Influence of Mold Temperature on Melt Filling Process of a Thin Plate Part with Microstructures in Injection Molding

Mold temperature is one of the most important factors that affect the product qualities in injection molding process. This paper numerically investigated the filling process of a microstructured thin plate with different mold temperatures. The governing equations for the filling process were discretized and solved using finite volume method. The pressure implicit splitting of operations solution algorithm was used to solve the pressure-velocity coupled Navier-Stokes equation for melt filling process. The moving interface between melt and air was captured by using the volume of fluid method. The numerical results show that increasing mold temperature can increase the melt temperature and improve its distribution uniformity in melt filling process. The freezing layer thickness decreases and the melt fluidity are significantly improved as the mold temperature increases. As a result, the replication ability of the surface structures can be enhanced. The freezing layer is completely eliminated and the surface microstructures can be precisely replicated, when mold temperature reaches the polymer-softening temperature.