The Mold Temp for a given part’s material is the temperature at which the mold tool must be maintained in order to achieve optimal surface finish replication. This temperature helps determine the part’s cooling rate and some of the final part's mechanical properties (such as elastic modulus).

Mold Temp must be less than Eject Deflection Temp. Increasing Mold Temp increases part cooling time. High strength, high temperature materials typically require higher mold temperatures. (For information on which materials are high strength/high temperature, see https://www.iapd.org/Documents/Members%20Only/iapd_rectangle.pdf. Note that URLs may change.) This requirement is typically driven by the polymer rather than any glass filling that may be present.

Mold Temp is typically provided under the Processing Properties category in the material specification, and is usually readily available.

See also Estimating Mold Temp.

If you want to add a new material to your Digital Factory, and you cannot obtain Mold Temp from a material’s specification, you may be able to estimate the value based on Mold Temp for a similar base polymer (but see Note in Mold Temp). Note the following:

(For information on which materials are commodity, engineering, or high-performance polymers, see https://www.iapd.org/Documents/Members%20Only/iapd_rectangle.pdf. Note that URLs may change.)