NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FEEDSTOCK MELT FILLING IN A CYLINDRICAL CAVITY WITH SOLIDIFICATION IN POWDER INJECTION MOLDING

The solidification of wax based Fe 2%Ni feedstocks melt on the wall of a cylindrical cavity during injection filling was simulated with a finite difference analysis method. The effects of injection molding paramaters on the solid layer profiles were studied. The results show that the frozen layer grows rapidly at the beginning but much lower after a critical thickness of solid layer forms. The thickness of frozen layer decreases with the increase of volume flow rate(injection speed) and wall temperature(die temperature). By comparing the computing results of inlet pressure(injection pressure) at different volume flow rates with and without frozen layers, it is predicted that higher injection pressure might be required to fill the cavity when the solidification is taken into consideration.