Development of a Novel Design Strategy for Moving Mechanisms Used in Multi-Material Plastic Injection Molds

Plastics injection molding is a sector that is becoming increasingly competitive due to the environmental issues it entails, pressuring consumers to reduce its use. Thus, plastics processing companies attempt to minimize costs, with the aim of increasing competitiveness. This pressure is transmitted to the mold manufacturers, as the mold conditions the equipment that it is used for, which may have significantly different amortization costs. The present work aimed to design a novel mechanism able to deal with the necessary movements in 2K injection molding in a more compact way. A novel hybrid mechanical and hydraulic movement was developed. More compact movements lead to smaller molds, which can be used on smaller injection machines, leading to reduced costs. This methodology consists of multiplying a disproportionate movement to the mold through several movements, which results in a slightly more complex, but much more compact, system for molds devoted to multi-material injected parts.

Manufacture 4.0 with LabVIEW and Arduino Mega for distributed cooling control of the DeMag 250 Ton machine injection mold

Nowdays the injection plastics processes at insdustrial level have had a great development in the bajio region with the arrival of new enterprise suppliers of the automotive industry that work particuary de injection molding. The plastics injection molding is a semicontinuous process that consists of inject a polymer in the molten state into a mold closed under pressure, throught a small hole called gate, in the mole the material is solidifies, the piece or final part is obtained when the mold is opened and remove the piece molding from the cavity [1]. To monitor and control the temperature changes in the plastics injection cicles permite reduce errors and costs in the process. In this project we propose to apply manufacture 4.0 using the Arduino Mega microcontroller and LabVIEW to monitor part of the process of the injection molding of the DeMag 250 Ton Machine, specifically the coolding system adapting to control the injection molde temperature. The preliminare results show that is apropiate to use the LabVIEW an Arduino Mega combination to generation of innovation project applied to the plastic industry.

Comparative study of rapid and conventional tooling for plastics injection molding

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the performance of injection molding inserts produced via rapid and conventional manufacturing techniques considering the mechanical and thermal performance of the tools as well as the resulting molded part quality. Design/methodology/approach Three insert materials and manufacturing techniques were evaluated, jetted photopolymer (PolyJet) 3D printing using digital ABS, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) using bronze and machining using stainless steel. Molding trials were performed, and the insert surface temperature, longevity and part properties were evaluated. Complementary information was acquired using computer simulation. Findings Similar behavior and part quality were observed in machined and DMLS inserts. The latter were used for 500 cycles without any signs of failure. PolyJet inserts had increased cycle time and slower rate of cooling which increased shrinkage and crystallinity in the molded parts. PolyJet inserts could be produced quickly at a lower cost than machined or DMLS inserts. Research limitations/implications Cooling within the insert was not studied; inserts were cooled indirectly by the mold plates behind them. Subsequent studies will incorporate cooling lines directly into the inserts. Originality/value Little research has been done to understand the thermal behavior of inserts manufactured via rapid tooling techniques. This study provides a direct comparison between rapid tooling techniques, which is supported by simulation results and analysis of the actual molding properties.

Effects of the Ultra-Dispersed Nano-Diamond Additive on the Grease Boundary Lubrication Performance in the Reciprocating Journal Bearing Test

This study analyzes the tribological performance of the test results of the journal bearing wear tester designed for the simulation of the toggle pin motion in the plastics injection molding machine. Grease with or without the addition of ultra-dispersed nanodiamond (UDD) particles were all tested in the durability tests. It showed that the grease with UDD additive could effectively extend the life of grease more than twice as long as the grease life without UDD additive in the reciprocating heavy-load and low-speed journal bearing tests.

The Applied Study Based on the Injection Molding Mechanism of Microcellular Foamed Plastics (MCFP)

Injection molding is one of several molding technology of microcellular foamed plastics. This paper mainly discusses the injection molding mechanism and applications of microcellular foamed plastics here, and analyzes the influence of microcellular foamed plastics injection molding process parameters, including injection pressure, melt temperature, injection time, etc.; At the same time, this paper makes a more systematic discussions for the injection molding technology of microcellular foamed plastics, and the typical cases of microcellular foamed plastics in engineering application are introduced in detail.

The role of PECVD hard coatings on the performance of industrial tools

The advantages of the application of hard coatings, which are well knownfor cutting tools, are to a much lesser extent explored for casting, extrusion, molding and forming tools. Increasing the lifetime of these tools is an important task in surface engineering because of complex loading conditionsand often complicated tool geometry. The plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique is well suited to deposit hard coatings onto large dies and moulds. The aim of this study was to discuss deposition processes suitable for coating of the often large three-dimensional molds and dies used in metal forming. Furthermore, results obtained using different hard coatings in industrial applications for several case studies like aluminum pressure die-casting; plastics injection molding and sheet metal forming are presented and discussed. For best coating performance, a careful optimization of both substrate pretreatment and coating deposition is necessary. The plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique shows advantages for these applications because of the high flexibility in pre-treatment using chemical etching and plasma-nitriding, because of its ability to coat large complexly shaped tools and because of the possibility of deposition of low-chlorine containing low-friction coatings.