Design and simulation study of effective cooling channel for injection moulded plastic part

Injection moulding (IM) process has significant impact on plastic manufacturing process. In IM process cycle, cooling time carries almost half of its cycles time where cooling channel performance is one of the most crucial factors because it has significant effect on both production rate and the quality of the plastic part. With the advent of additive manufacturing, one of the effective way to address this issue is by manufacturing mould with conformal cooling which can control the uniform temperature distribution during plastic solidification process. This paper presents design and simulation study of conformal cooling channels and compare with conventional cooling for an industrial plastic part. Comparative study includes ejection temperature, shrinkage, temperature profile, and part warpage to determine which configuration is more appropriate to provide uniform cooling with minimum cycle time. Autodesk Simulation Moldflow Insight (ASMI) software is used to examine the results of the cooling channels performance.