scholarly journals Influence of dynamic temperature control on the injection molding process of plastic components

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 1338-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cláudia Macedo ◽  
Cláudia Freitas ◽  
António M. Brito ◽  
Gilberto Santos ◽  
Luis Faria ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Dynamic Temperature ◽  
Plastic Components

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 The Feasibility of an Internal Gas-Assisted Heating Method for Improving the Melt Filling Ability of Polyamide 6 Thermoplastic Composites in a Thin Wall Injection Molding Process

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanh Trung Do ◽  
Tran Minh The Uyen ◽  
Pham Son Minh
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Heating Rate ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Cavity Surface ◽  
Heating Process ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Thin Wall ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Filling Ability ◽  
Wall Injection

In thin wall injection molding, the filling of plastic material into the cavity will be restricted by the frozen layer due to the quick cooling of the hot melt when it contacts with the lower temperature surface of the cavity. This problem is heightened in composite material, which has a higher viscosity than pure plastic. In this paper, to reduce the frozen layer as well as improve the filling ability of polyamide 6 reinforced with 30 wt.% glass fiber (PA6/GF30%) in the thin wall injection molding process, a preheating step with the internal gas heating method was applied to heat the cavity surface to a high temperature, and then, the filling step was commenced. In this study, the filling ability of PA6/GF30% was studied with a melt flow thickness varying from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. To improve the filling ability, the mold temperature control technique was applied. In this study, an internal gas-assisted mold temperature control (In-GMTC) using different levels of mold insert thickness and gas temperatures to achieve rapid mold surface temperature control was established. The heating process was observed using an infrared camera and estimated by the temperature distribution and the heating rate. Then, the In-GMTC was employed to produce a thin product by an injection molding process with the In-GMTC system. The simulation results show that with agas temperature of 300 °C, the cavity surface could be heated under a heating rate that varied from 23.5 to 24.5 °C/s in the first 2 s. Then, the heating rate decreased. After the heating process was completed, the cavity temperature was varied from 83.8 to about 164.5 °C. In-GMTC was also used for the injection molding process with a part thickness that varied from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. The results show that with In-GMTC, the filling ability of composite material clearly increased from 2.8 to 18.6 mm with a flow thickness of 0.1 mm.

Simulating Part and Assembly Variation for Injection Molded Parts

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Lorin ◽  
Lars Lindkvist ◽  
Rikard Söderberg
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Process Noise ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Plastic Components ◽  
Variation Simulation ◽  
Part Variation

Final geometrical variation and deviation have often a negative effect on product functionality and aesthetics. In the automotive industry, design concepts are being evaluated and optimized to withstand variation in the early phase of product development. For this end, simulation tools are employed. Input to these simulations is requirements on parts and fixtures or measurements from previously manufactured parts. In the case of plastic components, parts are often manufactured in the injection molding process. Here, different materials and process settings can make it difficult to predict deviation and variation based on similar parts. In order to perform accurate assembly variation simulation, part variation simulation need, therefore, to be included. In this work a methodology is presented to simulate part and assembly variation, due to process noise, for plastic components manufactured in the injection molding process. The methodology is based on designed computer experiment and utilizes the concept of geometrical covariance and principal component analysis to relate process noise to variation patterns using regression analysis. Part and assembly variation are simulated combined using the distribution of these variation patterns. The model used for part variation simulation has been verified against commercial injection molding software showing good agreement. An industrial case from the automotive industry is used to elicit the proposed methodology.

scholarly journals Design of Multimodel based MPC and IMC control schemes applied to injection molding machine

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Kanaga Lakshmi ◽  
D. Manamalli ◽  
M. Mohamed Rafiq
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Molding Machine ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Melt Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Machine ◽  
And Control

Good control of plastic melt temperature for injection molding is very important in reducing operator setup time, ensuring product quality, and preventing thermal degradation of the melt. The controllability and set points of barrel temperature also depend on the precise monitoring and control of plastic melt temperature. Motivated by the practical temperature control of injection molding, this paper proposes MPC and IMC based control scheme. A robust system identification and control methodology is developed which uses canonical varieties analysis for identification and model predictive control for regulation. The injection molding process consists of three zones and the mathematical model for each of the zone is different. The control output for each zone controller is assigned a weight based on the computed probability of each model and the resulting action is the weighted average of the control moves of the individual zone controllers. Keywords: Injection-Molding Machine (IMM), IMC Control, Temperature Control.

scholarly journals Study on External Gas-Assisted Mold Temperature Control for Improving the Melt Flow Length of Thin Rib Products in the Injection Molding Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phan The Nhan ◽  
Thanh Trung Do ◽  
Tran Anh Son ◽  
Pham Son Minh
Keyword(s):  
Injection Molding ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Thin Wall ◽  
Mold Surface ◽  
Melt Flow ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Flow Length

In the injection molding process, mold temperature control is one of the most efficient methods for improving product quality. In this research, an external gas-assisted mold temperature control (Ex-GMTC) with gas temperature variation from 200°C to 400°C was applied to thin wall injection molding at melt thicknesses from 0.2 to 0.6 mm. The melt flow length was evaluated through the application of this system to the mold of a thin rib product. The results show that the heating process achieves high efficiency in the initial 20 s, with a maximum heating rate of 6.4°C/s. In this case, the mold surface reached 158.4°C. By applying Ex-GMTC to a 0.2 mm flow thickness, the flow length increased from 37.85 to 41.32 mm with polypropylene (PP) material and from 14.54 to 15.8 mm with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) material. With the thin rib mold and use of Ex-GMTC, the mold temperature varied from 112.0°C to 140.8°C and the thin rib height reached 7.0 mm.

scholarly journals Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment tool for injection molding of plastic components: a literature review

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Mariane Bigarelli Ferreira ◽  
Murillo Vetroni Barros ◽  
Cassiano Moro Piekarski
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Injection Molding ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Injection Molding Process ◽  
Molding Process ◽  
Reducing Costs ◽  
Plastic Components ◽  
Plastic Injection

Goal: Companies are increasingly concerned about the life cycle of their products in the economic and environmental perspectives. One of the processes that generates great financial returns is the injection molding process. But this process results in many impacts to the environment. The environmental concern has generated many studies involving this theme and the difficulty of measuring the impacts generated by this process. In view of the environmental concern and the injection molding process this study aims to review in the literature on eco-design tools based on the Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment of plastic injection molded products.Design / Methodology / Approach: The review of the literature was carried out by researching for complete articles published in three databases (Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science), among the years 2013 - 2018, using combinations of keywords and Boolean operators.Results: Several studies revealed that injection molding generates many impacts, such as the high consumption of electricity caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and use of raw material.Limitations of the investigation: This paper is not free of limitations. The study analyzed the literature through three databases for a period of time and used a combination of keywords. It may be that some document has not been analyzed.Practical implications: The development of a rapid tool for the application of LCA studies will allow quick decision-making to the managers in the environmental perspective, besides reducing costs, reducing time with the application of complex studies, and assisting the designer to develop the Eco-design.Originality / Value: The study addressed the injection molding process and there are no studies in the literature that characterize this theme. Thus, a study that addresses this gap and evidences the importance of the development of an environmental tool that assists sustainable practices in the process of plastic injection molding becomes important.

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