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A simple method for enhancing the flexural strength of epoxy-based rapid soft tooling with conformal cooling channels

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Abstract

Injection molding of wax patterns faces increasing demands for production rate. Proper thermal management of the injection molding tool is capable of improving the production rate. Precise temperature control is a key to shorten the cooling time of wax pattern using the conformal cooling channels which are conformal to the molding cavity. However, the service life of the injection molding tool with cooling channels will reduce significantly because the flexural strength will reduce obviously. The feasibility of applying the increase in the mold thickness to maintain the structural strength of the injection molding tool with cooling channels was verified through simulation and experiments conducted. It was found that the average variation between the results of simulation and the experiment is about 24.9%. The approximate amount of the increase in the thickness required for different diameters of cooling channels can be determined according to the trend equation based on the diameter of cooling channel. The results can provide a reference for the conformal cooling channel design.

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Funding

This study received financial support by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under contract nos. MOST 110–2221-E-131–023 and MOST 109–2637-E-131–004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, New Taipei City 243, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chil-Chyuan Kuo & Zheng-Yan You

  2. Research Center for Intelligent Medical Devices, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, New Taipei City 243, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chil-Chyuan Kuo

Authors
  1. Chil-Chyuan Kuo
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  2. Zheng-Yan You
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Contributions

Chil-Chyuan Kuo: wrote the paper, conceived and designed the analysis, performed the analysis, and conceptualization. Zheng-Yan You: collected the data and contributed data or analysis tools.

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Correspondence to Chil-Chyuan Kuo.

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Kuo, CC., You, ZY. A simple method for enhancing the flexural strength of epoxy-based rapid soft tooling with conformal cooling channels. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 121, 1887–1897 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09455-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09455-y

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