THE EFFECTS OF CONFORMAL COOLING CHANNEL DESIGN IN INJECTION MOLDING

摘要

In the injection molding industry, most advanced technologies developed during the last few decades focused on issues such as minimizing manufacturing cost and improving product quality. Conformal cooling is one of those technologies which can reduce cooling time and improve product quality as well. Cooling system design is one of the most critical factors to reduce cooling time. However, by using traditional molding manufacturing method, cooling system layout is restricted. For cavities with irregular geometry, the distance between cooling channels and cavity may vary throughout the part. This causes local heat accumulation and some product defects such as sink mark and warpage. By using some non-conventional methods such as laser sintering, cooling channels can get closer to the cavity surface than using traditional method. The current study uses a true three dimensional simulator to predict cooling time and compare the results from a conventional and a conformal cooling design. The results also show flow behavior inside cooling channels which provide important indices for revising cooling channel design. With a shorter cycle time and an improved product quality, conformal cooling has a great potential in injection molding industry.