pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S09 - Polymer nanocomposites
Poster Presentation
 
 

Mouldability study of injected micro parts made of reinforced PA6 composites

Bellantone Vincenzo (1)*, Pagano Caludia (2), Surace Rossella (1), Fassi Irene (2)

(1) Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation- National Research Council, ITIA-CNR - Bari - Italy, (2) Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation- National Research Council, ITIA-CNR - Milano - Italy

Currently, the increasing interest in the study of polymer nanocomposites has been motivated by the potential of such materials to improve the properties of obtainable products significantly. Indeed, the combination of two materials (for example a polymer matrix and Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes- MWCNTs as nanofiller) is capable of merging the good characteristics of both and, as such, taking advantage to accomplish high design flexibility. Nonetheless, many of these polymer nanocomposites can be moulded into complex shapes. In this work, experimental and statistical studies have been performed to analyze the filling ability of a nanocomposite material, PA6/MWCNT, with filler fraction of 3wt%. The pristine material and the compound were processed via injection moulding process using different conditions defining their operating range. First, miniaturized dog bone have been prepared for tensile tests in order to confirm the reinforcement effect of the fillers. Then, samples with micro channels have been moulded in order to evaluate the material filling ability. It has been tested according to a Design of Experiment approach of the process parameters. As expected, the filler content affected the operative range of the micro injection process parameters, especially regarding the injection velocity. Nevertheless, a suitable choice of the process parameters allows to obtain good quality samples. Moreover, the most effective parameters on replication capability have been estimated at filler content variation evaluating a dimensional index defined as the differences between the injected parts and mould.