709

Calculating cooling times for polymer injection

moulding

K A Stelson
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 111 Church Street SE, Minneapolis,
MN 55455-0111, USA

Abstract: Accurate cooling time calculation is needed for cost estimation of injection moulded parts.
Many cooling time formulae for injection moulding contain errors, though they may have been used
and accepted for decades. The purpose of this paper is to review the available formulae and to clarify
correctness from a theoretical standpoint. Ejection criteria may be based either on mid-plane or
average temperature. Deviation from the assumptions of the theory for both thin and thick parts is
also discussed.

Keywords: polymer injection moulding, cooling time, cycle time, cost estimation

NOTATION there has been an increased use of computer-based

numerical models of injection moulding. Nevertheless,
a part thickness (m) because of simplicity and convenience, closed-form
b part half-thickness (m) analytical expressions are still the method of choice for
c0 , c1 coe cients of equations (1) and (2) calculating cooling times for initial process design and
(dimensionless) cost estimation. Articles in the past decade by Yu and
F Fourier number or dimensionless time Sunderland [1] and Liang and Ness [2] have reviewed
t time (s) available equations for cooling time, but several cooling
tc cooling time (s) time equations are presented in each reference, causing
Tav average temperature (deg) uncertainty for practising engineers about which equa-
Te ejection temperature (deg) tion to use. The purpose of this paper is to clarify
Tf ®nal temperature (deg) which equations are theoretically correct, an issue not
Ti initial temperature (deg) addressed in other articles that review the literature.
Tm mid-plane temperature (deg) Dietzel et al. [3] and Menges et al. [4] list cooling
T … y, t† temperature, general (deg) formulae for many simple shapes such as cylinders,
y distance from mid-plane of part (m) spheres and parallelepipeds, but by far the most often
Y dimensionless ejection temperature used formulae are those for a ¯at plate of in®nite
extent but ®nite thickness. This is because most polymer
¬ thermal di€ usivity (m2 /t) parts are approximately plate-like in shape, and discus-
sion is restricted to this case here.
Cooling time formulae for plates are most often of the
1 INTRODUCTION form
µ ³ ´¶
To make accurate cost estimates for polymer injection c0 a 2 Ti ¢ Tf
tc ˆ ln c1 …1†
moulded parts, it is necessary to know the machine pro- ¬ Te ¢ Tf
ductivity in parts per hour, which depends on cycle time.
Cycle time is dominated by part cooling time, and it is where tc is the cooling time, a is the thickness, ¬ is the
therefore desirable to have simple but accurate thermal di€ usivity of the polymer, Ti is the initial
methods to estimate cooling time. In the past few decades temperature of the polymer melt, Tf is the mould tem-
perature and Te is the ejection temperature of the part.
The MS was received on 30 August 2002 and was accepted after revision The heat de¯ection temperature of the material is often
for publication on 20 December 2002. taken as an acceptable value for Te .
SC02502 # IMechE 2003 Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 217 Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture