Bubble Nucleation and Growth in Microcellular Injection Molding Processes

Bubble nucleation and growth are the key steps in polymer foam generation processes. The mechanical properties of foamed polymer are closely related to the size of bubbles created inside the material. Thus, it is necessary to study how to improve mechanical strength by producing extremely fine bubbles inside polymer resin. We developed a theoretical framework to help produce uniformly distributed microcellular bubbles and experimentally verified the theoretical analysis results using an injection molding machine modified to make microcellular foaming products.