Abstract
Many studies have been done using recycled waste materials to minimise environmental problems. It is a great opportunity to explore mechanical recycling and the use of recycled and virgin blend as a material to produce new products with minimum defects. In this study, appropriate processing parameters were considered to mould the front panel housing part using R0% (virgin), R30% (30% virgin: 70% recycled), R40% (40% virgin: 60% recycled) and R50% (50% virgin: 50% recycled) of Polycarbonate (PC). The manufacturing ability and quality during preliminary stage can be predicted through simulation analysis using Autodesk Moldflow Insight 2012 software. The recommended processing parameters and values of warpage in x and y directions can also be obtained using this software. No value of warpage was obtained from simulation studies for x direction on the front panel housing. Therefore, this study only focused on reducing the warpage in the y direction. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimisation methods were used to find the optimal processing parameters. As the results, the optimal ratio of recycled PC material was found to be R30%, followed by R40% and R50% materials using RSM and GA methods as compared to the average value of warpage on the moulded part using R0%. The most influential processing parameter that contributed to warpage defect was packing pressure for all materials used in this study.
Highlights
This article is an open access articlePresently, there are many scrap materials produced by moulding industries such as rejected parts and gating or feeding systems [1]
An insignificant lack of fit obtained in the results of experimental works means a weak lack of fit. This indicates that a desirable property has been achieved, and there was no value of lack of fit found in simulation studies due to the same values of warpage obtained using the same values of processing parameters at the centre point of Full Factorial Design (FFD)
The results of warpage obtained using optimum processing parameters proposed by both optimisation methods (RSM and Genetic Algorithm (GA)) were compared between simulation studies and experimental works
Summary
There are many scrap materials produced by moulding industries such as rejected parts and gating or feeding systems [1]. A few researchers used an optimisation method to reduce the defect on the moulded parts produced in injection moulding process by determining an optimal setting of processing parameters [26,27]. The optimisation using the RSM method was used to reduce the shrinkage of the moulded parts produced in injection moulding process by obtaining the optimum value of processing parameters [22]. The use of recycled and virgin blend materials to produce new products through the injection moulding process, at the same time as minimising defects by employing optimisation approaches, is a good opportunity to be explored. The results obtained will become a clear reference for the moulding industries to produce a new product using recycled materials with acceptable quality, which helps to increase company profits and minimize environmental waste
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