Effect of the layout design of hive-shaped conformal cooling channels on the deflection of family molds

Family molds can be used to simultaneously produce a variety of parts with different shapes that are made of the same plastic material. Studies on family molds have mostly focused on the layouts of different parts in a mold or the design of runner systems. Cold runners are rarely used in the conformal cooling channel (CCC)-related studies because, under normal circumstances, the mold cavity cooling time should be shortened as much as possible. However, a runner system does the opposite by extending the cooling time to provide sufficient melt and pressure to the mold cavity and ensure high part quality; accordingly, the effect of cold runners was often overlooked in CCC-related studies to reduce variability. In this study, a cooling channel layout design (LD)-based method was developed for the design of a hive-shaped CCC. Moldflow was used to simulate and compare the performance of the channel layouts with horizontal parallel connection, horizontal series connection, vertical parallel connection, and vertical series connection. The performance of the proposed hive-shaped CCCs was also compared with an SCC and a honeycomb CCC. The results of this study verified that the proposed LD-based method can be used to establish a hive-shaped CCC automatically. Compared with other CCCs, the established hive-shaped CCC provides stronger support to the mold cavity, shortens the cooling cycle, and improves part quality.