A MOLD COMPONENT HAVING A RESIDUE CLEANING FEATURE

A method of cleaning a passage associated with a mold component of a mold. When the mold component is in a molding configuration, the passage of fluid is allowed and the passage of melt is prevented. At a certain number of molding cycles where residue has accumulated onto at least a portion of the passage, a cleaning operation is executed by: entering the mold component into a cleaning configuration, whereby a portion of the passage associated with the mold component that accumulates residue becomes part of a molding surface; executing a molding cycle to fill in the portion of the passage with molding material for incorporation and removal of the residue therefrom; and controlling, in the cleaning configuration, a melt front of the melt entering the passage to stop at a predefined point. The predefined point for the melt front is executed as a thermal implementation, by controlling the temperature or rate of a cooling fluid around the predefined point for the melt front stop to effectively freeze off the melt.