Design of Conformal Cooling/Heating Channels for Layered Tooling

One of the advantages of Rapid tooling (RT) methods is flexibility in building conformal cooling/heating channels within a mold for enhanced thermal control, but tool size is currently limited. But Profiled Edge Laminae (PEL) method, which is a thick-layer laminated RT method intended for large-scale tooling applications, could allow more challengeable channels to layered tools. One of the biggest design issues with incorporating conformal channels in a PEL tool is to effectively seal the channels rapidly and inexpensively. Prior attempts in the literature at sealing laminated tools using diffusion bonding or brazing have been just the opposite. Recognizing that many manufacturing applications requiring large-scale tools (e.g., thermoforming, composites forming) do not need the temperature-resistance and strength of either diffusion bonded or brazed laminae, this paper investigates alternative sealing methods for laminated tooling.