component in many products such as cars, appliances and electronics. The European plastics industry is under pressure from increasing competition, especially in SE Asia and China where labor costs are still relatively low, but where the quality of products is increasing. cleanMOULD is a key technological step in increasing the competitiveness of the European industry, which will result in the creation of new jobs in Europe. It is estimated that cleanMOULD could reduce the total production costs of the industry by up to 8%.
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.
