Modeling the injection of textured molds

National audienceMicro-injection molding is frequently used in micro-medical, micro-optic and micro-mechanics due to its effectiveness for mass production. This work focuses mainly on offering numerical tools to model the injection of textured molds. Such tools can predict the different filling scenarios of the micro-details and consequently offer optimal operating conditions (mold and melt temperatures, melt flow, stresses etc.) to judge the final part quality. To do so, a fully Eulerian approach is used to model the injection of textured molds on both the macroscopic and microscopic scales. Beginning with an industrial software Rem3D, the process is modeled on the macroscopic scale where the micro details are not detected. Although the melt temperature and evolution are tracked in time, neither the micro details nor the mold temperature are properly represented. Since the thermal transfers with the mold are very relevant due to the cooling ratio, simulation on the microscopic scale are a must to insure a complete and accurate representation of textured molds injection