FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF HEATING-COOLING SYSTEMS USED IN LAMINATING TOOLS

The paper presents the selection process of an optimal heating-cooling system for laminating tools used in the production of automobile parts covered with leather. Four different configurations of heating-cooling systems are considered. In this research, the following activities are done: design of heating-cooling systems, studying of these designs using the method of finite element analysis from a thermal perspective to obtain the differences between them, estimation of the efficiency of the systems by computing results of thermal loading, and analysis of the results in terms of deformations and tensions. After the selection of the optimal heating-cooling system, deformations and tensions are determined for different values of temperatures using the finite element analysis and are modelled to obtain mathematical relations.