Mold Cooling System Design Using Boundary Element Method

Cooling system design in injection molding industries is of great importance because it significantly affects productivity and the quality of the final part. It would thus be very helpful for mold designers to be able to use a computer aided design tool in determining locations of cooling channels and process conditions to achieve uniform cooling and minimum cooling time. Towards this goal, the Boundary Element Method (BEM) has been applied to develop a system of computer aided cooling system design programs: (a) an interactive design program using a two-dimensional BEM and (b) a cooling analysis program using a three-dimensional BEM. In the present work, the injection molding cooling process is simplified by quasi-steady-state heat transfer in terms of cycle-averaged temperature. In this regard, a cycle-averaged heat transfer coefficient between a mold and polymeric material has been introduced for a cycle-averaged boundary condition. In the present paper, discussion centers on the fundamental modeling of the cooling process and the features of the BEM mold cooling design systems.