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. 2021 Apr 10;13(8):1224.
doi: 10.3390/polym13081224.

Improving Cooling Performance of Injection Molding Tool with Conformal Cooling Channel by Adding Hybrid Fillers

Chil-Chyuan Kuo  1   2 , Wei-Hua Chen  1
Affiliations

Improving Cooling Performance of Injection Molding Tool with Conformal Cooling Channel by Adding Hybrid Fillers

Chil-Chyuan Kuo et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Silicone rubber mold (SRM) is capable of reducing the cost and time in a new product development phase and has many applications for the pilot runs. Unfortunately, the SRM after injection molding has a poor cooling efficiency due to its low thermal conductivity. To improve the cooling efficiency, the thermal conductivity of the SRM was improved by adding fillers into the SRM. An optimal recipe for fabricating a high cooling efficiency low-pressure injection mold with conformal cooling channel fabricated by fused deposition modeling technology was proposed and implemented. This study proposes a recipe combining 52.6 wt.% aluminum powder, 5.3 wt.% graphite powder, and 42.1 wt.% liquid silicon rubber can be used to make SRM with excellent cooling efficiency. The price-performance ratio of this SRM made by the proposed recipe is around 55. The thermal conductivity of the SRM made by the proposed recipe can be increased by up to 77.6% compared with convention SRM. In addition, the actual cooling time of the injection molded product can be shortened up to 69.1% compared with the conventional SRM. The actual cooling time obtained by the experiment is in good agreement with the simulation results with the relative error rate about 20%.

Keywords: cooling time; filler; relative error rate; silicone rubber mold; thermal conductivity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Photos of the (a) aluminum (Al) and (b) graphite (G) powders.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relationship of filling system, injection molded product and conformal cooling channel (CCC) of both core and cavity plates.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic illustrations of the production process of a high cooling efficiency low-pressure injection mold with CCC.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Experimental setup for measuring thermal conductivity of the silicone rubber with different fillers.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Recipe as a function of thermal conductivity.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Top view of the specimens made with recipes (a) 3, (b) 5, (c) 7, and (d) 9.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Specimens made with recipes (a) 6, (b) 4, and (c) 2.
Figure 8
Figure 8
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the specimens made with recipes (a) 6, (b) 4, and (c) 2.
Figure 8
Figure 8
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the specimens made with recipes (a) 6, (b) 4, and (c) 2.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) images of the specimens made with recipes (a) 6, (b) 4, and (c) 2.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The top temperature of the specimens as a function of time.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Number of meshes as a function of the cooling time of the injection molded product.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Numerical simulation results of the part temperature difference for (a) conventional silicone rubber mold (SRM), (b) SRM with 60 wt.% Al powder, (c) SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Numerical simulation results of the mold temperature difference for (a) conventional SRM, (b) SRM with 60 wt.% Al powder, (c) SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Numerical simulation results of the warpage of the molded parts for (a) conventional SRM, (b) SRM with 60 wt.% Al powder, (c) SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Numerical simulation results of the coolant temperature difference for (a) conventional SRM, (b) SRM with 60 wt.% Al powder, and (c) SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Numerical simulation results of the coolant pressure difference for (a) conventional SRM, (b) SRM with 60 wt.% Al powder, and (c) SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Numerical simulation results of the temperature of the molded wax pattern as a function of the cooling time.
Figure 18
Figure 18
SRM made with recipe 4.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Temperature of the molded wax pattern as a function of actual cooling time.
Figure 20
Figure 20
Photo of a molded wax pattern.
Figure 21
Figure 21
Comparison of the predicted and actual cooling time of injection molded products.
Figure 22
Figure 22
Cooling times of the molded parts as a function of different coolant flow rates.
Figure 23
Figure 23
Cooling time of the molded parts as a function of different coolant temperatures.
Figure 24
Figure 24
An innovative method for fabricating an intermediary mold for large rapid tooling (RT) with.
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