Fatigue performance of injection‐molded short e‐glass fiber reinforced polyamide‐6,6. II. Effects of melt temperature and hold pressure

Tensile and fatigue properties of an injection molded short E‐glass fiber reinforced polyamide‐6,6 have been studied as a function of two key injection molding parameters, namely melt temperature and hold pressure. It was observed that tensile and fatigue strengths of specimens normal to the flow direction were lower than that in the flow direction, indicating inherent anisotropy caused by injection molding. Tensile and fatigue strengths of specimens with weld line were significantly lower than that without weld lines. For specimens in the flow direction, normal to the flow direction and with weld line, tensile strength and fatigue strength increased with increasing melt temperature as well as increasing hold pressure. The effect of specimen orientation on the tensile and fatigue strengths is explained in terms of the difference in fiber orientation and skin‐core morphology of the specimens. POLYM. COMPOS., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers.     

Effects of geometry and injection‐molding parameters on weld‐line strength

Polymeric flows in microchannels are found to differ significantly from those in macrogeometries. Increasing the mechanical properties of microstructures is one of the most important issues in injection‐molding processes. Weld‐line characteristics of structures with different cross‐sections are investigated in this study. The effects of process parameters and cross‐sectional dimensions on the tensile strength of a weld line are discussed. A mold was designed in such a way that specimens with and without weld lines can be developed separately. Five specimens, with different cross‐sections, are injection‐molded simultaneously. Both polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) are used in this study. With the Taguchi method, four process variables: melt temperature, mold temperature, injection speed, and packing pressure were found to be the most influential. Experimental results show that the weld‐line strength from a standard test is not applicable in microinjection molding. The microstructure of weld lines is clearly observed from the micrographs. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 45:1021–1030, 2005. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Numerical and experimental studies on the ejection of injection‐molded plastic products

Numerical and experimental studies have been conducted on the ejection stage of plastics injection molding process. A numerical approach is proposed to predict the ejection force from the mold‐part constraining and friction forces as the product cools in the mold cavity up to the moment of ejection. The finite element thermoviscoelastic solidification analysis has taken into account the stress and volume relaxation behavior of polymers under the cavity‐constrained condition. The predicted ejection force and its distribution over ejector pins are validated by injection molding experiment of rectangular boxes using a polycarbonate resin. Different cases of the ejector pin layout are evaluated to examine the effect of the number, location and dimension of ejector pins, so as to identify the balanced layout causing minimum stress and deformation to the product. The approach is also applied to another product geometry which shows complex distribution of the mold‐part constraining and friction forces and involves multi‐step operations in the demolding stage.     

Localized effects of dynamic melt manipulation on flow induced orientation and mechanical performance of injection molded products

This study investigates the effects that dynamic melt manipulation based injection molding has on the locally induced molecular orientation and tensile strength of injection molded polystyrene. Melt manipulation refers to a process where the polymer melt is manipulated during molding beyond the extent normally encountered in conventional injection molding. The specific melt manipulation process investigated in this article is vibration assisted injection molding, where a conventional injection molding machine is augmented by oscillating the injection screw (in the axial direction) during the injection and packing phases of the molding cycle. The localized final molecular orientation and morphology that results dictates the resultant product response, and typically improved mechanical properties are observed. Specimens with molecular orientation distributed more uniformly along the gage length typically exhibited higher tensile strength than samples with a gradient of orientation along the gage length. Smaller test specimens machined along the gage length of larger molded specimens showed dramatic tensile strength increase in the regions of higher melt manipulation, further supporting the promise of this novel processing methodology. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:1912–1919, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Advanced injection molding mold and molding process for improvement of weld line strengths and isotropy of glass fiber filled aromatic polyester LCP

An advanced injection molding tool for measurement of mechanical strength and anisotropy of liquid crystal polymers (LCP)/mineral filler composites was developed. The mold produces thin‐walled LCP specimens that can be used by water cutting technique for production of an injection molded flow direction test bar, a transverse‐to‐injection molded flow direction test bar, a test bar for knit line strength measurement, and a test bar for butt weld line strength measurement. This tool and its use for molding experiments were optimized by experimental research and by computational calculations based on experimental parameters obtained by molding of several LCP test materials. Different pressure profiles and different injection speeds were tested as well as application of mold overflow phenomenon in production of test specimens. It was observed that a pressure controlled X‐melt technique and on the other hand fast injection speeds with overflow in conventional molding methods gave the best strength and isotropy properties for the test specimens. Results indicate that the mold developed is useful for determination of anisotropic and weld line strength properties of LCP composites. When developing “isotropic LCP” by different possibilities of nanotechnology this tool significantly reduces time of LCP material and process development. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Evaluation of healing models to predict the weld line strength of the amorphous thermoplastic polystyrene by injection molding simulation

In many injection molded parts weld lines are often unavoidable. These cause optical defects and a reduction of the mechanical properties of the part. Therefore, the predictability of the weld line strength at an early stage of development would provide a significant advantage by avoiding costly iterations of the mold and increases the understanding of the correlation between process history of the melt and weld line strength. For this purpose, a calculation routine has been developed to predict the weld line strength based on injection molding simulation. Different models to calculate the healing of a weld line are compared and analyzed. By adding a factor to consider the shear rate in addition to the temperature and the pressure and after calibration to one design of experiment setting of the experimental data, the prediction of the weld line strength shows good agreement for all examined process setpoints of the experimental data for polystyrene.     

热流道顺序浇注成型移除熔接痕研究

为了有效移除注塑制品中的熔接痕,深入分析了熔接痕的形成过程和采用热流道顺序浇注成型移除熔接痕的机理,并使用模流分析软件Moldflow对顺序浇注成型移除熔接痕的过程进行了有限元模拟。模拟分析结果表明,随着阀浇口不同的开闭时机,顺序浇注成型可以有效地控制熔接痕的位置及长度,改善熔接区域的外观和性能,有效避免熔接痕的产生。实验表明,采用顺序浇注成型时制品的熔接痕已基本消除.     

Vibration welding of nano‐TiO2 filled polypropylene

Polypropylene (PP)‐based nanocomposites compounded by a twin‐screw extruder and injection molded into plates those were then joined by linear vibration welding. The mechanical performances of the welds and bulk materials were examined. While the incorporation of rigid particles slightly improves the impact strength of the bulk PP, the mechanical properties of the welds decrease with increasing nanoparticle contents. The best weld quality is obtained at low weld pressure without nanoparticles. The fracture surfaces and microstructure of the welds showed that the reduced weld quality is caused by the orientation of nanofillers parallel to the weld plane, the destruction of interphase between fillers and matrix, and the reduction of molten‐film thickness by incorporation of nanoparticles. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:243–250, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

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     

Assessment of weld line performance of PP/Talc moldings produced in hot runner injection molds

Weld lines are weak regions in thermoplastic injection moldings caused by low molecular entanglement and unfavorable orientation. Their occurrence may lead to a significantly reduced mechanical performance of the products. Therefore, when weld lines are likely to occur in molded products, they must be taken into account during the mechanical and technological design processes. The weld lines become more critical when particulate fillers are compounded with the polymer. The performance of weld lines in talc‐filled polypropylene box moldings produced with a double‐gated hot runner mold is assessed in this work. The processing conditions were varied in order to cause morphology and tensile‐impact resistance changes. The weld performance at room temperature was assessed in terms of the energy absorbed in the impact tests. It was found that the performance depends on the injection temperature, the injection rate, and the orientation of the talc particles in the weld‐line plane. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 13:159–165, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Effect of molding condition and pellets material on the weld property of injection molded jute/polylactic acid

Natural fibers such as jute fiber and biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA) polymer are very good choices for environmental friendly material. Multi‐gate injection is often used to meet the demand of mass production of injection moldings, therefore weld line is inevitable. The presence of weld lines not only detracts from the surface quality but also significantly reduces the mechanical strength of injection‐molded parts. Although it is not always easy to completely eliminate weld lines, the weld strength could be improved through suitable adjustment of molding conditions such as melt temperature, mold temperature, hold pressure, injection speed, and so on. In this study, three kinds of pellets materials were prepared: long fiber pellets (LFT), the re‐compounding pellets (RP), and LFT50:RP50 hybrid mixtures (LFT/RP). Tensile test was carried out to investigate the effect of different pellets and holding pressures on the mechanical property of welded jute/PLA specimens. And the interfacial shear strength of non‐welded jute/PLA specimens was calculated with Kelly‐Tyson Formula. Fiber separation and fiber dispersion in RP became better than that of LFT which resulted in a better interfacial property. Weld strength of RP and hybrid LFT/RP specimens was improved by 43.34% and 16.46% than that of LFT specimen, respectively. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2013. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Effect of process conditions on the weld‐line strength and microstructure of microcellular injection molded parts

This study was aimed at understanding how the process conditions affect the weld‐line strength and microstructure of injection molded microcellular parts. A design of experiments (DOE) was performed and polycarbonate tensile test specimens were produced for tensile tests and microscopic analysis. Injection molding trials were performed by systematically adjusting four process parameters (i.e., melt temperature, shot size, supercritical fluid (SCF) level, and injection speed). For comparison, conventional solid specimens were also produced. The tensile strength was measured at the weld line and away from the weld line. The weld‐line strength of injecton molded microcellular parts was lower than that of its solid counterparts. It increased with increasing shot size, melt temperature, and injection speed, and was weakly dependent on the supercritical fluid level. The microstructure of the molded specimens at various cross sections were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a light microscope to study the variation of cell size and density with different process conditions.     

Effect of packing pressure on fiber orientation in injection molding of fiber‐reinforced thermoplastics

Injection molding of fiber‐reinforced polymeric composites is increasing with demands of geometrically complex products possessing superior mechanical properties of high specific strength, high specific stiffness, and high impact resistance. Complex state of fiber orientation exists in injection molding of short fiber reinforced polymers. The orientation of fibers vary significantly across the thickness of injection‐molded part and can become a key feature of the finished product. Improving the mechanical properties of molded parts by managing the orientation of fibers during the process of injection molding is the basic motivation of this study. As a first step in this direction, the present results reveal the importance of packing pressure in orienting the fibers. In this study, the effects of pressure distribution and viscosity of a compressible polymeric composite melt on the state of fiber orientation after complete filling of a cavity is considered experimentally and compared with the simulation results of Moldflow analysis. POLYM. COMPOS. 28:214–223, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Weld line improvement of short fiber reinforced thermoplastics with a movable flow obstacle

Short fiber reinforced (SFR) thermoplastics are ideal materials from which to manufacture complex technical parts in high volumes with low energy expenditure. The orientation of the fibers, and hence their reinforcing effect, depends strongly on the nature of the cavity and on the injection molding process. One disadvantage of SFR thermoplastics is a significant decrease in mechanical properties in the areas of the weld lines, due to subopt imal fiber orientation as the melt streams reunite at these points. Common mold‐based and process‐based optimization techniques alter the fiber orientation after the formation of the weld line. The mold‐based approach presented here, on the other hand, operates at the time the weld line is formed: by redirecting the melt streams, it moves the weld line and improves the fiber orientation. A prototype mold is described, and samples produced from it with both standard and modified weld lines are compared with flawless specimens. The new technique yields a large rise in flexural strength and a smaller but significant improvement in tensile properties. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42025.     

Weld line morphology of injection molded polypropylene

The weakness of plastics at weld lines provides serious difficulties for the design and long term durability of injection molded parts. The goal of this work was to identify the cause of weld line weakness in polypropylene (PP) systems. The morphology of weld lines in a high molecular weight PP has been studied. It was found that the PP contains a hindered phenolic antioxidant additive that is not soluble in the polymer at the standard processing conditions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) pictures reveal the additive existing as a dispersed phase in the bulk polymer. Even though very small concentrations of this additive are normally used, (0.1–0.5%) large quantities were found at weld lines in a band approximately 100 nm wide and penetrating about 10 μm into the surface of the part, hindering strength development at the weld line. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results confirm enhanced concentrations of antioxidant on the flow front and mold wall surface of short shot samples. The mechanical properties (Izod impact, tensile strength) are measured for samples molded at various processing conditions, varying amounts of antioxidant additive and with and without weld lines. The results are consistent with the presence of the additive playing a key role in strength development at PP weld lines.     

Recycling plastics by two-shot molding

In response to increasing ecological and economic pressures, a two-shot molding process has been developed to recycle molding plastics. This process buries scrap plastic under a skin of virgin plastic in the molded part, resulting in a laminate that has the appearance of and similar mechanical properties to the skin material only. Two injection units and a special nozzle design are used to achieve the desired lamination. Theoretical and experimental studies have been conducted to determine the effects of parameters on the amount of scrap material that can be buried and its effect on impact strength. With conventional production molding dies, scrap plastic comprising approximately 40 percent of the total shot has been molded beneath virgin plastic in parts having stringent appearance requirements.     

Recyclability of a continuous e-glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate composite

Fiber reinforced plastics are multi-component materials for which physical properties are strongly dependent on fiber and resin structure. Despite the disruptive nature of recycling methods on such structures, these materials nevertheless can be recycled. In this report, the recyclability of a fiber-reinforced cyclic BPA polycarbonate has been studied. It is found that ground up composite is recyclable and possesses properties as good as or better than a comparable commercial composite. The processing techniques investigated herein are injection, extrusion compression, and compression molding. As expected, processing technique and parameters are important in determining the mechanical properties of the molded regrind. Our results show that injection and extrusion compression molding yield recycled composites with good tensile properties, though the impact strengths are relatively low. This is due to high fiber orientation and fiber bundle dispersion. On the other hand, compression molded samples, which show random fiber orientation and low fiber bundles dispersion have relatively low tensile properties, but excellent impact strength. Results are discussed in terms of microstructural details, which include resin molecular weight and fiber length and orientation.     

Glass Fiber/Polyphthalamide Composites for 3D-Molded Interconnect Devices Application: Structure and Properties

The research work was to demonstrate the feasibility of a three-dimensional molded interconnect devices concept using the injection-molding technique and to investigate the effects of weld/meld line types on the structure and properties. Two different polymers based on polyphthalamide/glass fiber composites (PA6 T/X and PA10 T/X composites) were produced by injection molding at the different processing conditions. A mold was designed in such a way that a weld and meld line can be produced at different angles by changing an insert inside the mold. The mechanical properties such as stiffness, tensile strength, and flexural strength were determined in tensile and flexural tests, respectively. The adhesive strength and electrical resistance were studied with the pull-off process and four-point measurement, respectively, and are discussed. The dispersion of the glass fiber and types of meld/weld line were inspected using scanning electron microscopy. The results were in-line with the expectation of a reduction in mechanical properties in areas where weld/meld lines occurred. The results of tensile tests clearly showed that the weld and meld lines showed a considerable influence on mechanical properties. It was found that the tensile and flexural strength of polyphthalamide/glass fiber composites with weld line type decreased approximately 58 and 62%, respectively, compared to the composites without the weld line. On the other hand, the effects of injection time and mold temperature on the tensile strength were marginal.     

Particle image velocimetry in molten plastic

Injection molding is a standard manufacturing process for plastic parts. The most important process step, mold filling, involves unsteady nonisothermal flow of a non‐Newtonian molten plastic. Mold‐filling flow largely determines molecular orientation within the final part and thereby influences final part properties. This article describes techniques for successfully applying particle image velocimetry (PIV) to molten plastic flow during injection molding. The primary experimental challenges include the following: engineering optical access to the molten plastic flow at elevated temperatures (230–245°C) and pressures (～20 MPa), finding particles that survive the thermal‐mechanical environment that melts the plastic, and developing experimental and data‐reduction techniques that allow multiple imperfect planar PIV measurements to be combined. Here, a custom optical‐access mold allowed mold center‐plane PIV to be performed in molten polystyrene. Simple statistical assessments of the velocimetry data and scaled residuals of the continuity equation suggest that the PIV can be conducted in molten plastics with an uncertainty of ±2%. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

An Alternating Skin–Core Structure in Melt Multi‐Injection‐Molded Polyethylene

Shish‐kebab, which is endowed with superior strength and modulus, provides the potential to fabricate self‐reinforced polymer products. However, the injection‐molded product usually exhibits a typical skin–core structure, and the shish‐kebab is only located in an extremely thin shear layer. Therefore, the controlling and tailoring of crystal structures in complex flow field to improve the mechanical properties of the injection‐molded sample are still a great challenge. Herein, for the first time, high‐density polyethylene sample with a novel macroscopic alternating skin–core structure is achieved using a melt multi‐injection molding technique. Results show that, with increasing the amount of melt injection, the layers of skin–core structure increase in the form of arithmetic progression, and therefore the tensile strength of the samples progressively increases due to an increase of shish‐kebab content. This study demonstrates a new approach to achieve multilayer homogeneous materials with excellent tensile strength via macroscopic structural design during the practical molding process.