Influence of Mold Temperature on the Thickness of a Skin Layer and Impact Strength in the Microcellular Injection Molding Process

초미세 발포 사출공정에서 금형의 온도가 스킨층 두께와 충격강도에 미치는 영향

The microstructure of the parts made by the microcellular injection molding process influence properties, including impact strength, tensile strength and density of material. Microstructure of microcellular plastics is divided into core foaming region and solid skin region. Core foaming region is influenced by pressure drop rate, viscosity and cell coalescence. However, actual mechanism of the skin layers is not known despite its importance. The study on the skin layer is getting important because foaming rate of the plastics is determined by the thickness ratio of the skin layer. Especially in case of large molded part, control of the skin layer is needed because skin layer thickness is changed largely. Therefore it is necessary to study variation in skin layer thickness with processing parameters. In this paper, the influence of temperatures in the mold cavity on the skin layer s thickness was also addressed. In addition, the relationship between the temperature distributions across cavity of the mold with impact strength on parts made with the microcellular injection molding process was addressed. In addition, the method to predict the variation in skin layer thickness with mold temperature is discussed.