Using additive manufacturing, Milacron is offering to unpack the intricacies of conformal cooling design for clients.
Milacron's DME Americas brand, Madison Heights, Mich., announced the launch of its TruCool service at the AD&M show. In partnership with Linear AMS, a Livonia, Mich., company specializing in 3-D metal printing, it is offering 3-D printed conformal cooling products.
As part of the new service, TruCool clients can submit their molding requirements to DME, which uses advanced modeling software to design optimal cooling channels and print the necessary components. According to DME, by employing EOS 3-D printers with direct-metal laser melting technology, it can achieve shapes, paths and channel geometries that would be impossible to create with conventional methods.
David Baucus, DME production manager, said molds with such channels significantly outperform those without. The channels permit complete thermal control and allow for conformal venting solutions for hard-to-reach areas of trapped gases.
"We found that the payback for these inserts is 3 to 6 months," he said. "Any machine that's already running, we can save up to 60 percent of that cycle time."
Compared to direct laser metal sintering, direct metal laser melting results in stronger and extremely dense parts, DME said.
