Polymer Technology
CHE G522
Karthik Chethan V.
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
2021
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Polymer Processing
• Polymeric material
• Thermal transition, softening or melting
• Deform
• Flow
• Solidify
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Processing
• Polymer Science
Rheology (deformation/flow/viscosity/Newtonian-non
Newtonian/thickening-thinning) and physics
(softening/melting/solidification/structure)
• Engineering principles (instrument/machine design, mold
design, mixing principles, transport phenomena)
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Injection Moulding
• Name a plastic product at home, the chances of it being processed
by injection moulding is very high.
• Phones, watches, sunglasses, appliances, consoles, monitors,
keyboards, toys, plastic cutlery, plastic gears, screws, electronic and
automotive components, containers, chairs, buckets etc. etc., list
goes on and on, it is endless.
• The products are simple, intricate, small, big, made of various
single polymers, polymer blends, cheap and expensive, on and on.
To summarize injection moulding dominates polymer processing.
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Injection Moulding
• It’s a mix of extrusion and moulding
• The screw performs similar operation performed in extrusion when
the polymer pellets are added, melting/softening,
shearing/deforming, intermixing followed by moulding or injection.
• Main parts are injection unit and clamping unit.
• Injection unit consists of feed hopper, barrel, screw, screw motor
and drive, heaters.
• Clamping unit consists of mould (sprue, runners, gates and cavity),
mould platens, clamping or hydraulic cylinder, ejector pins and
guide or tie rods.
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Injection Moulding
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Injection Moulding Sequence
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Sequence
• Feeding of pellets
• Screw starts to rotate to soften/melt, shear and intermix
• Screw stops rotating and is pushed forward to inject the built up polymer
melt into the mould cavity through a nozzle.
• The polymer melt flows from the injection nozzle through a main pathway
called sprue and then through individual channels called runners which
lead the polymer melt to various entry points of the mould, the entry
points are called gates and the mould area wherein the polymer melt fills is
called the melt cavity.
• To summarize, the mould unit consists of sprue, runners, gates and cavity.
After mould filling and cooling and solidification, the mould opens wherein
the movable platen will drag one half of the mould away from the other
half and the ejector pins will push the solidified moulded part onto the
collection basket below for pick-up.
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Open and closed position of valve during screw
rotation and injection
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Schematic
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Mechanical Clamping System
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Types of Moulds
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P-V-T Diagram
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Issues of Injection Moulding
• Non-uniform filling
• Non-uniform solidification resulting in sink marks
• Residual stresses and warpage
• Weld lines wherein melts will meet
• Discoloration and degradation
• Gate marks
• Incomplete filling
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Links for Further Reading and Viewing
• https://www.3dsystems.com/quickparts/learning-
center/injection-molding-basics (good link for common
moulding defects and gates and mould design).
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjtmsr3CqA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1U9W4iNDiQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb3VZpr0ibc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn16JtE_vLc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfm3Hl6NGEA
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