Efficiency comparison of conformal cooling channels produced by additive and subtractive manufacturing in automotive industry plastic injection moulds: a hybrid application

The stagesof this study, in which conformal cooling channels (CCCs) integrated mould core produced by LPBF (laser powder bed fusion) and CCC integrated mould core produced by SM (subtractive manufacturing), are used in a hybrid primary mould, consisting of design, numerical study, mould core production with AM (additive manufacturing) and SM, product production and mould testing with PI (plastic injection), instant thermal measurement with IRT (infrared thermography), and OM (optical microscope) examination. The findings of the transient simulation reveal that the additively manufactured CCC had a cooling time reduction of 234% when compared to the conventional straight-drilled CCC. In addition, the flow rate of the coolant in the mould core produced with AM increased approximately three times. Overall, the findings of the steady-state simulation show that the total cooling capacity of the AM-CCC arrangement is 5.9% higher than that of the traditional straight-drilled cooling channel (SM-CCC).