Zhen-Zhe Li
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 23, no. 3, pp.607-613, 2009

Abstract : Thermoforming is one of the most versatile and economical processes available for polymer products, but cycle time and production cost must be continuously reduced in order to improve the competitive power of products. In this study, water spray cooling was simulated to apply to a cooling system instead of compressed air cooling in order to shorten the cycle time and reduce the cost of compressed air used in the cooling process. At first, cooling time using compressed air was predicted in order to check the state of mass production. In the following step, the ratio of removed energy by air cooling or water spray cooling among the total removed energy was found by using 1-D analysis code of the cooling system under the condition of checking the possibility of conversion from 2-D to 1-D problem. The analysis results using water spray cooling show that cycle time can be reduced because of high cooling efficiency of water spray, and cost of production caused by using compressed air can be reduced by decreasing the amount of the used compressed air. The 1-D analysis code can be widely used in the design of a thermoforming cooling system, and parameters of the thermoforming process can be modified based on the recommended data suitable for a cooling system of thermoforming.

Keyword : Finite difference method; Heat transfer; Thermoforming; Water spray cooling