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MATERIAL SELECTION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE MOULDS

Conference Paper · November 2007

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MATERIAL SELECTION FOR

HIGH PERFORMANCE MOULDS
Vasco, J.1, Capela, C.1, Bártolo, P.1, Granja, D.2
1
Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development,
Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal
2
Thyssen Portugal, Lda.

ABSTRACT
The plastic injection mould manufacturing is a highly competitive field, where appropriate
material selection is crucial for its performance.
This presentation will introduce the state of the art of mould materials considering both mould
performance and production costs. The impact of these materials in terms of processing
cycles, cooling behaviour, surface finishing and delivery times will also be discussed. The
development of novel materials with new properties will be introduced too.
Finally, new materials required for emergent fields like medical and micro applications will be
summarised.

1. INTRODUCTION reliability and machinability. Material

Injection moulds are the most referenced
tools for large production and massification
of common large-consuming items, from
home/office and personal appliances to
automotive parts of large dimensions. The
cost of a plastic part is highly dependant
on part’s geometrical complexity, base
polymer, mould design options and the
correspondent material selection and
machining times consumed during mould
manufacturing. In the particular case of
injection moulding, an appropriate material
selection affects positively several mould
evaluation parameters like plastic parts
quality and reproducibility, injection cycle
time and mould reliability.
2. MATERIAL SELECTION
GUIDELINES FOR INJECTION
MOULDS
The mould making industry has been
using several guidelines for design
purposes that have been updated over the
last few years due to the rapid
development of new materials and
manufacturing techniques. Steel has been
the traditional material for mould
manufacturing; however, several other
materials and composites have also
conquered their space. Nevertheless, steel
keeps its place on the top of material
selection due to its mechanical properties,
selection for injection moulds should be
done according to DIN17007, where
special steels are recommended for mould
manufacture. Tool steels exhibit excellent
mechanical properties for mould making
regarding in particular, hardness, impact,
compressive and bending strength. In
addition, heat and surface treatments can
be used to improve these properties and
also to enhance chemical resistance to
corrosive agents. The surface finishing
provided by steels is also an advantage on
mould making. Plastic parts have aesthetic
and functional properties. The job of the
injection mould is to replicate successfully
the plastic part for as long as required by
the customer. For a home appliance,
aesthetical criteria are selected, so,
polished or high polished finishing is often
applied on mould cavities. Also, if it is a
hand-held appliance, textured surfaces
may be required for a better grip. In both
these cases, are recommended degassed
steels to avoid material porosities. In the
particular case of lenses or other injected
parts with optical properties, vacuum re-
melted steels are strongly recommended.
3. PRE-TREATED STEELS
The increasing use of plastic on current
applications has made plastic parts’ size
grow. This fact allied to the well-known
market pressure on products and design
has decreased dramatically time-to-

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market. Pre-treated steels are a solution even the injection system if using hot-
for these problems, presenting initial runners. For these cases, material
hardness from 30 to 40HRC. Therefore, selection and feasibility is supplier’s
temper treatment is not necessarily responsibility. On the other hand, mould
required, depending on mould processing structure and especially cavities and
demands. The surface finishing is quite temperature control system require a
good, enabling polishing and chemical careful material selection. Material
texturing. However, the use of pre-treated selection for mould structure depends on
steels should be addressed considering mould dimensions and/or customer
the mould processing conditions and the requirements. Figure 1 identifies the mould
plastic material to be processed. The plates.
material might not be tough enough to
support all the mechanical efforts.
Nevertheless, pre-treated steels may also
be supplied with surface treatments
suitable to overcome material damaging
due to high-demanding operation
conditions. For pre-treated steels, some
surface treatments are commonly applied
such as 1) plasma/ionic nitrating, 2) PVD
and 3) laser hardening. Plasma/ionic
nitrating (1) is a thermo-chemical treatment
where nitrogen is diffused over the
material’s surface, forming nitrates,
enhancing wear and fatigue resistance,
compressive strength and also improving
chemical inertia on the surface. The
penetration depth for this surface
treatment is within 0,01 to 0,8mm
(Thyssen Portugal, 1997). PVD (2) is a
coating technique. The target (Titanium or
Tungsten) is vaporized on a gas
atmosphere (N2 for Titanium, C2H2 or C2H4 Figure 1 – Mould structure plates
for Tungsten), forming the desired coating
over material’s surface affecting 2 to 5µm Table 1 summarizes the commonly used
deep. Hardness is seriously increased (up materials for the mould structure plates,
to 3000HV) and tribological properties on depicted on Figure 1.
the surface are enhanced (Mattox, 1994).
Table 1 – Material selections for mould plates
Finally, laser hardening (3) consists on the
rapid heating of the steel surface to the Item Material Observations
Common steel used for
austenite region, followed by a self- 1 Low Alloy Steel
generic mechanical use
quenching to form a martensitic case. The Material selection for
laser beam is scanned across well-defined 2 plates 2 and 3 depends
Low Alloy Steel,
areas, inducing the correspondent phase on the estimated mould
Pre-treated Steel,
transformation (Pokmurs’ka, 2001). life, mould size and
Tempered Steel
3 injected part’s geometry
and dimensions
Common steel used for
5 Low Alloy Steel
4. THE INJECTION MOULD generic mechanical use
Common steel used for
7 Low Alloy Steel
generic mechanical use
An injection mould can be defined as a set Low Alloy Steel, Material selection for plate
of functional systems designed for specific 8
Pre-treated Steel 8 depends on mould size
purposes. The following functional systems Common steel used for
9 Low Alloy Steel
are recognizable on an injection mould: a) generic mechanical use
mould structure, b) guiding and centering Good thermal insulating
484 Insulating resin
material
system, c) cavities, d) injection system, e) Translucid plate, used for
air venting system, f) temperature control 511 Acrylic ejection system protection
system and g) ejection system. Some of allowing visual inspection
these systems may use commercial
standard components like guiding and
centering system, the ejection system or

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4.1. Cavities and cores
The high-demanding process conditions
often require high strength materials such
as tempered steel or stainless steel. The
processing of filled plastics, either by
mineral or metallic fillers is very abrasive
requiring high wear resistant steel to
ensure part reproducibility in those
conditions. Also the processing of vinylic
and fluoride polymers causes the
generation of corrosive gases, requiring a
chemical resistant steel, typically stainless
steels are selected. However, if processing
conditions are less demanding and
injected material is not too abrasive or
corrosive, pre-treated steels are also
suitable solutions, provided with the
appropriate surface-treatment if necessary.
Cavities often reproduce the aesthetical
surfaces of the plastic part, so, they are
the most demanding mould components
concerning surface finishing, either
through polishing or chemical texture. Pre-
treated steels enable polishing quality up
to B2/15 SPI/SPE class, making them
suitable as well for cavities and cores
(Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Cavity example and material options
Other material possibilities for cavities and
cores are high conductivity alloys (*) such
as Copper-Beryllium or Copper-Nickel.
These copper alloys enable high heat
transfer rates and temperature
equalization along the mould cavities,
improving cooling features dramatically.
Although their excellent thermal behavior,
copper alloys’ mechanical properties must
also be properly analyzed for a suitable
design.
Other options to be considered for cavities
and cores manufacturing are additive
technologies (**). Whether due to part’s
geometrical complexity or to mould cooling
needs, additive technologies such as
metal laser sintering, metal printing or
metal laser fusing can provide suitable
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components for injection moulding. These
techniques are bottom-to-top technologies,
so, they are able to build any freeform
solid. This capacity enables the
manufacture of conformal cooling
channels optimizing mould’s cooling
performance and plastic part’s quality.
4.2. Cam slides
This type of moulding element is subject to
an intense mechanical interaction between
components. Therefore, an appropriate
selection of materials, hardness and
heat/surface treatment is advisable. Figure
3 shows some material possibilities for
cam slide components.
Figure 3 – Cam slide example components
and their material options
For the cam slide element itself, material
choices are the same as for cavities and
cores. Considering the wear caused by the
motion between components, appropriate
hardness and surface treatment are
required. By choosing different hardness
values for each component type, it is
possible to control what components are
going to wear down faster. Like cavities
and cores, also cam slides can be made
from high conductivity alloys and additive
technologies. On Figure 4 is shown an
example of a cam slide with built-in
conformal cooling channels, obtained by
®
the LaserCUSING process, developed by
Concept-Laser GmbH (Edelmann, 2006).
Figure 4 – Laser CUSING® example of a cam slide
with conformal cooling by Concept-Laser GmbH
(Edelmann, 2006)

4.3. Jiggle pins
This type of moulding element lies on the
ejection plates’ motion to relief part’s
geometry and also to promote part’s
ejection from the mould. The components
with higher motion intensity are usually
supported by other components made
from self-lubricating materials like bronze
or the combination of bronze and graphite
as depicted on Figure 5.
Figure 5 – Jiggle pin example components
and their material options
Cooling needs on jiggle pins may require
jiggle pin rods to be tough enough to be
hollow and include an inner tube to
promote cooling fluid inlet and outlet
(Figure 6).
Figure 6 – Jiggle pin section view
detailing cooling channels
5. PRE-TREATED, HEAT TREATMENT
AND STAINLESS STEELS
These steel types are currently the most
common on mould making. However,
within each steel type there are several
options to analyze in terms of hardness,
toughness, thermal conductivity and
machinability. Tempered Steels show
higher hardness and excellent
compressive strength making them
suitable for high wear demands and
damage resistance. Furthermore, they are
highly stable when submitted to heat
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treatments, concerning geometry and
dimensions. The compromise between the
material features offered by each steel
type has a strong and obvious influence on
manufacturing costs and delivery time.
5.1. Thermal conductivity
Injection cycle time is strongly dependant
on cavity and core material. In particular,
core material is responsible for the
dissipation of approximately 65 to 75% of
the heat generated during injection
procedure (Engelmann and Dealey, 1999).
Cooling phase is a significant part of the
injection cycle, it takes up to 70% of the
whole injection cycle (Figure 7). Even
considering simultaneity on machine
operations, there is still room for
improvements on mould cycle.
Figure 7 – Injection cycle
A good mould design must comply with
optimal cooling solutions and material
selection plays an important role on this
issue. Pre-Treated Steels show good
thermal conductivity, ranging from 30 to
over 40W/mK (Figure 8).
Figure 8 – Thermal conductivity for
Pre-Treated Steels
Stainless Steels may be selected for
cavities and cores manufacturing due to
polymer requirements or customer request
however such option must consider the
low thermal conductivity offered by these
materials. In this case, cooling design
options must be explored extensively.

Figure 9.shows the thermal conductivity
values for Stainless Steels.
Figure 9 – Thermal conductivity for
Stainless Steels
5.2. Machinability
Machining times are a significant share
(approximately 50%) of the whole mould
delivery time contracted with the customer.
A right selection of tools and cutting
parameters is then required to optimize the
machining process in order to save
manufacturing time. Mould material can be
selected considering machinability issues,
however, there are mechanical demands
to consider. Machinability, in general
terms, can be simply understood as the
ease for which a material can be
processed by a material removal
technique. Another definition that
establishs a measurement index is relative
machinability. Relative Machinability can
be defined as the percentual ratio between
the cutting speed of the material to be
classified and the cutting speed of a
referenced material, both causing the
same wear rate on the tool, on a standard
test (Wyatt and Trmal, 2006). When
possible, the option for a good
machinability steel will result on machining
time savings, therefore saving costs and
shortening delivery time. Figures 10 and
11 show the machinability index for Pre-
Treated Steels and Stainless Steels.
Figure 10 – Machinability Index for
Pre-Treated Steels
Pre-Treated Steels show a good
machinability index, especially on the
newest material varieties.
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Figure 11 – Machinability Index for
Stainless Steels
As shown on Figure 11, Stainless Steels
are clearly harder to be machined through
cutting tool operations. The materials’ low
thermal conductivity induces high
temperatures on the cutting tools and
tends to form built-up edge by chip welding
on tool’s edge. The tool edge geometry is
then compromised, causing cutting forces
to increase, decreasing cutting process’
efficiency (Sandvik Coromant, 1994).
Proper tools and cutting parameters are
required to overcome this problem.
5.3. Chemical resistance
Stainless Steels are the most suitable
materials for processing polymers that
generate corrosive gases despite its low
machinability. Vinyl-based or fluoride-
based polymers and the presence of
additives like flame retardants form
corrosive gases during processing, forcing
material selection to the only reasonable
solution – Stainless Steel. Surface
treatment on Pre-Treated Steels can also
enhance resistance to chemical agents,
however with a significantly different
performance from Stainless Steels. The
corrosion tests shown in Figure 12 were
performed in saline atmosphere according
to DIN 50021 - Salt Spray Testing.
Figure 12 – Results for corrosion tests on
Pre-Treated Steels and Stainless Steels

6. TOOL STEEL SELECTION
In this subtopic, mould makers and
designers are guided for a suitable steel
selection depending on polymer type and
additives and desired mould life. Figure 13
is divided into main areas: 1) plastic
classification and 2) steel selection
according to desired mould life.
On the first area, polymer materials are
classified in two main categories,
thermoplastic materials and thermoset
materials. Within the thermoplastic
materials group are highlighted three
different requirements, low to medium
toughness steels, high toughness steels
and chemical resistant steels.
Legend:
New Pre-Treated (PT) Martensitic
Materiais:
Figure 13 – Steel selection according to polymer type, additives and desired mould life
(Courtesy of Thyssen Portugal, Lda.)
7. CONCLUSIONS
A good material selection is highly
significant on tool’s performance,
especially on injection moulds.
An adequate steel selection will enable
more reliable mould operation, a proper
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On the second area, for each highlighted
steel groups there are four possible
lifetime definitions, short run (1-30.000
cycles), medium run (30.000-250.000
cycles), long run (250.000-500.000 cycles)
and large productions (for productions
larger than 500.000 cycles).
Depending on the selected plastic type
and mould requirements considering
desired lifetime, mould designers may find
on Figure 13 a suitable method for steel
selection. In each steel group, are
available several types, ranging from Pre-
Treated Steels to Heat-treatment Steels,
with different hardness and mechanical
performance. Most steels may be provided
surface-treated as an option.
Structural hardened (PH) PT or Pulverometallurgy (PM)
Relieved
mould life cycle and injection cycle time
reduction (from the client’s point of view).
An adequate steel selection will provide the
desired surface finishing and suitable
machinability, therefore, reducing
manufacturing delivery time (from the
mould manufacturer’s point of view).

Injection moulds require proper material
and heat/surface treatment selection.
New materials, Pre-Treated Steels and
Stainless Steels, are proposed with new
and improved features, enabling optimized
tool design considering component
interaction in order to enhance mould
performance.
REFERENCES
Dewes, R. C., Aspinwall, D. K., A review of ultra high
speed milling of hardened steels, Journal of Materials
Processing Technologies, 69, 1-17, 1997
Edelmann, O., Laser CUSING®: Estado del arte de
las Technologias de Rapid Manufacturing, ASERM,
Barcelona, 2006
Page 7 of 7
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Engelmann, P., Dealey, R., Injection Mold Design
Guidelines, Modern Plastics, 45-48, June 1999
Mattox, D. M., Growth and Growth-related Properties
of Films formed by Physical Vapor Deposition, ASM
Handbook, Vol. 5 – Surface Engineering, edited by
ASM International, 1994
Pokmurs’ka, H. V., Influence of the modes of laser
treatment on the structure and durability of low-carbon
steel, Materials Science, 7 - 5, 2001
Sandvik Coromant, Modern Metal Cutting, edited by
AB Sandvik Coromant, 1994, ISBN 919722992X
Thyssen Portugal Technical Catalogue, Aços
Ferramenta, 3rd Edition, 1997
Wyatt, J. E., Trmal, G. J., Machinability: Employing a
Drilling Experiment as a Teaching Tool, Journal of
Industrial Technology, 22 - 1, 2006