Improvement of the Injection Mold Process by Using Vibration Through a Mold Accessory

Abstract

Recently, different authors agree that the way to optimize the flow in polymer melt is by changing the viscosity. There are several chemical products that help the above-mentioned, but these products change the molecular properties of the polymer. Recent nonchemical approaches use vibration techniques in the manufacturing process. The problems of the aforementioned approaches reside in the necessity of major modifications to the injection machine or the development of a new machine. The novelty of this research is to provide a mechanical apparatus to modify the viscosity of melted polymers by inducing vibrations without sacrificing the polymer properties in the injected parts, and which do not imply major modifications to the machine or molds. The developed apparatus is a simple mold accessory that makes easy for the end user the retrofitting of existing injection machines and it reduces the manufacturing costs. The improvement on the injection efficiency is tested with high-density polyethylene, reaching an improvement of 30% when excited at frequencies around 3 Hz.