Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.35, No.3, 247-251, 1995
Effects of Inserts on the Injection-Molding Process
Injection molds often contain blocks of dissimilar material for improved cooling; they may also contain blocks of movable metal as a means of ejecting large parts from the mold. In this case, the blocks of metal are made of the same material, but the resistance at the interface between them has a marked influence on the cooling in the local area near the interface. In many other cases, inserts may be required because of wear in a particular mold section, or because efficient mold design is needed to produce similar parts. Hence, any mathematical model for analysis of heat transfer in injection molds must be general enough to apply to interfaces with and without gaps (i.e., with and without resistance to the flow of heat at the interface) for similar, as well as dissimilar, materials. A new and accurate model for prediction of heat transfer in heterogeneous (zoned) molds is presented in this paper. Through the solution of real problems with this model, the effects of differing material properties and interfacial thermal resistance are studied and the results are reported. It is observed that inserts have both local and global effects on the injection molding process; the overall ejection time for a part may be shortened, and the surface appearance of a part may be improved by correct placement of inserts.
Keywords:BOUNDARY-INTEGRAL FORMULATION