Polyoxymethylene/talc composite: Investigation of warpage, mechanical and thermal properties for thin walled‐injection molding applications

Abstract

AbstractThe warpage in injection‐molded thin‐walled components is a research challenge for many years. Polyoxymethylene (POM) composite was prepared with various weight fractions of talc to investigate the reduction in warpage and its effect on mechanical properties such as tensile, compressive, impact, and thermal properties like Vicat softening point and heat deflection temperature (HDT). The uniform distribution of talc fillers is confirmed in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) examinations. The talc is found to act as a nucleation agent and affect the crystallinity of POM. It is found from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis that the percentage of crystallinity is increased with respect to the weight percent of talc fillers and reached a minimum at POM/1 wt% and maximum at POM/3 wt% Talc. The 12% of reduction in warpage is observed in POM/1 wt% Talc polymer composite but it has a 45% increase in impact strength, though it loses the tensile, compressive, and thermal properties by 2%–3%. Meanwhile, the superior mechanical properties are observed in POM/3 wt% Talc polymer composite, but with more warpage than other samples. The present study revealed that the composite with 1% wt loading is suitable to high impact application with lower warpage in thin‐walled molding. The DSC, scanning electron microscopic, X‐ray diffraction, FTIR, HDT, and Vicat softening point results are presented to support the investigations.