Cooling in the injection moulding process is among major factors in manufacturing plastic parts, which—with the right settings and equipment—help achieve an appropriate final product. Increasingly complicated product design means that cooling channels made in a conventional manufacturing process no longer guarantee an optimal process of injection moulding. Uneven cooling in the moulding tool leads to warped products. Furthermore, the process will go through numerous defected samples before stabilising. In this master’s thesis, we will use numerical simulations and the finite element method (FEM) to analyse a prototype moulding tool. This tool contains conformal cooling channels, and is made with PolyJetTM technology. The main focus of the research will be on the tool’s response to different compression loads, while coolant pressure in the cooling system will also be considered. Before the simulation, we also need to review the properties of Digital ABSTM, which is the material that was used for the prototype tool. The properties of the material will be determined with a compression test, since compression loads are the main loads in the injection moulding process. Two types of samples will be used for the simulation: the first being Digital ABSTM that has not been subjected to loads, and the second Digital ABSTM extracted from a tool that has already been used.
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