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.

Simulation and Experiment Research on the Proportional Pressure Control of Water-assisted Injection Molding

Water-assisted injection molding（WAIM）,a newly developed fluid-assisted injection molding technology has drawn more and more attentions for the energy saving,short cooling circle time and high quality of products.Existing research for the process of WAIM has shown that the pressure control of the injecting water is mostly important for the WAIM.However,the proportional pressure control for the WAIM system is quite complex due to the existence of nonlinearities in the water hydraulic system.In order to achieve better pressure control performance of the injecting water to meet the requirements of the WAIM,the proportional pressure control of the WAIM system is investigated both numerically and experimentally.A newly designed water hydraulic system for WAIM is first modeled in AMEsim environment,the load characteristics and the nonlinearities of water hydraulic system are both considered,then the main factors affecting the injecting pressure and load flow rate are extensively studied.Meanwhile,an open-loop model-based compensation control strategy is employed to regulate the water injection pressure and a feedback proportional integrator controller is further adopted to achieve better control performance.In order to verify the AMEsim simulation results WAIM experiment for particular Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene（ABS） parts is implemented and the measured experimental data including injecting pressure and flow rate results are compared with the simulation.The good coincidence between experiment and simulation shows that the AMEsim model is accurate,and the tracking performance of the load pressure indicates that the proposed control strategy is effective for the proportional pressure control of the nonlinear WAIM system.The proposed proportional pressure control strategy and the conclusions drawn from simulation and experiment contribute to the application of water hydraulic proportional control and WAIM technology.

水辅成型中的穿透机理研究

针对一次穿透理论在预测残余壁厚方面的局限,提出了厚度方向再穿透理论及算法。建立了量纲为一的黏性可压缩非牛顿熔体在水辅成型厚度方向再穿透中的控制方程,导出了求解压力场的变分方程和速度场的计算公式,用分部积分和力学基本原理建立了再穿透速度与注水压力、熔体密度、黏度、穿透长度、穿透半径之间的关系,并开发了模拟程序。实验结果表明应用厚度方向再穿透理论可以有效地提高水辅成型的预测精度。

水辅助注射成型充模过程的数值模拟研究

基于Hele-Shaw流动模型,采用广义牛顿流体本构方程,建立了三维薄壁塑件的水辅助注射成型充模过程数学模型,采用有限元/有限差分/控制体积法数值求解。对薄壁平板塑件的水辅助注射成型充模过程进行了模拟,模拟得到的熔体前沿位置与前人实验结果吻合较好,浇口处压力变化、水的厚度分布及平均温度分布合理,验证了所建立的模型和采用的数值模拟方法的有效性。

水辅助注塑大直径介质导管制品的冷却分析

采用数学分析方法 ,通过假设、简化分析模型 ,用数学模型来表述物理模型 ,确定了水辅助注塑(WAIM )大直径介质导管制品的冷却时间 ,并运用算例和国外试验的结果进行验证。结果发现 :水辅助注射成型新工艺可以更加显著地缩短注塑周期 ,降低制件壁厚 ,允许制件有更大的实际直径。因此 ,WAIM技术可用来高效率地生产大直径、高质量、薄壁的介质导管。