Thermal Energy and Power Engineering TEPE

Geometric parameter optimization of mold heating

channels for rapid heat cycle molding
Fatma Kria, Moez Hammami, Mounir Baccar
Computational Fluid Dynamic and Transfer Phenomena
Mechanical Engineering Department, National Engineering School of Sfax,
Soukra, B.P. 1173-3038 Sfax, TUNISIA
Phone: 216 74 274 418 / Fax: 216 74 275 595
Fatmakria1984@yahoo.fr ; HammamiMoez2003@yahoo.fr*; Mounir.Baccar@enis.rnu.tn

Abstract- In this work, mold for producing LCD panels with
Rapid Heat Cycle Molding (RHCM) process was studied. The
thermal control system of the mold allows the improvement of
the process productivity and the product quality. Hence, our
objective was to minimize the heating time and to homogenize
the temperature at the mold cavity surface. For this purpose,
we propose in the present study, a geometric parameter
optimization of the conformal thermal control system such as
heating/cooling channel diameters, heating/cooling channel
spacing and heating/cooling channel distance to the cavity
surface. Thus, a 3D numerical model was developed using the
finite volume method. The results show that the thermal
regulation system which assures minimum heating time does
not necessarily achieves the best temperature distribution
throughout the product. In fact, to ensure the homogeneous
temperature distribution in the surface of the mold cavity, it
was found advantageous to reduce the diameter of the heating
channels, removing them from the cavity surface and spacing
them. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that these
actions cause a loss in productivity.
Keywords- RHCM; Heating/Cooling Channels; Conformal
Thermal Regulation System; Numerical Analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
Injection molding is one of the most important industrial
processes for thermoplastic parts production. It’s generally
used for the high speed production and high volume for the
automobile sector, household appliances and cosmetics. In
addition, it is found in the production of small series in
aeronautics. Faced with the rapid development of the
plastics industry, improving the quality of thermoplastic
items and reducing the time of the injection cycle become
the primary objectives for processors. To achieve these
effects, the thermal control system of the mold must be
carefully studied. In fact, the cooling phase in the
conventional injection molding (CIM) is the longest during
the injection cycle; it represents about 70% to 80% of the
total cycle time [1]. In addition to its effect on productivity,
the cooling phase affects the quality of molded parts. Indeed,
an inadequate design of cooling system generates a non-
homogeneous and non-equilibrium solidification, which will
cause defects such as shrinkage [2], warpage [3] and the
creeks. Later, the researchers have proposed a system of
channels that follows better the shape of the piece called
"conformal cooling". Thus, many previous researches [4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9] have showed the importance of conformal cooling
on the CIM productivity and the quality product.
In spite of the development of thermal regulation system
of conventional injection molding, several problems are still
faced in the finished product mainly surface defects and
appearance. To significantly reduce or completely eliminate
these problems, we have added a preheating phase to obtain
a suitable mold temperature at the filling stage. With this
new technique, called Rapid Heat Cycle Molding (RHCM),
the production efficiency and parts quality are significantly
affected by the temperature distribution on the cavity
surface. Therefore, the temperature distribution must be as
homogeneous as possible. Together, the heating time must
be short enough to maintain efficient production.
In a molding cycle, the RHCM process can be divided
into four stages: heating, maintaining high temperature,
cooling and maintaining low temperature. In the heating
step, the mold is heated to a temperature slightly greater
than the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the injected
polymer. When the mold temperature reaches the desired
value, the heating step is completed and the melted polymer
is injected into the mold cavity. After filling, the
maintaining high temperature stage ends and the molding
process pass to the cooling step. In this step, the mold is
rapidly cooled in order to solidify the polymer. When the
polymer reaches the temperature of the ejection, the cooling
step is completed and maintaining low temperatures begin.
During this phase, the mold is opened to eject the part
injected. After that, the mold is heated again for the next
cycle.
Currently, several studies have focused on the RHCM
process. Chen et al. [10] have carried out research on
electromagnetic induction heating and confirmed through
numerical simulation, the effectiveness of this method in the
cavity surface heating. Hwang and Chang [11] have
suggested the infrared method to heat the cavity surface.
W.Guilong et al. [12] have proposed the heating by
saturated steam. However, the maximum temperature of the
saturated steam limits the application of the RHCM process
for specific materials such as engineering plastics and fiber-
reinforced polymers. For this reason, the electric heating
system was proposed and adopted.
On the other hand, W. Guilong et al. [12] have studied
the effect of thermal insulation. They have demonstrated
that the presence of an insulating layer between the
cavity/core plate and retaining plate is necessary to increase
the heating limit and to reduce the energy consumption.

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In addition W.Guilong et al. [13] have studied three
types of heating medium namely hot water, saturated steam
and oil. They have verified that during the two phases of
heating and cooling, hot water and saturated vapor promote
a heating rate which is higher than that obtained with oil and
therefore energetic gain.
Also, W.Guilong et al. [13] have investigated the effect
of the temperature of the heat source on the heating rate and
the amount of energy consumed. They have founded that the
temperatures of the hot water and oil should be as high as
possible to get firstly, an important heating efficiency and
secondly, low power consumption. For saturated steam, they
have showed that the heating efficiency and energy
consumption were improved when the temperature of the
steam have increased. Thus, they [13] have evaluated a
reasonable temperature of saturated steam approximately
between 180°C and 200°C.
Another operating parameter has been studied by W.
Guilong et al. [13]: it is the cavity/core plate material. To do
this, three metallic alloys were proposed: the aluminium
alloys, steel and copper. Based on their study, they have
improved the efficiency of the thermal response and thus to
reduce the cycle molding time, using materials with high
thermal conductivity and having a low specific heat.
on the cavity surface of the mold. The geometrical
parameters studied in this work are: the diameter of the
heating channels, the distance of these channels to the cavity
surface and the spacing between channels.
II. PHYSICAL MODEL
Figure 1 shows the design and the dimensions of the
studied LCD panel. In our study, considering the
effectiveness of the saturated steam for the RHCM process,
we have adopted this medium to heat our mold. For the
studied mold, we added insulator layer between the
cavity/core plates and retaining plates in order to minimize
heat loss, and therefore, to increase heating efficiency.
Taking into consideration the symmetry of the problem, the
three-dimensional study was limited to a quarter of the mold.
Moreover, because of the presence of insulator layers, heat
transfers are located between cavity/core plates which will
further reduce the computational domain.
15
150

W.Guilong et al. [13] have examined the effect of the

channels’ position on the heating rate and the temperature
2

distribution at the cavity surface. They have founded that

when the distance between the channels is great and the 150
distance between the channels and cavity surface is low,
heating is more efficient and therefore the molding cycle
time decreases. In addition, the distribution channels with a 25
low spacing and far from cavity surface promotes Fig. 1 LCD panel
temperature homogeneity at the cavity surface.
The studied domain is shown in Figure 2. In this figure,
However, L.Xi-Ping et al. [14] found that the increase of two sets of points A, B, C, D and E, F, G are given to
the distance between the heating channels, was done on the determine the temperature distribution. Each series of points
one hand, a gain of 54.5% on the homogeneity of the represents a plan, respectively P1and P2.
temperature distribution on the cavity surface and on the
other hand, a decrease in the heating rate. The positions of the heating channels and the thermal
characteristics of cavity/core plates of RHCM mold are
Lately, W. Guilong et al. [15] have carried out 2D
grouped in Tables 1 and 2.
numerical simulation for fatigue analysis and heat transfer
to investigate the effect of the conformal heating channels TABLE I POSITIONS OF HEATING CHANNELS
on thermal response, structural strength and fatigue life of
Position x (mm) z (mm)
the mold. They have demonstrated that the required heating
time was reduced by 61.70%, cavity surface temperature Channel 1 35 57
uniformity was improved by 80.97%, and the structural Channel 2 50 57
strength of the cavity block was also slightly improved. Channel 3 65 57
Previous work developed on RHCM processes were Channel 4 87 45
devoted to simple geometric configurations in 2D. In Channel 5 50 18
addition, the thermal control system is limited to a Channel 6 65 18
conventional system. In this current research, we propose to
Channel 7 90 18
study through 3D numerical simulation, the geometric
parameter optimization of thermal regulation system of
TABLE II THERMAL PROPERTIES OF CAVITY/CORE PLATES [12]
RHCM mold for producing LCD panels. This study can
reproduce the temperature distribution generated in the Density
Heat Thermal
cavity and the mold at any time throughout the process, and Material capacity conductivity
(kg/ m3)
(J/kg°C) (W/m°C)
thus shows the effect of each geometric parameter. Our
major concern is the improvement of the process Cavity/core AMPCO
8710 380 208
plates 940
productivity and the homogeneous temperature distribution

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Thermal Energy and Power Engineering TEPE

phase, the convective heat transfer coefficient is given by

the following expression [16]:
1/ 4
 K 3 (ρ w − ρ S ) g r 
h c = 0,555  
 µ D ∆T 
With:
K thermal conductivity of water at 100°C;
g acceleration of gravity;
r latent heat of liquefaction;
ρs density of saturated steam;
ρw density of water;
µ dynamic viscosity of water at 100°C;
D diameter of the heating channels;
∆T temperature difference between the saturated steam
and the heating channel wall.

B. Mesh study
We studied the problem in a Cartesian coordinate system
by adopting a non-uniform structured mesh. Before
searching the thermal responses in the RHCM mold, we
carried out tests of convergence to study the influence of the
mesh and time step on the accuracy of results. We found a
mesh consisting of (162 x 162 x 102) nodes and a time step
of 10-3s is sufficient to give a compromise between accuracy
and computation time.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Effect of Channel Diameter

Fig. 2 Studied domain for the RHCM mold
III. PHYSICAL MODEL
To build our model, we used the finite volume method.
For this, we write the heat transfer equation in a three-
dimensional Cartesian coordinate system in a form that is
Figure 3 illustrates the channel diameter effect on the
rate of heating mold. For a definite channel position (X=12
mm), the heating rate increased using channel sections
which are increasingly important. In fact, by increasing the
diameter, the heat quantity contribution becomes important,
which explains the increase in the heating rate. Indeed, the
temporal evolution at point A showed an increase in the
speed at the beginning of the process of 50% from diameter
6 to 10 mm.
160
Temperature(°C)

120
ready for the finite volume discretization. In general, the
mold can be considered as a solid part. Therefore, the heat 80 D=6mm
transfer in the mold is purely conductive. D=8mm
40 D=10mm
A. Initials and Boundary Conditions
0
For the heating phase, the initial mold temperature is
0 5 10 15 20
30°C and the temperature of the heating channels is Heating time(s)
considered a constant equal to 180°C. For boundary
conditions, we considered zero flux at symmetries plans. In Fig. 3 Influence of the diameter on the heating rate
addition, conditions of zero flux at the surfaces of the On the other hand, Figures 4 and 5 show respectively the
cavity/core plates in contact with insulators layers. temperature distribution at the planes P1 and P2 at the
In this study, the temperatures of heating channels are instant when the temperature reaches 110 °C (temperature
assumed to be constant. The heat transfer between these slightly greater than the glass transition temperature of the
channels and the mold can be taken into consideration by studied polymer). It was noted that the increase in diameter
the thermal transfer coefficient interface hc. In the heating amplify the thermal gradients in the plane P1 and especially

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Thermal Energy and Power Engineering TEPE

at point B (Figure 4). Indeed, the difference between points

B and D can reach 18 °C with 10mm channel diameter.

126 D = 10mm (t=8s)

Temperature (°C)

D = 8mm (t=9s)
122
D = 6mm (t=11.5s)

118

114

110
A B C D
Cavity surface
b) Distribution with D=6 mm (11.5 s)
Fig. 4 Effect of the diameter on the temperature distribution at the plane P1
Fig. 6 The temperature distribution in the plane P1
From Figure 5, and considering the plan P2, we realized
that by increasing channel diameter, the amplitude of the B. Effect of Channels’ Distance to the Cavity Surface
curves is almost the same. However, this finding masks the In order to study the effect of the position of the
reality because high temperatures appear for diameters 8
channels, we determined numerically, for a diameter
and 10 mm. This confirms again that this increase does not
contribute to the improvement of the surface quality of our d=6mm, the heating rates for different positions X. Figure 7
LCD panel. shows an increase in the rate of heating when the channels
are near the cavity surface and therefore gain in productivity
D=10mm (t=8s) D = 8mm (t=9s) will be important. However, using the curves in Figure 8,
140 D = 6mm (t=11.5s) we registered the best profile for the position farther from
the surface. In fact, the excessive rise of temperature at
135 point B is attenuated by 5% from X=9 to 15mm. In addition,
perfect temperature uniformity can be seen at the segment
Temperature (°C)

130 [CD].
160
125
Temperature (°C)

120
120

115 80 X = 15mm
E F G
Cavity surface X=12mm
40
X = 9mm
Fig. 5 Effect of diameter on the temperature distribution in the plane P2
0
Figure 6 shows a comparison between the temperature
0 4 8 12 16 20
distributions obtained with channels diameter 6 and 10 mm
Heating time (s)
in the planes P1 and P2 at the instant when the temperature
reaches 110 °C. It is clear that for D=10 mm heating is Fig. 7 Effect of the channels’ position on the heating rate
faster resulting in an increase in productivity of the mold.
However, the heating at the upper surface becomes very 124
excessive by comparisons with the rest of the outer surface, X=9mm (t = 11s)
122
which can cause degradation of the quality of the finished X = 12mm (t = 11,5s)
Temperature (°C)

product. 120 X = 15mm (t = 12s)

118

116

114

112

110
A B C D
Cavity surface

Fig. 8 Effect of the channels’ positions on the temperature distribution

in the plane P1

Considering the plane P2 (Figure 9), it is noted that with

approaching the channels to the cavity surface, the reached
a) Distribution with D=10 mm (8s) temperature at the cavity surface are higher than the glass

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transition. Moreover, it is noted the appearance of a more cavity are the optimal parameters. For parameter E, two
pronounced thermal gradient at the corner of the cavity cases are considered 15 an 18 mm. The results in Figure 11
generating a difference in temperature at the surface cavity. show a slight decrease in the heating rate when switching to
E=18 mm. However, Figures 12 and 13 show an
X = 9mm (t=11s) X = 12mm (t=11.5s) improvement with E=18 mm promoting temperature
135 X = 15mm (t=12s)
uniformity at the planes P1 and P2. Indeed, with this
configuration the gap at the entire surface cavity does not
130
Temperature (°C)

exceed 10°C.
160
125

Temperature (°C)
120
120

80
115 E = 18mm
E F G
Cavity surface 40
E=15mm

Fig. 9 Effect of channels’ positions on the temperature distribution

in the plane P2 0
0 5 10 15 20
Figure 10 shows the temperature distribution at the time
Heating time(s)
when the surface cavity has reached 110°C for different
values of X. It proves the mediocre effect of near channels Fig. 11 Effect of the spacing between channels on the heating rate
to the cavity on the temperature uniformity. The overall look of temperature fields in the planes P1
and P2 is given in Figure 14. It can be deduced that the
increase of the spacing between channels helps to reduce the
effect of the central part of the mold on the one hand and the
heat supply at the corner part on the other hand, thus
resulting in a more uniform heating.

118 E = 18mm (t = 12,5s)

E = 15mm (t = 12s)
Temperature (°C)

116

114

112
a) X = 15mm

110
A B C D
Cavity surface

Fig. 12 Effect of the spacing between channels on the temperature

distribution at the plane P1

126 E = 18mm (t=12.5s) E = 15mm (t=12s)

124

122
Temperature (°C)

120
b) X = 9mm
Fig. 10 Temperature distribution for different positions of the channel
118
C. Effect of the Spacing Between the Heating Channels
116
In this section, we will test the effect of the parameter E
reflecting the spacing between the three channels 1, 2 and 3 114
E F G
in the heating rate and the temperature uniformity at the
Cavity surface
planes P1 and P2. For that, and benefiting from the results
found in the previous paragraphs, we deduced that channel Fig. 13 Effect of the spacing on the temperature distribution at the plane
diameter of 6mm and a distance X = 15mm from the surface P2

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Thermal Energy and Power Engineering
a) E = 15mm (11.5s)
b) E = 18mm (12.5s)
Fig. 14 Temperature distribution for different E
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical modeling of
thermal regulation system of RHCM mold for LCD panels’
production is presented. The study focuses on the heating
phase of the mold. In fact, for this type of process, this step
is the most important in the cycle because it is decisive for
the quality of the finished product. Thus, our goal is to
optimize the thermal control system to achieve uniform
heating of the cavity surface and therefore to improve the
outside surface quality of the LCD panel.
To do this, a specific code using the finite volumes
method has been developed to simulate the thermal behavior
of RHCM mold. The simulations were allowed to provide
the temperature distribution in the mold and hence to
optimize the thermal control system. In this work, we chose
a conformal thermal control system to regulate the RHCM
mold temperature. This configuration has a temperature
difference at the outer cavity surface of 15°C. With a view
to reduce further this gap, we have optimized the
geometrical parameters of the system. We are interested in
the effects of the channels diameter, their relative positions
to the surface of the cavity as well as their spacing. Analysis
has shown that to ensure more uniform temperature
distribution at the outer cavity surface, it is advantageous to
adopt the diameter D=6mm, a distance X=15mm and a
spacing between channels E=18mm. The optimum
configuration has increased the homogeneity at the cavity
surface of 67%. On the other hand, it turned out that these
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TEPE
actions cause a loss in productivity of the mold due to the
increase in the cycle time.
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