8. Conclusion

This paper proposes a global analysis of heat transfer in the thermoplastics injection molding process, both on the injected part and on the tooling. Analytical models based on one-dimensional heat transfer for predicting cooling times for amorphous and semi-crystalline polymers are proposed, taking into account the coupling between the part and the tooling through the consideration of contact thermal resistance and phase change. Comparisons with experimental results validate these models.

A summary of various techniques for designing thermally-optimized tooling is also provided. The reader is thus provided with a range of tools for both thermal and hydraulic tool sizing.

The thermal optimization methodology presented for thermoplastic injection molding can potentially be transposed to a wide range of forming processes. These include extrusion,...