Additive manufactured conformal cooling dies are widely adopted in aluminum diecasting. The effective cooling reduces die soldering and produces products of reduced defects. However, the cooling effect is still evaluated in a traditional way as an overall effect by calculating the heat that is brought away by the cooling medium, which does not reflect the advantages of conformal cooling and may result in the premature failure of the additively manufactured dies. We, therefore, conducted simulation of the conformal cooling dies to understand the effects of phase changes of the cooling medium on the failure of conformal cooling dies. Stress concentration and corrosion are revealed the major factors for the premature failure of the conformal cooling dies, raising the awareness of the importance of heat transfer in diecasting involving conformal cooling dies.

Moderated by: Steve Cockcroft / Farzaneh Farhang Mehr