MANUFACTURING OF PLASTIC LENS MOLD CONFORMAL COOLING CHANNEL USING DIRECT METAL LASER SINTERING AND SPRAY-FORMED TOOLING PROCESS

摘要

The development of plastic lens is advancing not only in the direction of micro size lenses but also for larger dimensions. Because of an excessive thickness of product, the cooling time for large lenses is much needed and dimensional accuracy of difficult to achieve. In this study, we produce molds for plastic lens using 3 kinds of methods, (a)using traditional method, (b)the process of Direct Metal Laser Suntering(DMLS), and ?the Spray Formed Tooling(SFT), where conformal cooling channels are designed inside the molds of "DMLS" and "SFT". The cooling efficiency of manufactured molds is then compared through injection molding experiments. We also analyzed the application potential of manufacturing mold in the industry field.