Development of SLM cellular structures for injection molds manufacturing

Using selective laser melting (SLM) is possible to manufacture molds with cellular internal structures with different porosity degree. Furthermore, internal geometry design can be improved as a function of the desired structural and thermal stress solicitations. In this work two types of cellular internal structures - hexagonal and cub-octahedral - were developed and manufactured using the SLM process. These topologies were generated with the purpose of creating a high degree of internal porosity and getting satisfactory results in terms of thermal and mechanical behavior when compared with similar dimensional bulk structures. The mechanical and thermal behaviors of each cellular topology were evaluated numerically and experimentally through compression and thermal tests. From numeric and experimental results, it can be concluded that hexagonal cellular internal topology provides a higher mechanical strength when compared to the cub-octahedral cellular structure while the thermal analysis shows that cub-octahedral topology is more efficient for heat dissipation. Both cellular topologies have demonstrated, however, to be appropriate for use in injection mold structures. In addition, the use of these cellular topologies provides light weight structuring with an approximate 58% weight reduction, which represents a considerable saving of material total cost to manufacturing of an injection mold.