Blow Molding & Hollow Plastic Products worked example

Cooling Time at 5.76% cooling and handling allowance: a worked example in blow molding & hollow plastic products

Suppose cooling and handling allowance falls to 5.76%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate required cooling-related machine hours for blow molded bottles or hollow parts using mold cycles, cooling-limited cycle rate, and allowance.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Mold cycles requiring cooling: 2,200 units (held at the documented default)
  • Cooling-limited cycle rate: 260 units / hr (held at the documented default)
  • Cooling and handling allowance: 5.76 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 8)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base cooling cycle time = mold cycles requiring cooling รท cooling-limited cycle rate.
  • Required cooling-limited run time works out to 8.95 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base cooling cycle time works out to 8.46 hr at these inputs.
  • Cooling and handling allowance works out to 5.76 % at these inputs.
  • Cooling-limited cycle rate works out to 260 cycles / hr at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where cooling and handling allowance sits at 8% and the headline result is 9.14 hr, this scenario comes in 2.07% below the baseline at 8.95 hr.
  • It divides the required cooling-limited cycles by the cooling-limited cycle rate to get base run time, then multiplies by one plus the cooling and handling allowance to get the realistic required run time. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Required cooling-limited run time: 8.95 hr (headline result)
  • Base cooling cycle time: 8.46 hr
  • Cooling and handling allowance: 5.76 %
  • Cooling-limited cycle rate: 260 cycles / hr

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Cooling Time calculator, set cooling and handling allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.