Cold Runner

In a cold runner mold, the runner is cooled and ejected with the part. Every cycle, a part and a runner are produced. The obvious disadvantage of this system is the waste plastic generated. The runners are either disposed of, or reground and reprocessed with the original material. This adds a step in the manufacturing process. Also, regrind will increase variation in the injection molding process, and could decrease the plastic's mechanical properties.

Despite these disadvantages, there are many significant advantages to using a cold runner mold. The mold design is very simple, and much cheaper than a hot runner system. The mold requires less maintenance and less skill to set up and operate. Color changes are also very easy, since all of the plastic in the mold is ejected with each cycle.

In a hot runner mold, the runner is situated internally in the mold and kept a temperature above the melting point of the plastic. Runner scrap is reduced or eliminated. The major disadvantages of a hot runner is that it is much more expensive than a cold runner, it requires costly maintenance, and requires more skill to operate. Color changes with hot runner molds can be difficult, since it is virtually impossible to remove all of the plastic from an internal runner system.

Hot runners have many advantages. They can completely eliminate runner scrap, so there are no runners to sort from the parts, and no runners to throw away or regrind and remix into the original material. Hot runners are popular in high production parts, especially with a lot of cavities.

There are two major types of cold runner molds: two plate and three plate.

Hot runner molds are two plate molds with a heated runner system inside one half of the mold. A hot runner system is divided into two parts: the manifold and the drops. The manifold has channels that convey the plastic on a single plane, parallel to the parting line, to a point above the cavity. The drops, situated perpendicular to the manifold, convey the plastic from the manifold to the part.

There are many variations of hot runner systems. Generally, hot runner systems are designated by how the plastic is heated. There are internally and externally heated drops and manifolds.

Externally heated hot runner channels have the lowest pressure drop of any runner system (because there is no heater obstructing flow and all the plastic is molten), and they are better for color changes none of the plastic in the runner system freezes. There are no places for material to hang up and degrade, so externally heated systems are good for thermally sensitive materials.

Internally heated runner systems require higher molding pressures, and color changes are very difficult. There are many places for material to hang up and degrade, so thermally sensitive materials should not be used. Internally heated drops offer better gate tip control. Internally heated systems also better separate runner heat from the mold because an insulating frozen layer is formed against the steel wall on the inside of the flow channels.