Feasibility Study of Soft Tooling Inserts for Injection Molding with Integrated Automated Slides

Vieten, Tobias; Stahl, Dennis; Schilling, Peter L.; Civelek, Faruk; Zimmermann, André

doi:10.3390/mi12070730

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…According to the results described above, the remarkable findings of this study have great practical value and show excellent potential for application in the precision investment casting industry [ 20 , 21 ]. The main contribution of this study is the proposal of a low-cost and highly efficient method to prevent coolant leakage during wax injection molding and 3D-printed conformally cooled injection molds.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment

Kuo

Qiu

2021

Materials

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Direct metal printing is a promising technique for manufacturing injection molds with complex conformal cooling channels from maraging steel powder, which is widely applied in automotive or aerospace industries. However, two major disadvantages of direct metal printing are the narrow process window and length of time consumed. The fabrication of high-density injection molds is frequently applied to prevent coolant leakage during the cooling stage. In this study, we propose a simple method of reducing coolant leakage for a direct-metal-printed injection mold with conformal cooling channels by combining injection mold fabrication with general process parameters, as well as solution and aging treatment (SAT). This study comprehensively investigates the microstructural evolution of the injection mold after SAT using field-emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. We found that the surface hardness of the injection mold was enhanced from HV 189 to HV 546 as the Ni-Mo precipitates increased from 12.8 to 18.5%. The size of the pores was reduced significantly due to iron oxide precipitates because the relative density of the injection mold increased from 99.18 to 99.72%. The total production time of the wax injection mold without coolant leakage during the cooling stage was only 62% that of the production time of the wax injection mold fabricated with high-density process parameters. A significant savings of up to 46% of the production cost of the injection mold was obtained.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment

Kuo

Qiu

2021

Materials

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“…In general, the manufacture of turbine blade by the lost-wax casting is very common. The fabricated injection mold can be used for low-volume production of wax patterns in the IC industry [ 25 ]. It could be concluded that the findings of this study are very practical and provide the greatest application potential in the foundry because the mass production of a wax pattern is a key process in the IC industry.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Epoxy-Based Rapid Mold with Profiled Conformal Cooling Channel

Kuo

Zhu

2022

Polymers

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Based on the experience of the foundry industry, reducing the demolding time is the key for mass production of wax patterns with sophisticated geometries. Integration of numerical simulation and rapid tooling technology for decreasing the time to market is essential in advanced manufacturing technology. However, characterization of epoxy-based rapid molds with a profiled conformal cooling channel (PCCC) using computer-aided engineering simulation of the epoxy-based rapid mold with PCCC was not found in the literature. In this study, epoxy-based rapid molds with PCCC were characterized numerically and experimentally. The cooling performance of wax injection molds with two different kinds of cross-sections of the cooling channel was investigated. Four pairs of injection molds with PCCC were implemented using four different kinds of material formulations. It was found that the cooling performance of the PCCC was better than a circular conformal cooling channel (CCCC) since the PCCC maintained a more uniform and steady cooling performance of injection-molded product than CCCC. Epoxy resin added with 41 vol.% Cu powder seems to be a cost-effective empirical material formulation in terms of cooling time and material costs. This empirical material formulation provided an injection mold with low material cost and good cooling performance simultaneously compared to an injection mold fabricated with commercial material. The cooling performance could reach 88% of that of the injection mold fabricated with commercial material. The material cost of making the injection mold was only about 60% of that of the injection mold fabricated with commercial material. The coolant flow rate had no significant effect on the cooling time, whereas the cooling time of the wax pattern was affected by coolant temperature significantly.

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“…To build up a new and optimized strategy for the manufacturing process, integrating between many factors is very essential. The paper [9,10] shows that these factors include material, production, process, and information with computer-aided design techniques. The new trends in the efforts of improving product quality focus on the design process for complex molding.…”

Section: Literature Review and Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the main factors affecting mass production in the plastic molding process by using the finite element method

Magid

Dabis

Siba

2021

EEJET

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Plastic injection molding is widely used in many industrial applications. Plastic products are mostly used as disposable parts or as portable parts for fast replacements in many devices and machines. However, mass production is always adopted as an ideal method to cover the huge demands and customers’ needs. The problems of warpage due to thermal stresses, non-uniform pressure distribution around cavities, shrinkage, sticking and overall products quality are some of the important challenges. The main objective of this work is to analyze the stress distribution around the cavities during the molding and demolding to avoid their effects on the product quality. Moreover, diagnosing the critical pressure points around and overall the cavity projection area, which is subjected to high pressure will help to determine the optimum pressure distribution and ensure filling all cavities at the same time, which is another significant objective. Computer-aided design (CAD) and CATIA V5R20 are adopted for design and modeling procedures. The computer-aided engineering (CAE) commercial software ABAQUS 6141 has been dedicated as finite element simulation packages for the analysis of this process. Simulation results show that stress distribution over the cavities depends on both pressure and temperature gradient over the contact surfaces and can be considered as the main affecting factor. The acceptable ranges of the cavity stresses were determined according to the following values: the cavity and core region temperature of 55–65 °C, filling time of 10–20 s, ejection pressure 0.85 % of injection pressure, and holding time of 10–15 s. Also, theoretical results reveal that the uniform pressure and temperature distribution can be controlled by adjusting the cavities layout, runner, and gate size. Moreover, the simulation process shows that it is possible to facilitate and identify many difficulties during the process and modify the prototype to evaluate the overall manufacturability before further investing in tooling. Furthermore, it is also concluded that tooling iterations will be minimized according to the design of the selected process

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Feasibility Study of Soft Tooling Inserts for Injection Molding with Integrated Automated Slides

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment

A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment

Characterization of Epoxy-Based Rapid Mold with Profiled Conformal Cooling Channel

Analysis of the main factors affecting mass production in the plastic molding process by using the finite element method

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