Abstract
Microcellular injection molding process is a promising solution for products with special requirements such as weight reduction, extra thin wall, high dimensional stability, clamping force reduction, etc. Despite microcellular foaming application used in reciprocating screw injection molding machine was built more than a decade, some limitations, such as poor surface quality or poor foaming control, confine the usage of this technology. Earlier CAE simulation tool for microcellular injection molding was not successful due to insufficient physical and computational considerations, limited by complicated bubble growth mechanism; so that, an economic and efficient tool for examining foaming quality of injection foaming product was lack. In this study, a recent developed three-dimensional simulation tool is used to predict injection foaming process. Predictions are carried out with commodity polypropylene and polystyrene with nitrogen and carbon dioxide supercritical fluids (SCFs). Comparisons of simulations between microcellular injection molding with and without counter pressure are discussed to provide insights into the correlation of surface quality and cell size distribution near the surface of product. Furthermore, comparisons between simulation predictions and experimental results of molding process, which is featured with dynamic mold temperature and gas counter pressure, are given for understanding quality improvement by controlling foaming morphology, and benefit of industrial application.
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