About CONFORM

What is CONFORM?

CONFORM is an acronym for a project titled “Development and Performance Analysis of Sustainable Conformal Cooling Channels”. This project is being worked upon by a Research Support Officer I and a number of supervisors with the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Malta. This project is funded by the Transdisciplinary Research and Knowledge Exchange Centre (TRAKE), an EU-funded programme.

The CONFORM project is a multi-disciplinary project which focuses on polymer engineering and sustainability.

What is Injection Moulding?​

Injection moulding is one of the most widely used manufacturing processes in the plastic industry. This process is also very energy intensive and, therefore, in the constant strive for a more sustainable manufacturing industry, injection moulding has been the focus of many studies which aim to create a more sustainable plastics manufacturing process. The injection moulding cycle consists of various phases. However, the longest phase of the cycle is the cooling phase, which typically takes up around 60-80% of the overall cycle time. Therefore, in order to create a more sustainable injection moulding cycle, the cooling phase is the most effective portion of the cycle to focus on.  [1] [2] [3] 

Types of Cooling Channels

Traditionally, conventional cooling channels were used in injection moulds. Conventional cooling channels are channels the geometries of which only consist of straight lines. The constraint to straight lines came about as the only way of manufacturing the cooling channels into the mould was through the use of drills. However, with the advent of metal 3D printing, so came the advent of what are known as Conformal Cooling Channels (CCCs). CCCs are created during the manufacture of the mould using metal additive manufacturing. This is why CCCs can take on various complex geometries, allowing them to follow the geometry of the plastic part to be produced more closely. This is advantageous because when uniform distance is kept between the cooling channel and the surface of the plastic part, more homogeneous cooling is possible. Inhomogeneous cooling leads to defects in the plastic part including warped side and sink marks.

CONFORM’s Aim

The aim of the project CONFORM is to design a novel type of CCC to make the cooling phase more effective and efficient. The effectiveness of the cooling phase relates to the quality of the plastic part produced and the efficiency of the cooling phase refers to the cooling time. By making the cooling process more effective and efficient, CONFORM is creating a more sustainable injection moulding process.