Abstract
Injection molding is the most widely used process for the industrial forming of plastic articles. During an injection molding process of composites, the fiber-matrix separation and fiber orientation are caused by the flow of molten polymer/fiber mixture. As a result, the product tends to be nonhomogeneous and anisotropic. Hence, it is very important to clarify the relations between separation orientation and injection molding conditions. So far, there is no research on the measurement of fiber orientation using image processing. In this study, the effects of fiber content ratio and molding condition on the fiber orientation-angle distributions are studied experimentally. Using the image processing method, the fiber orientation distribution of welding parts in injection-molded products is assessed. And the effects of fiber content and injection mold shapes on the fiber orientation in case of fiber reinforced polymeric composites are studied experimentally.