Some Considerations in the Design of Cooling Water Circuits for 3D Printing Dies

In a conventional mold, the cooling water circuit creates an internal network by cross drilling and adjusts the flow rate and direction through a built-in fluid plug. The application of metal 3D printing technology in the manufacture of mold cooling waterways has broken through the limitations of cross drilling methods on the design of cooling water circuits. Mold design companies can now design the contoured waterways closer to the mold's cooling surface, with smooth corners, faster flow, and higher cooling efficiency.

So, are there any tips or precautions when designing 3D printing molds with cooling water? Diamond Tool and Engineering, a US manufacturer of injection molds, has partnered with its 3D printing molds to share some experiences on this issue.

Diamond Tool and Engineering, Inc. of Minnesota, USA, manufactures tight tolerances and multi-cavity injection molds for the medical industry. The company manufactured mold inserts for its injection molds with a conformal cooling water circuit. The design and manufacture of its 3D printed mold inserts was completed with the help of its partner 3DPrintedParts.

3DPrintedParts stated that the value of 3D printing technology should be reflected in the added value of products for injection molding. According to the market research of 3D Science Valley, mold making users can successfully construct a mold core with a conformal cooling channel through metal 3D printing technology, so that the temperature change within the mold is more uniform, thereby optimizing the mold processing in terms of time, cost, and quality. The process helps to shorten the processing cycle, reduce warpage, accelerate the delivery of injection molding products, and improve product design flexibility.

The 3DPrintedParts design team made breakthroughs in the traditional insert design thinking when designing 3D printing mold inserts, and summed up some tips and experiences in 3D printing mold insert design.

In addition to designing water-cooled waterways, the design team also designed lattice structures in parts of the mold to replace the original solid structure. The lattice structure means that printing materials and printing time can be saved while reducing printing costs.

When using metal 3D printers to manufacture suspension structures, it is often necessary to add support for the structure at the time of design. However, for the inner cavity structure of the cooling water channel, it is very difficult to remove the support later, such as the residual structure of the support structure in the inner cavity structure. Affects the flow of cooling medium. If these factors can be taken into account in the design and avoid adding support, then the effect of the support structure on the cooling performance of the mold will be eliminated. 3DPrintedParts stated that they can print overhangs at a 25-degree angle from the horizontal without adding a support structure, meaning that they can produce superior geometries without subsequent machining. .

1, pay attention to height and thickness ratio. In general, the ratio of height to wall thickness does not exceed 15:1.

2. Print powder removal problem. During the metal printing process, the interior of the cooling channel is filled with non-melting metal powder. Therefore, this problem needs to be considered in advance in designing and how the powder in the cavity structure is removed.

3, the shape of the cooling channel. A circular spiral waterway looks good or is relatively easy to model, but the cooling effect of this design is not necessarily the most effective, and the contour of the cooling channel will change as needed.

3DPrintedParts stated that since the design of the 3D printing mold cooling water circuit and the mold core is conformal, this design shortens the cooling cycle from 35-40 seconds to 6.7 seconds, which greatly improves the cooling efficiency of the injection mold.

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