New cooling channel design for injection moulding

Injection moulding is one of the most versatile and important operation for mass production of plastic parts. In this process, cooling system design is very important as it largely determines the cycle time. A good cooling system design can reduce cycle time and achieve dimensional stability of the part. This paper describes a new square sectioned conformal cooling channel system for injection moulding dies. Both simulation and experimental verification have been done with these new cooling channels system. Comparative analysis has been done for an industrial part, a plastic bowel, with conventional cooling channels using the Moldflow simulation software. Experimental verification has been done for a test plastic part with mini injection moulding machine. Comparative results are presented based on temperature distribution on mould surface and cooling time or freezing time of the plastic part. The results provide a uniform temperature distribution with reduced freezing time and hence reduction in cycle time for the plastic part.