Heating of Mould in Manufacture of Artificial Leathers in Automotive Industry

Abstract

This article focuses on a model for the creation of artificial leather production in the automotive industry. Aluminium or nickel shell moulds are used in the production of leathers. The inner mould surface is sprinkled with a special PVC powder and the outer mould surface is warmed by infrared heaters located above the mould. This is an economically advantageous way to produce artificial leathers used in car interior equipment. The article includes a description of a model that allows us to calculate the heat radiation intensity across the mould surface for every location of heaters, and to optimize the location of the heaters by using a differential evolution algorithm. The process of experimentally measuring the heat radiation intensity in the surroundings of the infrared heater by using a robot is also described in the article. The calculations were performed using a Matlab code written by the authors. The article contains a practical example including graphical outputs.