Adam Kramschuster

An Injection Molding Process for Manufacturing Highly Porous and Interconnected Biodegradable Polymer Matrices for Use as Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

In this research, injection molding was combined with a novel material combination, supercritical fluid processing, and particulate leaching techniques to produce highly porous and interconnected structures that have the potential to act as scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. The foamed structures, molded with polylactide (PLA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) with salt as the particulate, were processed without the aid of organic solvents, which can be detrimental to tissue growth. The pore size in the scaffolds is controlled by salt particulates and interconnectivity is achieved by the co-continuous blending morphology of biodegradable PLA matrix with water-soluble PVOH. Carbon dioxide (CO(2)) at the supercritical state is used to serve as a plasticizer, thereby imparting moldability of blends even with an ultra high salt particulate content, and allows the use of low processing temperatures, which are desirable for temperature-sensitive biodegradable polymers. Interconnected pores of approximately 200 microm in diameter and porosities of approximately 75% are reported and discussed.

Solid and Microcellular Polylactide-Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites

Abstract In this study, polylactide (PLA)-multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites were melt-compounded using a twin-screw extruder. Solid and microcellular tensile bar specimens were produced via conventional and microcellular injection molding, respectively. Various characterization techniques were applied to study the static and dynamic mechanical properties, degree of MWCNT dispersion, cell morphology, and crystallization behavior. The addition of a small amount of MWCNTs led to a decrease in the cell size and an increase in the cell density of the microcellular PLA specimens. A transmission electron microscopy analysis of the PLA-MWCNT specimens revealed a higher degree of MWCNT dispersion in the microcellular PLA-MWCNT composite compared with its solid counterpart, indicating that the microcellular injection molding process further dispersed the MWCNTs. For both solid and microcellular specimens, the addition of 1.5 wt% MWCNTs reduced the specific strength, specific toughness and strain-at-break while exerting less impact on the specific modulus. The storage modulus was not affected significantly with the addition of MWCNTs, but was found to be higher for the microcellular specimens compared with their solid counterparts. Finally, the crystallinity of PLA increased with the addition of MWCNTs.

Injection Molded Solid and Microcellular Polylactide Compounded with Recycled Paper Shopping Bag Fibers

Abstract Recycled paper shopping bag fibers were melt-compounded using a batch mixer with biobased/biodegradable polylactide (PLA) at 10 and 30 wt.% using silane as a coupling agent. These PLA/fiber composites were then injection molded to produce both solid and microcellular tensile bars. The mechanical properties (specific modulus, specific tensile strength, specific toughness, and strain at break) of the neat PLA and PLA composites were tested and the cell morphology of the microcellular samples was examined using scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that the addition of the recycled paper shopping bag fibers resulted in an increase in cell density and decrease in average cell size for the microcellular components when compared with the neat PLA. The addition of the fibers increased the specific modulus of both solid and microcellular components, and high fiber contents (30 wt.%) resulted in an increase in specific tensile strength, yet yielded a decrease in the strain at break and specific toughness. The storage modulus was also improved with the addition of 10 and 30 wt.% fibers for both solid and microcellular components.

Microcellular and Solid Polylactide–Flax Fiber Composites

Polylactide–flax fiber composites with 1, 10 and 20 wt% fiber were melt-compounded and subsequently molded via the conventional and microcellular injection-molding processes. Silane was used as a coupling agent. The effects of fiber and silane content on cell morphology, static and dynamic mechanical properties, and crystallization properties have been studied. The average cell size decreased while the cell density increased with the fiber content. The degree of crystallinity increased with the fiber content. Silane treatment of fibers affected neither the cell morphology nor the degree of crystallinity. The toughness and strain-at-break of solid samples decreased with the fiber content while silane treatment increased both properties; however, neither fiber content nor silane treatment had much influence on the toughness and strain-at-break of microcellular samples. The specific modulus of both solid and microcellular samples increased with the fiber content. The specific strength of the solid and microcellular PLA–flax composites were only slightly lower than that of their solid and microcellular pure PLA counterparts. Overall, the toughness, strain-at-break, and specific strength of microcellular samples were found to be lower than that of their solid counterparts. The storage modulus of the PLA–flax composites with 10 and 20% fiber contents was higher than that of pure PLA.

Study of Shrinkage and Warpage in Microcellular Co-Injection Molding

Abstract This study investigated the effects of processing conditions on the shrinkage and warpage behavior of a box-shaped, polypropylene part created using a special microcellular co-injection molding process. Results were compared to the shrinkage and warpage of conventional and microcellular injection molded parts. A preliminary study was performed to determine processing condition limits and the steady state conditions for each combination of molding parameters. A 26-1 fractional factorial design of experiments (DOE) was performed utilizing the previously determined processing conditions. The molded parts were measured using an optical coordinate measuring machine (OCMM), which had previously been examined with a repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) study. These measurements were analyzed to determine the processing parameters that had the greatest effect on the shrinkage and warpage (S&W). The results of this analysis indicated that the supercritical fluid content and core-to-skin volume ratio had the greatest effect on the shrinkage and warpage of microcellular co-injection molded parts. The results of the experiment were that a considerable reduction in shrinkage and warpage could be achieved by utilizing microcellular co-injection molding.