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Mould tools

Learn about tool design, materials, and decision matrices for effective mould tooling. Explore heating, cooling, lost cores, clamping, and ancillary materials and systems. Enhance your understanding of tool size, complexity, materials, and more.

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Mould tools

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  1. Mould tools John Summerscales

  2. Outline of lecture • tool design • tool materials • decision matrix • heating and cooling • lost cores • clamping • ancillary materials and systems

  3. Tool design size, complexity and dimensional tolerances surface finish thermal expansion, conductivity etc holes, bosses and ribs inserts and fasteners re-entrants/multi-part moulds number of components to be produced durability ease of modification and repairability

  4. Tool materials • Reductive manufacture (CNC machining) • steel • aluminium • monolithic graphite • syntactic foam (hollow microsphere composite) • Additive manufacture • wet lay-up glass reinforced plastics • prepreg carbon fibre composite • electroform nickel (EFN) • backing structures • Plastech MITTMMultiple Insert Tooling

  5. Pre-preg/EFN tooling • master • splash tool • HT male mandrel/bath masterLTM tooling system omits this stage • Female tool LTM tooling system omits this stage • Toolwith backing structure

  6. Decision matrix: tooling options

  7. Decision matrix: tooling options

  8. Tracking barcodes or RFID inserts may be attached to mould tools to permit integration, e.g. with resin delivery systems, and automation.

  9. Heating • fluid in pipes • embedded electrical heaters • ovens and autoclaves Cooling • fluid in pipes

  10. Embedded heaters 1 • Thermion fabric • Gorix ECT • Plastech cotton/lycra heater cloth

  11. Embedded heaters 2 • PPM Solutions • Plastech copper piping

  12. Heating performance • comparison of cure cycle for 11 mm laminate on heated tool and in oven. • two temperature traces in each case are for the opposed laminate faces heated tool oven

  13. Simulated temperature distribution steady-state temperature distribution over tool (below) and laminate (above), for fixed heater temperature of 130°C model =¼ flat tool(symmetric).

  14. Thermographic monitoring infrared (IR) camera image ofan electrically-heated tool-plate showing hot spots due towrinkled heater cloth

  15. Thermogram of electrically-heated mould tool 1 tool face during heat-up showing cool spots/lines corresponding to the thermocouple positions/wires and cooler outline at the resin-rich mould cavity lip

  16. Thermogram of electrically-heated mould tool 2 • tool face at target temperature of 90°C showing ~10°C variation across the component

  17. Thermogram of electrically-heated mould tool 3 insulated back surface during dwell at 90°C

  18. Thermogram of electrically-heated mould tool 4 tool back face (GRP side) without insulation showing the resistive heater element spacing (horizontal shading)

  19. Lost cores • rubber/elastomers [Musch and Bishop] • inflatable mandrels [Musch and Bishop] • low melting point alloys [Haines] • candle or paraffin wax (melting points typically 50-90ºC) • soluble salts or plaster (subsequently washed or machined out) • Plastech SmartCore (granules enclosed in a shaped vacuum bag)

  20. Clamping • bolts • labour intensive, low pressure • hydraulic press • capital equipment, good alignment • vacuum • inexpensive, limit ~1000 mbar, sealing issues • 10 tonnes (one bus) per square metre

  21. Ancillary materials and systems • mould release (coatings and films) • bagging films (1-sided moulds) • breather and bleeder cloths (vacuum bag) • flow media (infusion) • tacky tape - edge dams - breach units • pressure intensifiers • preforming supports

  22. Acknowledgements • the respective companies for illustrations of the embedded heaters • Dr Stephen Grove for the performance graph and simulation • Dave Nelson of FLIR Systems Limited for wrinkled heater cloth thermograms • Scott Foster of Metrum Information Storage Limited for skeg thermograms

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