CNT 필름 히터 적용 곡면형 금형의 균일 가열기법 연구

Injection molding is one of most widely-used polymer processing technologies in which hot polymer fills a mold cavity, and is solidified during the subsequent cooling process. In the mold filling stage, the mold temperature should be high to improve flow characteristics, and low to reduce cooling time during the cooling stage. To fulfill these objectives, rapid mold heating technology has been developed to raise mold temperature, without significant increase in cycle time. While the conventional rapid heating technologies required dedicated facilities such as steam heating or high-frequency induction heating system and has a limitation in uniform heating, the purpose of this study was to develop a facile and conformal mold heating unit that uses a carbon nanotube (CNT) film heater. The CNT film heater was used to heat a curved mold with high temperature uniformity, by maintaining uniform distance from the mold surface. The developed conformal heating technology was then applied to a singly curved mold and a multiply curved mold. Considering that the resulting temperature uniformity is superior to the conventional oil heating, the conformal mold heating technology using the CNT film heater can be used to improve part quality and productivity in various molding processes.