Product Strength and Orientation Manipulation via Vibration-Assisted Injection Molding

Author(s):  
David C. Angstadt ◽  
John P. Coulter

This investigation focuses on determining why polystyrene ASTM specimens exhibit an increase in tensile strength when processed by vibration assisted injection molding (VAIM) while polycarbonate parts do not. VAIM is one of several polymer processing methods that attempt to improve product properties via manipulation of the polymer melt. Observation of birefringence patterns in VAIM processed polystyrene samples show a significant impact on molecular orientation. The same studies were conducted on opaque polycarbonate and were unable to determine the degree of molecular orientation via birefringence measurement. It was theorized that VAIM did not produce significant orientation due to its higher thermal conductivity and stiffer backbone. It has been determined by this investigation that VAIM processing does impart significant molecular orientation in polycarbonate specimens but still does not increase its UTS. It is proposed that increased molecular orientation induced by VAIM processing inhibits crazes from growing into cracks. VAIM therefore favors polymers that fail by crazing (e.g., polystyrene) rather than those that fail by shear yielding (e.g., polycarbonate).

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 1190-1203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuping Yang ◽  
Wenbin Yang ◽  
Jinghui Fan ◽  
Juying Wu ◽  
Kai Zhang

Thermally conductive and electrically insulating polyamide 6 (PA6) matrix quaternary composites were prepared by hot press molding and injection molding, respectively. The quaternary composites were composed of zero-dimensional aluminum oxide particle, one-dimensional silicon carbide whisker, two-dimensional flake graphite, and PA6 resin matrix. Morphology, structure, density, thermal conductivity, volume electrical resistivity, and tensile strength of two types of composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometer, thermal conductivity tester, high resistance micro-current tester, and tensile tester. The results showed that crystallinity, thermal conductivity, density, and tensile strength of hot press molding samples were superior to those of samples made by injection molding method. This is due to that hot press molding method can provide higher molding pressure and longer annealing time than injection molding. The mechanism could be explained that the performances of the composites were promoted by increasing molding pressure and annealing time.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kazmer ◽  
David Hatch

Abstract Process control has been recognized as an important means of improving the performance and consistency of thermoplastic parts. However, no single control strategy or system design has been universally accepted, and molding systems continue to produce defective components during production. The capability of the injection molding process is limited by the thermal and flow dynamics of the heated polymer melt. This paper discusses some of the difficulties posed by complex and distributed nature of the injection molding process. The flow and thermal dynamics of the process are analyzed with respect to transport and rheology. Then, two novel processing methods are described to enable in-cycle flow, pressure, and thermal control. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate effectiveness of these innovations to increase the consistency and flexibility in polymer processing. Such system design changes simplify the requisite control structures while improving the process robustness and productivity.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2543
Author(s):  
Paweł Muszyński ◽  
Przemysław Poszwa ◽  
Andrzej Gessner ◽  
Krzysztof Mrozek

Injection molding is a polymer processing technology used for manufacturing parts with elastic hinges. Elastic hinges are widely used in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) packaging (e.g., bottle closures of shampoos, sauces) and in the electrical engineering industry. Elastic hinge is a thin film that connect two regions of the injection molded part, where significant shear rates are present, which can lead to the degradation of polymers and the decrease in mechanical properties. Selective induction heating is the method that improves the flow of the polymer melt through thin regions by the local increase in mold temperature. In this study, selective induction heating was used to improve mechanical properties of elastic hinges by the reduction of material degradation due to high shear rates. To verify the change of shear rates, selective induction heating simulation and injection molding simulations were performed. The linear relation between mold temperature and maximum shear rate in the cross-section was identified and the mechanical tests showed significant differences in hinge stiffness, tensile strength and elongation at break.


Author(s):  
Andreas Schroeffer ◽  
Matthias Trescher ◽  
Konstantin Struebig ◽  
Yannik Krieger ◽  
Tim C. Lueth

Abstract The generation of plastic parts in small volume batches has an enormous economic significance. Application fields for parts in small lot sizes are the fabrication of prototypes in the design process or individualized products. The goal thereby often is not only to produce show objects, but functional parts with specific materials, high dimensional accuracy and proper mechanical properties in a short amount of time. The conventional way to produce thermoplastic plastic parts is given by injection molding and extrusion. Characteristics for this technology are the resulting good and homogeneous mechanical component properties, but shape freedom is limited and the process is time consumptive because an individual tool is needed for each product. Depending on the design of the part the geometry of the tool can be complex and an iterative process is necessary to create a suitable mold. On the other hand, the technology of additive manufacturing is a growing market for the quick and cheap production of parts as prototypes, but still the range of materials is limited and anisotropic mechanical component properties are ongoing problems. The combination of both technologies is known as rapid tooling, where the mold is produced in an additive manufacturing process and then used in an injection molding or casting process. This approach combines the benefits of both technologies in term of time and cost efficiency and good component properties. Problems here are the combination of different materials for mold and component and the missing process knowledge and automatization. In this paper an extrusion-based additive manufacturing technology is used to combine additive manufacturing and injection infill generation for thermoplast in one process. The proposed working principle is to generate the outer contour of the part by filament extrusion as mold to ensure high accuracy and good surface quality and fill the mold using an extrusion process of polymer melt without filament generation. Accordingly, the mold becomes part of the component and the same material can be used for the mold and the infill. Since the viscosity of most thermoplastic polymer melts is too high to fill big structures and undercuts, an algorithm is proposed to generate a chamber structure inside the part. Consequently, the fabrication process consists of several iterative cycles of mold generation and injection processes. For this paper polyamide 6 is used to demonstrate the process. Experiments were performed to find the optimal chamber geometry and size to avoid holes and generate a high quality infill. Several component properties such as density, tensile strength and fabrication time are analyzed. In spite of still existing blowholes, a higher component density could be achieved with the proposed process compared to additive manufacturing. However, the tensile strength is still significantly lower. The failures appeared at the weld lines, where warm polymer melt was injected to already colder chambers below. Still manual processes are sources of possible defects as well. The integration of a RFID chip is shown as an additional feature of the process of easy integration of passive electronic elements.


Author(s):  
Wendy Putnam ◽  
Christopher Viney

Liquid crystalline polymers (solutions or melts) can be spun into fibers and films that have a higher axial strength and stiffness than conventionally processed polymers. These superior properties are due to the spontaneous molecular extension and alignment that is characteristic of liquid crystalline phases. Much of the effort in processing conventional polymers goes into extending and aligning the chains, while, in liquid crystalline polymer processing, the primary microstructural rearrangement involves converting local molecular alignment into global molecular alignment. Unfortunately, the global alignment introduced by processing relaxes quickly upon cessation of shear, and the molecular orientation develops a periodic misalignment relative to the shear direction. The axial strength and stiffness are reduced by this relaxation.Clearly there is a need to solidify the liquid crystalline state (i.e. remove heat or solvent) before significant relaxation occurs. Several researchers have observed this relaxation, mainly in solutions of hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) because they are lyotropic under ambient conditions.


Alloy Digest ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  

Abstract Meehanite GB300 is a pearlitic gray cast iron that has a minimum tensile strength of 300 MPa (44 ksi), when determined on test pieces machined from separately cast, 30 mm (1.2 in.) diameter test bars. This grade exhibits high strength while still maintaining good thermal conductivity and good machinability. It is generally used for applications where the thermal conductivity requirements preclude the use of other higher-strength materials, such as spheroidal graphite cast irons, which have inferior thermal properties. This datasheet provides information on physical properties, hardness, tensile properties, and compressive strength as well as fatigue. It also includes information on low and high temperature performance as well as heat treating, machining, and joining. Filing Code: CI-75. Producer or source: Meehanite Metal Corporation.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1224
Author(s):  
Chil-Chyuan Kuo ◽  
Wei-Hua Chen

Silicone rubber mold (SRM) is capable of reducing the cost and time in a new product development phase and has many applications for the pilot runs. Unfortunately, the SRM after injection molding has a poor cooling efficiency due to its low thermal conductivity. To improve the cooling efficiency, the thermal conductivity of the SRM was improved by adding fillers into the SRM. An optimal recipe for fabricating a high cooling efficiency low-pressure injection mold with conformal cooling channel fabricated by fused deposition modeling technology was proposed and implemented. This study proposes a recipe combining 52.6 wt.% aluminum powder, 5.3 wt.% graphite powder, and 42.1 wt.% liquid silicon rubber can be used to make SRM with excellent cooling efficiency. The price–performance ratio of this SRM made by the proposed recipe is around 55. The thermal conductivity of the SRM made by the proposed recipe can be increased by up to 77.6% compared with convention SRM. In addition, the actual cooling time of the injection molded product can be shortened up to 69.1% compared with the conventional SRM. The actual cooling time obtained by the experiment is in good agreement with the simulation results with the relative error rate about 20%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6946
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Podsiadły ◽  
Andrzej Skalski ◽  
Wiktor Rozpiórski ◽  
Marcin Słoma

In this paper, we are focusing on comparing results obtained for polymer elements manufactured with injection molding and additive manufacturing techniques. The analysis was performed for fused deposition modeling (FDM) and single screw injection molding with regards to the standards used in thermoplastics processing technology. We argue that the cross-section structure of the sample obtained via FDM is the key factor in the fabrication of high-strength components and that the dimensions of the samples have a strong influence on the mechanical properties. Large cross-section samples, 4 × 10 mm2, with three perimeter layers and 50% infill, have lower mechanical strength than injection molded reference samples—less than 60% of the strength. However, if we reduce the cross-section dimensions down to 2 × 4 mm2, the samples will be more durable, reaching up to 110% of the tensile strength observed for the injection molded samples. In the case of large cross-section samples, strength increases with the number of contour layers, leading to an increase of up to 97% of the tensile strength value for 11 perimeter layer samples. The mechanical strength of the printed components can also be improved by using lower values of the thickness of the deposited layers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 659 ◽  
pp. 659-665
Author(s):  
Supakit Chuaping ◽  
Thomas Mann ◽  
Rapeephun Dangtungee ◽  
Suchart Siengchin

The topic of this research work was to demonstrate the feasibility of a 3D-MID concept using injection molding technique and investigate the effects of two weld line types on the structure and mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural strength and morphology. In order to obtain more understanding of the bonds between polymer and metals, two different polymer bases of polyphthalamide (PPA) with the same type and amount of filler content were produced by injection molding at the different processing conditions. A mold was designed in such a way that weld and meld line can be produced with different angles by changing as insert inside of the mold. The mechanical properties such as stiffness, tensile strength and flexural strength were determined in tensile and flexural tests, respectively. The results showed in line with the expectation of high reduction on mechanical properties in area where weld/meld lines occurred. The result of tensile test was clearly seen that weld and meld line showed a considerable influence on mechanical properties. The reduction in tensile strength was approximately 58% according to weld line types, whereas in flexural strength was approximately 62%. On the other hand, the effect of the injection times and mold temperatures on the tensile strength were marginal.


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