Shrinkage and Warpage in the Permanent Shape of Sape-Memory Polyurethane Parts

The shape memory effect, as the most important ability of shape memory polymers, is a working property and provides the design ability to shape memory polymer features. Shrinkage and warpage are important parameters to control the dimensional accuracy of permanent and temporary shapes of an injection moulded shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) part. In this study, the effects of injection moulding parameters on the shrinkage and warpage of the permanent shape of moulded SMPU parts were experimentally investigated. The parameters of injection pressure, melt temperature, mould temperature, packing pressure, packing time, and cooling time, were chosen as the injection moulding control factors. Taguchi�s L27 orthogonal array design table was used with six injection moulding parameters and their three levels. The results showed that the part has different shrinkage ratios in three main directions, namely, the flow direction, perpendicular to the flow direction, and the direction through the thickness. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the cooling time is the most influential parameter on both the shrinkage (except in thickness) and warpage. The shrinkage in the flow direction as well as in perpendicular to the flow direction decreased with increasing the cooling time. Warpage also decreased with increasing the cooling time. Injection pressure and melt temperature were found to be effective on shrinkage in thickness. Effects of mould temperature, packing pressure, and packing time were found to be limited. A statistically significant relationship has been noticed among shrinkage, warpage, and residual stresses during the study.

Simulation and Experimental Study of the Preheating Mould Temperature Distribution in Semi-Solid Diecasting

The mould temperature distribution has a great influence on the semi-solid diecasting. In the present study the temperature distribution of a plane-shaped mould was investigated by using the method of numerical simulation and experiment. The results showed that the preheating mould temperature field was affected by three important simulation parameters, the heat transfer coefficient hoil between the heat transfer oil and the mould, the heat transfer coefficient hair between the mould and the air, and the heat transfer coefficient hcontact between the mould core and the mould frame. The simulation results showed that (1) with the increase of hoil, the overall mould temperature imcreased; (2) with the increase of hair, the overall mould temperature decreased, while the surface temperature gradient of mould frame grad T-f and the temperature difference between the mould core and the mould frame ∆T increased; (3) With the increase of hcontact, ∆T decreased and the temperature of mould frame increased. When the heat oil temperature Toil=290°C, the heat transfer coefficients were optimized as hoil=500Wm-2K-1, hair=7Wm-2K-1, and hcontact=1000Wm-2K-1 according to the experimental results. The average temperature difference between the simulation result and the experimental result was 3.45°C, and the average relative error was 1.73%.

A Simulation Study on Warpage Analysis of Injection Moulded Plastic Part

A part to be injection molded is evaluated by simulation for warpage analysis. The plastic part is a supporting plate to be used in the oil filter and it’s made out of nylon material. The effect of various parameters from design to processing of plastic parts is considered and validated by simulation results. The research involved in this was designing mould, computer-aided engineering, simulation analysis, and determination of plastic part processing conditions. In this work PA66 (Grade name – Zytel 70G13HS1LNC010) material is used and the material contains 13 % of fiber. Fiber orientation is nothing but the distribution of plastic melt inside the cavity and it also plays important role in deciding the warpage of part. The effect of process parameters on part warpage is investigated from various aspects in comparison with the conventional runner system. Hot runner mould system with innovative cooling channel designs is good results-driven. Results of simulations reveal that elevated mould temperature reduces the unwanted freezing time during the injection phase and thus improves mouldability and enhances part quality. Under similar mould temperature conditions, the effect of process parameters on warpage decreases according to the following order, packing time, packing pressure, melt temperature, injection pressure, and cooling time respectively.

Incorporation of ZnO Nanoparticles into Soy Protein-Based Bioplastics to Improve Their Functional Properties

The union of nanoscience (nanofertilization) with controlled release bioplastic systems could be a key factor for the improvement of fertilization in horticulture, avoiding excessive contamination and reducing the price of the products found in the current market. In this context, the objective of this work was to incorporate ZnO nanoparticles in soy protein-based bioplastic processed using injection moulding. Thus, the concentration of ZnO nanoparticles (0 wt%, 1.0 wt%, 2.0 wt%, 4.5 wt%) and mould temperature (70 °C, 90 °C and 110 °C) were evaluated through a mechanical (flexural and tensile properties), morphological (microstructure and nanoparticle distribution) and functional (water uptake capacity, micronutrient release and biodegradability) characterization. The results indicate that these parameters play an important role in the final characteristics of the bioplastics, being able to modify them. Ultimately, this study increases the versatility and functionality of the use of bioplastics and nanofertilization in horticulture, helping to prevent the greatest environmental impact caused.

Rejection Rate Reduction of the Automotive Thermoplastic Parts in Injection Moulding Using Response Surface Methodology

Plastic injection moulding is widely used for manufacturing due to variety of plastic product. In this study, plastic part defects such as air bubble and gas mark defect are commonly occurs in thermoplastic part, specifically acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). In order to optimize the process parameters of injection moulding, design of experiment (DOE) with Response Surface Methodology (RSM) model was used. Process parameters such as melt temperature, mould temperature and injection pressure were selected for the DOE development. The experiments were conducted with melt temperature range from 200 °C to 240 °C, mould temperature from 60 °C to 80 °C and injection pressure from 90 to 99%. The result indicates that, all the selected parameters were significantly influence the rejection rate of the automotive ABS part. The optimum melt temperature, mould temperature and injection pressure were 220 °C, 70 °C and 98% respectively, in obtaining minimum rejection rate.

Influence of Injection Moulding Process Parameters on High-Density Polyethylene Surface Hardness

Commodity polymers are a common part of everyday life. They consist mainly of polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene. They are primarily used for ease of processing, cost and especially chemical resistance. The disadvantages of these polymers are low mechanical properties as well as temperature resistance. Any improvement in the mechanical properties can extend the application possibilities of the commodity polymers to the areas reserved for the construction polymers. This paper deals with changing two injection moulding process parameters - melt and mould temperature to high-density polyethylene (HDPE) surface hardness. HDPE hardness was measured using the method of Depth-Sensing Indentation (DSI) on three different instruments (ultranano-, nanoand micro-hardness tester). It has been found that as the melt and mould temperature increases, the hardness slightly increases.

Processing parameters Optimization of Injection Moulding in DN20 Vent of Water Meter Manufacturing

The conventional optimization process in Injection Moulding includes actual shop floor trials in which melt temperature, mould temperature, injection time, injection pressure, pattern, feeder size, shape and location cores, mould layout, gating etc. are changed in each iteration which involves high machining cost, tooling cost, modification cost, melting cost, and transportation cost as well as, materials, energy, time are wasted in each trial until and unless the required results are obtained. Water meter component (DN20 Vent) is designed in CREO 5.0, and then components are 3D printed to cross check the dimensions and also to confirm whether all the other components can be accommodated or not. Then the mould flow analysis will be performed on a water meter components using different materials and changing the processing parameters. The input processing parameters considered are melt temperature, mould temperature and injection time, whereas the responses are warpage, volumetric shrinkage, cycle time and quality prediction. Grey relational analysis is carried out to determine the optimum injection moulding processing parameters.. The effort has been made to minimize the warpage, volumetric shrinkage, cycle time and maximize the quality prediction mould cavity and core for the components are designed in CREO 5.0 and manufactured using P20 tool steel. Then the water meter components are manufactured by inputting the optimal processing parameters in injection moulding machine to achieve high productivity and quality.

Multiobjective Optimization of Injection Moulding Process Parameters on Mechanical Properties Using Taguchi Method and Grey Relational Analysis

This study presents an optimization of injection moulding parameters on mechanical properties of plastic part using Taguchi method and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) approach. The orthogonal array with L9 was used as the experimental design. Grey relational analysis for ultimate tensile strength, modulus and percentage of elongation from the Taguchi method can convert optimization of the multiple performance characteristics into optimization of a single performance characteristic called the grey relational grade (GRG). It is found that mould temperature of 62oC, melt temperature of 280oC, injection time of 0.70s and cooling time 15.4s are found as the optimum process setting. Furthermore, ANOVA result shows that the cooling time is the most influenced factor that affects the mechanical properties of plastic part followed by mould temperature and melt temperature.