For some applications (usually circuit boards), quenching of a component that is heated, needs to be done in a cooled tool, i.e. indirect cooling.
This means the components do not come in direct contact with the coolant and they can either be formed and hardened or only held and hardened. The advantage to this is that the dry process allows hardened parts to not have to be washed.
The hardening tool contains near-contour deep-hole bores which – designed for the cycle time, the required forming force or the forming contour – have specially optimized cross-sections on the printing surfaces. This guarantees that optimum heat dissipation is possible.
Heat is rapidly removed and the quenching process begins as soon as the press forces the molded part to the die surface after the pressure-dependent changeover to the press force.
The cooling time can be individually adjusted to the molded part depending on the surface, amount of material, thermal conductivity and hardness to be achieved (martensitic structure) in the component recipe.
