Injection Molding of Engineering Rubber Components: A Comparison Between Experimental Results and Numerical Simulation

Abstract

The present paper reports and discusses the results of a 3D finite element simulation of the injection molding process of a rubber component, including the stages of the mold filling dynamics and material curing, using the "Reactive Molding" module of the Moldflow 6.2 CAE software. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a capillary rheometer are employed to characterize the rubber material in order to obtain appropriate curing reaction and viscosity models, respectively. The model parameters so obtained are used to simulate the injection molding process for an engineering rubber component with a complex geometry having a thickness distribution that ranges from 1.5 mm to 20 mm. The computations are found in good agreement with the experimental results, indicating that reliable information on material viscosity and curing kinetic play a key role for well-founded predictions.

Prediction of interfacial strength of HDPE overmolded with EPDM

“…The viscosity curve of the injected rubber material has been measured by a dual‐bore rheometer. The reactive viscosity model is fitted via nonlinear least square fitting on this data. The model is defined by Eq.…”

Analysis of Reactive Injection Compression Molding by Numerical Simulations and Experiments

“…Bagley [19] and Rabinowitsch [20] corrections were applied to calculate the adjusted viscosity data. e reactive viscosity model [18,[21][22][23]] is used to describe the rheological properties of rubber compounds in the Plastics Insight (MPI) Reactive Molding Moldflow software in order to simulate the mold filling dynamics. e Reactive Viscosity Model is given by…”

“…For this reason, proper measurements of material viscosity and curing rate are required in order to run a simulation. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a capillary rheometer are employed to characterize the rubber material in order to obtain appropriate curing reaction and viscosity models, respectively, following an experimental approach already developed by the authors for the simulation of injection molding process [18]. e model parameters thus obtained are used to simulate the injection compression molding process.…”

Study on ink flow of silicone rubber for direct ink writing

“…In spite of high molding efficiency, injection molding also has some disadvantages similar to compression molding, such as, high mold cost and difficulty in demolding products with complex structures, and so on. [3][4][5][6][7] Apparently, it is more flexible and efficient to process rubber products by 3D printing.…”

“…However, since it can only process products with a constant cross‐section, the application of extrusion molding in rubber processing is limited. In spite of high molding efficiency, injection molding also has some disadvantages similar to compression molding, such as, high mold cost and difficulty in demolding products with complex structures, and so on 3–7 . Apparently, it is more flexible and efficient to process rubber products by 3D printing.…”