oil heated tool

[Gunner]

I am considering hot oil to heat a mold. Currently I use electric heaters to heat all molds. The mold will cycle between 250F and 450F. I will use seperate lines to cool the mold with water(steam). I am considering a closed loop approach that will cycle a large quanty of oil through several straight lines in the mold. I want to maintaine the loop temp around 550F The ID of the lines is 7/16-1/5". I plan to bypass the mold when it reaches temp and time to cool. A oil heater of some capacity will be used to pull some of the oil out to re heat and then return to the loop. Question:

Has anyone done this before?

Can you help me in determining the no. of lines required. The GPH of the closed loop.
The time it will take to heat the tool. (Iwant to do it in 5 minutes).
What size oil heater will I need?

The tool is aluminum.
wt is 80lb.
Oil: Paratherm HE (make sugestions)

Any help will be appreciated. I want to make a spread sheet that will allow me to plug different mold information into an determine system requirements to achieve a predetermined cycle. Give me a model and I will be on my way

Thanks

 

[CraigTiras]

Gunner,

Send me an e-mail (craigtiras@ifsolutions.com) and I can e-mail you a P&ID drawing. Heatup time is merely mass of the equipment times the specific heat times the delta T divided by the time in hours plus any heat loss.

A rough calculation shows that a 250KW heater is required. We can back out the flowrate so their is a 10-20'F temperature rise through the heater bundle. Then add an expansion tank, instruments, valves, and a control panel.