Cleaning polycarbonate molds.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Shea on March 23, 2009 at 2:46pm

There are several process that deionize water, distillation will do do it, as will reverse osmosis, and others. Basic deionization simply removes the ions and not things like bacteria (which distilliation and RO both address), but for the purpose of washing the molds... all we want is the removal of hard minerals (in the form of ions), which will coat the molds.

Basically, go for the cheapest demineralized, deionized solution you can (RO tends to be less environmentally sound). Most likely this will ammount to purchasing and then refilling bottles at the store. Obviously if you are getting to much higher quantities, you'll need to streamline things a bit.

If I was trying to cut costs, I'd use tap water to wash and then deionized to rinse... remember all you're polishing is either stuff you failed to clean off or hard water deposits.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Donaghy on March 23, 2009 at 3:35pm

Some recommendations for detergents and rinse aids
~non-alkaline
~non-chlorinated
~non-tainiting
~low foaming
~neutral pH (as near 7 as possible not to exceed 9)

Max water temperature at any stage below 140F/60C

Using soft water and soft/demineralized water at final rinse.

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Permalink Reply by Lana on March 23, 2009 at 4:18pm

Awesome - thanks for the clarification!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle-Jo Garfield on March 24, 2009 at 3:12pm

Thanks everyone. I have some very interesting ideas to work with.

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