Effects of different cooling channels on the cooling efficiency in the wax injection molding process

Designing the cooling channels of a new product is a very important step in the mold design. The cycle time is considered as a main factor affecting the productivity in the injection molding process. Generally, the cycle time can be reduced by shortening the cooling time during the cooling stage because the cooling time in the injection molding process takes most of the cycle time. The cooling time can be shortened by the molds with conformal cooling channels which are conformal to the molding cavity. In this study, rapid tooling technology was applied to the fabrication of the four injection molds with different types of cooling channels for low-pressure wax injection molding. The cooling performance of the four injection molds with different cooling channels was experimentally compared. It was found that series conformal cooling channel set is highly recommended as a solution to reducing the cooling time during the injection molding process because the cooling efficiency approximately 89.92% can be enhanced. The coolant flow rate has no significant influence on the cooling time.