Thermo-fluid dynamics modelling of conformal cooling channels produced with material jetting technology

Material Jetting is an additive manufacturing technology that uses photopolymerisation reaction to produce parts with high accuracy and low roughness. Moreover, because the support material is easily removed by thermal treatment, it results as an additive process able to guarantee very high level of shape complexity. Nowadays, thanks to new commercial polymers able to withstand higher temperatures, this technology starts to find applications in the production of insert mould for injection moulding process. The authors present a study about the thermo-fluid dynamics behaviour of samples of inserts mould having conformal cooling channels. The mould heat transfer performances were tested via experimental and numerical techniques. Results suggest that for the prediction of the transient thermal behaviour of these new polymers, it is quite important the accurate evaluation of material thermal properties. For the design based on numerical approaches, challenges could arise from the wide range of variations found on thermal properties.