Investigations on the Fluid Flow Inside Devices Designed for the Automotive Industry. Case Study: Cooling Systems Designed for Plastic Injection Tools

Abstract

The paper presents a synthetic analysis of the main research directions regarding heat transfer and fluid flow processes in plastic injection molding, with a focus on the role of the cooling systems. Several works are analyzed. The literature review indicates that to investigate the complex phenomena occurring during the injection process, most topics refer to numerical methods such as CFD simulations, finite element methods, and finite volume approaches. Relevant results obtained by the scientific community show that the cooling performance is influenced both by the geometry of the cooling channels and by the flow parameters, especially by the Reynolds number. Additionally, it was established that inadequate cooling technologies can lead to a non-uniform temperature distribution inside the mold, which can generate significant defects, such as shrinkage and warpage of parts. The conclusions of this work emphasize the necessity to better control the cooling systems used in the plastic injection manufacturing, in order to improve both the performance of the process and the quality of the product obtained by plastic injection.