The relationship between mechanical properties and morphology of vibration‐injection‐molded polyethylene

This paper introduces a novel melt vibration‐injection molding. The effect of mid‐frequency melt vibration on mechanical properties was introduced, and SEM, WAXD and DSC investigations had been employed to provide evidence for explaining the relationship between mechanical properties and morphology of vibration‐injection‐molded specimens. The results show that the effect of vibration frequency is very different from that of vibration pressure amplitude. At a given vibration pressure amplitude, the increase of vibration frequency is beneficial for obtaining preferential orientation, more perfect lamellae and enhanced mechanical properties. For a given vibration frequency, increase of vibration pressure amplitude is a pre‐requisite for the achievement of a large‐scale lamella, more pronounced orientation, increase of cyrstallinity and high strength of high‐density polyethylene, but part of the toughness is lost. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

The effect of vibration injection molding on mechanical properties of polyolefin parts

In this paper an experimental study of vibration field effect on molded polymers specimens is carried out. A self‐made vibration injection device is employed to mold the experiment samples. In the experiment some polyolefin materials are investigated, and property tests for the specimens are carried out. The results show that the tensile strength of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) have an obvious increase, but polystyrene (PS) does not. The effect of vibration on the strength is related to the temperature, pressure, and gate. Lastly, the test results are analyzed and conclusions are presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1514–1518, 2004     

Morphology of gas‐assisted and conventional injection molded polycarbonate/polyethylene blend

The skin‐core structure of the gas‐assisted and conventional injection molded polycarbonate (PC)/polyethylene (PE) blend was investigated. The results indicated that both the size and the shape of the dispersed PC phase depended not only on the nature of PC/PE blend and molding parameters, but also on its location in the parts. Although the gas‐assisted injection molding (GAIM) parts and conventional injection molding (CIM) part have the similar skin‐core structure, the morphology evolution of PC phase in the GAIM moldings and the CIM moldings showed completely different characteristics. In the section perpendicular to the melt flow direction, the morphology of the GAIM moldings included five layers, skin intermediate layer, subskin, core layer, core intermediate layer as well as gas channel intermediate layer, according to the degree of deformation. PC phase changed severely in the core layer of GAIM moldings, as well as in the subskin of CIM moldings. In GAIM parts, PC phase in the core layer of the nongate end changed far more intensely and aligned much orderly than that in the gate end. The morphology of PC phase in the GAIM part molded with higher gas pressure changed more severe than that in the GAIM part molded with lower gas pressure. In a word, PC phase showed more obvious fibrillation in the GAIM moldings than that in the CIM moldings. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 3069–3077, 2006     

Improved mechanical properties and structure of PP/nano‐CaCO3 blends prepared by low‐frequency vibration injection molding

BACKGROUD: Melt vibration technology was used to prepare injection samples of polypropylene (PP)/nano‐CaCO₃ blends. It is well known that nano‐CaCO₃ particles are easy to agglomerate owing to their large surface energy. Improving the distribution of nano‐CaCO₃ particles in PP/nano‐CaCO₃ blends is very important for enhancing the mechanical properties. In this work, low‐frequency vibration was imposed on the process of injection molding of PP/nano‐CaCO₃ blends. The aim of importing a vibration field was to change the crystal structure of PP as we studied previously and improve the distribution of nano‐CaCO₃ particles. Furthermore, the mechanical properties were improved. RESULTS: Through melt vibration, the mechanical properties of PP/nano‐CaCO₃ samples were improved significantly. Compared with conventional injection molding, the enhancement of the tensile strength and impact strength of the samples molded by vibration injection molding was 17.68 and 175.96%, respectively. According to scanning electron microscopy, wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry measurements, it was found that a much better dispersion of nano‐CaCO₃ in samples was achieved by vibration injection molding. Moreover, the crystal structure of PP in PP/CaCO₃ vibration samples changed. The γ crystal form was achieved at the shear layer of vibration samples. Moreover, the degree of crystallinity of PP in vibration samples increased 6% compared with conventional samples. CONCLUSION: Concerning the microstructure, melt vibration could effectively change the crystal structure and increase the degree of crystallinity of PP besides improving the distribution of nano‐CaCO₃ particles. Concerning the macrostructure, melt vibration could enhance the mechanical properties. The improvement of mechanical properties of PP/nano‐CaCO₃ blends prepared by low‐frequency vibration injection molding should be attributed to the even distribution of nano‐CaCO₃ particles and the formation of γ‐PP and the increase of the degree of cystallinity. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of an obstacle during processing on the weld line of injection‐molded glassy polystyrene: Microhardness study

The microhardness (H) technique is used to characterize the quality of the weld line in injection‐molded glassy polystyrene by means of a cylindrical obstacle. In particular, the effect of the indentation location (closer or further from the obstacle edge parallel to the injection direction and across the weld line), both on the surface and in the bulk, was examined. Only for surface measurements close to the obstacle (up to 10 mm) a well‐pronounced decrease in H (～30%), followed by a sharp increase in a narrow distance (0.20–0.25 mm), was observed. For the bulk measurements on the same location a slight decrease in H was detected. Additional H measurements made up to 60 mm from the obstacle for both cases showed that the weld line remains undetectable. The results obtained reveal that the presence of a cylindrical obstacle causes the formation of a weld line on and near the surface only at distances not exceeding the obstacle diameter. At larger distances, because of the effective mutual interdiffusion of polymer chains, the two parallel fronts coming from the two sides of the obstacle developed a homogeneous material without any weld line according to the microhardness test. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 3362–3367, 2004     

Extension of the orientation region of high density polyethylene molded by gas‐assisted injection molding: control of the thermal field

Wider zones with close‐knit orientation crystals in high density polyethylene (HDPE) parts prepared via the gas‐assisted injection molding (GAIM) process were obtained under high cooling gas pressure. In this study, compressed nitrogen, as a cooling medium, was introduced to retain a high cooling rate of the polymer melt. The high gas pressure leads to fast cooling of the polymer melt, which contributes to the stability of more oriented and stretched chains during the cooling stage. Then many more oriented structures are formed. SEM shows that many more oriented structures and interlocking shish‐kebab structures are achieved in parts under highest cooling gas pressure (P3). The P3 parts possess a higher degree of orientation than the corresponding regions of parts under lowest cooling gas pressure (P1). Moreover, tensile testing indicates that, compared with P1 parts, although P3 parts have lower crystallinity, the mechanical properties are improved because of the wider orientation zone and many more interlocking shish‐kebab structures. Combining the HDPE molecular parameters with the characteristics of the GAIM flow field and temperature field, the stability of oriented or stretched chains and the formation of orientation structures in various zones of the parts were analyzed. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

Shear‐induced crystallization of injection molded vetiver grass‐polypropylene composites

Vetiver grass was used as an alternative filler in polypropylene (PP) composites in this study. Chemical treatment of vetiver grass by alkalization was carried out to obtain alkali‐treated vetiver grass. It was shown that alkali‐treated vetiver grass exhibited higher thermal stability than untreated vetiver grass. Injection molding was used to prepare the composites. The microstructure of injection molded samples showed a distinct skin layer due to shear‐induced crystallization. It was found that normalized thickness of shear‐induced crystallization layer of the composite was lower than that of neat PP. The effect of vetiver particle sizes on shear‐induced crystallization and physical properties of the composites were elucidated. Furthermore, the effect of processing conditions on shear‐induced crystallization, degree of crystallinity, gapwise crystallinity distribution, and mechanical properties of the composite were investigated. It was shown that injection speed and mold temperature affected the normalized thickness of shear‐induced crystallization layer and degree of crystallinity of the composites. However, processing conditions showed insignificant effect on the mechanical properties of vetiver fiber‐PP composites. The degree of crystallinity showed no distribution throughout the thickness direction of the composites. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Isotropy of mechanical properties and environmental stress crack sensitivity in injection- and injection-compression molding of polystyrene with different mold temperature

In addition to conventional injection-compression molding and injection molding with dynamic process temperature control, a synergistic combination of both processes has recently been applied in dynamic temperature-controlled injection-compression molding. The two-dimensional holding pressure effect in combination with the long maintenance of the flowability of the melt due to high mold temperature enables particularly large flow path to wall thickness ratios. In the most cases, only the optimized molding of microstructures and aspect ratios is considered without including the changed internal structure of such manufactured components. In the course of this investigation, the influence of different process strategies under variation of the mold temperature on production-related anisotropies in the mechanical properties and stress crack sensitivity of thin-walled polystyrene components was examined. The determined mechanical properties are significantly below the values given in the data sheet of the material in the adapted process variant of injection-compression molding with high mold temperature. However, the results also show a clear homogenization of the direction- and flow path-dependent mechanical properties. In contrast, components produced in this way tend to show increased environmental stress crack sensitivity. This could be attributed to significantly reduced orientations as a result of the favorably proceeding orientation relaxation.     

Gas-assisted powder injection molding: A study on the effect of processing variables on gas penetration

Parts of polypropylene and of a stainless steel powder feedstock were molded by means of gas-assisted injection molding in epoxy cavities made by stereolithography. The design of the experiment method using the Taguchi L₉ array was implemented to test the effect of gas pressure, gas delay time, shot size and melt temperature on gas penetration depth and residual wall thickness. Simulations were conducted and compared with direct experimentation. Simulation predicted that the shot size was the only significant factor when processing polypropylene and the powder metal feedstock. The experiment showed that shot size and gas delay time were significant when processing polypropylene; and shot size, gas pressure, and melt temperature were significant factors when processing the powder metal feedstock. The residual wall thickness could not be controlled by the processing variables used in this study as the S/N ratios calculated were very small.     

The effect of injection molding process parameters on mechanical and fracture behavior of polycarbonate polymer

In this work, the mechanical and failure behavior of injection molded aviation standard optical grade polycarbonate (PC) was investigated through uniaxial tensile testing. The effect of different injection molding process parameters including injection velocity, packing pressure, cooling time, mold temperature, and melt temperature were determined to observe their effect on yield and postyield behavior of PC. Out of these examined parameters, the mold and melt temperature show significant effect on mechanical behavior of studied polymer. The yield and flow stresses in polymer increase with the increase in mold and melt temperature during injection molding. However, other process parameters i.e., packing pressure, injection velocity, and cooling time showed little effect on mechanical performance of the polymer. The molded specimens were annealed at different temperatures and residence time to evaluate its effect on mechanical behavior and fracture morphology. The yield stress increases gradually with the increase in annealing temperature and time. The annealing treatment also changed the failure mode of PC specimens from ductile to brittle. In addition to process parameters, the effect of increased loading rate was also undertaken which shows substantial effect on mechanical and failure behavior of PC. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44474.     

Computer simulation of the filling process in gas‐assisted injection molding based on gas‐penetration modeling

Gas‐assisted injection molding can effectively produce parts free of sink marks in thick sections and free of warpage in long plates. This article concerns the numerical simulation of melt flow and gas penetration during the filling stage in gas‐assisted injection molding. By taking the influence of gas penetration on the melt flow as boundary conditions of the melt‐filling region, a hybrid finite‐element/finite‐difference method similar to conventional‐injection molding simulation was used in the gas‐assisted injection molding‐filling simulation. For gas penetration within the gas channel, an analytical formulation of the gas‐penetration thickness ratio was deduced based on the matching asymptotic expansion method. Finally, an experiment was employed to verify this proposed simulation scheme and gas‐penetration model, by comparing the results of the experiment with the simulation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2377–2384, 2003     

In situ composites from blends of polycarbonate and a thermotropic liquid‐crystalline polymer: The influence of the processing temperature on the rheology,morphology, and mechanical properties of injection‐molded microcomposites

This work was aimed at understanding how the injection‐molding temperature affected the final mechanical properties of in situ composite materials based on polycarbonate (PC) reinforced with a liquid‐crystalline polymer (LCP). To that end, the LCP was a copolyester, called Vectra A950 (VA), made of 73 mol % 4‐hydroxybenzoic acid and 27 mol % 6‐hydroxy‐2 naphthoic acid. The injection‐molded PC/VA composites were produced with loadings of 5, 10, and 20 wt % VA at three different processing barrel temperatures (280, 290, and 300°C). When the composite was processed at barrel temperatures of 280 and 290°C, VA provided reinforcement to PC. The resulting injection‐molded structure had a distinct skin–core morphology with unoriented VA in the core. At these barrel temperatures, the viscosity of VA was lower than that of PC. However, when they were processed at 300°C, the VA domains were dispersed mainly in spherical droplets in the PC/VA composites and thus were unable to reinforce the material. The rheological measurements showed that now the viscosity of VA was higher than that of PC at 300°C. This structure development during the injection molding of these composites was manifested in the mechanical properties. The tensile modulus and tensile strength of the PC/VA composites were dependent on the processing temperature and on the VA concentrations. The modulus was maximum in the PC/VA blend with 20 wt % VA processed at 290°C. The Izod impact strength of the composites tended to markedly decrease with increasing VA content. The magnitude of the loss modulus decreased with increasing VA content at a given processing temperature. This was attributed to the anisotropic reinforcement of VA. Similarly, as the VA content increased, the modulus and thus the reinforcing effect were improved comparatively with the processing temperature increasing from 280 to 290°C; this, however, dropped in the case of composites processed at 300°C, at which the modulus anisotropy was reduced. Dynamic oscillatory shear measurements revealed that the viscoelastic properties, that is, the shear storage modulus and shear loss modulus, improved with decreasing processing temperatures and increasing VA contents in the composites. Also, the viscoelastic melt behavior (shear storage modulus and shear loss modulus) indicated that the addition of VA changed the distribution of the longer relaxation times of PC in the PC/VA composites. Thus, the injection‐molding processing temperature played a vital role in optimizing the morphology‐dependent mechanical properties of the polymer/LCP composites. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

Physical–mechanical properties and morphological study on nylon‐6 recycling by injection molding

The effect of the multiple recycling of nylon‐6 by injection molding on its physical–mechanical properties and morphology was studied after each cycle of injection. These studies were made in order to know how many times it is possible to recycle the nylon‐6 without significant loss of the physical–mechanical properties. Optical and electronic microscopy were used to evaluated the morphology. Molecular weight changes were determinated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The nylon‐6 was recycled 10 times, until the eighth cycle the properties of the material did not suffered any change. Changes of 10–15% in the properties between nylon‐6 with 10 cycles of injection and virgin material were observed. An exception was the percentage of elongation that decreased 70% gradually until in the tenth cycle of injection. The results from GPC show that the molecular weight of nylon‐6 increased with recycling (M_w = 17% and M_n = 14%). With the reprocess was also observed the presence of gels. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 76: 851–858, 2000     

Morphology and mechanical properties of injection‐molded ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene/polypropylene blends and comparison with compression molding

The mechanical properties and morphology of UHMWPE/PP(80/20) blend molded by injection and compression‐molding were investigated comparatively. The results showed that the injection‐molded part had obviously higher Young's modulus and yield strength, and much lower elongation at break and impact strength, than compression‐molded one. A skin‐core structure was formed during injection molding in which UHMWPE particles elongated highly in the skin and the orientation was much weakened in the core. In the compression‐molded part, the phase morphology was isotropic from the skin to the core section. The difference in consolidation degree between two molded parts that the compression molded part consolidated better than the injection one was also clearly shown. In addition, compositional analysis revealed that there was more PP in the skin than core for the injection‐molded part, whereas opposite case occurred to the compression‐molded one. All these factors together accounted for the different behavior in mechanical properties for two molded parts. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

A simple method for forecast of cooling time of high‐density polyethylene during gas‐assisted injection molding

Gas‐assisted injection molding (GAIM) is an innovative plastic processing technology, which was developed from the conventional injection molding, and has currently found wide industrial applications. About 70% of the whole gas‐assisted injection molding cycle is actually occupied by the cooling stage. The quality and production efficiency of molded parts are considerably affected by the cooling stage. Hence, it is necessary to study the solidification behaviors during the cooling stage. In this work, a simple experimental method was designed to simulate the solidification behaviors of high‐density polyethylene during cooling stage of GAIM. The enthalpy transformation approach, coupled with the control‐volume/finite difference techniques, was adopted to deal with the transient heat transfer problems with phase change effects. In situ measurements of the temperature decreases in the cavity were also carried out. Reasonable agreements between the experimental values and the simulated results such as cooling time, cooling rates, and temperature curves were obtained, which proved that this simple experimental method was effective. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Crystallization behavior and molecular orientation of high density polyethylene parts prepared by gas‐assisted injection molding

The dependence of hierarchy in crystalline structures and molecular orientations of high density polyethylene parts with different molecular weights molded by gas‐assisted injection molding (GAIM) was intensively examined by scanning electron microscopy, two‐dimensional wide‐angle X‐ray scattering as well as dynamic rheological measurements. The non‐isothermal crystallization kinetics of the samples were also analyzed with a differential scanning calorimeter at various scanning rates. It was found that oriented lamellar structure, shish‐kebab and common spherulites were formed in different regions of the GAIM samples. The scanning electron microscope observations were consistent with the two‐dimensional wide‐angle X‐ray scattering results and showed that the molecular chains near the mold wall had strong orientation behavior, revealing the distribution of the shear rate of the GAIM process. The differences in crystal morphologies can be attributed to molecular weight differences as well as their responses to the external fields during the GAIM process. The formation mechanism of the shish‐kebab structure under the flow field of GAIM was also explored. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Real‐time diagnosing polymer processing in injection molding using ultrasound

Ultrasonic diagnosing technique with a new high‐temperature ultrasonic transducer is developed to real‐time diagnose polymer processing and its morphology changes in injection molding processing. Compared with the previous researches, the new technique can provide more and accurate information. In this study, ultrasound diagnosis shows that longitudinal wave can real‐time characterize the data of the injection process and polymer morphology changes, including melt flow arrival time, the part ejection time, filling and packing stages, polymer solidification process, and the morphology changes during polymer crystallization. Shear waves can real‐time diagnose Young's and shear storage modulus, anisotropy property of polymer in injection molding. During our research, real‐time ultrasonic diagnosis shows that the storage modulus along the vertical direction is larger than that of the parallel to the melt flow direction under our setup injection conditions. Scanning electron microscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis measurements present that it is because the crystalline lamellas of HDPE are parallel arrangement and grow in a vertical to melt flow direction owing to injection shear force under a certain injection conditions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Effect of vibration parameters of electromagnetic dynamic plastics injection molding machine on mechanical properties of polypropylene samples

Dynamic injection processing experiments have been carried out on polypropylene using the self‐made electromagnetic dynamic plastics injection molding machine, and the effects of the vibration force field on mechanical properties of molding samples are studied, namely, the influence of vibration frequency and vibration amplitude on the mechanical properties of samples are researched by using tensile testing, impact testing, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and scanning electronic micrograph (SEM) techniques. The results show that the tensile strength and impact strength are both enhanced and the melting point shifts toward the higher temperature, which facilitates the perfection of crystal. The best vibration parameters for processing polypropylene using electromagnetic dynamic plastics injection molding machine are that frequency is from 3 to 9 Hz and amplitude is from 0.1 to 0.4 mm. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 972–976, 2006     

气体辅助注射成型关键技术研究

介绍了气体辅助注射成型原理、成型周期和技术优势,说明了气体辅助注射成型生产工艺和制品设计特点。     

Evaluation of processing effects in injection‐molded amorphous and crystalline thermoplastics using an excimer laser

The ablation behavior of amorphous [polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC)] and crystalline [PET, glass‐filled poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT)] polymers by 248‐nm KrF excimer laser irradiation were investigated for different injection‐molding conditions, namely, injection flow rate, injection pressure, and mold temperature, as a possible method for evaluating processing effects in the specimens. For this purpose, dumbbell‐shaped samples were injection‐molded under different sets of processing conditions, and weight loss measurements were carried out for the different injection‐molding conditions. Some of the crystalline (PET) samples were annealed at different annealing times and temperatures. For PET, the weight loss decreased with increasing mold temperature and remained insensitive to injection flow rate. Annealing time and temperature significantly reduced weight loss in PET. For PBT, the weight loss due to laser ablation decreased with increasing material packing due to pressure, and it also showed some sensitivity to flow rate variation. The major effect was seen with glass‐filled PBT samples. The weight loss decreased drastically with increasing glass fiber content. Laser ablation allowed us to observe process‐induced fiber orientation by scanning electron microscopy in PBT samples. For PS and PC, the weight loss increased with increasing injection flow rate and mold temperature and decreased with increasing injection pressure. The position near the gate showed higher ablation than the position at the end for all the conditions. A decrease in the material orientation with injection speed and mold temperature led to an increase in the weight loss, whereas an increase in the injection pressure, and consequently orientation, led to a lower weight loss for PS and PC. Higher residual stress samples showed higher weight losses. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2006