The effect of characteristics of the mold with and without pin fins on the cooling profile in rotomolding sistem by FEM

Abstract

In the rotomolding processes, the cooling stage is important, which affects significantly the productivity and quality of the final product. Therefore, in this work, a computer simulation was performed, studying the effect of the pin fins on the mold in the cooling phase in the rotomolding system, thus, steel and aluminum molds with and without pin fins were considered. In this work we had the following results, according to the optimization process, due to the high conductivity and low density of aluminum, it was verified that less pin fins were needed around the mold aluminum than for steel, but the length of the pin fins was greater for aluminum; in addition, the mold with fins had a faster cooling than the mold without fins; meanwhile, the use of appropriately sized fins significantly reduces the cooling time, nevertheless, as has been observed that the increasing or decreasing the fin number, the cooling profile is very little affected. However, the variation of the conviction coefficient applied to the external surfaces was also investigated, but the behavior of the fins are more efficient when the convection coefficient is higher so improving productivity. Finally, he characteristic of the mold material was also examined, as the steel mold with fins has a sharper cooling compared to the same material without fins, however, the aluminum was more efficient, because the cooling process was faster in molds of aluminum with fins. Emphasizing, the numerical simulation can be satisfactorily applied in the industrial process of rotomolding, of a simplified manner and qualitatively, promoting growth in production and reducing so the costs considerably associated with the production.