Re: Thermal Conductivity on Epoxy Mould

From: Nick Osborn (Nick.Osborn@swiftech.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2002 - 12:03:54 EET


Albert

As developers of the Swiftool Rapid Manufacturing System (based on our Swiftool polymeric composite material) we have found that with composite material tools which do not have a thermal conductivity as high as that of steel / aluminium, one solution is to use air curtains / knives (which can be mounted onto the edge of the tool halves) to provide a good surface cooling effect. You can also use air lances for spot cooling.

We have found that this is the simplest and quickest way to decrease the cooling time required between cycles. You can of course experiment with conformal cooling, and running the coolant at -10degC or lower, (we have found on an experimental basis that liquid nitrogen is compatible with Swiftool and produces even better results) but this involves a bit more work. We have got as low as 13 seconds total cycle time in the past with (non-conformal) channels and coolant at -10degC, running a single cavity mould on fully automatic cycles.

Hope this helps.

Nick

Nick Osborn
Managing Director
Swift Technologies Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1354 650 789
www.swiftech.co.uk

"Real Parts Real Quick - Because Time is Money"

>>> "Albert Yeoh" <yeohps@pc.jaring.my> 23/01/02 02:59:12 >>>
Hi,

My factory is currently using epoxy resin to make mould (as a tool) for our
production use.

We are facing with the problem that the mould tends to heated up during the
process (the heat source from from the production process which cannot be
eliminated). We will have to wait for the epoxy mould to cool down before
the next process, and this has resulted in a very long process time.

We have some tried several ways to transfer the heat away from the mould but
do not help much :-

1) to make the epoxy mould a "good thermal/heat conductor" by mixing
aluminium powder to the epoxy resin/hardener, etc

2) to fix a cooling plate (with cool water running through) at the bottom of
the epoxy mould

We would like to know if anyone could help us to solve this ?

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Albert.

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/



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