Abstract
Injection stretch blow moulding is a well-established method of forming thin-walled containers and has been extensively researched for numerous years. This paper is concerned with validating the finite element analysis of the free-stretch-blow process in an effort to progress the development of injection stretch blow moulding of poly(ethylene terephthalate). Extensive data was obtained experimentally over a wide process window accounting for material temperature and air flow rate, while capturing cavity pressure, stretch-rod reaction force and preform surface strain. This data was then used to assess the accuracy of the correlating FE simulation constructed using ABAQUS/Explicit solver and an appropriate viscoelastic material subroutine. Results reveal that the simulation is able to give good quantitative correlation for conditions where the deformation was predominantly equal biaxial whilst qualitative correlation was achievable when the mode of deformation was predominantly sequential biaxial. Overall the simulation was able to pick up the general trends of how the pressure, reaction force, strain rate and strain vary with the variation in preform temperature and air flow rate. The knowledge gained from these analyses provides insight into the mechanisms of bottle formation, subsequently improving the blow moulding simulation and allowing for reduction in future development costs.
Highlights
Research into the injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM) process regarding the formation of light-weight, thin-walled containers has been extensive over the past number of decades
This result requires addressing in order to improve the material model and improve the simulation accuracy over a wider process window
The trials have been conducted over a wide process window encompassing material temperature ranging from 95 to 115 °C and air flow rates of 9, 23 and 36 g/s
Summary
Research into the injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM) process regarding the formation of light-weight, thin-walled containers has been extensive over the past number of decades. This illustrates the effect of material temperature and flow rate simultaneously, on the quality of pressure prediction. The average error was much greater than that calculated for the previous cavity pressure results, with no obvious trend in accuracy relative to either oil temperature or flow rate This relative reduction in accuracy may be a result of an inadequate contact scenario model or the model’s lack of ability to capture the anisotropic deformation behaviour prevalent in bottle manufacturing. The material model used in this simulation is able to successfully capture the simultaneous equal biaxial deformation but has difficulty in capturing the sequential behaviour [29, 30] the reason for the difference in accuracy between the two process conditions
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