In-situ monitoring of deformation in rapid prototyped injection molds

The ever growing demand for reducing costs and decreasing the time to market in today’s plastics industry makes rapid tooling prototyping a highly researched area. 3D printed injection mold inserts make it possible produce prototype parts small series fast cost-effectively. mechanical strength therefore life expectancy of polymeric are low compared their traditional steel counterparts. In order increase reliability inserts, in-situ state monitoring during molding is essential. this paper, we analyse effect thermal loads on resulting strains inserts. Three rectangular plate products were molded with different type insert each series. pressure inside cavity strain measured molding. We correlated maximal pressures changes other set up deformation characteristic results indicate satisfactory correlation between change second important result was that gauges can be applied monitor