Finite Element Analysis of Conformal Cooling for Reduction of Cycle Time to Enhance Performance in Plastic Injection Molding Process

Abstract

The use and improper placement of conventional cooling channels leads to uneven cooling of the mold surfaces, which results in defects like sink marks, warpage, and thermal residual stresses. The design variables considered for the cooling are mold and melt temperature, injection time, cooling time, cooling temperature, packing time, and packing pressure. Conformal cooling channels are used to improve the cooling system design and to reduce the defects. Temperature distribution along the mold cavity is studied in this paper. In the proposed design method, the cooling channel is produced by the design tool and the results have been compared with simulated results produced by ANSYS software. The transient thermal analysis in ANSYS workbench is performed to analyze the thermal response of rapid heating and cooling of mold to see the effects on mold heating and cooling efficiency and the cycle time of molding operation. The maximum temperature and minimum temperature were reduced by 18.78%. The analysis has been done for hot and cold runners.