Advancements in Design And Fabrication of Conformal Cooling Channels for Improvement in Plastic Injection Molding Process

Abstract

Conventional cooling channels give uneven cooling due to variation in distance of the cooling channel from the mold surface which contributes to defects like warpage, sink marks and thermal residual stresses and hence longer cycle time. With non-conventional machining techniques, channels can be formed that conform to the shape of product. Reducing the cycle time is most important parameter in injection molding process. Thus, using conformal cooling technique, the cooling time can be significantly reduced. There are various other factors that should also be considered like cooling channel design for mold and cavity melt temperature, injection pressure, mold temperature, coolant temperature, method of ejection from mold etc. so that quality of the product can be improved. Hence there is need to enhance the cooling performance. To imporve the quality of cooling, conformal cooling channels are the newest and better approach. Recent advancements in the fabrication of a cooling channel has helped in the easy fabrication. This paper gives an overview about the recent advancements in increasing the efficiency of cooling channel and non-conventional manufacturing processes for fabrication of conformal cooling channels in the injection molding process.