Efficiency Research of Conformal Channel Geometries Produced by Additive Manufacturing in Plastic Injection Mold Cores (Inserts) Used in Automotive Industry

Abstract

In the production of geometries that traditional methods cannot produce, it is seen that additive manufacturing (AM) technology, which has come to the fore, has been used extensively in conformal cooling channel (CCC) applications in recent years. This study, conducted within the scope of CCC’s use of applied mold cores in automotive industry plastic part production, aimed to reduce the cycle time in the injection printing process. The v1 geometry, which gives the analysis results for ideal printing quality from the channel geometries developed with three different design approaches, is produced with direct metal laser sintering, which is an AM laser sintering technology, and the injection printing cycle time has been reduced by 38%. CCC applied the study’s primary motivation to develop duct geometry to provide balanced cooling in the automotive industry’s mold cores produced with AM. It is known that the Computer Numerical Control machining process in traditional mold methods does not allow the processing of the channels in the internal geometries, and the deep areas where the heat is concentrated cannot be cooled sufficiently. In the study, CCC geometries where AM design parameters are used effectively and the balanced cooling performance expected from the die core can be achieved. The effects of different geometries on production are discussed.