Injection Molding Laboratory Report

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Wisconsin- Madison
Wisconsin 53706, USA
The purpose of this lab was to explore the effects associated with changing switch over, shot size,
pack/hold time, cooling time, pack/hold pressure, and mold temperature on the final product of an injection
molded sample.
Keywords: Injection Molding, Process Parameters, Product Quality

Introduction
Injection molding is one of the leading plastic processes,
both in money and quantity of parts produced. The
process involves heating plastic pellets through friction
and an outside heat source. The hot material is delivered
to the mold through the use of a large screw. When the
mold is closed, the screw extends forward laterally and
drives the hot plastic into the mold, where it is cooled
until fully solidified. More material is driven into the
mold as the part cools to maintain correct dimensions due
to parts shrinking during the cooling process. Material is
driven into the mold up until the time the gate freezes. See
figure A.
Figure 1. Thickness & Weight vs. Switch Over

Figure A. Injection Molder

In the lab that was performed, we used high density
polyethylene (HDPE). HDPE is the high density version
of PE plastic. It is harder, stronger and a little heavier than
LDPE, but less ductile.

When our switch over was increased to 11mm, the sample

parts were incompletely filled, called short shot. Since it
was an incomplete fill, the weight decreased from the
original. The thickness was a little lower than the original,
and the molten material did not make it to the second
pressure tap. See Figure 1.
When our shot size increased to 42 mm, our weight
increased, which is expected since we are forcing more
material into the mold. Since we are forcing more
material into a constant volume, the pressure was much
larger than the original. There was an average increase in
pressure of approximately 40 MPa. See Figure 2.

Injection molding has been one of the most important

fabrication tools for the plastics industry. The process is
used to make automotive interior parts, electronic
housings, house wares, medical equipment, toys, crates,
and pails, thin-wall food containers, drink cups, lids, and
milk bottle caps.
Results and Discussion
When our switch over was reduced to 4 mm, the weight
of the sample increased approximately .5 grams from the
initial, and the thickness stayed constant. It was a more
complete fill than the original conditions. See Figure 1.

Figure 2. Thickness & Weight vs. Shot Size

When we decreased the Pack/Hold time, the pressures

decreased as the time decreased. We assume that our first
data point in an outlier, our data follows this trend. The
weight and the thicknesses are approximately the same as
the original. See Figure 3.

Figure 5. Thickness & Weight vs. Pack/Hold Pressure

Figure 3. Thickness &Weight vs. Pack/Hold Time

From our data, there are no significant changes or patterns
that one can see from changing cooling times. This would
be intuitive because we are not changing the amount of
material but rather the time that the mold is held together.
See Figure 4.

When we decreased the mold temperature, the weights

increased, the pressure decreased, and the thicknesses
stayed the same. This is due to a cooler temperature in the
mold causes the shrinkage to occur faster and therefore
more material can be packed into the mold at a lower
pressure. The thicknesses are the same because they still
fill the same volume of the container, but the sample
cooled faster has a slightly higher density. See Figure 6.

Figure 6. Thickness & Weight vs. Mold Temperature

See Appendix for Raw Data and P-t Trace Graphs
Figure 4. Thickness &Weight vs. Cooling time
As the Pack/Hold pressure increased the weight increased,
and the pressure increased. As pressure increased, the
force pushing material into the mold as it cooled
increased, this increases the weight. As the amount of
material filling a constant volume increases, the pressure
increases as well. See Figure 5.

Conclusion
For actual manufacturing profit and product quality are
main factors. If the temperature is too hot or cold, we will
either see a short shot or thermal degradation. If the
pressure is too high, flashing will occur, and if it is too
low, we will have too much shrinkage and the parts will
not be within specified tolerances. The product must be
within certain process parameters to ensure product
quality. The most profitable process is performed at the
lowest acceptable temperature and from our data, the
highest quality part is made using a higher pressure.

References:
Osswald, Tim A. Polymer Processing Fundamentals, Hanser Publisher, Munich, 1998.