EFFECTS OF INSERTS ON THE INJECTION-MOLDING PROCESS

Injection molds often contain blocks of dissimilar material for improv ed cooling; they may also contain blocks of movable metal as a means o f ejecting large parts from the mold. In this case, the blocks of meta l are made of the same material, but the resistance at the interface b etween them has a marked influence on the cooling in the local area ne ar the interface. In many other cases, inserts may be required because of wear in a particular mold section, or because efficient mold desig n is needed to produce similar parts. Hence, any mathematical model fo r analysis of heat transfer in injection molds must be general enough to apply to interfaces with and without gaps (i.e., with and without r esistance to the flow of heat at the interface) for similar, as well a s dissimilar, materials. A new and accurate model for prediction of he at transfer in heterogeneous (zoned) molds is presented in this paper. Through the solution of real problems with this model, the effects of differing material properties and interfacial thermal resistance are studied and the results are reported. It is observed that inserts have both local and global effects on the injection molding process; the o verall ejection time for a part may be shortened, and the surface appe arance of a part may be improved by correct placement of inserts.