pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S04 - Injection Molding and Molds
Poster Presentation
 
 

Design of a Demolding Force Measurement Tool for Injection Molding

Struklec Tobias (1)*, Burgsteiner Martin (1), Lucyshyn Thomas (1), Balika Werner (2), Moderegger Stefan (2), Holzer Clemens (1)

(1) Montanuniversitaet Leoben - Styria - Austria, (2) Sony DADC Austria AG, BioSciences - Salzburg - Austria

One of the major problems in injection molding of polymer surfaces is a high number of defective products as a consequence of part damage e.g. ripping or deformation of the micro structure. These defects occur due to a combination of several mechanisms, e.g. adhesion, friction, capillary attraction, chemical bonding, electrostatic and vacuum effects. This list of the main mechanisms shows that is nearly impossible to separate the influence of each parameter and therefore makes it obvious why so far no satisfying demolding models exist. The influencing aspects, contrary to the several acting mechanisms, are already identified. The four key aspects are the mold (including the mold coatings), the polymer material, the micro structure and the processing parameters. To assess the impact of each of these aspects the demolding force is used as a quantitative summary of the different occurring mechanisms. In this study the focus is on a new device that allows demolding force measurement in the injection molding process. Almost all known demolding force measurements have been done in a hot embossing process. The reason for this is mainly the simplicity of the embossing process. But many studies show, that the embossing process is not as similar to the injection process as one might wish. Especially the shrinking in the injection mold can be completely different due to the different filling process. This led to the obvious next step of developing a new tool which allows measurements in common injection molding situations. The most important part of this concept is to ensure the flexibility of the mold to enable a lot of different research. The mainpart is a frame system that can hold different micro structured stampers. This will allow comparing recent hot embossing measurements to the injection molding process and can easily be scaled up to arbitrary microstructures.