Livonia, Mich.-based mold maker Linear Mold and Engineering Inc. uses three-dimensional printers from EOS GmbH to create mold inserts with conformal cooling lines for injection molds.
Conformal cooling channels are curved to get the cooling close to the parts, or target more cooling water to thick areas, which are harder to cool.
The EOS printers use the direct metal laser sintering process (DMLS).
“The DMLS process provides an optimum way to build conformal cooling lines that offer a better option for injection molds that require conformal cooling,” said Lou Young, Linear Mold's director of new business development for tooling and manufacturing. “Building molds with laminated conformal cooling plates never really caught on-no one wants to build molds in tiny little sections. Using DMLS, or the selected laser melting process, gives a lot more validity to the molding process in being able to hold molding pressures without the potential for leakage. It provides a more robust process.”
Tel. 734-422-6060, www.linearmold.com.