A Simulative Study Into Injection Molding of Parts With Elastic Hinges by Applying Selective Heating

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Mrozek ◽  
Przemysław Poszwa ◽  
Paweł Muszyński ◽  
Roman Staniek
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Polymer Chains ◽  
Internal Stresses ◽  
Production Cycle ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Narrow Channels ◽  
Molten Polymer

In the conventional injection molding process a constant temperature of the mold is required depending on the type of injected polymer. Cooling process usually takes 2/3 of the entire production cycle time, so reduction of cooling time should lead to the decrease of the manufacturing cost. In practice, lower mold temperature can lead to the occurrence of the unwanted defects. The most common defects include short shots, diesel effect, visible weld lines, excessive internal stresses and warp. Those defects are more common and evident when injected parts are fitted with thin elastic hinges, where flow of the molten polymer through the very narrow channels causes the shear of polymer chains. In this work, a concept and simulative studies of selectively heated injection molds are presented. The idea of the novel technology is to heat only certain regions of the cavity where molten polymer cools down rapidly or where cavity cross-section is very narrow. It can be achieved with induction heating technology. The results showed that apart from the hinge geometry, the forming temperatures played an important role in shearing of polymer chains. The changes of analyzed parameters also influenced how material filled the cavity.

scholarly journals Study on External Gas-Assisted Mold Temperature Control with the Assistance of a Flow Focusing Device in the Injection Molding Process

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Truong Giang ◽  
Pham Son Minh ◽  
Tran Anh Son ◽  
Tran Minh The Uyen ◽  
Thanh-Hai Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Melt Flow ◽  
Flow Focusing ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Heating Efficiency ◽  
Flow Length ◽  
Insert Plate

In the injection molding field, the flow of plastic material is one of the most important issues, especially regarding the ability of melted plastic to fill the thin walls of products. To improve the melt flow length, a high mold temperature was applied with pre-heating of the cavity surface. In this paper, we present our research on the injection molding process with pre-heating by external gas-assisted mold temperature control. After this, we observed an improvement in the melt flow length into thin-walled products due to the high mold temperature during the filling step. In addition, to develop the heating efficiency, a flow focusing device (FFD) was applied and verified. The simulations and experiments were carried out within an air temperature of 400 °C and heating time of 20 s to investigate a flow focusing device to assist with external gas-assisted mold temperature control (Ex-GMTC), with the application of various FFD types for the temperature distribution of the insert plate. The heating process was applied for a simple insert model with dimensions of 50 mm × 50 mm × 2 mm, in order to verify the influence of the FFD geometry on the heating result. After that, Ex-GMTC with the assistance of FFD was carried out for a mold-reading process, and the FFD influence was estimated by the mold heating result and the improvement of the melt flow length using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The results show that the air sprue gap (h) significantly affects the temperature of the insert and an air sprue gap of 3 mm gives the best heating rate, with the highest temperature being 321.2 °C. Likewise, the actual results show that the height of the flow focusing device (V) also influences the temperature of the insert plate and that a 5 mm high FFD gives the best results with a maximum temperature of 332.3 °C. Moreover, the heating efficiency when using FFD is always higher than without FFD. After examining the effect of FFD, its application was considered, in order to improve the melt flow length in injection molding, which increased from 38.6 to 170 mm, while the balance of the melt filling was also clearly improved.

scholarly journals Prediction of the maximum flow length of a thin injection molded part

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 783-795
Author(s):  
Sara Liparoti ◽  
Vito Speranza ◽  
Annarita De Meo ◽  
Felice De Santis ◽  
Roberto Pantani
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Maximum Flow ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Complete Characterization ◽  
Rheological Parameters ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Spiral Flow ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Molded Part ◽  
Flow Length

AbstractOne of the most significant issues, when thin parts have to be obtained by injection molding (i.e. in micro-injection molding), is the determination of the conditions of pressure, mold temperature, and injection temperature to adopt to completely fill the cavity. Obviously, modern computational methods allow the simulation of the injection molding process for any material and any cavity geometry. However, this simulation requires a complete characterization of the material for what concerns the rheological and thermal parameters, and also a suitable criterion for solidification. These parameters are not always easily reachable. A simple test aimed at obtaining the required parameters is then highly advantageous. The so-called spiral flow test, consisting of measuring the length reached by a polymer in a long cavity under different molding conditions, is a method of this kind. In this work, with reference to an isotactic polypropylene, some spiral flow tests obtained with different mold temperatures and injection pressures are analyzed with a twofold goal: on one side, to obtain from a few simple tests the basic rheological parameters of the material; on the other side, to suggest a method for a quick prediction of the final flow length.

Optimization of Injection Molding Process Parameters with Material Properties Based on GA and BP

2013 ◽  
Vol 345 ◽  
pp. 586-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Hong Tan ◽  
Lei Gang Wang ◽  
Wen Shen Wang
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Process Parameters ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Axial Deformation ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Melt Temperature ◽  
Bp Network ◽  
Injection Parameters ◽  
Moldflow Simulation

To obtain optimal injection process parameters, GA was used to optimize BP network structure based on Moldflow simulation results. The BP network was set up which considering the relationship between volume shrinkage of plastic parts and injection parameters, such as mold temperature, melt temperature, holding pressure and holding time etc. And the optimal process parameters are obtained, which is agreed with actual results. Using BP network to predict injection parameters impact on parts quality can effectively reduce the difficulty and workload of other modeling methods. This method can be extended to other quality prediction in the process of plastic parts.Keyword: Genetic algorithm (GA);Neural network algorithm (BP);Injection molding process optimization;The axial deformation

The simulation of the warpage rule of the thin-walled part of polypropylene composite based on the coupling effect of mold deformation and injection molding process

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jixiang Zhang ◽  
Xiaoyi Yin ◽  
Fengzhi Liu ◽  
Pan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Coupling Effect ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Plastic Part ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Melt Temperature ◽  
Packing Pressure ◽  
Thin Walled ◽  
Packing Time

Abstract Aiming at the problem that a thin-walled plastic part easily produces warpage, an orthogonal experimental method was used for multiparameter coupling analysis, with mold structure parameters and injection molding process parameters considered synthetically. The plastic part deformation under different experiment schemes was comparatively studied, and the key factors affecting the plastic part warpage were analyzed. Then the injection molding process was optimized. The results showed that the important order of the influence factors for the plastic part warpage was packing pressure, packing time, cooling plan, mold temperature, and melt temperature. Among them, packing pressure was the most significant factor. The optimal injection molding process schemes reducing the plastic part warpage were melt temperature (260°C), mold temperature (60°C), packing pressure (150 MPa), packing time (2 s), and cooling plan 3. In this situation, the forming plate flatness was better.

Optimization of the Injection Molding Process Parameters Based on Moldflow and Orthogonal Experiment

2013 ◽  
Vol 561 ◽  
pp. 239-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Nie ◽  
Hui Min Zhang ◽  
Jia Teng Niu
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Orthogonal Experiment ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Processing Parameters ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Range Analysis ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Melt Temperature ◽  
Plastic Parts

This article is using Moldflow analysis and orthogonal experimental method during the whole experiment. The injection molding process of motor cover is simulated under various technological conditions.After forming the maximum amount of warpage of plastic parts for evaluation.According to the range analysis of the comprehensive goal, the extent of the overall influence to the processing parameters, such as gate location, melt temperature, mold temperature and holding pressure is clarified.Through analyzing the diagrams of influential factors resulted from the simulation result,the optimized process parameter scheme is obtained and further verified by simulation.

Numerical and Experimental Study on the Injection Moulding of a Thin-Wall Complex Part

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalin Fetecau ◽  
Ion Postolache ◽  
Felicia Stan
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Injection Pressure ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Processing Parameters ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Thin Wall ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Complex Part ◽  
Filling Time ◽  
Wall Injection

The research presented in this paper involves numerical and experimental efforts to investigate the relative thin-wall injection molding process in order to obtain high dimensional quality complex parts. To better understand the effects of various processing parameters (the filling time, injection pressure, the melting temperature, the mold temperature) on the injection molding of a thin-wall complex part, the molding experiments are regenerated into the computer model using the Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI) 6.1 software. The computer visualization of the filling phase allows accurate prediction of the location of the flow front, welding lines and air traps. Furthermore, in order to optimize the injection molding process, the effects of the geometry of the runner system on the filling and packing phases are also investigated. It is shown that computational modeling could be used to help the process and mold designer to produce accurate parts.

Numerical Study on the Melt Flow Length of the Composite Materials in the Injection Molding Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 971 ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
The Nhan Phan ◽  
Trung Do Thanh ◽  
Son Minh Pham
Keyword(s):  
Composite Materials ◽  
Injection Molding ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Melt Flow ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Flow Length ◽  
Part Thickness ◽  
Good Agreement

Improving the melt flow length by increasing the mold temperature has been an issue encountered in the injection molding processes for composite products. In this study, an injection molding process was applied to a melt flow length model having a part thickness of 1.0 mm. The mold temperature varied from 30 °C to 110 °C. Six types of composite materials of polycaprolactam 6 (PA6) and glass fiber (GF) were selected to study the influence of mold temperature on the material filling in the injection molding process. The simulation results denoted that the mold temperature considerably influenced the flowability during the injection molding process, especially using 30% GF; further, the melt flow length was increased by 25.5% when the mold temperature was increased from 30 °C to 110 °C. In accordance with the simulation, our experiments demonstrated that we could achieve a mold temperature of 110 °C using all types of composite materials. Therefore, in this study, we denoted that both the simulation and experimental results of the melt flow length were comparable, thereby indicating a good agreement.

Design and Experimental Validation of a Process Chain for Thin Components Manufacturing by Micro Injection Molding Process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Bellantone ◽  
Fulvio Lavecchia ◽  
Rossella Surace ◽  
Onofrio Spadavecchia ◽  
Francesco Modica ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Micro Milling ◽  
Surface Finishing ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Process Chain ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Micro Injection Molding ◽  
Micro Features

Abstract Micro applications, especially in biomedical and optical sectors, require the fabrication of thin polymeric parts which can be commonly realized by micro injection molding process. However, this process is characterized by a relevant constraint regarding the tooling. Indeed, the design and manufacturing of molds could be a very time-consuming step and so, a significant limitation for the rapid development of new products. Moreover, if the design displays challenging micro-features, their realization could involve the use of more than one mold for the fabrication of a single thin part. Therefore, a proper integration of different manufacturing micro technologies may represent an advantageous method to realise such polymeric thin micro features. In this work, a micro-manufacturing process chain including stereolithography, micro milling and micro injection molding is reported. The mold for the micro injection molding process was fabricated by means of stereolithography and micro milling, which allowed to produce low-cost reconfigurable modular mold, composed by an insert support and a removable insert. The assessment of the proposed process chain was carried out by evaluating the dimensions and the surface finishing and texturing of the milled mold cavities and molded components. Finally, a brief economic analysis compares three process chains for fabricating the micro mold showing that proposed one reduces manufacturing cost of almost 61% with the same production time.

Influence of Injection Molding Process Parameters on Sink Marks of Injection Parts Based on Moldflow

2013 ◽  
Vol 347-350 ◽  
pp. 1163-1167
Author(s):  
Ling Bai ◽  
Hai Ying Zhang ◽  
Wen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Process Parameters ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Processing Parameters ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Melt Temperature ◽  
Packing Pressure ◽  
Sink Marks ◽  
Research Show

Moldflow software was used to obtain the best gate location and count. Influence of injection molding processing parameters on sink marks of injection-piece was studied based on orthogonal test. The effects of different process parameters were analyzed and better process parameters were obtained. Results of research show that decreasing melt temperature, mold temperature, the increasing injection time and packing pressure can effectively reduce the sink marks index.

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