Local Heating of an Injection Mold using Selective Induction Heating

선택적 유도가열을 사용한 사출금형의 국부가열기술

High-frequency induction is an efficient way to heat mold surface by electromagnetic induction in a noncontact procedure. It has been recently applied to the injection molding of thin-walled parts or micro/nano structures. Though the induction heating has an advantage in terms of its rapid-heating capacity on the mold surface, it still has difficulty in efficient mold temperature control due to the restriction of an induction coil design suitable for the given mold shape. The present study proposed a localized mold heating method by means of selective use of mold material. For localized induction heating, an injection mold composed of ferromagnetic material and paramagnetic material is used. The electromagnetic induction concentrates on the ferromagnetic material, from which we can selectively heat for the local mold elements. The feasibility of the proposed heating method is investigated through an experimental measurement in terms of the heating efficiency on the localized mold surface.