The experimental study on the defects occurrence of SL mold in injection molding

Past experience has shown that the defects occurrence in injection-molded parts of metal mold included weld line, flow mark and solid skin. In this study, a thin wall cavity is designed as flow path for plastic injection mold. The injection molding tests were performed by using metal mold and stereolithography (SL) mold to compare with the flow behavior and defects occurrence of flat parts. The experiments were performed with various process parameters to investigate the defects occurrence in the injection-molded parts. The experimental results showed that defects occurrence has close relation with injection speeds and mold temperatures. Flow marks of SL mold occur more easily when the mold temperature and the injection speed are low. Moreover, the injection-molded parts were examined whether the surface defects (flow mark and weld line) occurred and analyzed as the reference for the future SL mold design.