Rheological characteristics of injection molded titanium alloys powder

Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder was taken as raw material. 60%（mass fraction） paraffin, 35%low density polyethylene and 5%stearic acid were employed as binders to prepare injection feedstocks. Capillary rheometer was adopted to determine the rheological parameters and to analyze the rheological properties of the feedstocks at different milling time, powder loading and temperature. It is indicated through the results that the viscosity increases and the value of n decreases with the increase of milling time. The more the powder loading is, the higher the viscosity is. The empirical formula on the relationship between the viscosity and the powder loading is： ηr=η/ηb=A（1-Ф/Фmax）/^- m . The value m is calculated as 0.33. The flow activation energy Ea decreases with the increase of shear rate.

Analysis of Mechanical Properties of Injection Molded Short Glass Fibre (SGF)/Calcite/ABS Composites

Acrylonitrile-butadiene-Styrene (ABS), with and without calcium carbonate (calcite) particles,was used as the matrix for reinforcement with as-received short-glass fibres (were originallytreated by the manufacturer) and sized short-glass fibres with two amino-silane coupling agents.The calcite particle content is 0, 11.7 and 23.5 vol. pct for the matrices. The glass fiber contentis 0, 10 and 15 vol. pct. The matrix materials and corresponding composites were compoundedusing a twin screw extruder and dumbbell-shaped tensile bars were prepared with an injectionmolding process. The tensile and flexural properties as well as the unnotched and notchedCharpy impact energies of short glass fibre/calcite/ABS composites were studied in this paper.The effects of fibres, fibre surface treatments and particles on these mechanical properties ofthe composites were discussed in detail. An importarit information was obtained, which is thatthe tensile and flexural strengths of hybrid SGF/calcite/ABS composites are the same as thoseof corresponding fibre composites when the ratio of the interfacial adhesion strength betweenparticles and matrix to that between fibres and matrix is higher than certain value. otherwise theformer are lower than the latter.

STRESS ANALYSIS OF INJECTION MOLDED PARTS IN POST-FILLING STAGE

The linear isothermo-viscoelastic constitutive equation is established according to the principle of viscoelastic mechanics. Given the boundary conditions of the temperature field, the linear thermo-viscoelastic constitutive equation is established acording to the analysis of the thermorheologically simple. The stress analysis model is constructed on the base of some reasonable hypotheses which consider the restraint conditions of mold and the characteristics of injection molding in the post-filling stage. The mathematical model is calculated by the finite difference method. The results can help to predict the warpage of plastic products.

Effects of heat treatment on the properties of powder injection molded AlN ceramics

The effects of two different heat-treatment atmospheres,nitrogen atmosphere and reducing nitrogen atmosphere with carbon,on the properties of Y2O3-doped aluminum nitride（AlN） ceramics were investigated.The AlN powder as a raw material was synthesized by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis（SHS） and compacts were fabricated by employing powder injection molding technique.The polymer-wax binder consisted of 60 wt.% paraffin wax（PW）,35 wt.% polypropylene（PP）,and 5 wt.% stearic acid（SA）.After the removal of binder,specimens were sintered at 1850°С in nitrogen atmosphere under atmospheric pressure.To improve the thermal conductivity,sintered samples were reheated.The result reveals that the heat-treatment atmosphere has significant effect on the properties and secondary phase of AlN ceramics.The thermal conductivity and density of AlN ceramics reheated in nitrogen gas are 180 W·m^-1·K^-1 and 3.28 g·cm^-3 and the secondary phase is yttrium aluminate.For the sample reheated in reducing nitrogen atmosphere with carbon,the thermal conductivity and density are 173 W·m^-1·K^-1 and 3.23 g·cm^-3,respectively,and the secondary phase is YN.

Shape retention of injection molded stainless steel compacts

The effects of the binder composition, the powder loading, the thermal properties of feedstocks, and the injection molding parameters on the compact shape retention for metal injection molding 17-4PH stainless steel were investigated. The high-density polyethylene is more effective than ethylene vinyl acetate as a second component of the wax-based binder to retain compact shape due to its higher pyrolytic temperature and less heat of fusion. The compact distortion decreases with increasing the powder loading, molding pressure and molding temperature. There exists an optimal process combination including the powder loading of 68%, molding pressure of 120MPa and molding temperature of 150℃. Under this process condition, the percentage of distorted compacts is the lowest.

Experimental Study of Shrinkage Displacements of Points on Injection Molded Parts

The existing research on shrinkage of the injection molded plastic part mainly focuses on various shrinkage ratios of the part dimensions,and the relevant experimental studies belong to mere dimension measurement after demoulding.Obviously,measuring after the plastic part is demoulded from the cavity can not offer shrinkage displacements of points on the plastic part.However,shrinkage displacements of points on an injection molded plastic part are essential for exposing the inner relation among shrinkage ratios of various dimensions of the part.So visualization of the in-mold plastic part which can indicate the location relationship between the part and the cavity is needed.In this paper,a visual injection mold was fabricated by adopting the half mold structure and light transmission manner.With the visual mold,in-mold shrinkage images of injection molded plastic parts were photographed after the plastic part stayed in the injection mold for 24 h.By means of digital image processing of the in-mold shrinkage images,the experimental data of shrinkage displacements of points on injection molded parts were researched.From the experimental data,it is found that shrinkage directions of points on an injection molded part are related with both positions of the gate and of the part centroid,and either the gate or the centroid will exert more influence on the shrinkage direction of some point which is closer.Furthermore,some point at the later filled area has more shrinkage distance than the point at the earlier filled area.Combination of shrinkage directions and shrinkage distances of points on an injection molded part determine shrinkage ratios for various dimensions of the part,and shrinkage directions are more influential to shrinkage ratios of dimensions.This experimental research of shrinkage displacements offers a unique approach to understand the shrinkage principles of injection molded parts.

Effect of Molecular Weight and Molecular Distribution on Skin Structure and Shear Strength Distribution near the Surface of Thin-Wall Injection Molded Polypropylene

In this study, the relationship between skin structure and shear strength distribution of thin-wall injection molded polypropylene (PP) molded at different molecular weight and molecular distribution was investigated. Skin-core structure, cross-sectional morphology, crystallinity, crystal orientation, crystal morphology and molecular orientation were evaluated by using polarized optical microscope, differential scanning calorimeter, X-ray spectroscopic analyzer and laser Raman spectroscopy, respectively, while the shear strength distribution was investigated using a micro cutting method called SAICAS (Surface And Interfacial Cutting Analysis System). The results indicated that the difference of molecular weight and molecular weight distribution showed own skin layer thickness. Especially, high molecular weight sample showed thicker layer of the lamellar orientation and molecular orientation than low molecular weight sample. In addition, wide molecular distribution sample showed large crystal orientation layer.

The Relationship between Bulk Property and Property Distribution in Thin-Wall Injection Molded PP at Different Molecular Weight and Molecular Weight Distribution

Thin-wall injection molded parts have been paid much attention to the lightweight saving from viewpoints of natural resources saving. In the injection molding, skin-core structure can be found in the parts. This skin-core structure affects the property of completed injection molding parts (bulk property) even if in thin-wall injection molding. However, there is a few research about the relationship between bulk property and internal property distribution in the injection molding specimen. In this study, thin-wall injection molded parts of polypropylene (PP) were prepared by 4 different molecular weight and molecular weight distribution to reveal the relationship between bulk property and property distribution. These characteristics were investigated by using tensile test, fracture toughness characterized by Essential Work of Fracture (EWF) method for bulk property and film tensile test by sliced sample for tensile property distribution. The property distribution test results revealed that the highly bulk property sample had thicker highly mechanical property layer on its surface.

Mechanical and Antibacterial Properties of Injection Molded Polypropylene/TiO_2 Nano-Composites:Effects of Surface Modification

Polypropylene （PP）/titanium dioxide （TiO2） nano-composites were prepared by melt compounding with a twin screw extruder. Nanoparticles were modified prior to melt mixing with maleic anhydride grafted styreneethylene-butylene-styrene （SEBS-g-MA） and silane. The composites were injection molded and mechanical tests were applied to obtain tensile strength, elastic modulus and impact strength. Antibacterial efficiency test was applied on the injection molded composite plaques by viable cell counting technique. The results showed that the composites including SEBS-g-MA and silane coated TiO2 gave better mechanical properties than the composites without SEBS-g-MA. Antibacterial efficiency of the composites varied according to the dispersion and the concentration of the particles and it was observed that composites at low content of TiO2 showed higher antibacterial property due to the better photocatalytic activity of the particles during UV exposure.

Warpage prediction of the injection-molded strip-like plastic parts

For most strip-like plastic injection molded parts, whose cross section size is much smaller than their length, the traditional Hele-Shaw model and three-dimensional model do not work well in the prediction of the warpage be- cause of their special shape. A new solution was suggested in this work. The strip-like plastic part was regarded as a little-curved beam macrnscopically, and was divided into a few one-dimensional elements. On the section of each elemental node location, two-dimensional thermal finite element analysis was made to obtain the non- uniform thermal stress caused by the time difference of the solidification of the plastic melt in the mold. The stress relaxation, or equivalently, strain creep was dealt with by using a special computing model. On the bases of in-mold elastic stress, the final bending moment to the beam was obtained and the warpage was predict- ed in good a^reement with practical cases.

Influence of binder composition on the rheological behavior of injection-molded microsized SiC suspensions

The influence of four kinds of binders consisting of paraffin wax （PW）, random-polypropylene （RPP）, high-density polyethylene （HDPE）, and stearic acid （SA） on the theological behavior of injection-molded SiC feedstocks was investigated over a temperature range of 150℃ to 180℃ and a shear rate range of 4 s^-1 to 1259 s^^-1. The results showed that all the feedstocks exhibited pseudoplastic flow behavior. The wax-based binder of multipolymer components （PW-RPP-HDPE） exhibited better comprehensive rheological properties compared with the binder of monopolymer components （PW-RPP or PW-HDPE）. The addition of 5wt% SA to the binder could reduce the viscosity of the feedstock but enhance the rheological stability by improving the wettability between the binder and the SiC powder. The binder of 65wt% PW ＋ 15wt% HDPE ＋ 15wt% RPP ＋ 5wt% SA was found to be a better binder for microsized SiC injection molding.

EFFECT OF MELT TEMPERATURE ON THE PHASE MORPHOLOGY,THERMAL BEHAVIOR AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF INJECTION-MOLDED PP/LLDPE BLENDS

The phase morphology and thermal behavior of various isotactic polypropylene （PP）/linear low density polyethylene （LLDPE） blends were investigated with aid of scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）, respectively. The effect of barrel （melt） temperature on the morphology, thermal behavior and the resultant mechanical properties of the injection molded bars was the research focus, and the influence of LLDPE composition was also taken into account. It was found that the mechanical properties, especially the tensile ductility and the impact strength, were greatly affected by the processing temperature. The samples obtained at low temperatures had the highest elongation at break and impact strength, while those molded at high temperatures had the poorest toughness. Two reasons were responsible for that： first, the phase size in the samples increased with the processing temperature; second, possible orientation existed in the samples obtained at low processing temperatures.

Active Air Venting of Mold Cavity to Improve Performance of Injection Molded Direct Joining

A surface micro-/nano-structured metal plate can be joined with an injection molded plastic piece in a mold,which has been named injection molded direct joining(IMDJ).The injected plastic melt infiltrates the micro-/nano-structure,e.g.,a porous structure with micro/nano pores,on the metal plate while flowing in the mold cavity where the metal plate is inserted.After solidification of the plastic,the metal and plastic materials are directly joined via the micro-/nano-structured metal surface.Since air is trapped by the plastic melt,it is easily imagined that the air in the mold cavity prevents the melt plastic from contacting the metal surface and infiltrating the micro-/nano-structure,which could result in poorer joining performance.To avoid the prevention of the air for the better joining performance,the present study proposes a system actively venting the mold cavity during injection molding.To apply the active venting to IMDJ,venting and sealing systems were newly developed.In addition,a system measuring air pressure of the mold cavity was developed.The proposed system was evaluated by a measurement of joining strengths of IMDJ specimens that were produced under various conditions.From the results,it is concluded that the active venting does not necessarily have a positive effect in any cases:the effect depends on the type of surface micro-/nano-structure.

Evolution of stresses in metal injection molding parts during sintering

The evolution of stresses due to inhomogeneity in metal injection molding （MIM） parts during sintering was investigated. The sintering model of porous materials during densification process was developed based on the continuum mechanics and thermal elasto-viseoplastic constitutive law. Model parameters were identified from the dilatometer sintering experiment. The real density distribution of green body was measured by X-ray computed tomography （CT）, which was regarded as the initial condition of sintering model. Numerical calculation of the above sintering model was carried out with the finite element soRware Abaqus, through the user-defined material mechanical behavior （UMAT）. The calculation results showed that shrinkages of low density regions were faster than those of high density regions during sintering, which led to internal stresses. Compressive stresses existed in high density regions and tensile stresses existed in low density regions. The densification of local regions depended on not only the initial density, but also the evolution of stresses during the sintering stage.

Powder injection molding of pure titanium

An improved wax-based binder was developed for powder injection molding of pure titanium. A critical powder loading of 69 vol.% and a pseudo-plastic flow behavior were obtained by the feedstock based on the binder. The injection molding, debinding, and sintering process were studied. An ideal control of carbon and oxygen contents was achieved by thermal debinding in vacuum atmosphere （10^-3 Pa）. The mechanical properties of as-sintered specimens were less than those of titanium made by the conventional press-sintering process. Good shape retention and ±0.04 mm dimension deviation were achieved.

Simulation of Non-isothermal Injection Molding for a Non-Newtonian Fluid by Level Set Method

A non-isothermal injection molding process for a non-Newtonian viscous pseudoplastic fluid is simulated.A conservative interface capturing technique and the flow field solving method are coupled to perform a dynamic simulation.The validity of the numerical method is verified by a benchmark problem.The melt interface evolution versus time is captured and the physical quantities such as temperature,velocity and pressure at each time step are obtained with corresponding analysis.A"frozen skin"layer with the thickness increasing versus time during the injection process is found.The fact that the"frozen skin"layer can be reduced by increasing the injection velocity is numerically verified.The fountain flow phenomenon near the melt interface is also captured.Moreover,comparisons with the non-isothermal Newtonian case show that the curvatures of the interface arcs and the pressure contours near the horizontal mid-line of the cavity for the non-Newtonian pseudoplastic case is larger than that for the Newtonian case.The velocity profiles are different at different positions for the non-Newtonian pseudoplastic case,while in the case of Newtonian flow the velocity profiles are parabolic and almost the same at different positions.

Single gate optimization for plastic injection mold

This paper deals with a methodology for single gate location optimization for plastic injection mold. The objective of the gate optimization is to minimize the warpage of injection molded parts, because warpage is a crucial quality issue for most injection molded parts while it is influenced greatly by the gate location. Feature warpage is defined as the ratio of maximum displacement on the feature surface to the projected length of the feature surface to describe part warpage. The optimization is combined with the numerical simulation technology to find the optimal gate location, in which the simulated annealing algorithm is used to search for the optimum. Finally, an example is discussed in the paper and it can be concluded that the proposed method is effective.

Fabrication and sintering behavior of high-nitrogen nickel-free stainless steels by metal injection molding

High-nitrogen nickel-free stainless steels were fabricated by the metal injection molding technique using high nitrogen alloying powders and a mixture of three polymers as binders.Mixtures of metal powders and binders with various proportions were also investigated, and an optimum powder loading capacity was determined as 64vol%.Intact injection molded compacts were successfully obtained by regulating the processing parameters.The debinding process for molded compacts was optimized with a combination of thermo-gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis.An optimum relative density and nitrogen content of the specimens are obtained at 1360℃,which are 97.8%and 0.79wt%,respectively.

Structural Scheme Optimization Design for the Stationary Platen of a Precision Plastic Injection Molding Machine

The current development of precision plastic injection molding machines mainly focuses on how to save material and improve precision, but the two aims contradict each other. For a clamp unit, clamping precision improving depends on the design quality of the stationary platen. Compared with the parametric design of stationary platen, structural scheme design could obtain the optimization model with double objectives and multi-constraints. In this paper, a SE-160 precision plastic injection molding machine with 1600 kN clamping force is selected as the subject in the case study. During the motion of mold closing and opening, the stationary platen of SE-160 is subjected to a cyclic loading, which would cause the fatigue rupture of the tie bars in periodically long term operations. In order to reduce the deflection of the stationary platen, the FEA method is introduced to optimize the structure of the stationary platen. Firstly, an optimal topology model is established by variable density method. Then, structural topology optimizations of the stationary platen are done with the removable material from 50%, 60% to 70%. Secondly, the other two recommended optimization schemes are given and compared with the original structure. The result of performances comparison shows that the scheme II of the platen is the best one. By choosing the best alternative, the volume and the local maximal stress of the platen could be decreased, corresponding to cost-saving material and better mechanical properties. This paper proposes a structural optimization design scheme, which can save the material as well as improve the clamping precision of the precision plastic injection molding machine.

Water-Assisted Injection Molding System Based on Water Hydraulic Proportional Control Technique

Water-assisted injection molding（WAIM）, an innovative process to mold plastic parts with hollow sections, is characterized with intermittent, periodic process and large pressure and flow rate variation. Energy savings and injection pressure control can not be .attained based on conventional valve control system. Moreover, the injection water can not be supplied directly by water hydraulic proportional control system. Poor efficiency and control performance are presented by current trial systems, which pressurize injection water by compressed air. In this paper, a novel water hydraulic system is developed applying an accumulator for energy saving. And a new differential pressure control method is proposed by using pressure cylinder and water hydraulic proportional pressure relief valve for back pressure control. Aiming at design of linear controller for injection water pressure regulation, a linear load model is approximately built through computational fluid dynamics（CFD） simulation on two-phase flow cavity filling process with variable temperature and viscosity, and a linear model of pressure control system is built with the load model and linearization of water hydraulic components. According to the simulation, model based feedback is brought forward to compensate the pressure decrease during accumulator discharge and eliminate the derivative element of the system. Meanwhile, the steady-state error can be reduced and the capacity of resisting disturbance can be enhanced, by closed-loop control of load pressure with integral compensation. Through the developed experimental system in the State Key Lab of Fluid Power Transmission and Control, Zhejiang University, China, the static characteristic of the water hydraulic proportional relief valve was tested and output pressure control of the system in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene（ABS） parts molding experiments was also studied. The experiment results show that the dead band and hysteresis of the water hydraulic proportional pressure relief valve are large, but the control precision and linearity can be improved with feed-forward compensation. With the experimental results of injection water pressure control, the applicability of this WAIM system and the effect of its linear controller are verified. The novel proposed process of WAIM pressure control and study on characteristics of control system contribute to the application of water hydraulic proportional control and WAIM technology.