Effects of injection-molding conditions on the gloss and color of pigmented polypropylene

The effects of processing conditions on appearance characteristics of injection-molded mineral-filled polypropylene (compounded with pigments giving differing intensities of a beige color) have been studied; characteristics studied included gloss, color, and texture. A mold cavity embossed with smooth, fine, and coarse surface patterns was used. In-mold rheology and gate-seal analysis were used to select the filling and postfilling processing parameters. Interest was focused on the effects of filling rate, holding pressure, and mold temperature on the appearance characteristics, and a significant influence of these processing conditions on the gloss and color was found. For all the surface patterns examined, a better replication of the mold texture was obtained with a low melt viscosity at a high shear rate (high injection speed or short injection time) and a high mold temperature. This gave a higher gloss in the smooth surface regions and a lower gloss in the textured regions. An increase in the holding pressure had an effect similar to but smaller than increasing the filling rate or mold temperature. The gloss (or surface topography) had a significant effect on the color; an increase in gloss was associated with an increase in the color coordinate b* and a decrease in the lightness L*.