Finite element cooling simulations of conformal cooling hybrid injection molding tools manufactured by selective laser melting

Abbès, Boussad; Abbès, Fazilay; Abdessalam, Hichem; Upganlawar, Aditya

doi:10.1007/s00170-019-03721-2

Cited by 38 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The CCC embedded in the injection mold is series circuits. Mixing series circuits [39] to keep turbulent ow and parallel circuits [40] to improve temperature homogeneity is also an important research issue.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A low-cost and highly efficient method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with cooling channels using optimum heat treatment process procedures

Kuo

Qiu

Yang

2021

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) provides lots of bene ts and potentials in manufacturing molds or dies with sophisticated conformal cooling channels. It is known that the conformal cooling technology provides effective cooling to reduce cycle time for increasing productivity. Ordinarily, mold inserts fabricated by general printing procedures will result in coolant leakage in the injection molding process.The yield in the manufacturing of fully dense injection molding tools was limited to the very narrow working widow. In addition, high costs of fully dense injection mold fabricated by MAM constitute the major obstacle to its application in the mold or die industry. In general, the high cost of MAM is approximately 50-70% more expensive than conventional computer numerical control machining. In this study, a low-cost and highly e cient method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with cooling channels was proposed. This new method employs general process parameters to manufacture the green injection mold rapidly and then uses optimum heat treatment (HT) procedures to improve microstructure of the green injection mold. The results of this study revealed that optimum HT procedures can prevent coolant leakage and save manufacturing time of the injection mold fabricated by direct metal laser sintering. The evolution mechanisms of microstructure were investigated experimentally. The save in the injection mold manufacture time about 67% can be obtained.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A low-cost and highly efficient method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with cooling channels using optimum heat treatment process procedures

Kuo

Qiu

Yang

2021

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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show abstract

“…Among these technologies, the additive manufacturing of metal powder has quickly developed into a feasible technique for fabricating metal parts. Additive manufacturing typically uses a high-energy electron beam or laser beam to sinter or melt the metal powder to form the solid parts [30,31]. This method can be used to fabricate mold cores for plastic product manufacturing and construct three-dimensional conformal cooling channels [32,33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Optimum Layout of Conformal Cooling Channels and Optimal Injection Molding Process Parameters for Optical Lenses

Chung

2019

Applied Sciences

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Plastic lenses are light and can be mass-produced. Large-diameter aspheric plastic lenses play a substantial role in the optical industry. Injection molding is a popular technology for plastic optical manufacturing because it can achieve a high production rate. Highly efficient cooling channels are required for obtaining a uniform temperature distribution in mold cavities. With the recent advent of laser additive manufacturing, highly efficient three-dimensional spiral channels can be realized for conformal cooling technique. However, the design of conformal cooling channels is very complex and requires optimization analyses. In this study, finite element analysis is combined with a gradient-based algorithm and robust genetic algorithm to determine the optimum layout of cooling channels. According to the simulation results, the use of conformal cooling channels can reduce the surface temperature difference of the melt, ejection time, and warpage. Moreover, the optimal process parameters (such as melt temperature, mold temperature, filling time, and packing time) obtained from the design of experiments improved the fringe pattern and eliminated the local variation of birefringence. Thus, this study indicates how the optical properties of plastic lenses can be improved. The major contribution of present proposed methods can be applied to a mold core containing the conformal cooling channels by metal additive manufacturing.

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“…A CCC [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] is extensively employed in the injection molding process due to its consistent cooling during the cooling stage post-filling. However, a notable drawback of CCC is the considerable pressure drop along the cooling channels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Silicone Rubber Mold with an Innovative Waterfall Cooling Channel

Kuo,

Lin,

et al. 2024

Polymers

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A conformal cooling channel (CCC) follows the mold core or cavity profile to carry out uniform cooling in the cooling stage. However, the significant pressure drop along the cooling channels is a distinct disadvantage of the CCC. In this study, an innovative waterfall cooling channel (WCC) was proposed and implemented. The WCC cools the injected products via surface contact, replacing the conventional line contact to cool the injected products. The WCC was optimized using numerical simulation software. Silicone rubber molds with two kinds of cooling channels were designed and implemented. The cooling time of the molded part was evaluated using a low-pressure wax injection molding machine. The experimental results of the cooling time of the molded part were compared with the simulation results from numerical simulation software. The results showed that the optimal mesh element count was about 1,550,000 with a mesh size of 1 mm. The simulation software predicted the filling time of the water cup injection-molded product to be approximately 2.008 s. The cooling efficiency for a silicone rubber mold with a WCC is better than that of the silicone rubber mold with a CCC since the core and cavity cooling efficiency is close to 50%. The pressure drop of the WCC is smaller than that of the CCC, which reduces the pressure drop by about 56%. Taking a water cup with a mouth diameter of 70 mm, a height of 60 mm, and a thickness of 2 mm as an example, the experimental results confirmed that the use of the WCC can save the cooling time of the product by about 265 s compared with the CCC. This shows how a WCC can increase cooling efficiency by approximately 17.47%.

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Finite element cooling simulations of conformal cooling hybrid injection molding tools manufactured by selective laser melting

Cited by 38 publications

References 14 publications

A low-cost and highly efficient method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with cooling channels using optimum heat treatment process procedures

A low-cost and highly efficient method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with cooling channels using optimum heat treatment process procedures

Integrated Optimum Layout of Conformal Cooling Channels and Optimal Injection Molding Process Parameters for Optical Lenses

Development of a Silicone Rubber Mold with an Innovative Waterfall Cooling Channel

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