Lightweight injection mold using additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V lattice structures

Abstract

Injection mold requires a large weight, significant cost of material, safety management, and installation of auxiliary facilities. In this study, we realized a lightweight injection mold consisting of lattice structures through the additive manufacturing (AM) technology for overcoming these limitations. A compression test was conducted to understand the intrinsic mechanical properties of lattice structures according to density. Moreover, the external force applied to a mold using computer-aided engineering (CAE) was confirmed. Based on the results of the compression test of the lattice structure and CAE analysis for the mold, a lightweight injection mold was designed and fabricated to facilitate design for additive manufacturing. Furthermore, the lightweight injection mold was assembled into the injection machine and the injection test was performed. The weight and amount of material of the mold were reduced by ~79%, and the injection molding of 400 shots was successful using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) without damaging the mold.