Determining the Influencing Factors on the Cooling of a 3D Printed Thermoforming Mould

Using a mould for thermoforming produced by fused filament fabrication implies several limitations, such as thermal damage due to the low thermal conductivity properties of the plastic material. For the cooling of the plastic mould, many different approaches and influencing factors can be considered. This paper identifies those factors, and based on statistical DOE, adequate experiments have been conducted to analyze the influence of process variables. The results reveal that by using the Voronoi pattern performs an optimum, uniform, and effective cooling. By using the PLA material, the lowest temperatures are obtained in the case of moulds with Conformal Cooling channels.