STUDY GUIDE

Runners, Filling Software

& the Design Process
category: Mold / Part Design
course id: rt_1319_us

www.traininteractive.com
© 2015 Routsis Training – All Rights Reserved

Routsis Training
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 Table of Contents
ABOUT THIS COURSE 4
INTRODUCTION 4
OBJECTIVES 4
COLD RUNNER SYSTEMS 5
UNBALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS 5
NATURALLY BALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS 6
ARTIFICIALLY BALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS 7
RUNNER TEMPERATURE PROFILES 9
RUNNER CROSS SECTIONS 10
PARTING LINE LOCATION AND PART ORIENTATION 11
THE MOLD DESIGN PROCESS 12
MOLD FILLING SOFTWARE [MOLDFLOW-PART ADVISER] 13
MOLDFLOW–MOLD ADVISER 15
MOLDFLOW–INSIGHT/CYNERGY 16
CONCLUSION 16

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 About This Course

INTRODUCTION
“Runners, Filling Software and the Mold Design Process” is the ninth and final
program of the Mold Design and Moldmaking Series. Before beginning this program,
you should have already completed the first eight programs; the last entitled “Gating
Methods”.

OBJECTIVES
The topics that will be discussed in this program are:

x cold runner systems

x runner temperature profile

x runner cross sections

x parting line location

x part orientation

x mold design process

x mold filling software

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 COLD RUNNER SYSTEMS

To transfer the plastic resin from the machine nozzle to the gate, a hot or cold
runner system is used. Cold runner systems are the more common due to their simplicity
and low cost, and can be used with both two-plate and three-plate molds. The three
common types of cold runner systems used in the moldmaking industry, are the
unbalanced, naturally balanced and artificially balanced.

UNBALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS

Unbalanced runners are the least complex form of cold runner systems. Since
unequal lengths and cross sections are used, an uneven polymer flow and pressure drop to
each mold cavity is produced. These filling inconsistencies can cause over-packing and
flash to occur in the cavities closest to the sprue, and ‘short shots’ and sink marks in the
cavities furthest from the sprue.

Unbalanced runner systems produce parts that vary in weight and dimensions, yet
they generate the least amount of cold runner scrap because of the proximity between the
cavities and the runner. Unbalanced runner systems are commonly used for high-volume,
low tolerance applications.

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 NATURALLY BALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS

Naturally balanced runner systems use runners of equal lengths and cross
sections. This balance provides a consistent pressure drop throughout the runner system
and ensures that the material reaches each mold cavity at the same time. There are two
variations of naturally balanced runner systems. One type consists of radial runners
projecting outward from the sprue. This system provides the shortest path from the sprue
to the gate, and is ideal for molding round parts in two, three, or four cavity molds.

The use of radial runners is not recommended for molds having more than four
cavities, since the runner junction becomes extremely thick as the number of cavities
increase. As the thickness of the runner junction increases, so does the cooling time. The
other type of naturally balanced runner system uses a branched runner system. This uses
long, yet equal flow lengths to fill each mold cavity, and can be used with molds having
any number of cavities.

Since branched runner systems use a large amount of material, it is recommended

to use thinner cross sections to reduce the amount of runner scrap. Naturally balanced
runner systems can be used for virtually all injection molds.

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 ARTIFICIALLY BALANCED RUNNER SYSTEMS

Artificially balanced runner systems are used to help compensate for variations in
flow length. These systems use increased gate and runner diameters for cavities having
longer flow lengths to equalize the pressure drop for each mold cavity. The following
basic equations are used to calculate the pressure drops for each cavity during filling. It is
recommended to use mold filling software for complex applications that may require
additional process control.

In order to determine the pressure drop within the runner and gates of a given
mold, the apparent shear rate must be calculated. The apparent shear rate is a
measurement relative to the cross section of flow, as well as the polymer flow rate. The
formula for calculating the apparent shear rate through a circular cross section is as
follows: four times the flow rate, represented by Q, divided by the radius cubed,
represented by R, times pi (S).

After calculating the apparent shear rate, the apparent viscosity can now be found
using a chart for the material being used. Viscosity charts show both the viscosity and
shear rate of the material, and can be obtained right off the web sites of most material
suppliers. Now that the material viscosity has been determined using the apparent shear
rate, the pressure drop can be determined. The pressure drop formula for a circular cross
section equals eight times the flow rate, multiplied by the material viscosity, represented
by K, times the flow length, represented by L, divided by the radius to the forth power,
times pi.

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 The pressure drop equation for a rectangular cross section equals twelve times the
flow rate, multiplied by the material viscosity, times the flow length, divided by: the
width of the gate multiplied by the thickness cubed. To balance the pressure drop for each
cavity, runner and gate cross sections are altered. To reduce the pressure drop for a given
cavity or cavities, the runner and gate dimensions are increased. Decreasing the diameters
will create a larger pressure drop for the desired cavities.

When altering the runner and gate dimensions, be aware that risks are involved.
During packing, the smaller diameter gates freeze off before the larger diameter gates,
creating ‘differential packing’ and the possibility of unacceptable parts. Increased cooling
times are also a symptom of using unequal runner and gate diameters. As stated
previously, mold filling software can help predict these problems and their severity.

Artificially balanced runner systems are ideal for balancing the flow within family
molds. In such cases the runner system can be used to restrict flow to smaller cavities and
increase flow to the larger cavities. The artificially balanced runner system is ideal for
low tolerance applications and family molds.

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 RUNNER TEMPERATURE PROFILES

During filling, the material at the front of the polymer melt, as well as the material
along the runner walls, has a lower temperature than the center of the melt. To improve
process consistency, features can be added to the runner system to even out the runner
temperature profile. ‘Overflow wells’ are used to trap the cooler material at the front of
the melt, and allow the warmer material to enter the mold cavities first. Overflow wells
are typically located at the bottom of the sprue, at runner intersections, and just before
where the polymer melt reaches the mold cavities.

At runner branches, the material on the inside of the corners has a higher
temperature and receives higher stresses than the material on the outside of the corners.
Therefore, the polymer has a tendency to fill the inner cavities before the outer cavities.
This creates an inconsistent fill in multi-cavity molds, even when a naturally balanced
runner system is used.

Inconsistent filling can be reduced by using larger radii at corners and runner
branches or through the use of newer technology, such as the “Melt Flipper”. The Melt
Flipper, licensed by Beaumont Runner Technology, uses inserts at each runner branch to
mix the polymer. This technology creates a more consistent flow through each runner
branch. Shown here is how the “Melt Flipper” technology rotates the polymer melt, and
promotes a more even temperature profile throughout the cross section of each runner.
This also provides more uniform filling to each cavity.

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 RUNNER CROSS SECTIONS

There are five cross sectional shapes commonly used for cold runner systems: the
rectangular, trapezoidal, semi-circular, parabolic, and circular. The rectangular runner
system is machined into the mold using a square endmill. The vertical walls in this cross
section can cause the runner to stick during ejection. The rectangular runner is an
inefficient method of channeling the polymer melt, as the polymer tends to flow in a
circular cross section, leaving the four corners to freeze off.

The trapezoidal runner system is machined using a tapered endmill. The inherent
draft in this runner provides better ejection than the rectangular runner, yet is inefficient
in channeling the polymer. A ball endmill is used to machine a semi-circular runner
system. This shallow runner system is easy to eject, yet provides the least effective
polymer flow since the sides freeze off quickly and a great deal of polymer is wasted in
the corners.

Parabolic runner systems require the use of two different endmills. A tapered
endmill is used to cut the tapered sides, and a ball endmill is used to machine the semi-
circular bottom. The tapered sides of the trapezoidal runner system promote easy runner
ejection. This system is also very effective in channeling the polymer melt, since only the
top two corners of the cross-section are wasted.

The circular runner system is the most difficult runner system to machine, since a
ball endmill must be used to machine both halves of the mold. This runner system is easy
to eject from the mold and provides the most efficient polymer flow.

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 PARTING LINE LOCATION AND PART ORIENTATION

Determining the location of the parting line is one of the most important aspects
of designing a mold. As mentioned in previous programs, seals having high angles or
small radii have a tendency to flash and wear quickly. The most efficient seal is the butt
seal and consists of two flat surfaces.

Part orientation can often help to simplify the mold construction. For example, the
sharp angles on this cover would require a sharp angled parting line using the depicted
orientation. This can be improved by adjusting the orientation of the part, which lowers
the angle of the parting line. In the case of this mug, the current part orientation only uses
one slide for undercut removal. Unfortunately, the radial seal on the parting line provides
a poor seal, and can cause premature wear on the slide. By reorienting the part, a butt seal
is established. Even though two slides are now required, this provides a better seal which
is easier to machine.

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 THE MOLD DESIGN PROCESS

Although each mold has its own unique requirements, there are general
procedures to follow when designing an injection mold. The first step in designing a
mold is to review the existing part design. To avoid complications, the part designer,
processing engineer and mold designer should all be involved.

During this review, the processing engineer is responsible for assuring that the
mold can be filled and packed properly. The mold designer determines if any changes
need to be made to simplify the mold. Also discussed are gate location, part orientation
and the ejection method or methods that will be used. After the design review is
complete, the dimensions of the steel are determined using the polymer’s shrinkage
values. The upper and lower shrinkage values must be calculated to determine whether
the critical dimensions can be obtained. All questionable dimensions should be
thoroughly reviewed. If a change cannot be made to a part dimension or its’ tolerance, the
feature should be machined ‘steel safe’.

The core and cavity blocks are designed after the steel dimensions are established.
As a general rule, there should be more steel around the cavity than the depth of the part,
and no less than one-inch, or 25 millimeters. This helps prevent deflection from occurring
during injection and packing. If this is not possible, interlocks can be added between the
core and cavity blocks. These interlocks connect the blocks, and provide additional
support.

If applicable, actions are then added to the core and cavity blocks. When
designing actions, it is best to use standardized components since they simplify mold
construction and are easier to replace and maintain. Preload can be incorporated into the
core and cavity blocks by creating interference with the parting line. This improves the
parting line seal by centralizing the clamp pressure on the core and cavity blocks rather
than the mold base. In most cases less than five thousandths of an inch, or twelve
hundredths of a millimeter, of preload is added. Gates, runners and vents are integrated
into the mold design after the core and cavity dimensions are finalized and the actions are
designed.

The cooling line layout and ejection method are designed together, since they
often interfere with each other. Using standardized components for cooling will help
simplify mold construction and maintenance. After the cooling line layout is determined,
the mold base should be selected. The mold base supports the core and cavity blocks, and
houses all of the mold components. A standard mold base should be selected whenever
possible.

After selecting the mold base, support pillars should be added. The mold designer
should use as many support pillars as possible. All additional components to the design,
such as cycle counters, proximity switches, date stamps, mold straps, cooling line
connectors, and parting line locks should be added after everything else is in place.

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 MOLD FILLING SOFTWARE [MOLDFLOW-PART ADVISER]

Mold filling software is a valuable tool used to simulate the filling of an injection
mold. This software allows designers to optimize every aspect of the manufacturing
process, starting with part design and extending to part processing. The industry leader of
this software is Moldflow, and is the product that will be featured in the following
sections.

Moldflow™ offers three different applications designed to evaluate and enhance

both part and mold designs. Part Adviser caters to part designers, Mold Adviser to mold
designers, and Insight is an advanced program that gives in-depth analyses on issues
such as shrinkage & warpage, fiber orientation and cooling line layout. These programs
are sold in different combinations to accommodate both large and small manufacturers in
the industry. All of the applications support STL, STEP, IGES and Parasolid file
formats.

Shown here is a small electrical casing containing features such as ribs, bosses
and a thin section in the base, which may be problematic during manufacturing. By
running a quick analysis within Part Adviser, these concerns will be put to the test.
Preparing a model for analysis requires selecting a material and specifying the gate or
gate locations. The material database contains approximately seventy-five hundred grades
of polymer. For this part, an ABS and Polycarbonate blend will be used.

The gate location can be selected manually or through the aid of the automatic
gate location analysis. Shown here are the results of the analysis. Red areas indicate a
poor choice, whereas blue areas denote an acceptable gate location. After specifying a
gate location, plastic flow analysis can be done on the part. The confidence-of-fill plot
uses traffic light colors to display which regions of the model will fill properly. Red
regions have a low confidence-of-fill and are potential manufacturability problems, like
the thin area on the base of the part.
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 The reason for this is that the temperature in this region has dropped below the
specified limit. A list of solutions is proposed to prevent the low confidence-of-fill, one
of which suggests altering the section to have a uniform thickness. This change must take
place within the CAD model and requires the user to re-import the file. After altering the
model, a problem-free confidence-of-fill is achieved. There are several other plots that
can be obtained using the plastic flow analysis.

The Fill Time plot shows how the cavity is filling. Injection Pressure and Pressure
Drop plots indicate the amount of pressure required for filling the mold and the amount
of pressure loss during injection, respectively. The Flow Front Temperature displays the
warmer and cooler areas of the part during filling. To pinpoint areas where lack of quality
may be an issue, the Quality Prediction plot can be used.

The Sink Mark Index identifies sink mark locations, and estimates how deep the
sink will be. If sink marks do exist and surface appearance is critical, then design changes
may be needed.

To obtain a basic understanding of the cooling aspects of a given part, the Cooling
Quality plot can be used. Areas that differ from the average cooling time, such as thick or
thin sections, are highlighted in Red. A part report can be generated that details all results
obtained from the performed analyses. This report includes data, graphics as well as
animations, and can be viewed using any web browser.

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 MOLDFLOW–MOLD ADVISER

Moldflow’s Mold Adviser allows the mold designer to analyze and optimize
runner systems for single-cavity, multi-cavity and family molds. In the following
example, a six-cavity mold of the electrical casing model will be designed and evaluated.
After opening the file, the first step is to orient the part with respect to the mold opening
direction. Five additional cavities are then created and rotated so that all the gates are
facing the center of the mold. A parting line plane must then be defined and mold
dimensions determined.

Mold Adviser automatically estimates the absolute minimum mold base

dimensions. However custom dimensions can also be entered if necessary. Both 2-plate
and 3-plate molds can be designed. With the mold base setup now complete, the sprue,
runner and gate dimensions are defined. MoldFlow allows for both hot and cold runner
systems to be used in various cross sectional shapes. This mold is using six tunnel gates
in its cold runner.

After creating the runner layout, this mold can be analyzed. As depicted in this
filling animation, the unbalanced runner fills the center two cavities before the four outer
cavities. To prevent over-packing, flash and short shorts from occurring, this runner
system must be artificially balanced. This is done using the Automatic Runner Balancing
Analysis, which resizes the runner channels to balance filling. This feature is especially
helpful in sizing the runner systems used in family molds.

After the mold has been configured, Cost Adviser can be used to estimate the
overall part cost. The part cost is estimated in four steps; resin cost, mold cost, machine
operating cost and post-molding cost. This is an excellent tool for preparing quotes. As
with Part Adviser, a project report can be generated from Mold Adviser, which details all
of the results.

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 MOLDFLOW–INSIGHT/CYNERGY

MoldFlow™ offers a more advanced application with enhanced modeling, filling,

packing and cooling analyses. Since this program is more technical, it is geared toward
experienced users. As shown here, more detailed information can be obtained from the
various filling analysis plots. With the ability to model both the mold base and the
cooling line layout; mold manufacturers have the luxury of testing several different
configurations before the steel is cut. This advanced software can offer valuable insight in
optimizing any injection mold.

CONCLUSION

Upon completing this program, you should have an understanding of the different
cold runner types available, runner temperature profiles, cross sections, parting line
location, part orientation, the mold design process and mold filling software.

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