CONFORMAL COOLING
BETTER TOOLS
WITHOUT SACRIFICE
Conformal cooling has offered great promise, but producing it with other technologies has historically come with high costs and long lead times.
Mantle unlocks conformal cooling for all tools. With shortened tooling lead times and lower costs than traditional toolmaking, conformal cooling can now be added to any tool with Mantle.
REDUCE
CYCLE TIMES
ENHANCE
PART QUALITY
IMPROVE
PROCESS STABILITY
SAVE
TIME AND COST
WHAT IS CONFORMAL COOLING?
Traditional cooling channels are designed as straight lines since they are restricted by the drilling and machining used to create them.
With 3D printing, designers are not limited to straight lines, allowing cooling channel designs that closely conform to the molding part’s shape and contour.
CONFORMAL COOLING
WITHOUT ADDED TIME AND COST
Reduce cycle time with improved cooling
Enhance part quality with more uniform cooling
Improve process stability for better repeatability and consistency
BENEFITS OF
CONFORMAL COOLING
REDUCE CYCLE TIMES
Improved cooling efficiency significantly reduces mold cycle times.
Cooling is the longest part of the molding cycle, so even small savings during the cooling cycle can dramatically reduce cycle times.
INCREASE SHOP THROUGHPUT
ENHANCE PART QUALITY
Conformal cooling ensures uniform, balanced cooling, minimizing residual stresses, warpage, and distortion in molded parts.
The result is a molded part with improved dimensional accuracy, fewer defects, and enhanced surface finish.
DESIGN FLEXIBILITY
COST SAVINGS AND ENERGY REDUCTION
Faster production cycles lead to lower energy consumption, reduced machine idle time, and increased machine utilization.
The improved part quality reduces the need for reworking or scraping, saving material costs.
PROCESS STABILITY
Conformal cooling maintains consistent temperatures throughout the mold, reducing temperature variations affecting part dimensions, material flow, and overall process stability.
That stability leads to improved repeatability and consistency when producing high-quality parts. This improved stability is especially critical when molding hard-to-work plastics, like bio-based or highly-filled materials.
EXAMPLES OF
CONFORMAL COOLING
MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURING AID
Conformal cooling enabled: better temperature uniformity
- Insert lead time reduced from 3 weeks to 5 days
- Only 2 hours of active labor were required from the Westec Plastics team
- Conformal cooling allowed for easier final finishing since channels didn’t need to be drilled, tapped, and plugged
MEDICAL TWEEZER INSERTS
Conformal cooling enabled: the precise insert temperature control needed for 65% glass-filled, bio-based PA11, a difficult-to-mold material
- From part design to molded parts within 3 weeks
- Mantle-printed inserts were used with no post-processing to the molding surfaces
- Successfully molded bio-based, recyclable 65% glass-filled PA11 polymer
- Used a sub gate that saw no erosion
AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENT CAVITY
Conformal cooling enabled: reduced cycle time by 25%
- Printing saved 25% of attended manufacturing hours vs. traditional manufacturing
- The printed insert had a surface finish of 1-3 μm Ra (D2) off the printer, which was able to be used for molding with no post-processing
- The printed insert held a +/- 0.002” tolerance across 3” x 3” x 2” without post-processing
BOTTLE BLOW MOLD
Conformal cooling enabled: improved part quality
- Conformal cooling was used to address heat-blushing challenges during molding
- Tool life was lengthened to last through the development molding of over 10,000+ shots
- By printing with Mantle, the tool was produced in less than 9 days
Molding surfaces were left as printed - The printed tool required minimal post-processing
- Grinding to the top and bottom
- Hard milling the base and o-ring groove
