A scaffolding architecture for conformal cooling design in rapid plastic injection moulding

Cooling design of plastic injection mould is important because it not only affects part quality but also the injection moulding cycle time. Traditional injection mould cooling layout is based on a conventional machining process. As the conventional drilling method limits the geometric complexity of the cooling layout, the mobility of cooling fluid within the injection mould is confined. Advanced rapid tooling technologies based on solid freeform fabrications have been exploited to provide a time-effective solution for low-volume production. In addition, research has made attempts to incorporate conformal cooling channel in different rapid tooling technologies. However, the cooling performance does not meet the mould engineer's expectations. This paper proposes a novel scaffold cooling for the design of a more conformal and hence more uniform cooling channel. CAD model for constructing the scaffolding structure is examined and cooling performances are validated by computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis.