To study The Effect of Conformal Cooling Channels to Reduce the

Cycle Time in Injection Molding Process

Mirza Aqeel Ahmed
2016-PE-44
Submission Date: May 8, 2019.
Department of Polymer and Process Engineering
University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore.

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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to study the effects of conformal cooling channels and to reduce the
cycle time of the Filament Holder by using Solid Works and Mold Flow Adviser software. Cycle
time plays an important role on the production and the quality of parts. There should be uniform
temperature distribution in the molded part for the quick dissipation of heat. For the shape of
cavity in the mold we use the conformal cooling channels design. For the selection of cooling
channel, we consider the minimum warpage in the part, minimum cooling time for ejection
temperature and the uniform distribution of temperature. We used the Mold Flow Adviser (2016)
and Solid Works Software.

Keywords: Ejection Temperature, uniform temperature Distribution and conformal cooling channels.

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manufactured by injection molding. Wide
variety of parts whether they are the
1. Introduction
thermoplastic or thermosets they have been
Injection molding is widely used technique from
manufactured from the injection molding that is
which large amounts of parts can be
the best part of using this technique.in this
manufactured. Thermoplastic and thermosets
technique the plastic part is first melted then
both kind of parts have been made from the
allow it to pass through it from mold and then
injection molding technique worldwide. Two
cool the part into desired shape while
third of the parts majority have been
maintaining the quality of part.so the cooling of

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part portion is the most important part of this
technique.so to cool down the molded part
different coolants are used. And the main point
is the cooling channels usage which is the
requirement of this paper.

2. Experiment and Design

2.1 Selection of the part:

Filament holder is widely used for the

control of filament over world wide in
industries and the increasing demand of
filament holder in cotton and other clothes
Figure 1: Filament Holder
related industries are quite amazing. When
the spools are empty, we can use it in quite
2.2 Selection of the polymer
different ways like light strands can be
stored not only this the clock faces, while Polypropylene was selected due to the following
the empty spools can also be equally properties. Polypropylene have very low
effective in the garage, and office uses. frequency and high voltage insulating
Some time the spools don’t have the characteristic this property of polypropylene was
recycling option this is the bi9ggest draw well suited for our part. Strength, impact

back of them because after that we don’t resistance and transparency of our part was

have any option rather than to throw them
out. But there is the solution of this problem
is that to turn them into the filament
holder.as this is the injection molded part
that’s why we choose this part. The
materials selection conditions and part
quality are the factors consider during the
manufacturing.
improved by using polypropylene. On the other
hand, we also wanted to make our product light so
we used polycarbonate which is light in weight.by
using polycarbonate our martial became higher
performance at lowest cost and durable in UV
protection from sun. one of the biggest
advantages was polypropylene proved greater
freedom of design, coloring and strength over
time even in stressful conditions. The main
reasons for the selection of the polypropylene for
the manufacturing of the filament holder because
polypropylene is semi rigid that means our part

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will have very good bearing properties due to the
change in environmental conditions.
2.4 Conformal and non-Conformal Cooling
Polypropylene is translucent, good chemical
resistance and tough material these properties of
polypropylene improves the quality of our part
which is the filament holder.
2.3 Selection of the processing
parameters
The selection of the processing parameters is
also very important so we set the parameters as 4
liter/min as our flow rate and the coolant we
o
used here is water whose temperature is 15 C.
Cooling channels are designed in such a way that
the coolant will move easily and less ejection
time take to cool down our part which is the
filament holder.
Figure 2: Processing parameters
Channels
conventional and conformal cooling channels are
used to cool down the part. coolant is used in
these cooling channels coolant my water or
benzenes ether or some other organic materials.
Convectional cooling channels are not as
accurate as they should have been because the
cycle time and other parameters like warpage
cooling time etc. conventional cooling channels
are expensive and part quality may be damage
by using the conventional cooling channels.
Conventional cooling channels are straight lines
while the conformal cooling channels follow the
dimensions of the part. conformal cooling

Parameters Values channels gives the uniform heat transfer.

Conventional cooling channels do not give the
Flow rate 4 lit/mi
uniform heat transfer. Conformal cooling
Coolant 15 oC.
channels also improves the quality of the part.
Temperature

Table1: Process parameters

Figure 3: Conventional cooling channels

Figure 4: Conformal Cooling channels

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2.5 Part Design and Cooling
Channel Design:

We used the solid works software for the

cooling channels and draw the cooling channels
on this software. After that part flow was done
on the mold flow inside software. As the part is
the filament holder so conventional and
conformal cooling channels are designed as Figure 6: Conformal Cooling Channels
follows
This is the conformal cooling channels and the
cycle time is 111.8 (s). as we can see clearly that
the recycle time of conformal cooling channels
is less than the conventional cooling channels so
the part quality and dimensions are improved.

Figure 5: Conventional cooling

channels
This is conventional cooling channels here the
cycle time is 147(s) . Figure 7: warpage effect of the
Filament Holder.

As we can see the warpage of the Filament

holder is very low this also indicates the quality
of our part.

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 3. Conclusion:
As from the results it is cleared that the
time to reach the ejection temperature
in case for the conformal cooling
channels is less than that of the
conventional cooling channels.so that’s
mean our part is improved in terms of
quality wise and also have the perfect
dimensions of the part. We used both
the conventional and conformal cooling
channels and conformal are better than
that of the conventional and we used
pure water as coolant in these
channels.as this is the requirement of
this paper.
4. References
[1] Brent, S.A. Plastics Materials, and
Processing. Prentice Hall 2000.
[2] D. V. Rosato and M. G. Rosato, Injection
Molding Handbook, Springer,2000.
[3] Yu Wang, Kai-Min Yu, Charlie
C.L. Wang “Spiral and conformal
cooling in plastic injection
molding”
[4] Chen, X.; Lam, Y. C. & Li, D. Q. (2000).
Analysis of thermal residual stress in plastic
injection molding. Journal of Materials
Processing Technology 101(1-3), pp. 275280.