10.1002/spepro.

004323

Injection molding without the drying

Sang-Won Woo, Yeong-Eun Yoo, and Sun Kyoung Kim Using a gas counter to raise the pressure during injection molding of plastics prevents blisters forming by suppressing evaporation of water and cuts costly drying steps from the manufacturing process. The injection molding industry is struggling to improve quality at a time when costs need to be reduced.1 While efforts to reduce costs focus largely on reducing energy consumption, most quality issues are raised about the appearance of molded parts.2, 3 Although other matters such as dimensional integrity and mechanical performance are important, the appearance of a part after ejection from a mold is always the rst thing to be checked. The most serious appearance defects are caused when water evaporates during injection molding, which creates bubbles. As most thermoplastic resins take up water, bubble formation can be prevented by drying the polymer pellets prior to molding.4 Such drying not only wastes tremendous amounts of energy but the pellets can become contaminated during handling and moving. Moreover, the drying process requires time and space as well as an initial investment in equipment. Thus, being able to perform injection molding without prior drying would have several commercial benets. We recently developed a processing technology that enables highquality molding without prior drying of polymer pellets. The idea is not to let the water evaporate to form bubbles inside the mold by keeping the polymer hydrated throughout the molding process. This can be done by keeping the cavity pressure above the saturation pressure of water for a particular melt temperature until the polymer solidies.5 Increasing the pressure pushes up the saturation temperature to suppress evaporation. We can achieve this using gas counter pressure (GCP) technology, which has long been used to improve the mechanical properties of foam-molded structures.610 Unlike conventional injection molding processes, GCP requires a good venting scheme. Venting has tended to be done through gaps between the pin and mold or through the parting line.11 However, for a mold cavity to be pressurized, it needs to be sealed from the ambient air then connected to a pressurized reservoir. We designed and built such a mold and GCP system to conduct the injection molding without prior drying.12 We developed a control system to maintain the cavity

Figure 1. Poly(methyl methacrylate) parts molded without drying (a) without gas counter pressure (GCP) and (b) with GCP.

pressure, which needs to be adjusted to a preset value to cope with a change in the unlled cavity volume and melt pressure. Furthermore, a reservoir with sufcient volume is needed. We evaluated the performance of our GCP molding method by checking the visual quality and the mechanical properties of parts molded with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC). We used an electric injection molding machine (Sumitomo SE50D) to test the proposed system. For all cases, we chose a mold temperature of 60 C and an injection speed of 50mm per second. Tensile test parts made with undried PMMA and no GCP contained a large number of bubbles whereas those made with GCP were free from bubbles (see Figure 1). The GCP has a similar role in suppressing the formation of voids as in previous foam-molding studies.7 We used our GCP system to manufacture a commercial product part made entirely from PC recycled from scraps, which are not dried prior to molding (see Figure 2). The part molded without GCP has a large number of visible splashes on the surface whereas the part molded under the GCP has an unblemished, glossy surface. The part quality would be acceptable for commercial applications. Continued on next page

10.1002/spepro.004323 Page 2/3 Author Information Sang-Won Woo NID Fusion Graduate School Seoul National University of Science and Technology Seoul, South Korea Sang-Won Woo is a graduate student working on injection molding. Yeong-Eun Yoo Nano-Mechanical Systems Research Division Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials Daejeon, South Korea Yeong-Eun Yoo was a senior scientist at LG Chemistry and is currently a principal researcher. His work focuses on roll-to-roll forming and injection molding of nano- and microstructures. Sun Kyoung Kim Seoul National University of Science and Technology Seoul, South Korea Sun Kyoung Kims research focuses on polymer characterization and processing. He is the director of industry-academia collaborations for SPEs Korea Section.
References 1. M. J. Gordon Jr., Total Quality Process Control for Injection Molding, Wiley, New York, 2010. 2. M. F. Lacrampe and J. Pabiot, Defects in surface appearance of injection moulded thermoplastic parts: a review of some problems in surface gloss distribution, J. Inj. Molding Technol. 4, pp. 167176, 2000. 3. A. M. Grillet, A. C. B. Bogaerds, G. W. M. Peters, and F. P. T. Baaijens, Numerical analysis of ow mark surface defects in injection molding ow, J. Rheol. 46, pp. 651 669, 2002. doi:10.1122/1.1459419 4. J. Bozzelli, Injection molding: you must dry hygroscopic resins, Plast. Technol. 57, p. 27, 2011. 5. M. J. Moran and H. N Shapiro, Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, 6th ed., Wiley, New York, 2008. 6. S. B. Driscoll and W. F. Gacek, Gas counter pressure structural foam molding versus conventional low-pressure SF molding - a comparison of mechanical properties, Plast. Eng. 40, p. 34, 1984. 7. J. S. Wu and M. J. Lee, Studies on gas counter pressure and low pressure structural foam molding, III. Effect of processing conditions on mechanical properties of molded parts, Plast. Rubber Compos. 21, pp. 163171, 1994. 8. S. Djoumaliisky, D. Christova, N. Touleshkov, and E. Nedkov, Morphology and orientation of PP structural foam moldings, J. Macromol. Sci. Part A Pure Appl. Chem. 35 (7), pp. 11471158, 1998. doi:10.1080/10601329808002108 9. S. Djoumaliisky, M. L. Cerrada, T. Dobreva, and P. Zipper, Development of and isotactic polypropylene polymorphs in injection molded structural foams, Chem. Pap. 64 (2), pp. 246254, 2010. doi:10.2478/s11696-009-0107-6

In summary, we developed an injection molding technology that facilitates manufacture of perfect parts without the need for an energy intensive drying process by keeping the pressure above that of saturation to raise the saturation temperature. The GCP system prevents absorbed water from evaporating out of the polymer during molding and can be transferred to commercial processes with ease. We are currently investigating the vaporization mechanism during injection molding. An easier mold modication technique for the GCP is also under development. The Small and Medium Business Administration, Korea, funded the system development. This study has also been conducted through the Development Project of Large Surface Micro-Machining System Technology funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea. The Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation at Seoul National University of Science and Technology has also supported this study. We thank Dr Kun Sup Hyun and Dr Myung Ho Kim for discussions at the SPE Korea meeting. Uni-Solution Plus, Korea, has commercialized our whole system, which is called UNIMAS.

Figure 2. A commercial part made from 100% recycled polycarbonate (a) without GCP and (b) with GCP.

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10. A. K. Bledzki, H. Kirschling, G. Steinbichler, and P. Egger, Polycarbonate microfoams with a smooth surface and higher notched impact strength, J. Cell. Plast. 40, pp. 489 496, 2004. doi:10.1177/0021955X04048423 11. G. Menges, W. Michaeli, and P. Mohren, How to Make Injection Molds, 3rd ed., Hanser, New York, 2001. 12. R. B. Johnson and M. Caropreso, Designing for counterpressure foam molding, Polym.-Plast. Technol. Eng. 25, pp. 187207, 1986. doi:10.1080/03602558608070083

c 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE)