Investigation of cell nucleation and growth in high-pressure and low-pressure foam injection molding

高压和低压泡沫注射成型中泡孔成核和生长的研究

• 批准号: 492659-2015
• 负责人: Park, Chul
• 金额: $ 6.24万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=618267
• 关键词: Investigation; cell; nucleation; growth; pressure

The industry urgently needs to improve its existing foam injection molding technology so that its functions are enhanced and its manufacturing costs are decreased. Foam injection molding technology is one solution to the challenges faced by many industries such as automotive, construction, aerospace, and packaging. The goal is to achieve lightweight products using lightweight materials and to improve their functionality while giving them the necessary mechanical properties. There are some design and analysis software for the injection molders to use for simulating mold-filling, weld-line location, warpage analysis, and temperature distribution successfully for unfoamed solid parts. However, there is absolutely no software that can accurately predict and analyze the foam injection molding process within the mold cavity. Our industrial partner, Autodesk Moldflow, is the leader of injection molding simulation software. But the current simulation module provided by Autodesk Moldflow can describe only marginally the low-pressure foaming phenomena by fitting the cell nucleation behaviors for each material. In this context, Autodesk initiated this collaborative project, to dramatically improve its Microcellular Module. This will be accomplished through our new collaboration and by applying our visualization mold, which can accurately visualize the foaming phenomena. The overall approach is as follows: (i) to visualize the foaming behaviour and to analyze the observed images in order to improve our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of the cell nucleation and growth inside the mold; (ii) to implement the identified foaming mechanism(s) to simulation software modules so as to describe the foam injection molding in a way that is closer to how it actually occurs.

该行业迫切需要改进其现有的泡沫注射成型技术，以增强其功能并降低其制造成本。泡沫注塑成型技术是解决汽车、建筑、航空航天和包装等许多行业所面临挑战的一种解决方案。我们的目标是使用轻质材料实现轻质产品，并在赋予其必要的机械性能的同时改善其功能。有一些设计和分析软件，注塑机使用模拟模具填充，焊缝定位，翘曲分析，和温度分布成功地为非发泡固体零件。但是，目前还没有一个软件能够准确地预测和分析模具型腔内的泡沫注射成型过程。我们的工业合作伙伴Autodesk Moldflow是注塑模拟软件的领导者。但目前Autodesk Moldflow提供的模拟模块只能通过拟合每种材料的泡孔成核行为来描述低压发泡现象。在这种情况下，Autodesk发起了这个合作项目，以显着改善其微蜂窝模块。这将通过我们的新合作和应用我们的可视化模具来实现，该模具可以准确地可视化发泡现象。总体方法如下：（i）可视化发泡行为并分析观察到的图像，以提高我们对模具内泡孔成核和生长的基本机制的理解;（ii）将所识别的发泡机制实施到模拟软件模块中，以便以更接近其实际发生的方式描述泡沫注射成型。