International Conference of Additive Manufacturing for a Better World, 23-25 August 2021, Singapore

Hi! On Tuesday this week, we presented one of our recent works, Metal Additive Manufacturing of Conformal Cooling Channels in Plastic Injection Molds with High Number of Design Variables, at the International Conference of Additive Manufacturing for a Better World, held at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore. The conference scope covered various areas of additive manufacturing under the general scheme of "healthcare and sustainability". Our presentation was in the Metal Additive Manufacturing session and we touched on the challenges of the design of conformal cooling channels (CCCs)-including plastic injection molds with the high number of design variables. In general, the entire process of CCCs (from initial design to the final product) is relatively easy to model and optimize when the number of design variables is low (e.g. less than three). However, the increase in the number of design variables makes the design and solution spaces multidimensional; thus, the detailed steps of analysis, metamodeling, and optimization bring their own challenges. In this study, we presented the basic steps of this complex design and decision-making process from the initial step to the final printing quality check. The paper version of the presentation will be published in Materials Today: Proceedings soon (I hope). Any question, especially on the decision-making of the high number of design variables, is very welcome.