3D printing is making significant changes in the way manufacturing is done, especially in the production of complex geometrical shapes. For plastic injection mold, complex geometries and dimensional accuracy are the two basic requirements. To get complex plastic parts, injection mold must be efficient enough. A proper cooling system is of prime importance to enhance the efficiency of injection moulding.
The injection mold requires a cooling channel to cool the molded parts. Currently, we have two types of cooling channels:
- Traditional cooling or the conventional cooling system consists of a straight line cooling channel, located in the midway of the object, irrespective of the shape of the object.
- A conformal cooling system is designed according to the internal shape of an injecting molding object.Due to its enhanced effectiveness, this is now the first choice of the manufacturers.
Why should you choose conformal cooling over the traditional cooling method?
Since the traditional cooling channel is made in straight lines, it produces inconsistent results. It doesn’t provide uniform cooling in the mold cavity. Moreover, the complex geometry, curved surface and varied thickness of the wall of the plastic parts prevent uniform cooling. This non-uniformity in cooling has adverse effects on the manufacturing cycle. Such as:
- Time-consuming
- Warpage
- Wastage
- Overall higher cost
- High rejection rate
The innovative additive manufacturing technology has eliminated these effects by producing customized 3d printing of conforming cooling channels in a variety of cross-sections – rectangular, circular, semi-circle, elliptical, etc. that are exactly according to the molded objects.
In the conformal cooling system, the cooling passageway is designed to follow the shape of the cavity and mold course. This brings about temperature uniformity and helps in the rapid cooling process during injection molding.
Benefits of using the conformal cooling method.
The conformal cooling method is the modern and improved cooling method. It has several advantages over the traditional cooling method. Let’s check out the benefits of the new technique.
- Improved product quality with an excellent surface finish and accurate dimensions can be obtained.
- It reduces the cycle time, in some cases even up to 70%. Thus, increases productivity as well as reduces delivery time.
- It reduces warpage and wastage.
- The production process requires less labor, number of machines, space, and energy.
All these help in the improved productivity, efficiency, and reduction of overall production cost.
Incredible AM Pvt Ltd located in Pune produces 3d printed conformal cooling channels to provide you with an improved manufacturing method. We produce conformal cooling channels by following 4 steps.
Steps in producing conformal cooling channels.
At Incredible AM Pvt Ltd, we produce conformal cooling channels in 4 steps. These include:
Selection of part: First of all we select an injection molding plastic part and then with the help of the FEA software package proceed to evaluate the fill time and the pack time.
Analysis: This step involves the analysis and comparison of cooling time, volumetric shrinkage, and deflection with the traditionally designed cooling channel.
Design process: With the help of the data obtained from the previous analysis, we design a conformal cooling channel.
3d printing: At this point, we again analyze cooling time, volumetric shrinkage, and deflection in the conformal cooling channel. Results are compared and then we move on to print the mold insert according to the results obtained from the analysis.
Conclusion
Thus, to increase productivity, obtain improved products and make your production cost-effective through injection molding, adopt the new 3d printed cooling mechanism. Incredible of Pune with an experience of over 45 years is one of the first 3d printing service providers in India. Our state-of-the-art infrastructure together with the testing lab produces high-quality products. We’re ISO 9001 certified and are a trusted partner to our clients who are spread in more than 30 countries all over the world.
