Evaluation of the thermal behaviour of injection moulds

It is well known that the thermal behavior of moulds used for thermoplastic s processing has an important effect on both the part quality and the proce ss productivity. The present work reports a study on the evaluation of the relative effect of different geometric and operational parameters on the th ermal behavior of injection moulds. It uses a mathematical model developed to simulate the thermal transient exchanged during the entire moulding cycl e. the model is based on a 2D Fourier equation, uses an adaptive grid and d escribes the thermal contact resistance at mould/polymer interface. The coo ling time and the interface temperature distribution are calculated from th e computed temperature field in the domain under study. Experimental data, obtained with an instrumented tool during typical production conditions, is used to validate the developed model. the evaluation analysis is based on the Taguchi methodology used to rank the relative effective of the paramete rs on the selected variables (cooling time, temperature distribution and nu mber of cycles to reach the thermal steady state).