How To Design An Injection Mold Cooling System?

Injection molding cooling systems are the heart of the mold and very important for the entire injection molding process. An efficient cooling system plays a decisive role in optimizing the cooling time of injection molds and the entire production process. To ensure that the minimum cooling times are achieved, you must have a complete cooling system. A fully cooling system can significantly reduce cooling time and thus improve the efficiency of your injection mold production. Cooling the injection molding is an essential step in the manufacturing process and once you have identified how to do this, you should identify the right cooling system and how it works.

In injection molds, the design of the cooling system is very important. This is because the molded plastic products can only be cooled and solidified to a certain rigidity to prevent the plastic products from being deformed by external forces after demolding. Because the cooling time accounts for about 70% to 80% of the entire injection molding cycle, a well-designed cooling system can greatly shorten the injection molding time, improve injection molding productivity, and reduce costs. An improperly designed cooling system will increase the injection molding time and increase costs; uneven cooling will further cause the warpage and deformation of plastic products.

Cooling system design in injection molding industries is of great importance because it significantly affects productivity and the quality of the final part. It would thus be very helpful for mold designers to be able to use a computer aided design tool in determining locations of cooling channels and process conditions to achieve uniform cooling and minimum cooling time. Towards this goal, the Boundary Element Method (BEM) has been applied to develop a system of computer aided cooling system design programs: (a) an interactive design program using a two-dimensional BEM and (b) a cooling analysis program using a three-dimensional BEM. 

When designing a cooling system for your injection molding, there are a few important issues to consider for cooling and reduced cycle time. Generally, all of the cooling channels in the mold should be close to one of the thickest areas of what you’re producing. Simultaneously, if your cooling channels are larger than the normal 10 millimeters, they must maintain the same diameter throughout the mold.

Even if your mold design is ideally matched to the application, providing the optimal cooling time for part quality, surface smoothness, and total cost, things change when the injection molding machine starts up. Keep these considerations in mind to guarantee that your injection molding cooling design achieves its full potential.