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Foam latex collapsing before baking
in Lab work
I have been running Foam Latex quite successfully for many years. It is only been in the past few years that I have had a particular mold of mine, giving me quite the amount of headache. I have a fat Makeup that I have been trying to streamline the running process on. The only way I have been able to get the piece to come out is to do a double bake on it. I would first run a small batch of Foam Latex and build up a volume amount on the positive, Concentrating on where most of the volume would be in the piece. I would then bake that out for about an hour. After that, I would then run the rest of the mold as normal as an open mold. Because of the extra step involved, it has been quite the undertaking and very frustrating. I have tried many times even in the recent months to revisit running it again and doing it as a completely closed mold with injection. So far, every run and every combination that I have done results in it collapsing from the positive. At this point, I am convinced that it is collapsing before it ever goes into the oven. I have tried increasing my gelling, doing lower temperature and longer baking periods, adding high rise and flow enhancer. I have even tried positioning the mold in different areas of my over and going so far as to having it sit face down and standing it up as well. Are there any formulas or mix ratios that I am missing that could prevent this from happening and produce more positive results? The mold is made out of Adtech syntactic dough.Currently, I am using Monster Makers’s Foam Latex. I am running Foam Latex Molds in my climate controlled shop in Georgia if that helps.
I have many other molds in my shop that I run on a regular basis with a little to no problems which is why this particular mold has been quite the challenge and thorn in my side. I would love to hear any suggestions anybody may have on being able to successfully run this as a closed mold injection.
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