工艺因素对RHCM成型制品收缩的宏观影响

开发了车载高光蓝牙快速热响应实验模具和动态模温控制系统,基于单因子实验和Taguchi理论,以无定形ABS塑料为实验材料,研究了模具温度对高光注塑成型(Rapid Heat Cycle Molding,RHCM)制品收缩的影响规律。结果表明:适当升高模具温度可以有效降低制品收缩,最佳模温应控制在塑料热变形温度附近;在高模温作用下,熔体温度(低于210℃)和注射压力(低于100 MPa)较低时,制品收缩性态较为复杂,当二者高于该临界值之后则趋于稳定减小或大体不变状态;保压压力、保压时间和冷却时间的影响呈"V"型小幅波动,且均在塑料热变形温度附近达极小值;模温设定条件下,保压压力对制品收缩影响最大,其次是保压时间,冷却时间影响最小,熔体温度和注射压力的影响效应相当.     

Heating/cooling channels design for an automotive interior part and its evaluation in rapid heat cycle molding

Rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) is a recently developed innovative injection molding technology. Rapid heating and cooling of the injection mold is the most crucial technique in RHCM because it not only has a significant effect on part quality but also has direct influence on productivity and cost-efficiency. Accordingly, Heating and cooling system design plays a very important role in RHCM mold design. This study focuses on the heating/cooling system design for a three-dimensional complex-shaped automotive interior part. Heat transfer simulation based on finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted to evaluate the thermal response of the injection mold and thereby improve heating/cooling channels design. Baffles were introduced for heating/cooling channels to improve heating/cooling efficiency and uniformity of the mold. A series of thermal response experiments based on full factorial experimental design were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the improved heating/cooling channels design with baffles. A mathematical model was developed by regression analysis to predict the thermal response of the injection mold. The effects of the cavity surface temperature on weld mark and surface gloss of the part were investigated by experiments. The results show that the developed baffle-based heating/cooling channels can greatly improve thermal response efficiency and uniformity of the mold. The developed mathematical model supplies an efficient approach for precise predication of mold thermal response. As the cavity surface temperature raises to a high enough level, automotive interior parts with high gloss and non-weld mark surface can be obtained.     

模具温度对快速热循环成型制品复原性的影响

为深入了解模具温度对快速热循环注塑成型制品复原性的影响,以自主开发的车用蓝牙高光模具和成型温控辅助装置为基础,研究了快速热循环注塑成型模具温度对制品复原性的影响,并分析了不同模具温度条件下其他参数对制品复原性的影响及相同品质条件下各参数随模具温度的变化规律.结果表明,当模具温度升至塑料热变形温度附近时,复制率明显提高;在相同模具温度条件下,压力和温度对制品复制率的影响较明显,时间对制品复制率的影响甚微;随着模具温度逐步升高,在熔体温度、注射压力不变条件下,制品复制率呈小幅升高趋势,对于保压压力、保压时间和冷却时间则呈"V"字型小幅波动变化.     

Analysis of thermal cycling efficiency and optimal design of heating/cooling systems for rapid heat cycle injection molding process

Rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) is a molding process that the mold cavity is rapidly heated to a high temperature before plastic melt injection, and then cooled quickly once the cavity is completely filled. Heating/cooling efficiency and temperature uniformity of the RHCM system are two key technical parameters to ensure a high productivity and high-quality products. In this study, a numerical model to analyze the heat transfer in heating and cooling phases of RHCM was built. The effect of heating/cooling medium, layout and structure of the heating/cooling channels, mold structure, etc., on heating/cooling efficiency and temperature uniformity was studied and discussed by analyzing the thermal responses of the molding system in RHCM process. Based on the simulation results, the optimization design of the RHCM mold with hot-fluid heating was performed. Then, a new RHCM mold structure with a floating mold cavity was proposed to improve the heating/cooling efficiency and temperature uniformity. The effectiveness of this new mold structure was also verified by numerical experiments. At last, a RHCM production line with steam heating and water cooling was constructed for a thin-wall plastic part. In testing production, the molding systems can be heated and cooled rapidly with a molding cycle time of about 72 s. The production results show that the aesthetics of the molded parts was greatly enhanced and the weld mark on the plastic part’s surface was completely eliminated.     

Effects of cavity surface temperature on reinforced plastic part surface appearance in rapid heat cycle moulding

The influences of the cavity surface temperature just before filling on surface appearance and texture of the moulded reinforced plastic parts in rapid heat cycle moulding (RHCM) are investigated. Two typical reinforced plastics including ABS/PMMA/nano-C_aCO₃ and 20% fibre reinforced polypropylene (FRPP) are tested in experiments. The roughness, gloss and morphology of the part surface are characterized with white light interferometer, gloss meter, and optical microscope, respectively. It is observed that the cavity surface temperature just before filling has a significant influence on part surface appearance. With the increase of the cavity surface temperature just before filling, aesthetic quality of the moulded part can be greatly improved. There is a critical value of the cavity surface temperature just before filling for each plastic. As the cavity surface temperature reaches the critical value, part surface appearance will reach the optimal level with low roughness and high gloss. The weld mark for ABS/PMMA/nano-C_aCO₃ has a V-shaped structure while that for FRPP has a hump-shaped structure. With the increase of the cavity surface temperature just before filling, the width of the V-shaped weld mark reduces gradually until it disappears completely while the height of the hump-shaped weld mark decreases firstly and then increases. The mechanisms for the improvement of surface appearance by increasing cavity surface temperature just before filling and the generation of the V-shaped and hump-shaped weld mark are disclosed.     

Temperature and pressure evolution in fast heat cycle injection molding

An accurate mold temperature control during injection molding processes allows obtaining objects with better surface finishing, more accurate surface replication, and reduced frozen-in orientation. The control of these properties is particularly important when the thickness of the molded part is very small as in the case of microinjection. In this work, thin multilayer heaters are adopted to obtain a very fast mold surface temperature evolution during the process of an isotactic polypropylene (iPP). The effect of mold temperature history on the pressure developed inside the cavity is analyzed and correlated to both gate solidification and mold deformation. Results confirmed that, with a fast control of the cavity surface temperature, a reduction of the injection pressure is achieved, without affecting the cycle time. The understanding of the phenomena that occur during the fast temperature evolution on the cavity surface can allow the microstructural calibration of the molded parts.     

Research of thermal response simulation and mold structure optimization for rapid heat cycle molding processes, respectively, with steam heating and electric heating

The dynamic mold temperature control system is the key of rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) technology because it significantly affects the stability of the process, productivity and the quality of the final polymer part. For this reason, the approaches and techniques for dynamic mold temperature control were discussed in this study and two different dynamic mold temperature control methods, respectively, with steam heating and electric heating were found to be very feasible in mass production. The methods and principles of mold design for the two RHCM technologies were also discussed and then several different kinds of mold structures were designed. By constructing the corresponding thermal response analytical models for these RHCM molds, the temperature responses of the molding systems in the heating and cooling process of RHCM were simulated and studied. The effects of the mold design parameters such as the insulation layer between mold plate and mold inert, and mold material, on thermal response efficiency and temperature uniformity of the two RHCM processes were analyzed based on the simulation results. The results show that the insulation layer can increase the upper limit temperature of RHCM with steam heating and improve the heating speed of RHCM with electric heating. It can also greatly decrease the energy consumption of the two RHCM processes. The heating efficiency of RHCM with steam heating can be effectively improved by increasing the thermal conductivity of the cavity/core material, while the situation is diametrically opposite for RHCM with electric heating. Therefore, we acquired an optimized mold design principle and method for RHCM with steam heating and electric heating, respectively. Finally, a new electric heating mold with a cooling plate was proposed to enhance the cooling efficiency. The thermal response of this new electric heating mold was also simulated. The simulation results show that the cooling plate can significantly improve the cooling and heating efficiency.     

复合材料螺旋桨RTM成型工艺研究

为开展复合材料螺旋桨成型工艺的研究,分析了不同成型工艺的特点,提出采用树脂传递模塑成型技术(RTM)制作螺旋桨模型,制订了模具制备方案、纤维剪裁和铺层实施方案以及RTM工艺流程,制作了螺旋桨模型,并提出了工艺改进方案,进而开展了螺旋桨模型的强度试验.强度试验结果显示:随着载荷的增加,各测点处的应变值均呈线性增长,当加载到8 k N时各测点应变均在弹性范围内,桨叶未发生破坏.研究表明:采用本文制定的模具制备方案,特别是针对桨叶纤维布剪裁、铺层的难题提出的适合复杂型线纤维布剪裁和铺层的实施方案,用于成型夹芯复合材料螺旋桨模型可以满足预期强度要求,验证了本文工艺的可行性.     

Minimization of warpage and sink index in injection-molded thermoplastic parts using Taguchi optimization method

The objective of this paper consist of minimization of the warpage and sink index in terms of process parameters of the plastic parts have different rib cross-section types, and rib layout angle using Taguchi optimization method. Considering the process parameters such as mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure, in addition to rib cross-section types, and rib layout angle, a series of mold analyses are performed to exploite the warpage and sink index data. The polymeric materials were selected PC/ABS, POM, and PA66. Taguchi optimization method was used by exploiting mold analyses based on three level factorial design. Orthogonal arrays of Taguchi, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are utilized to find the optimal levels and the effect of process parameters on warpage and sink index. Confirmation analysis test with the optimal levels of process parameters are carried out in order to demonstrate the goodness of Taguchi method. From this, it can be concluded that Taguchi method is very suitable to solve the quality problem occurring the injection-molded thermoplastic parts.     

气辅成型工艺参数对制品成型质量的影响趋势研究

对截面形状为s-3的加强筋进行工艺参数优化分析,讨论了气辅成型工艺参数对成型质量的影响程度,获得了一组较好的工艺参数组合.以此为参考标准,改变某一个工艺参数而保持其他工艺参数不变,对比研究4种不同截面形状加强筋在气辅成型条件下的成型情况,并考察了单个工艺参数对成型质量的影响趋势情况.     

Prediction of shrinkage and warpage in consideration of residual stress in integrated simulation of injection molding

The accurate prediction of shrinkage and warpage of injection molded parts is important to achieve successful mold design with high precision. In this study, the numerical analysis of shrinkage and warpage of injection molded parts made of amorphous polymers was carried out in consideration of the residual stresses produced during the packing and cooling stages of injection molding. The temperature and pressure fields were obtained from the coupled analysis of the filling and post-filling stages. For residual stress analysis, a thermo-rheologically simple viscoelastic material model was introduced to consider the stress relaxation effect and to describe the mechanical behavior according to the temperature change. The effect of the additional material supply during the packing stage was modeled by assigning the reference strain. The deformation of injection molded parts after ejection induced by the residual stress and temperature change was analyzed using a linear elastic three-dimensional finite element approach. In order to verify the numerical predictions obtained from the developed program, the simulation results were compared with the available experimental data in the literature. In the case of residual stress, it was found that the present simulation results overpredicted the tensile residual stresses at the surface of injection molded parts. However, the predicted shrinkage was found to be reasonable to describe the effects of processing conditions well. Finally, an analysis of the shrinkage and warpage was successfully extended for a part with a more complex curved shape.     

全生命周期产品和过程模型集成技术研究

制造业的产品和过程集成技术体现在各个不同的层面,为此,研究了全生命周期产品和过程模型的集成技术。采用面向对象方法,构建全生命周期虚拟产品模型,对全生命周期的产品信息进行表达,并对全生命周期的涵义进行阐述。虚拟产品模型由实体对象和联系对象组成,它是一个动态模型,在产品全生命周期中不断进化。通过面向对象Petri网模型(OPN),描述产品全生命周期的各种过程。在虚拟产品模型和OPN模型的基础上重点讨论产品模型和过程模型的集成技术,并结合实例进行研究。产品和过程模型集成为产品信息的重用和追溯提供支持。     

Gate design and filling process analysis of the cavity in injection molding process

This paper presents a new geometry of an edge gate in the injection molding process called modified edge gate. The corners of current edge gate result in the turbulence of molten plastic into the cavity which leads to internal and external defects. The aim of the new geometry is to reduce the internal and external defects of injected part such as sink marks and short shot. The easier de-gating analysis for the new geometry to decrease the visible blemish of the injected part was proposed in this study. A modified edge gate was proposed for two circular flat plates with thickness 1 mm. Finite element method (FEM) was used along with SolidWorks plastic. Internal and external defects of the injected part were analyzed via SolidWorks plastic. To validate the new geometry, an experimental study was implemented for two polypropylene (PP) circular flat plates with modified edge gate to confirm the simulation results. The contribution of this research is to modify the geometry of current edge gate by removing the corners of rectangular edge gate which leads to the reduction of scrap. The new geometry presents easier degating of gate and less visible blemish of the injected part. A smooth flow of molten plastic into the cavities reduces the internal and external defects. The outcome of this study demonstrates filling of the cavities with no short shot. In addition, no sink marks were detected with modified edge gate. Finally, the modified edge gate has less visible blemish on the injected part in comparison with current edge gate.     

Experimental study of warpage and shrinkage in injection molding of HDPE/rPET/wood composites with multiobjective optimization

In this paper, injection molding of squared parts with 1.25 mm in thickness, composed of wood plastic composites (high-density polyethylene, recycled polyethylene terephthalate, and wood flour), was done. The warpage and volumetric shrinkage in the parts was determined experimentally with various process conditions (packing time, melt temperature, wood content, and packing pressure). The experiments were done based on Box–Behnken design of experiments. The significance of each parameter and model was evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA showed that packing time and melt temperature are the most significant parameters on warpage and wood content is the most significant on volumetric shrinkage. Packing pressure and wood content had no considerable effect on warpage and packing time on shrinkage too. To obtain optimal process conditions for minimum warpage and shrinkage, a multiobjective optimization based on Pareto front was developed. Response surface method was used to find the relationships between input parameters and objective functions, and genetic algorithm presented the Pareto front solutions to determine the optimum solution. It was observed that there was a good agreement between the predicted optimum values and the experiments.     

Computer modeling of the heat transfer processes in injection molding

Absract  The results are given of the computer modeling of the heat transfer processes in injection molding. The distribution of temperature in the plant working route and molds for forming ceramic products in the form of nozzles, solid balls, bolls with a hole, and rings have been defined. The initial technological dependences have been calculated of the time of cooling thermoplastic mixtures based on AlN, SiC, and WC to 40°C for products of various shapes and types and sizes. Original Russian Text ? A.A. Leshchuk, T.O. Tsysar’, V.V. Ivzhenko, 2009, published in Sverkhtverdye Materialy, 2009, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 34–43.     

Effect of rapid curing process on the properties of carbon fiber/epoxy composite fabricated using vacuum assisted resin infusion molding

Long processing cycle makes vacuum assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) only suitable for low and medium volumes of production, and shortening of curing time is critical to improving the processing efficiency of automotive composite parts. In this paper, unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced composite laminates were fabricated by VARIM. Three different processes (namely quick, quick-post and preheating) were employed, in which a kind of rapid curing epoxy resin is used. The preheating of mold and fiber was conducted to shorten the filling time compared with that of quick process. Quick-post process with a post cure stage was investigated to verify the composite properties fabricated by quick process. The cycle time was 16 min for preheating process, about 30% shorter than that of quick process, simultaneously, flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) were respectively improved by 29% and 7% compared with those of quick process. The non-uniformity of mechanical properties at different positions along resin flow direction under preheating process was found, but the processing quality of composite was good. The preheating process is confirmed to be suitable for the improvement of processing efficiency of VARIM with good mechanical properties. In addition, the composite fabricated by quick-post process has better mechanical properties, which is attributed to the alleviation of residual stress during post curing process.     

大型液氮热沉中流动与传热均匀性数学模拟与分析

对大型液氮热沉进行了流动与传热分析,对单管和管路系统的流动与传热均匀性进行了数学模拟与分析.通过对热沉流动与传热分析研究,得出了对大型热沉设计的初步分析结论和优化设计建议,采用了优化设计的大型液氮热沉已经在工程中得到应用.     

既有居住建筑附属地下换热站降噪研究

为了降低既有建筑附属用房产生的噪声对居民生活的影响、改善居住建筑声环境,对既有居住建筑附属用房地下换热站的噪声源以及噪声传播途径进行了分析;以既有居住建筑地下换热站室内噪声实测数据为基础,对室内环境的声学特征进行分析。在综合考虑居民的健康和舒适的基础上,提出了针对该附属用房的降噪处理改造设计方案。经过改造后的空间噪声明显降低,空间声环境指标达到标准要求,有效地改善了居住建筑的声环境。文中提出的改造设计方案为制定民用建筑附属用房声学设计标准提供了技术支撑。     

6016铝合金热处理工艺研究

通过硬度测试、力学性能测试和烘烤硬化性能测试,研究了6016铝合金冷轧板材的热处理工艺,结果表明:合金的硬度随着固溶温度升高和固溶时间延长而增加;合金进行预时效处理时,随着预时效时间的增加硬度出现先降低后升高的现象,且预时效温度越高,硬度下降值越大;在本试验条件下,满足覆盖件性能要求的6016合金的热处理工艺为:540℃×20 min固溶水淬+120℃×10 min预时效处理。     

Certain problems of heat and mass transfer in rotational molding

The basic steps of rotational molding are described. Emphasis is on the heat- and mass-transfer processes occurring during the heating stage. The basic regularities of variation in the temperature during the cycle of rotational molding are given. Models of motion of a material in the mold in the above stage are considered. The kinetics of heating of an individual spherical particle is described.