Effect of Mold Temperature on Structure and Property Variations of PBT Injection Moldings in the Thickness Direction

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.

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Highly efficient evaporative cooling by all-day water evaporation using hierarchically porous biomass

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-96303-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jihun Choi ◽

Hansol Lee ◽

Bokyeong Sohn ◽

Minjae Song ◽

Sangmin Jeon

Keyword(s):

Porous Structure ◽

Fiber Length ◽

Evaporation Rate ◽

Water Evaporation ◽

Thickness Direction ◽

Hierarchically Porous ◽

Hierarchically Porous Structure ◽

Length Direction ◽

Luffa Sponge ◽

Fiber Thickness

AbstractWe developed a 3D solar steam generator with the highest evaporation rate reported so far using a carbonized luffa sponge (CLS). The luffa sponge consisted of entangled fibers with a hierarchically porous structure; macropores between fibers, micro-sized pores in the fiber-thickness direction, and microchannels in the fiber-length direction. This structure remained after carbonization and played an important role in water transport. When the CLS was placed in the water, the microchannels in the fiber-length direction transported water to the top surface of the CLS by capillary action, and the micro-sized pores in the fiber-thickness direction delivered water to the entire fiber surface. The water evaporation rate under 1-sun illumination was 3.7 kg/m2/h, which increased to 14.5 kg/m2/h under 2 m/s wind that corresponded to the highest evaporation rate ever reported under the same condition. The high evaporation performance of the CLS was attributed to its hierarchically porous structure. In addition, it was found that the air temperature dropped by 3.6 °C when the wind passed through the CLS because of the absorption of the latent heat of vaporization. The heat absorbed by the CLS during water evaporation was calculated to be 9.7 kW/m2 under 1-sun illumination and 2 m/s wind, which was 10 times higher than the solar energy irradiated on the same area (1 kW/m2).

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