ON THE SIMULATION OF THERMOPLASTIC INJECTION-MOLDING PROCESS

Numerical simulation of the injection moulding process of thermoplastic polymers has been performed on the basis of the Williams and Lord model and its recent extensions. The aim of the simulation was to identify material properties which play a relevant role to process modelling, including post filling stages. Predictions improve significantly by taking into account the effect of pressure on both viscosity and crystallisation kinetics. Several features, however, are not satisfactorily predicted. Also the relevance of convection during packing has been evidenced especially with reference to gate sealing time. As highly oriented crystalline structures are present in the final moulded object, the enhancement of crystallisation kinetics by the effect of flow is suggested as the phenomenon to be accounted for in order to gain a quantitative description of the whole process.