Feasibility evaluation of gas-assisted heating for mold surface temperature control during injection molding process

Dynamic mold surface temperature control has the advantage of improving molded part qualities without significant increases in cycle time. In this study, a gas-assisted heating system combined with water cooling and different mold designs to achieve dynamic mold surface temperature control was established. The feasibility of using gas-assisted heating for mold surface temperature control during the injection molding process was then evaluated from experimental results. The effect of mold design as well as heating conditions including hot gas temperature, gas flow capacity, and heating time on the heating efficiency and the distribution uniformity of mold surface temperature were also studied. Results showed that as hot gas temperature and gas flow capacity increased, as well as increasing heating times from 2 s to 4 s, mold surface temperature increased significantly. Fan shaped gas channel design exhibits better mold surface temperature distribution uniformity than tube shaped gas channel design. During gas-assisted heating/cooling, it takes 2 s to increase mold surface temperature from 60 °C to 120 °C and 34 s for mold surface to return to 60 °C. In addition, under specified heating conditions and using the best composite mold designs, the heating rate can reach up to 30 °C/s, a rate well-suited to industrial applications.     

Gas-assisted mold temperature control for improving the quality of injection molded parts with fiber additives

A rapid heating cycle has the advantage of improving product quality in injection molding. In this study, gas-assisted mold temperature control (GMTC) was combined with cool water to achieve dynamic mold surface temperature control. By applying the GMTC system on the mold of a rectangular plate, the advantages of using GMTC for injection molding were evaluated and compared with the traditional injection molding process using different gas gap sizes and gas flow capacities. The effect of GMTC on the quality of the part was also studied. Results showed that when GMTC was used, the heating rate can reach 28 °C/s. For an initial mold temperature of 60 °C, and an air gap size of 8 mm, after 6 s heating, the mold surface temperature can reach 147.8 °C, 167.2 °C, and 229 °C with gas flow capacities of 100, 200, and 300 l/min, respectively. When the gas gap size is changed from 4 mm to 8 mm, the uniformity of temperature distribution shows a clear improvement. When GMTC was used for injection molding of parts with fiber additives, the part surface was clearly improved.     

Mold temperature control using high-frequency proximity effect induced heating

A rapid heating in an injection molding cycle has the advantage of improving product quality without significant increase in cycle time. In this study, high-frequency proximity effect induced heating (HFPEIH) was developed and combined with water cooling to achieve dynamic mold surface temperature control. By applying the HFPEIH system on a pair of mold plates separated with a small gap, the relevant influence of HFPEIH design was evaluated under various parameters including different mold plate material, inductor designs, and inductor channel depths beneath mold surface as well as mold separations. Simulation was also conducted and verified with experiments. Results show that all the heating rates range within 2 °C/s to 4 °C/s for the mold plate size of 100 mm by 100 mm. For the inductor design with three channels of circular cross section, the heating rate is fastest whereas one inductor design of rectangular shape exhibits the best the uniformity of temperature distribution. When the channel depth is reduced from 12 mm to 4 mm, the heating rate is increased significantly. The heating rate is also sensitive to mold plate surface area. When stainless steel N700 was used as the plate materials in a smaller plate of 60 mm by 60 mm, the heating rate can reach 7.6 °C/s using one channel inductor design. The mold separation exhibits that it is less sensitive to the heating rate within 1 mm to 5 mm range and when it is greater than 5 mm, the heating rate starts to decrease slightly. All the simulated results show good coincidence with experimental measurements.     

Induction heating with the ring effect for injection molding plates

Induction heating in injection molding has the advantages of rapid heating, reduced cycle time, and improved product quality. In this research, using both experiment and simulation, externally wrapped coil induction heating was applied to verify the heating capacity of a pair of mold plates. By applying different coil designs and mold gap, the effect of the externally wrapped coil induction heating was evaluated. Results showed that when a serial coil was used as an inductor, the heating rate reached 8.0 °C/s. From an initial mold temperature of 40 °C, after 15 s heating, the mold surface temperature reached 159.9 °C with the serial coil. The parallel coil shows a better heating uniformity but its heating rate is far lower than the serial coil. For the serial coil, the temperature distribution between the core and cavity plate are almost the same. The heating rate increases from 4.9 °C/s to 10.6 °C/s when the inductor design is changed from 5 turns to 7 turns. After 15 s heating, the temperature at point T2 increases from 40 °C to 166.7 °C and 106.1 °C with a mold gap of 1 mm, and 6 mm, respectively.     

Passive mold temperature control by a hybrid filming-microcellular injection molding processing

Microcellular injection molding (also known as Mucell process) with supercritical fluid (SCF) content is capable of producing parts with excellent dimensional stability while using less material, lower injection pressure, and achieving a shorter cycle time. However, most of microcellular processing studies were done on interior morphology, microstructure of the microcellular products, researches and reports on the splay-like appearance, or even a rougher swirl surface which is the restriction for the application of the microcellular injection molding are insufficient. This study investigates the influence of mold temperature on the surface roughness of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/Polycarbonate (PC) parts molded by hybrid filming–microcellular injection processing. The PET film is considered as a passive mold temperature controller because of its lower heat transfer coefficient (0.16 J/kg °C) compared with mold base steel of 31.5 J/kg °C. Temperature field changes of mold base caused by different film thickness (0.125 mm, 0.188 mm) were analyzed. The surface roughness of microcellular parts with/without film was measured by a 3D laser microscope. It was found that surface toughness decreases while film thickness increases with minimum surface roughness 1.8 μm. Compared with conventional mold temperature (60 °C), the hybrid molded parts with 0.125 mm film lowered surface roughness from 26 μm to 5.6 μm, to 1.8 μm of 0.188 mm film. And the hybrid processing also improved the uniformity of foamed parts surface quality by eliminating swirl and even surface roughness.     

Effect of decoration film on mold surface temperature during in-mold decoration injection molding process

In-mold decoration (IMD) during injection molding is a relatively new injection molding technique and has been employed for plastic products to improve surface quality and achieving colorful surface design, etc. During IMD processing, the film is preformed as the shape of mold cavity and attached to one side of the mold wall (usually cavity surface), then molten polymer is filled into the cavity. Heat transfer toward the mold cavity side during molding IMD part is significantly retarded because the film is much less thermal conductive than metal mold. To investigate the effect of film on temperature field, polycarbonate (PC) was injection molded under various conditions including coolant temperature, melt temperature, film material and film thickness. Simulations were also conducted to evaluate the melt–film interface temperature and its influence from film initial temperature and film thermal properties. For PC film, it was found that the heat transfer retardation results in the mold temperature drop in cavity surface and the maximum temperature drop as compared to that of conventional injection molding without film may be as high as 17.7 °C. For PET film, this maximum mold temperature drop is about 13 °C. As PC film thickness increases, the retardation-induced mold temperature difference also increases. The initial film temperature (30 °C and 95 °C) may affect the melt–film interface temperature at the contact instant of melt and film by about 12 °C to 17 °C. When thermal conductivity of film increases from 0.1 W/(m–k) to 0.2 W/(m–k), melt–film interface temperature may vary by 22.9 °C. The simulated mold temperature field showed reasonable agreement with experimental results.     

Hydrogen production from steam reforming using an indirect heating method

In this work, a methanol steam reforming (MSR) reactor was operated using an indirect heating method. A thermal circuit was constructed between the MSR reactor and the electrical heater to supply the heat required for the endothermic reaction, and deionized water was used as the heat transfer medium (HTM). The MSR reactors featured a shell-and-tube type design to operate at high pressures. A Cu/Zn catalyst was installed on the tube side, and HTM was supplied to the shell side. To improve the heat transfer performance, the heat transfer area between the shell and tube was increased from 598 to 1117 cm². Because the MSR reactor had a sufficient heat exchange area corresponding to the catalytic reaction rate, the heat exchange area had little effect on methanol conversion. However, the heat exchange area had a greater effect on the performance because the operating temperature of reactor was lower. Under the same operating temperature conditions, the MSR reactor operated under the indirect heating method showed relatively higher methanol conversion than the MSR reactor operated in an electric furnace because of the effective heat transfer by the latent heat of saturated steam. The MSR reactor based on the indirect heating method was continuously operated at 250 °C for 72 h to verify characteristic start-up and operation. The results showed that the MSR reactor could be operated at a constant temperature; however, low methanol conversion at low operating temperatures led to slow catalyst degradation. In addition, the MSR reactor required more than 2 h for initial start-up and for restart after emergency shutdown because the HTM needed to be evaporated and pressurized to the target pressure.     

Effect of cavity surface coating on mold temperature variation and the quality of injection molded parts

Suiting for high gloss surface of injection molded parts free of painting is a great concern from both environment and cost effective considerations. As a result, variable mold temperature controls to achieve the mentioned goal have been paid great attentions. In this study, TiN and Teflon of various thicknesses were coated on the cavity surface of a tensile bar mold designed with double gate. During the injection molding process, melt–mold interface temperature was analyzed and simulated. In a regular injection molding of ABS resin using P20 as the mold material, the initial melt temperature may drop from 240 °C to about 65 °C after 0.01 s of contact with the cavity surface when the coolant temperature is 60 °C. For a TiN surface coating of 4 µm, the interface contact temperature was raised to 73.6 °C. For a Teflon coating of 22 µm, the contact surface temperature is as high as 100 °C initially (about 25 °C higher) and remains above 80 °C for about 0.4 s. Teflon coating on the cavity surface eliminates the weld-line marks, improves part surface smoothness and results in better tensile strength for weld line than TiN coating. Moreover, the cooling time was almost not affected. When surface coating is combined with infrared heating, not only the tensile strengths of the weld line were further enhanced but also the heating rate at mold surface is enhanced.     

Using thermally insulated polymer film for mold temperature control to improve surface quality of microcellular injection molded parts

Microcellular injection molding provides many advantages over conventional foams and their unfoamed counterparts, but its applications are limited by visible surface quality problems such as silver streaks and swirl marks. In this study, a mold temperature control method was proposed which a thermally insulated composite polymer film (82%PET + 18%PC) stick on the surface of mold core is used to achieve heat transfer delay at the plastic's melt–mold surface interface during the microcellular injection molding process to improve surface quality of molded parts. Effect of film thickness on the part surface quality, was also investigated using surface roughness measurements and visual inspection of the molded parts. It was found that the surface quality of parts can be greatly improved without a significant increase in cycle time when comparing with parts molded without polymer film. The surface roughness can decreases from 5.6 to 1.8 μm when polymer film thickness increases from 0.125 to 0.188 mm. Meanwhile, the flow marks of gas bubbles on the part surface can be removed completely at film thickness of 0.188 mm. The usefulness by stick a polymer film on the surface of mold core for mold temperature control in improving part surface quality during microcellular injection molding has been successfully demonstrated.     

Application of nanofluids in heating buildings and reducing pollution

This paper presents nanofluid convective heat transfer and viscosity measurements, and evaluates how they perform heating buildings in cold regions. Nanofluids contain suspended metallic nanoparticles, which increases the thermal conductivity of the base fluid by a substantial amount. The heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids increases with volume concentration. To determine how nanofluid heat transfer characteristics enhance as volume concentration is increased; experiments were performed on copper oxide, aluminum oxide and silicon dioxide nanofluids, each in an ethylene glycol and water mixture. Calculations were performed for conventional finned-tube heat exchangers used in buildings in cold regions. The analysis shows that using nanofluids in heat exchangers could reduce volumetric and mass flow rates, and result in an overall pumping power savings. Nanofluids necessitate smaller heating systems, which are capable of delivering the same amount of thermal energy as larger heating systems using base fluids, but are less expensive; this lowers the initial equipment cost excluding nanofluid cost. This will also reduce environmental pollutants because smaller heating units use less power, and the heat transfer unit has less liquid and material waste to discard at the end of its life cycle.     

Structure and mechanical properties of polystyrene foams made through microcellular injection molding via control mechanisms of gas counter pressure and mold temperature

In this study we developed a foaming control system using Gas Counter Pressure (GCP) combined with mold temperature control in the microcellular foaming (MuCell) process. The effects of the skin thickness, cell size, and cell morphology resulting from the three control mechanisms (including GCP control alone, mold temperature control alone, and GCP combined with mold temperature control) and process parameters on the mechanical properties of foamed polymer were investigated. In addition, the mechanical properties of foamed specimens molded from these three control mechanisms were also compared. It was found that skin thickness, cell size, and cell shape had significant influences on the mechanical properties of specimens depending on the molding conditions of gas counter pressure, holding time, and mold temperature. By increasing gas counter pressure, holding time, and decreasing the mold temperature, the tensile strength increased. In addition, by increasing gas counter pressure, holding time, and mold temperature alone, impact strength decreased. But, there were no clear relationships for processing parameters when GCP combined with dynamic mold temperature control was used because the effects of the skin thickness, cell size, and cell shape on the impact strength were unclear. Under experimental condition at mold temperature of 60 °C combined with appropriate GCP control system, better tensile strength and impact performance were achieved and specimens with thin skin, small and uniform cell size as well as better surface quality were produced.     

Optimal temperature control of solar heating systems

Temperature control systems based on solar and wind energy differ in two important ways from existing fossil fuel systems. One is that solar systems, at least active solar systems, all have some kind of energy storage, the other is that the source of energy in a solar and wind energy system is variable and uncontrollable. Because of these added complications and the high capital investment required for solar and wind energy systems, considerably more sophisticated techniques are required for the design of those systems. In this study, a new technique is applied to the optimal control problem of solar heating systems.     

Augmented control strategies for radiant floor heating systems

A dynamic model of a radiant floor heating (RFH) system useful for control analysis is developed. The overall model consists of a boiler, distribution system, an embedded tube floor slab and building enclosure. The overall model is described by non‐linear differential equations which were solved using finite numerical methods. Two control strategies for improving the temperature regulation in RFH systems are proposed. These are: a multistage on–off control and an augmented constant gain control (ACGC). Simulation results show that the multistage control maintains zone air temperature close to the setpoint better than the existing on–off control scheme does. Likewise, ACGC gives good zone temperature control compared to the classical proportional control. The ACGC is shown to be robust to changes in weather conditions and internal heat gains. The advantage of the control strategies proposed is that they eliminate the use of outdoor temperature sensors required in some existing control schemes. Being simple and robust, the proposed control schemes are good candidate controls for RFH systems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constant temperature control of tundish induction heating power supply for metallurgical manufacturing

The tundish induction heating power supply (TIHPS) is one of the most important equipment in the continuous casting process for metallurgical manufacturing. Specially, the constant temperature control is greatly significant for metallurgical manufacturing. In terms of the relationship between TIH load temperature and output power of TIHPS, the constant temperature control can be realized by power control. In this paper, a TIHPS structure with three-phase PWM rectifiers and full-bridge cascaded inverter is proposed. Besides, an input harmonic current blocking strategy and a load voltage feedforward control are also proposed to realize constant temperature control. To meet the requirement of the system, controller parameters are designed properly. Experiments are conducted to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed TIHPS topology and the control methods.     

An approach for determining surface temperature distributions of solid objects subjected to heating applications

This study presents a simple technique of determining surface temperature values and/or distributions of solid objects of various geometrical shapes (e.g. infinite slab, infinite cylinder, and sphere) during heating in a medium under natural or forced convection conditions. In the model, the boundary condition of the third kind (i.e., 0.1 < Bi < 100) in transient heat transfer, which is commonly encountered, is used. In many practical applications ranging from metallurgy to food engineering processes, the measurement of surface temperatures of such solid objects is a remarkable problem; however, centre temperature measurements are quite easy. For this reason, simple and accurate models are required for use in practice. The proposed model depends on the centre temperature and determines the surface temperatures using the centre temperature measurements. In order to test the present analytical model, an actual example for a slab object was given and the centre and surface temperature profiles were drawn. In addition, the centre and surface temperature distributions for infinite slab, infinite cylinder, and sphere were computed for the values of 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 of the Biot number and were exhibited as reference graphics. As a result, the present model is capable of determing surface temperatures of various geometrical objects heated in any medium using their centre temperature measurements in a simple and accurate manner.     

过热汽温多内模控制

针对火电厂过热汽温被控对象具有大迟延、大惯性的特点,且对象特性随负荷变化较大等因素,很难实现稳定和高性能的控制。针对这一特点,提出了基于多模型的内模控制策略,通过在不同工况辩识得到局部模型,根据加权因子计算出全局多模型,设计出相应的内模控制器,根据运行工况选择相应的控制器,从而实现全工况运行的自适应控制。仿真结果表明,该控制策略比常规的单内模控制在更大范围具有较好的控制品质。     

Study on heating performances of steam generator for solid oxide fuel cell using waste heat from solid particles

This paper reports the heating performances of steam generator for solid oxide fuel cell using waste heat from solid particles. The model of trapezoid-fin-tube heat exchanger was set up by using FLUENT 14.0. The model has been used to investigate the effects of fin tip width (2 mm–4 mm) and fin height (34 mm–46 mm). The fin surface temperature, the particle temperature, the fin total heat flux, the heat recovery efficiency and the heat transfer coefficient were studied. The heating performance of steam generator is improved when the trapezoid-fins are placed on heat transfer tubes, which is conducive to increase the power generation efficiency of solid oxide fuel cell. When the fin height increases from 34 mm to 46 mm, the average temperature of calcined petroleum coke decrease from 414 K to 376 K, the maximum temperature decrease from 498 K to 442 K, the average heat transfer coefficient of internal and external heat exchanger increase 12.4% and 12.7% respectively, the heat recovery efficiency increases 4.3%. When the fin tip width increases from 2 mm to 3 mm, the average temperature reduce 6.7 K and the maximum temperature decrease 7.3 K, the average heat transfer coefficient of internal and external heat exchanger increase 3.8% and 3.7% respectively, the heat recovery efficiency increases 0.88%.     

工业供热中汽汽再热器换热强化数值研究

为了强化工业供热中的汽汽换热,通过CFD技术对不同类型换热管的流动及换热特性进行了研究。结果显示：光滑壁面时管壁两侧的高、低温蒸汽的温度梯度沿着流向逐渐变化,对流换热逐渐增强;相比于光滑管,采用内波节管和内螺纹波节管时,高温蒸汽侧的温度梯度增大,而低温蒸汽侧的壁面温度梯度明显增大;采用壁面异型结构能够改变管壁内温度梯度,采用内螺纹波节管尤甚。采用内波节管和内螺纹波节管的平均Nu相比于光滑管显著提高,最大值分别提高了26%和30%。     

主蒸汽温度的串级CMAC学习控制策略

结合CMAC学习控制器和串级控制系统,提出了主蒸汽温度的串级CMAC学习控制策略,其自适应性强,非常适合于计算机实时控制。仿真研究表明,该策略的控制品质良好,远远优于PID控制。     

基于支持向量机的过热汽温内模控制

提出一种基于支持向量机回归的内模控制算法并应用于过热气温控制。首先,简介支持向量机回归算法和内模控制原理;其次,提出基于支持向量机回归算法构造的被控过程的逆模型,将该逆模型作为控制器,并在主控系统中增加鲁棒控制器以增加系统的鲁棒性及跟踪性能。仿真结果表明提出的控制算法的控制品质优于传统的PID控制算法。