INDIAN INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY

Course Seminar Report

ME 617

Conformal Cooling

Arun Sharma 153101013

Unmesh Pawale 153100069

Abstract

Introduction
While designing molds, effective cooling system design plays crucial role.
Cooling is very important in aspects of mold and the part for long tool life, less cycle
time and less distortion. Injection molding molds hot injected plastic in desired shape.
The plastic part must be cooled to the temperature point where it can withstand the action
of the ejectors and its shape is maintained after ejection. This process can produce wide
variety (highly complex geometries) of products and in large quantity in plastic material.
Therefore designing a proper mold have higher importance. Besides, the design of a
mold-cooling system requires a number of considerations, such as the composition of the
coolant, pressure drop of the coolant, and runner system. Among them, we focus on the
aspect of the three-dimensional (3D) shapes of the cooling channels, which should be
conformal to the given plastic part.
Tools with conformal cooling channels, which are fabricated by 3D printing,
(generally by Direct Metal Laser Sintering) have demonstrated improvements in both
the production rate and the part quality as compared with conventional production tools.
Sachs et al. examined their conformal cooling tools in industrial applications; they reduce
the cycle time by 15% and the part distortion by 9%. The high efficiency of a conformal
channel in thermal control is useful not only for cooling purposes, but also for mold
heating.

Fig. DMLS and design with conformal cooling channel

As injection molding process grows rapidly in industries, they are discovering advantages
of conformal cooling in maintaining temperature, reduction in hotspot region,
maintaining temperature uniformity along the flow. Besides that it reduction in cycle
time, higher production rate, improved plastic part quality.
Even so, many manufacturers, some of them with long experience in the industry,
still think conformal cooling is too difficult and too expensive. They think these things
because both used to be true.

Conformal cooling channels (CCC)

Conformal Cooling channels are channels design based on product contour. In
conventional cooling we generally does not consider geometry but it will be ineffective in
complex geometries, so CCC are the best solution for complex geometries.
The method to produce mold with CCC is DMLS. Because conventional drilling
methods gets obsolete as complexity increases. DMLS is an additive manufacturing
technology that produces parts from 3D CAD models by melting metal powder with a
focused laser beam, layer by layer, in strata as thin as 40 m. The first DMLS material
available to mold makers was a bronze alloy ideal for molds and inserts used in low- and
medium-volume production runs.
DMLS not only does eliminate the need for secondary drilling, but it also can be used to
make optimized cooling channels that closely conform to the surface of the mold cavity,
or that reach crucial hot spots that conventional channels cant. In addition, the channels
can be formed in shapes that add to the volume of coolant flow or that generate
turbulence to carry off more heatmaking the channels far more efficient and mold
temperatures more uniform.
Some toolmakers does not accept conformal cooling because they think they are
doing fine with conventional methods and making required profits without the use of new
technologies. But conformal cooling basically doesnt change the basic process. It
stretches new design and increases process efficiency to make more profit in same
environment. Other approach is Whats more, conformal cooling is a proven technology.
Over the past few years, benchmarks of conformal cooling against traditional processes
have documented significant reductions in two of the most important cost drivers of
injection molding: cooling times and scrap rates.

Effects of Conformal Cooling

Case Study Water meter cover manufacturing by injection molding puts light on
conformal coolings benefits. Tool of this is prepared by direct metal laser sintering.

1) Cooling System

Heat Transfer in Injection Molding

Heat removed from cavity to mold base to cooling channels
Heat removed from mold base
Mold surface radiation
Mold surface convection
Heat removed at ejection

2) Temperature distributions
Material thermal Properties for Mold and Part
Density (kg/m )
Specific heat (J/(kg K))
Thermal conductivity (W/(m K))

Steel P20
7800
460
29

Tmelt (C)
Teject (C)

Polypropylene (PP)
900
1900

220
70

ABS
1045
1950

230
60

Part is made assumed to be made from candidate materials Polypropylene

or Asbestos(both have different values). Mold is assumes to be made from
Steel.

Conformal Cooling (Heating Phase)

When molten plastic comes in contact with mold it gets heated and cooling system starts
working this is heating phase in system. During heating in conventional cooling start
temperature difference is very high, Because of no proper alignment of mold channel.
Cooling rate is nearly zero and then is starts increases as time increases. Cooling rate
never be constant in conventional cooling.
By using conformal cooling die can be prevented from higher heat treatment
(generally in injection molding plastic have temperature of 1100 degree Celsius ). Die can
maintained at lower temperature and cooling rate. So as to reduce distortion in part after
cooling.
Figure shown in below is result of experiment of temperature distribution test and
it is taken from VGO V50 thermo- graphic camera. And two different plots of two
cooling systems.

Fig conformal cooling vs conventional cooling heating phase

Conformal Cooling (Cooling Phase)

After die pressing there is some time to cool part and also mold. This time makes
crucial effect on produced part. During cooling phase constant cooling rate leads to less
distortion in final product. This advantage is given by conformal cooling.

Fig. Conformal cooling (Cooling Phase)

Effect on Cycle Time

For the considered case (water meter coverings) general cycle time is 55sec. Time for
opening, closing, part ejection and ejection remains constant as conventional, but CC
reduces 32% of cycle time as that of conventional cooling.
Most of cycle time utilized in cooling of liquid phase part. Cooling channels
makes impact on cooling rates also it makes easier to part ejection results in reduction in
cycle time.
For production of 100000 parts it saves 12000 (worth 864052 rupees ).

Effects on Cost
What cost benefits should you expect from using conformal cooling? That depends to
some degree on your production levels. In general, low-volume manufacturers get their
greatest savings from the reduced tooling costs of DMLS. Midrange volumessay, up to
a million partsincur savings from shortened cycle times that increase productivity.
High-end producers of plastic parts (in the millions) also reap the rewards of faster
cooling times, of course, but at these quantities, the elimination of scrap caused by
uneven temperature distribution becomes an important source of savings as well.
Familiarity with conformal cooling leads to other benefits as well. Companies using
DMLS are able to take on molding jobs their competition cant touch. Production
standards for quality and waste elimination can be much higher. Designers, freed from
cooling constraints and thinking in terms of design-driven manufacturing rather than
manufacturing-driven design, are able to create free-form shapes that would have
previously been prohibitive for injection molding.
Of course, there are a great many other factors that will still affect processing time and
quality. Clean, filtered coolant liquid is always desirable. Shorter cooling times wont
change your material insertion and part extraction times. And plastic part quality is
dependent on a great many peripheral factors: heaters, sprue and nozzle diameters, and so
forth. But if cooling times are creating a production bottleneck, or uneven cooling is
affecting part quality, optimized conformal cooling channels built with DMLS can save
you plenty.

Results
To present the easy use of technique and the cooling performance of the channels
generated by method, we demonstrate it on two example models with complex shape. As
illustrated in the following two case studies, method yields a global design solution
without extra post-processing, and all the conformal cooling channels are generated
automatically.
The simulations in tests are made using the injection molding simulation software
MoldFlow Insight. In the study, the melt of polymer is assumed to have a uniform initial
temperature, namely the melt temperature that can be selected in the software for the
cooling calculation. The ejection temperature of the molding must also be specified; it
lies between the melt and mold surface temperatures. Steel P20 is used for the partforming components of the molds.
The benefits of conformal cooling studied. Effects on temperature distribution,
cycle time, productivity, cost is elaborated in this report.

References
Paper on Automatic design of conformal cooling circuits for rapid
tooling

Yu Wanga,, Kai-Min Yua, Charlie C.L. Wangb, Yunbo Zhangb

a
b

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

https://www.youtube.com

www.fado.info
A Study on the Design and Effectiveness of Conformal Cooling Channels in Rapid
Tooling Inserts - Jonathan Meckley and Robert Edwards, Penn State Erie, The Behrend
College.
Automatic design of conformal cooling circuits for rapid tooling - Yu Wanga, Kai-Min
Yua, Charlie C.L. Wang, Yunbo Zhang - Department of Industrial and Systems
Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Additive ManufacturingA better way to create conformal cooling channels - Tim
Ruffner VP New Business Development / Marketing Manager, GPI Prototype &
Manufacturing Services, Inc