3D study on the effect of process parameters on the cooling of polymer by injection molding

Abstract

Plastic injection molding (PIM) is well known as a manufacturing process to produce products with various shapes and complex geometry at low cost. Determining optimal settings of process parameters critically influence productivity, quality, and cost of production in the PIM industry. To study the effect of the process parameters on the cooling of the polymer during injection molding, a full three-dimensional time-dependent injection molding analysis was carried out. The studied configuration consists of a mold having cuboids-shaped cavity with two different thicknesses and six cooling channels. A numerical model by finite volume was used for the solution of the physical model. A validation of the numerical model was presented. The effect of different process parameters (inlet coolant temperature, inlet coolant flow rate, injection temperature, and filling time) on the cooling process was considered. The results indicate that the filling time has a great effect on the solidification of the product during the filling stage. They also show that low coolant flow rate increases the heterogeneity of the temperature distribution through the product. The process parameter realizing minimum cooling time not necessary achieves optimum product quality and the complete filling of the cavity by the polymer material.

Solidification behavior of high‐density polyethylene during injection molding process: Enthalpy transformation method

“…As one of the widely used fabricating techniques of polymers, injection molding accounts for over 1/3 of all plastics processed in modern industry. Computer‐aided engineering (CAE) technology has found wide application in material selection, mold design, analysis of the part defects as well as optimization of the processing parameters for injection molding 4–7. Attention has been attracted to investigate the heat transfer during the injection moldings of crystalline polymers since early 1990s,8–10 because the quality and performance of molded parts depend heavily on the selection of operational variables11–15 during the molding process, especially in the cooling period.…”

Recent Advances and Future Challenges in Automated Manufacturing Planning

“…Significant advances have been made in this field due to the use of detailed heat transfer simulations. Recent representative works in this field include [51][52][53]. Current approaches impose significant restrictions on the runner configurations.…”

A numerical study of solidification and viscous dissipation effects on polymer melt flow in plane channels

“…They used a continuum model with the enthalpy formulation for a laminar, 2-D, axisymmetric, incompressible, steady flow. Hassan et al [21] investigated the effect of process parameters on the cooling of polymer by injection molding. Their results indicated that the filling time had a great effect on the solidification of the product during the filling stage.…”