Conformal Cooling Channel Mold Design for Metal Injection Molding

Metal injection molding (MIM) is a process technology that combines the advantages of plastic injection molding and powder metallurgy technology, which is very suitable for manufacturing metal parts with high strengh, high precision and complex geometry. The manufacturing process covers a wide range of technologies, including mold design, mixing of powder and binder, injection molding, degreasing, sintering and secondary processing in the post-process. The success of mold design will determine the success of products development, which will directly affect the efficiency and quality of MIM production. However, the conventional 2D cooling channels may not be effected with the problem of non-uniform temperature distribution for multi-cavity molds, and may cause over heated, shaping defects of the product. In this study, we developed an integrated technology for the MIM product shaping and manufacturing, including MIM mold development technology for mold flow analysis, 3D conformal cooling channel design, metal additive manufacturing and CNC processing. Finally, through the optimized design of the 3D conformal mold cooling system, the cooling efficiency of the MIM product and the uniformity of the mold temperature are improved, which not only successfully improves the product quality but also increase the working cycle of the molding process.