Heat Treatment
Heat treating of Porcerax II should be done in a vacuum furnace. As supplied, Porcerax II has a hardness of 35-40 HRC. It can be heat treated to 50-52 HRC; however, Porcerax II carries a fairly high potential for movement. Strict guidelines are supplied by International Mold Steel and should be followed.

Hardness
Porcerax II is 25% porosity by volume and will give false or misleading readings if tested with either a Rockwell or Brinell hardness tester. As the load of either of these testers is applied, the pores beneath the surface will collapse and render a false reading. It is recommended that a micro Vickers hardness tester (50 or 30g load) be used to test the hardness of Porcerax II.

Texturing
Porcerax II (7 micron grade) can be textured. In order to prevent the possibility of destroying the internal vent structure of the material, certain procedures must be strictly adhered to. It is imperative that the chosen texture source know they are working with Porcerax II. If they don't, the likelihood for permanent, irreparable damage to the piece is virtually assured.

The pores of the material must be thoroughly cleaned and properly sealed prior to texturing. Failure to do so results in the etchants used in the texturing process leaching into the pore structure and rusting the venting closed. This rust is permanent and cannot be removed once it has occurred. The piece will be useless and must be replaced.

Thousands of molds worldwide have been successfully textured. However, it is imperative that the molder and/or moldmaker's texture source be supplied with the information needed from International Mold Steel to properly process the piece. We strongly advise against inserting Porcerax II into an already textured surface. The perfect venting of Porcerax II results in much higher resolution of the grain at the inserted area and a dramatic reduction in gloss. It is recommended that the entire textured surface be Porcerax II. Also, due to the pre-treatment procedure required for texturing Porcerax II, expect longer deliveries and higher costs. Please consult your graining source for more information.

Surface Reproduction
Porcerax II provides perfect venting of all gases from the mold. While this is desirable in most cases, the venting of the Porcerax produces a perfect "marriage" between the resin and the molding surface, thus producing a dull, matte finish. If Porcerax II is used as an insert on the cavity side, the result will be two dissimilar appearances due to differences in gloss and texture definition. This may be acceptable if the parts are painted after molding.

Water Lines
Occasionally the need will arise, due to size or application considerations, to water-cool Porcerax II. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. In designs that involve a straight-through water line pattern, a simple, effective way to seal the line and prevent leakage is electroless-nickel plate the water lines. In complex circuit-type patterns, it is advisable to use an acceptable sealant such as Dichtol. Electroless nickel has a tendency to pull away from sharp corners such as those at intersections of crossing water lines. However minutely this pulling away from corners may be, it will eventually cause some leakage into the material and reduce permeability through oxidation. Improper use of the Dichtol sealant will produce the same results. Regardless of which sealing process is used, be absolutely certain the material has been thoroughly cleaned of any residual machining fluids or other contaminants.