Thermal-transient analysis for cooling time on new formulation of Metal Epoxy Composite (MEC) as mold inserts

Abstract

In injection molding process (IMP), the cooling phase is greatly affected by thermal conductivity as the main factor for conductive heat transfer which represents about 70–80% of the cycle time. Recently, most researchers focus on overcoming the limitation with regard to poor thermal conductivity by developing a new formulation of metal epoxy composite materials as mold inserts for rapid tooling (RT) in IMP. Thus, this research investigates the performance of the cooling efficiency of mold inserts fabricated using epoxy resin mixed with filler particles consisting of aluminum, brass and copper. The transient thermal analysis carried out using the ANSYS simulation software was used to evaluate cooling performance of mold inserts made from various types of filler particles mixed with epoxy. The results obtained will be compared with the results of using P20 mold steel, which is the common material used as mold insert for RT. The simulation results showed that inserting a copper filler particle in the epoxy mold inserts was able to improve the efficiency of cooling time and definitely improve the cycle time of IMP. It is expected that a better mold insert in terms of cooling efficiency could be produced using RT technologies, thus, offering more profit to the molding industries without compromising the quality of molded parts produced.H