Effect of mold temperature on short and long-term mechanical properties of PBT

Abstract

In this work, the effect of mold temperature variation on the short-term mechanical properties obtained from the tensile and Charpy impact tests, and the long-term mechanical properties obtained from dynamic mechanical loading and flexural creep of injection molded polybutylene terepthalate (PBT) are reported. It has been observed that the effect of changing the processing condition viz. mold temperature on the viscoelastic properties are more pronounced when their long-term behavior is tested. The tensile and impact properties showed only a negligible effect to the change in mold tem- perature. Further, analysis of the creep curves by applying a four-element Burger model presented a comprehensive under- standing of their long-term viscoelastic behavior with respect to the change in mold temperature.