A Simulation Study of Conformal Cooling Channels in Plastic Injection Molding

  Shaileshbhai P Patel ,  Sudheendra S

Plastic injection molding is vastly used in today’s manufacturing industry. In injection molding process, the cooling channel performance is one of the most crucial factors because it has significant effect on both production rate and the quality of the plastic part. In order to reduce the cycle time and control the uniform distribution of temperature, it is necessary to create conformal cooling channels which conform to the shape of the mold cavity and core. This project work presents a simulation study of different types of cooling channels in an injection molded plastic part and compares the performance in terms of cooling time, temperature profile and part warpage to determine which configuration is more appropriate to provide uniform cooling with minimum cycle time. Autodesk Moldflow Insight (AMI) simulation software is used to examine the results of the cooling channels performance. Cooling phase takes more than 2/3 of the whole cycle time making it the most dominant factor among the other components of the cycle. The influence of cooling channels discussed by comparing straight drilling cooling channels (SDCC) with conformal cooling channels (CCC). A bottle cap was analyzed by employing 4 different cooling systems.

Keywords- Injection molding, Conformal cooling, Simulation, Mold flow, Cycle time

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1701017
Page Number(s) - 99-111
Pubished in - Volume 5 | Issue 1 | January 2017
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Shaileshbhai P Patel ,  Sudheendra S,   "A Simulation Study of Conformal Cooling Channels in Plastic Injection Molding", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.5, Issue 1, pp.99-111, January 2017, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1701017.pdf