Conclusion

Modeling the filling of thermoplastic injection mold cavities is an effective tool to aid tool design. It must, of course, be complemented by modeling the subsequent phases of the cycle. The 2.5D and Hele-Shaw approaches give good results, with relatively low calculation costs. However, some cavity geometries have specific local or global features that make this approach imprecise. In such cases, 3D software makes it possible to make no approximations on the flow, at the cost of significantly higher calculation costs. Software is also a tool for learning about the coupling between flow, rheology and heat, enabling operators to become more proficient at setting up machines. Calculations are highly sensitive to rheological data, less so to thermal data (heat transfer coefficient, conduction). As far as injection parameters are concerned, the pseudoplastic nature of the polymer, coupled with...