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Polymer Testing 21 (2002) 745749 www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest

Property Modelling

Prediction of parison swell in plastics extrusion blow molding using a neural network method
H.-X. Huang *, C.-M. Liao
College of Industrial Equipment and Control Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, PR China Received 8 November 2001; accepted 2 January 2002

Abstract A neural network-based model approach is presented in which the effects of the die temperature and ow rate on the diameter and thickness swells of the parison in the continuous extrusion blow molding of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are investigated. Comparison of the neural network model predictions with experimental data yields very good agreement and demonstrates that the neural network model can predict the parison swells at different processing parameters with a high degree of precision (within 0.001). 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Plastics; Extrusion blow molding; Parison swell; Neural network method

1. Introduction Blow molding is the third largest plastics processing technique worldwide and has undergone rapid growth and diversication with regard to potential applications [1]. It has evolved from being a technique for the production of plastic containers into a manufacturing process for the production of industrial parts of automobiles, ofce automation equipment, etc. The extrusion blow molding process involves three main stages, namely, parison formation, parison ination, and part solidication. Parison formation is a critical stage and is rather complex in that it is affected by two phenomena known as swell and sag. Parison swell, occurring both in diameter and thickness, is due to the nonlinear viscoelastic deformation of the polymer melt in the extrusion die. Sag is caused by gravitational forces that act on the suspended parison. Predicting the parison dimensions just prior to ination will be useful for minimizing resin usage while providing the necessary strength and rigidity of blow

molded parts. The use of numerical techniques for the simulation of the parison formation stage has seen a rapid growth in the last decade [26]. Numerical techniques help to minimize machine setup times and tooling costs as well as optimize processing parameters to yield desired nal part specications. Modeling the parison formation with numerical methods, however, has the following shortcomings: 1. Modeling generally requires many simplifying assumptions, thereby leading to a limited accuracy of simulation results. 2. A constitutive equation must be used. Clearly, reliable constitutive equations for adequately describing the nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of the polymer melt during extrusion are still lacking. Otsuki et al. [6] carried out numerical simulations of parison swells extruded through straight, divergent and convergent dies. Several important viscoelastic models, the K-BKZ, the PTT and the Larson models, which can express well the shear ow characteristics of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), were used. Their studies demonstrated that there are remarkable differences among the results of these models. Moreover, there are some difculties in obtaining relevant rheological data for constitutive equations.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +8620-8711-4273; fax: +86208711-0562. E-mail address: mmhuang@scut.edu.cn (H.-X. Huang).

0142-9418/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 4 2 - 9 4 1 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 5 - 3

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3. There are some limitation and complications. Numerical simulations generally require too great a computational effort for online use. In addition, numerical simulations have no ability to handle effects of parison programming (time-dependent gap variation), coupled effects of sag, and the prediction of swell at higher shear rate levels of industrial blow molding machines [7]. The articial neural network technique has been applied widely to various areas. The advantages of employing neural networks over simulations based on numerical techniques include: (1) no or a minimal number of simplifying assumptions; (2) no need for constitutive equations and thus no need for difcult-to-obtain rheological data; (3) online prediction for process monitoring and control; (4) faster response. DiRaddo and Garcia-Rejon [8,9] used the neural network method to predict nal part dimensions from initial parison dimensions and vice versa. In this study, an articial neural network-based model was employed for predicting the diameter and thickness swells of the parison in the continuous extrusion blow molding of HDPE as a function of the die temperature and ow rate.

ferent extrusion ow rates, 13.4, 18, 22, 26.2, 29.2, 33.2, and 37.4 g/min, were employed. Thus 28 sets of data, that is, 28 sets of diameter and thickness swells of parison extruded at different processing parameters, were obtained.

3. Neural network designing and training In this study, a BP (back-propagation) neural network model (shown in Fig. 1) was selected to predict the parison swells under the effect of sag. Neural networks are organized in layers, and typically consist of three layers: an input layer, one or more hidden layers, and an output layer. A 2-20-20 neural network architecture with two input nodes, one hidden layer with 20 nodes, and 20 output nodes was utilized. The two input variables were the die temperature (T) and the extrusion ow rate (Q). The 20 output nodes were the predicted diameter or thickness swells of 20 points at about 11-mm interval for a 250mm-long parison. Twenty-eight data sets obtained from experiments were provided to the neural network as samples, which were divided into 20 sets of training data and eight sets of testing data. The former were used to train the neural network to ascertain its weight and threshold values. The latter were used to test the trained neural network to verify the model. The neural network was trained by an improved BP learning arithmetic with a momentum term. The learning rate was continuously modied during training. In order to increase the training speed of the neural network, inputs and outputs were normalized so as to have values between zero and unity. When the number of training iterations reached a predetermined level, the training was stopped. After the neural network model was trained, the system was tested with the test data to verify the model.

2. Experimental The parison was extruded through a straight die, having an outer diameter of 15 mm and a lip gap of 3 mm, on an extruder with a diameter of 25 mm. A video capture system was used to access the images of parison on line. The capture system includes a color video camera (Hitachi model VK-C220E) and a video capture card (Creative Technology Ltd, model RT300), the former mounted perpendicular to the axis of the parison, and the latter installed in a personal computer. The analog signal from the former is sent to the latter which digitizes and compresses the video images in one step directly onto the hard disk of the computer. The material used is an HDPE (HHM TR-144, Phillips Petroleum Singapore Chemicals) with a melt index of 0.18 g/10 min and a solid density of 0.946 g/cm3. During experiments, ink marks were put on the outer surface of the parison just below the die exit at the same time interval. The outer diameter corresponding to each ink mark and the distance between two adjacent ink marks could be determined by analyzing the digitized video images of the parison as it just reached a specied length (250 mm in this study). There were 22 marks put on the 250-mm-long parison. Knowing the diameter prole and the distance between two ink marks, the thickness prole along the parison could be calculated on the basis of mass conservation [10]. Then the diameter and thickness swells could be determined. Four different die temperatures, 160, 180, 200, and 220 C, and seven dif-

4. Results and discussion Figs. 2 and 3 show the experimentally determined diameter and thickness swells for a 250-mm-long parison

Fig. 1.

Schematic of a BP neural network architecture.

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Fig. 2. Experimentally determined diameter swell (a) and thickness swell (b) for a 250-mm-long parison at seven different ow rates (g/min): , 13.4; , 18; , 22; , 26.2; , 29.2; +, 33.2; , 37.4.

Fig. 3. Experimentally determined diameter swell (a) and thickness swell (b) for a 250-mm-long parison at four different die temperatures (C): , 160; +, 180; , 200; , 220.

at seven different extrusion ow rates and four different die temperatures, respectively. As mentioned previously, the neural network was trained by accessing a pool of 20 training data sets which incorporated the coupled effects of the die temperature and ow rate. The trained neural network model was then tested with eight testing data sets. Predicted parison diameter and thickness swells from the trained network model are compared with corresponding experimental results in Fig. 4. Comparison yields very good agreement between the two. Moreover, the sum of the squared error between the predicted network output value and the experimental value could be obtained after testing the trained network. For diameter swell or thickness swell, the sum of the squared error is very small (less than 0.001), that is, the trained neural network model shows a high degree of prediction precision.

Once trained, the neural network model has been identied and can be utilized to forecast the outputs expected for new levels of input variables. Figs. 5 and 6 portray the parison diameter and thickness swells predicted by the trained neural network model at four different ow rates and die temperatures, respectively. It can be seen that an approximately linearly increasing relationship exists between the diameter swell and the distance from the die. The thickness swell increases signicantly with the distance from the die near the die exit, but slowly at greater distances from the die. The trained neural network model ascertains the quantitative relationships between the diameter and thickness swells of the parison and processing parameters. Thus, the diameter and thickness swells, or diameter and thickness proles, along the parison can be predicted from processing parameters under the effect of sag, thereby

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Fig. 4. Comparison of predicted parison diameter swell (a) and thickness swell (b) from the network model with experimental results.

Fig. 5. Predicted parison diameter swell (a) and thickness swell (b) from the network model at four different ow rates (g/min): (1) 11; (2) 24.2; (3) 31.1; (4) 39.5.

Fig. 6. Predicted parison diameter swell (a) and thickness swell (b) from the network model at four different die temperatures (C): (1) 150; (2) 170; (3) 190; (4) 215.

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reducing the amount of experimental work. The predictions can be made on line for the purposes of process monitoring and control.

The University of China (200110561002) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank S. M. Wang and S. L. Yang for their valuable contributions to this work.

5. Conclusions References The parison swells of HDPE were investigated as a function of the processing parameters including the die temperature and ow rate. A neural network-based approach was applied to the experimental data, leading to a model for predicting the parison diameter and thickness swells from the processing parameters. The comparison of the experimentally determined parison swells with the predicted ones using the trained neural network model showed very good agreement between the two. The sum of the squared error for the predictions by this proposed model was within 0.001.
[1] D.V. Rosato, D.V. Rosato (Eds.), Blow molding handbook, Hanser, Munich, 1989. [2] R.W. DiRaddo, A. Garcia-Rejon, L. Pecora, D. Poirier, SPE ANTEC Tech. Papers 40 (1994) 1026. [3] S. Tanoue, Y. Kuwano, T. Kajiwara, K. Funatsu, K. Terada, M. Yamabe, Polym. Eng. Sci. 35 (1995) 1546. [4] Y. Otsuki, T. Kajiwara, K. Funatsu, Polym. Eng. Sci. 37 (1997) 1171. [5] S. Tanoue, T. Kajiwara, Y. Iemoto, K. Funatsu, Polym. Eng. Sci. 38 (1998) 409. [6] Y. Otsuki, T. Kajiwara, K. Funatsu, Polym. Eng. Sci. 39 (1999) 1969. [7] D. Laroche, K.K. Kabanemi, L. Pecora, R.W. DiRaddo, Polym. Eng. Sci. 39 (1999) 1223. [8] R.W. DiRaddo, A. Garcia-Rejon, Polym. Eng. Sci. 33 (1993) 653. [9] R.W. DiRaddo, A. Garcia-Rejon, Adv. Polym. Technol. 12 (1993) 3. [10] S. Eggen, A. Sommerfeldt, Polym. Eng. Sci. 36 (1996) 336.

Acknowledgements Financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (29804004) Excellent Talent Foundation of the Education Department of Guangdong Province and Doctorial foundation of colleges and