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A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment

Direct metal printing is a promising technique for manufacturing injection molds with complex conformal cooling channels from maraging steel powder, which is widely applied in automotive or aerospace industries. However, two major disadvantages of direct metal printing are the narrow process window...

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Autores principales: Kuo, Chil-Chyuan, Qiu, Shao-Xuan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8658173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34885414
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14237258
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author Kuo, Chil-Chyuan
Qiu, Shao-Xuan
author_facet Kuo, Chil-Chyuan
Qiu, Shao-Xuan
author_sort Kuo, Chil-Chyuan
collection PubMed
description Direct metal printing is a promising technique for manufacturing injection molds with complex conformal cooling channels from maraging steel powder, which is widely applied in automotive or aerospace industries. However, two major disadvantages of direct metal printing are the narrow process window and length of time consumed. The fabrication of high-density injection molds is frequently applied to prevent coolant leakage during the cooling stage. In this study, we propose a simple method of reducing coolant leakage for a direct-metal-printed injection mold with conformal cooling channels by combining injection mold fabrication with general process parameters, as well as solution and aging treatment (SAT). This study comprehensively investigates the microstructural evolution of the injection mold after SAT using field-emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. We found that the surface hardness of the injection mold was enhanced from HV 189 to HV 546 as the Ni-Mo precipitates increased from 12.8 to 18.5%. The size of the pores was reduced significantly due to iron oxide precipitates because the relative density of the injection mold increased from 99.18 to 99.72%. The total production time of the wax injection mold without coolant leakage during the cooling stage was only 62% that of the production time of the wax injection mold fabricated with high-density process parameters. A significant savings of up to 46% of the production cost of the injection mold was obtained.
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spelling pubmed-86581732021-12-10 A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment Kuo, Chil-Chyuan Qiu, Shao-Xuan Materials (Basel) Article Direct metal printing is a promising technique for manufacturing injection molds with complex conformal cooling channels from maraging steel powder, which is widely applied in automotive or aerospace industries. However, two major disadvantages of direct metal printing are the narrow process window and length of time consumed. The fabrication of high-density injection molds is frequently applied to prevent coolant leakage during the cooling stage. In this study, we propose a simple method of reducing coolant leakage for a direct-metal-printed injection mold with conformal cooling channels by combining injection mold fabrication with general process parameters, as well as solution and aging treatment (SAT). This study comprehensively investigates the microstructural evolution of the injection mold after SAT using field-emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. We found that the surface hardness of the injection mold was enhanced from HV 189 to HV 546 as the Ni-Mo precipitates increased from 12.8 to 18.5%. The size of the pores was reduced significantly due to iron oxide precipitates because the relative density of the injection mold increased from 99.18 to 99.72%. The total production time of the wax injection mold without coolant leakage during the cooling stage was only 62% that of the production time of the wax injection mold fabricated with high-density process parameters. A significant savings of up to 46% of the production cost of the injection mold was obtained. MDPI 2021-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8658173/ /pubmed/34885414 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14237258 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kuo, Chil-Chyuan
Qiu, Shao-Xuan
A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title_full A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title_fullStr A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title_full_unstemmed A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title_short A Simple Method of Reducing Coolant Leakage for Direct Metal Printed Injection Mold with Conformal Cooling Channels Using General Process Parameters and Heat Treatment
title_sort simple method of reducing coolant leakage for direct metal printed injection mold with conformal cooling channels using general process parameters and heat treatment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8658173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34885414
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14237258
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