Optimization Design Of Heating Channels For Rapid Heat Cycle Injection Mould

The rapid heating and cooling molding (RHCM) technique is a new injectionmolding method developed recently, which can achieve high mold temperature duringpolymer melt filling stage. Based on this new technology, difficult quality problems inconventional injection molding (CIM), such as weld lines, fiber exposure, low gloss andso on, can be improved efficiently. Especially, the subsequent polluting processes, suchas glazing and spraying, which often adopted in CIM can be avoid. Thus, the wholeproduction flow can be shortened and environment be protected. Above all, RHCMtechnology is a promising green manufacturing process and has a broad applicationprospect. While the control of mold heating efficiency and mold temperaturedistribution uniformity are two technical problems which affect the successfulimplementation of RHCM. Therefore, according to the basic theory of heat transfer,relevant study had been conducted using numerical analysis, CAE analysis andproduction experiment methods. The main work and conclusions are as follows.①Mold temperature response during RHCM heating stage and its affecting factors.According to the process principle and heat transfer theory, the heat exchange betweenmold and heating system or ambiance was analyzed during RHCM heating stage. Basedon the above analysis, RHCM mold heating process was simulated by using ABAQUSsoftware, and the mold temperature response and the effect of design parameters ofheating channels on heating efficiency and temperature distribution uniformity of themold cavity surface were investigated.②Optimization design of heating channels in RHCM mold cavity. An optimizationdesign method integrated the CAE technology, surrogate model, intelligenceoptimization algorithm and decision making technique was proposed. A water-assistedRHCM mold for air-conditioning panel plastics was used as example, and the proposedmethod was adopted to optimize the design of its heating channels, so as to improve themold heating efficiency and temperature distribution uniformity of the mold cavitysurface. Finally, the best combination of channels layout parameters was determinedand verified via simulation.③Production trial. Based on the optimization result, the RHCM mold wasdeveloped and production trial was conducted to verify the feasibility and effectivenessof the proposed method. At last, high quality products with high gloss and no weld line were obtained, and production process was simplified. The research result can providesimportant references for the process development of high-gloss and weldless plastics.