Three-dimensional thermal response and thermo-mechanical fatigue analysis for a large LCD TV frame mould in steam-assisted rapid heat cycle moulding

Abstract

Rapid heat cycle moulding (RHCM) is a newly developed moulding technique to improve the surface appearance of plastic parts and eliminate the polluting secondary operations such as primers and painting. In steam-assisted RHCM, the mould surface temperature should be thermally cycled by alternatively cycling the high temperature steam and cooling water in the heating/cooling channels of the mould. The mould design is of great importance for RHCM because it not only has a great effect on the heating/cooling efficiency and hence the productivity but also directly affects the mould surface temperature uniformity and accordingly the final part quality. Furthermore, the service life of the RHCM mould with steam heating is also very much dependent on the mould structure or the layout of the heating/cooling channels as the fatigue crack is likely to occur at the wall of the heating/cooling channels under combined thermal cycling and mechanical loading. In this study, an RHCM mould for a type of 52-inch LCD TV frame was designed. A three-dimensional (3D) transient thermal analysis was performed to determine the thermal response efficiency of the designed RHCM mould cavity and investigate the factors affecting the heating efficiency. Then, by using the results obtained from the heat transfer simulation, the thermal-structure coupling analysis comprehensively considering the cavity pressure and clamp force was conducted to analyse the stress distribution in the mould cavity, which is helpful to find the weak position in the mould cavity. We found that the spots where the maximum stresses occur are similar to the region where fatigue cracks come into being in the actual RHCM mould. Based on the simulation results, the mechanism of the cavity cracks formation on the cavity surface was proposed. Finally, the fatigue analysis was conducted to predict the fatigue life of the RHCM mould. The analysis results show that the regions at the top edges of the heating/cooling channels have the lowest fatigue life and safety factor. The discrepancy between the available life predicted by simulation and the actual service life of the RHCM mould is also discussed.