Cooling channel selection for big rectangular plastic parts in injection molding

Abstract

There are various of types cooling channel designs that have been explored by many researchers to find the best cooling channel that resulted in the optimum results in the injection molding process. The previous research reported that the correct selection of cooling channels in mold design affects the quality of the product and the total cycle time, thus it affected the quality and profit in the manufacturing [1]. The problem in mold design is selecting the correct cooling channel design to ensure the heat transfer distribution is in uniform condition. This paper analysed the effectiveness of four types of different cooling channel designs, the diameter size of the cooling channel, and the variable of coolant temperature in the big rectangular plastic product with the same injection parameters and material type. The objective is to determine the effect of using different cooling channel designs on the cooling time and warpage effect with different coolant temperatures. The commercial mold flow software was used to simulate the injection behaviour to determine the quality of the warpage and total cooling time in the injection molding process. The result found that using a cooling channel type with arrays of the baffle, array bubbler, and conformal cooling channel can reduce the cooling time by almost 50% compared to the conventional cooling channel. The increased coolant temperature in the cooling channel also affects the increase in the cooling time.