The high production demands of the plastics processing industry require high performance tooling materials. Materion's MoldMAX® alloys meet these demands with a combination of strength, thermal conductivity and good polishability, enabling a shorter cycle time and improved plastic molding part quality.
Whether your application calls for MoldMAX HH®, MoldMAX LH®, MoldMAX V®, MoldMAX XL® or PROtherm® alloys, this product line provides a combination of attributes not found in other plastic tooling materials.
MoldMAX alloys are tailored for all types of plastic injection and blow molding applications. With excellent machinability and high impact strength, they enable easy fabrication of molds that stand up to the abrasive wear associated with the plastic injection molding process, and they resist galling. They offer the strength and wear resistance of tool steels, but with thermal conductivity that is up to ten times greater.
When used in steel molds, MoldMAX alloys cool hot spots, reducing or eliminating the need for cooling channels. By minimizing the temperature differences of mold parts, MoldMAX alloys provide tighter molded tolerances and less post-mold shrinking or warping.
MoldMAX alloys improve parting line maintenance in the blow molding process and offer longer service life when used for components and inserts in aluminum blow molds.
Find out more about the design and processing information of these plastic tooling alloys in our MoldMAX® alloys technical papers.
THE MOLDMAX ALLOY PRODUCT LINE
We offer a variety of MoldMAX alloys that meet different production demands for plastic processing:
> MoldMAX HH Alloy is a premium copper-beryllium alloy with hardness and strength comparable to standard tool steels, but its thermal conductivity is four to six times higher. Download our MoldMAX HH alloy data sheet.
> MoldMAX LH Alloy is another premium copper-beryllium alloy. It provides hardness and strength comparable to standard AISI P-20 tool steel, but with a thermal conductivity that is five times higher. Download our MoldMAX LH alloy data sheet.
> MoldMAX V Alloy is a high conductivity, moderately high strength, copper-nickel-silicon-chromium alloy that is commonly used for injection mold cores and cavities. Download our MoldMAX V alloy data sheet.
> MoldMAX XL Alloy is a high strength copper-nickel-tin mold alloy with good thermal conductivity. Its hardness is comparable with AISI P-20 tool steel with thermal conductivity that is two to three times higher. Download our MoldMAX XL alloy data sheet.
> PROthermTM Alloy is a high conductivity copper-beryllium alloy with good strength. It has the highest conductivity of any alloy with tensile strength in excess of 100,000 psi. Download our PROtherm alloy data sheet.
> WeldPak and WeldPak XL copper-beryllium is used as filler metal for TIG (GTAW) weld repair of copper-beryllium MoldMAX alloys.
COMPARE MOLDMAX ALLOYS WITH OTHER MATERIALS
| Tooling Materials | Rockwell Hardness | Thermal Conductivity (BTU/ft hr °F) | Charpy Impact Strength | Yield Strength (ksi) | Tensile Strength (ksi) | Expansion Coefficient (10-6/in/in/°F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 420 Stainless | 50 | 10 | 5-10 | 200 | 250 | 6.1 |
| H-13 Tool Steel | 45-50 | 15 | 8-14 | 200 | 250 | 7.1 |
| MM HH® | 40 | 75 | 4 | 145 | 170 | 9.7 |
| MM XL® | 30 | 40 | 15 | 105 | 115 | 9.3 |
| MM LH® | 30 | 90 | 12 | 110 | 140 | 9.7 |
| MM V® | 28 | 92 | 8 | 105 | 125 | 9.7 |
| P-20 Tool Steel | 30 | 17 | 25 | 120 | 140 | 7.1 |
| PROtherm | 20 | 145 | 40 | 90 | 105 | 9.8 |
| Alumold®* | B88 | 95 | 30 | 75 | 80 | 12.9 |
| QC-10®** | 92.2 | 66-76 | 13.7 |
Materion alloys are in bold.
*registered trademark of Constellium
**registered trademark of Arconic Inc.
To learn more, contact an authorized MoldMAX distributor.
Benefits
- High strength & thermal conductivity
- Faster cycle time & improved part quality.
- Excellent machinability
- Corrosion resistance
Applications
- Core & cavity inserts
- Parting line inserts
- Sliders & lifters
- Hot run tips
- Parting line inserts
