Rapid Development of an Injection Mold with High Cooling Performance Using Molding Simulation and Rapid Tooling Technology

Kuo, Chil-Chyuan; Nguyen, Trong-Duc; Zhu, Yao; Lin, Shixun

doi:10.3390/mi12030311

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The faster the cooling rate, the shorter the cooling time and the smaller the shrinkage. It is also consistent with the research results of Chil-Chyuan Kuo et al [ 51 ]. Figure 8 d shows a graph of edge shrinkage in a gear tooth cycle.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

A Practical Numerical Approach to Characterizing Non-Linear Shrinkage and Optimizing Dimensional Deviation of Injection-Molded Small Module Plastic Gears

2021

Polymers

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This paper was aimed at finding out the solution to the problem of insufficient dimensional accuracy caused by non-linear shrinkage deformation during injection molding of small module plastic gears. A practical numerical approach was proposed to characterize the non-linear shrinkage and optimize the dimensional deviation of the small module plastic gears. Specifically, Moldflow analysis was applied to visually simulate the shrinkage process of small module plastic gears during injection molding. A 3D shrinkage gear model was obtained and exported to compare with the designed gear model. After analyzing the non-linear shrinkage characteristics, the dimensional deviation of the addendum circle diameter and root circle diameter was investigated by orthogonal experiments. In the end, a high-speed cooling concept for the mold plate and the gear cavity was proposed to optimize the dimensional deviation. It was confirmed that the cooling rate is the most influential factor on the non-linear shrinkage of the injection-molded small module plastic gears. The dimensional deviation of the addendum circle diameter and the root circle diameter can be reduced by 22.79% and 22.99% with the proposed high-speed cooling concept, respectively.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

A Practical Numerical Approach to Characterizing Non-Linear Shrinkage and Optimizing Dimensional Deviation of Injection-Molded Small Module Plastic Gears

2021

Polymers

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“…In addition, the cooling channel should be located near the hot spot for adaptive conformal cooling. Although the previous studies used spiral cooling channels for conformal cooling of cup-shaped parts [ 34 , 35 ], the spiral channels resulted in uniform mold temperature and thus are not appropriate for the adaptive cooling of hot spots. Instead, we located the TPMS cooling structure in the upper core, as shown in Figure 5 b.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Conformal Cooling of Injection Molds Using Additively Manufactured TPMS Structures

Park

2022

Polymers

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In injection molding, cooling channels are usually manufactured with a straight shape, and thus have low cooling efficiency for a curved mold. Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) was used to fabricate conformal cooling channels that could maintain a consistent distance from the curved surface of the mold. Because this conformal cooling channel was designed to obtain a uniform temperature on the mold surface, it could not efficiently cool locally heated regions (hot spots). This study developed an adaptive conformal cooling method that supports localized-yet-uniform cooling for the heated region by employing micro-cellular cooling structures instead of the typical cooling channels. An injection molding simulation was conducted to predict the locally heated region, and a mold core was designed to include a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structure near the heated region. Two biomimetic TPMS structures, Schwarz-diamond and gyroid structures, were designed and fabricated using a digital light processing (DLP)-type polymer AM process. Various design parameters of the TPMS structures, the TPMS shapes and base coordinates, were investigated in terms of the conformal cooling performance. The mold core with the best TPMS design was fabricated using a powder-bed fusion (PBF)-type metal AM process, and injection molding experiments were conducted using the additively manufactured mold core. The developed mold with TPMS cooling achieved a 15 s cooling time to satisfy the dimensional tolerance, which corresponds to a 40% reduction in comparison with that of the conventional cooling (25 s).

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“…This, in turn, weakens the polymer material over time. The endurance of the soft tooling could be improved by removing heat via conformal cooling channels [ 33 ] or a material that has improved heat-conducting properties [ 34 ]. The motion of the slide prohibits the incorporation of a fluidic cooling system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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The production of injection-molding prototypes, e.g., molded interconnect devices (MID) prototypes, can be costly and time-consuming due to the process-specific inability to replace durable steel tooling with quicker fabricated aluminum tooling. Instead, additively manufactured soft tooling is a solution for the production of small quantities and prototypes, but producing complex parts with, e.g., undercuts, is avoided due to the necessity of additional soft tooling components. The integration of automated soft slides into soft tooling has not yet been investigated and poses a challenge for the design and endurance of the tooling. The presented study covers the design and injection-molding trial of soft tooling with integrated automated slides for the production of a complex MID prototype. The design further addresses issues like the alignment of the mold components and the sealing of the complex parting plane. The soft tooling was additively manufactured via digital light processing from a silica-filled photopolymer, and 10 proper parts were injection-molded from a laser-direct structurable glass fiber-filled PET+PBT material before the first damage on the tooling occurred. Although improvements are suggested to enhance the soft tooling durability, the designed features worked as intended and are generally transferable to other part geometries.

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Rapid Development of an Injection Mold with High Cooling Performance Using Molding Simulation and Rapid Tooling Technology

Cited by 28 publications

References 73 publications

A Practical Numerical Approach to Characterizing Non-Linear Shrinkage and Optimizing Dimensional Deviation of Injection-Molded Small Module Plastic Gears

A Practical Numerical Approach to Characterizing Non-Linear Shrinkage and Optimizing Dimensional Deviation of Injection-Molded Small Module Plastic Gears

Adaptive Conformal Cooling of Injection Molds Using Additively Manufactured TPMS Structures

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

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