Abstract
Summary: An in‐line method for monitoring the solidification process during injection molding of semicrystalline polymers (demonstrated previously in J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2003, 89, 3713) is based on a simple device, where an additional ejector pin is pushed on the injection molded part at different times during the solidification phase. The ‘indentation depth profile’, i.e., residual deformation as a function of time, was obtained and allowed to determine the evolution of the solidification front in the mold as a function of the cooling time. The present work shows the reliability and the powerfulness of the aforementioned method for a large variety of different semicrystalline polymers (PET, PBT, polyamide‐6 PA6, isotactic poly(propylene) iPP) characterized also by different molecular weight and/or nucleating agents. The results show that the indentation test may be considered as a ‘predictive’ tool to qualitatively and quantitatively compare the solidification process of different polymers and polymer grades during injection molding.
Comparison of the solid front propagation during injection molding of different materials.
imageComparison of the solid front propagation during injection molding of different materials.