Fabricate mould insert with conformal cooling channel using selective laser melting

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology can be used to fabricate plastic mould with complex conformal cooling channels directly and rapidly. In this paper, 316L stainless steel powders were used to produce a mould with an emphasis on attaining excellent mechanical properties. The precision, density and mechanical properties of parts were studied. Simulation and experimental results showe that the mould manufactured by SLM reveals good accuracy and performance, and the cooling efficiency of conformal cooling channels in mould is greatly improved and the uniformity of cooling is also upgraded.