Byung Kim

Simulation of the filling process in micro channels for polymeric materials

There is some evidence indicating that polymeric flows in micro channels differ significantly from those in macro geometries. As micro molding is attracting more attention these days, efforts need to be made to identify the significant factors that influence microscale polymeric flow behaviors and to develop new simulation schemes for micro molding. In this study, we have investigated the consequences of microscale phenomena, particularly size-dependent viscosity, wall slip and surface tension, on the filling process of polymeric materials into micro channels. The standard scheme of two and half dimensions for injection molding simulation was modified to include these microscale effects. With data currently available for polystyrene, the simulation results indicate the importance of employing size-dependent viscosity and wall slip to predict micro filling behaviors. It appears that wall slip should always occur in channels downsized to several micrometers or less, because the wall stress would otherwise be enormous. The surface tension effects turn out to be less important and can be neglected in micro injection molding in which high injection pressure is employed.

Optimization of Part Wall Thicknesses to Reduce Warpage of Injection-Molded Parts Based on The Modified Complex Method

Abstract The objective of this work is to minimize warpage of injection-molded parts by deliberately varying each part wall thickness within prescribed dimensional tolerance. The continuous design space of wall thicknesses is explored in search of the optimum wall thickness for given process conditions. The objective function to be minimized is the numeric warpage value, which requires extensive computational time. Once the wall thicknesses are optimized, the warpage is reduced further by optimizing the six significant process variables: injection time, postfill (cooling plus packing) time, packing time, packing pressure, melt temperature, and coolant temperature. As a solution methodology, the modified complex method has been developed and applied in two example parts, where a reduction in warpage of over 70% has been obtained with a moderate number of function evaluations.

Scaling Issues in Miniaturization of Injection Molded Parts

Miniaturization of injection molded parts causes changes in the relative contribution of relevant design and process parameters. As a result, scaling-related size effects occur. Size effects can be either of the first order or of the second order. First-order size effects can be predicted using standard modeling, while second order ones cannot. This paper deals with first-order size effects encountered in injection molding miniaturized parts. Through the scaling analysis of the heat transfer and flow process in injection molding, the size effects on the change of molding characteristics including viscous heating, freezing time, capillary force effect, and moldability were identified. Strategies were consequently proposed to alleviate or eliminate the scaling-related molding difficulties in molding ultrathin-wall parts and microparts. Particularly, a scalable filling process was presented, with experimental verification.

INCREASING FLOW LENGTH IN THIN WALL INJECTION MOLDING USING A RAPIDLY HEATED MOLD

Injection molded parts are driven down in size and weight especially for portable electronic applications. While gains are achieved via cost reduction and increased portability, thinner parts encounter more difficulty in molding due to the frozen layer problem. To increase moldability in thin wall molding, a rapid thermal response (RTR) mold was investigated. The RTR mold is capable of rapidly raising the surface temperature to the polymer melt temperature prior to the injection stage and then rapidly cooling to the ejection temperature. The resulting filling process is done inside a hot mold cavity and formation of frozen layer is prohibited. Concepts of scalable filling and low-speed filling are discussed in the article to address the benefit of this molding method. Simulation results showed that significant reduction in injection pressure and speed can be achieved in RTR molding. In contrast to the filling behavior in conventional molding, the injection pressure in RTR molding decreases as the injection speed decreases, and therefore, extremely thin parts can be molded at lower injection speeds. Filling lengths of both RTR and conventionally molded polycarbonate samples, with two levels of thickness, under two levels of injection speed were experimentally studied. The experimental results demonstrated the advantage of the new molding method.

Automated selection of gate location based on desired quality of injection-molded part

Abstract The objective is to develop a methodology that automatically predicts the “optimal” gate location(s) of injection molds based on injection-molding simulation. User-defined design evaluating criteria for three important parameters–-warpage, weld and meld lines in a constrained area, and Izod impact strength at the specific regions of the injection-molded part–-are introduced to determine the optimal gate location. Among the three parameters, the Izod impact strength is obtained using a previously trained neural network. The difficulty in predicting accurate values of engineering property like Izod impact strength is that they vary throughout a part with respect to the thermomechanical history. Upon evaluating each gate location, the trained neural network computation predicts, regardless of part geometry, Izod impact strength by a nonparameteric modeling of the complex relation with thermomechanical processing histories. The methodology comprises a two-stage process: (1) choosing the best among a ...

Injection Molding Nanoscale Features with the Aid of Induction Heating

During injection molding of micron or submicron scale features, incomplete filling frequently occurs, resulting from premature freezing of the polymer melt in contact with a cold mold. In order to overcome the filling difficulty without increasing the total cycle time, the mold surface temperature was raised rapidly by induction heating. A prototype mold insert with cooling channels was fabricated and integrated with a nickel stamp having nanoscale-grating structures. The nickel stamp surface was successfully heated from 25 to 258°C in 2.7 sec. Four different mold surface temperatures, 100, 150, 200 and 250°C, were tested to determine if the nanograting structures can be replicated with an optical quality cyclic olefin copolymer. Experimental results indicate that the nanocavities were successfully filled when the surface temperature reached 250°C, but mold release caused drag damages on the nanogratings. Further, coupled thermoelectromagnetic analyses were carried out to simulate the induction heating process of the nanostructured mold insert. The predicted surface temperature responses in general agree with the experimental ones and the simulation model can be used in the further development of process control and mold design in micro/nano molding.

Replication of Microstructures by Roll-to-Roll UV-Curing Embossing

The characteristics of pattern replication and releasing in a roll-to-roll ultraviolet- (UV) curing embossing process were investigated. The roll embossing system was designed for large-area continuous embossing, with employment of a fast curing resin, a heat damage protector, and a surface energy reducing coating. A 60° V-groove pattern with a groove period of 30 µm was embossed. It was found that the replication quality was profoundly influenced by the pattern geometry, the pattern direction, and the mold surface energy. In particular, the pattern direction significantly affected the edge sharpness and the surface topography of replicated features. In the parallel groove mode, a significant amount of tearing and sliding occurred, whereas in the transverse groove mode, biting marks were observed on the side wall of the V-groove. A simple mechanical model was used to explain the difference in pattern releasing with different pattern layouts. The replication quality was found to be significantly improved with the application of a fluorinated coating on the roll mold.

ELIMINATING FLOW INDUCED BIREFRINGENCE AND MINIMIZING THERMALLY INDUCED RESIDUAL STRESSES IN INJECTION MOLDED PARTS

Eliminating flow-induced birefringence and stresses and reducing thermally induced stresses in the injection molded parts have been studied using rapid thermal response (RTR) molding technique. In the RTR molding, mold surface temperature can be rapidly raised above T g in the filling stage, while the normal injection molding cycle time is still maintained. Therefore, the melt can fill the cavity at temperatures above T g, which enables the flow-induced stresses to relax completely in a short time after filling and before vitrification. Residual stresses and birefringence in a RTR molded strip specimen are compared with the conventional molded parts by applying layer removal method and retardation measurement. For the material (Monsanto® Lustrex Polystyrene) and process conditions chosen, the birefringence level decreased as the RTR temperature approached and exceeded the glass transition temperature until it almost disappeared at a RTR temperature of 180°C. Reduction of magnitude and shift of peak location were observed in the gapwise stress profile for RTR molded specimen. *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Numerical simulation for injection molding with a rapidly heated mold, Part I: Flow simulation for thin wall parts

The rapid thermal response (RTR) injection molding is a novel process developed to raise the mold surface temperature rapidly to the polymer melt temperature prior to the injection stage and then cool rapidly. The resulting filling process is achieved inside a hot mold cavity by prohibiting formation of frozen layer so as to enable thin wall injection molding without filling difficulty. The present work covers flow simulation of thin wall injection molding using the RTR molding process. Both 2.5-D shell analysis and 3-D solid analysis were performed, and the simulation results were compared with the prior experimental results. Coupled analysis with transient heat transfer simulation was also studied to realize more reliable thin-wall-flow estimation for the RTR molding process. The proposed coupled simulation approach based on solid elements provides reliable flow estimation by accounting for the effects of the unique thermal boundary conditions of the RTR mold.

THE EFFECT OF COMPATIBILIZER LEVEL ON THE MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES OF A NYLON 6/ABS POLYMER BLEND

The influence of compatibilizer on the morphology and mechanical properties of a blend of nylon 6 and ABS has been studied. For this blend, the morphological domain size decreases significantly with increasing compatibilizer level. However, stiffness and tensile stress at yield are unaffected by these changes. Within the range of these experiments, lzod impact strength increases monotonically with increasing levels of compatibilizer, but the resistance to crack initiation (Jc) and the resistance to steady state crack growth (Rp) are both increased by the addition of a small amount of compatibilizer and are essentially independent of further increases.