Injection foam molding of open-celled porous duct

在当今竞争激烈的汽车行业，每个汽车制造商都投入大量资源来实现两个目标：（1）降低制造成本;（2）最大限度地减少车辆重量以提高燃油效率。这些努力影响到车辆的每个部件，而作为进气系统不可或缺的组成部分的多孔管道就是一个很好的例子，它将从这些努力中受益匪浅。马勒过滤系统加拿大是多孔管道的主要制造商之一，他们目前的多孔管道是用纤维编织材料制造的。然而，由于其材料成本高，制造工艺复杂，因此生产成本非常高。因此，马勒过滤系统加拿大公司迫切希望用塑料多孔管道替代现有的纤维编织多孔管道，而不影响其所需的性能。随着经济型注塑工艺的实施，制造成本将大大降低。此外，通过使用廉价的聚合物和填料，材料成本将显著降低。因此，拟议的替代方案对公司具有极高的积极经济影响潜力。由于该公司没有任何重要的经验，如注射泡沫成型和创建一个多孔结构，使用浸出，微孔塑料制造实验室（MPML）在多伦多大学是非常有能力满足该公司的需求，因为它有深厚的知识和经验的过程。这项联合研究计划的长期目标是生产多孔塑料管道，作为目前昂贵的纤维编织多孔管道的替代品。为了实现这一最终目标，我们提出了一种包括四个短期目标的方法：（i）理想基础树脂的鉴定;（ii）使用各种材料和工艺参数的塑料开孔泡沫的结构-性能关系的探索;（iii）确定所需性能的最佳开孔形态;（iv）确定最佳开孔形态。以及（iv）对塑料开孔泡沫的加工-结构关系的广泛研究。

#In today's competitive automotive industry, every automaker is investing significant amount of its resource to accomplish two objectives: (1) reduce manufacturing costs; and (2) minimize the weight of vehicles to improve fuel efficiency. These efforts affect every single part of vehicle and the porous duct, which is an integral component of the air-intake system, is a prime example that would benefit from those efforts significantly. MAHLE Filter Systems Canada is one of the chief manufacturers of porous ducts, and their current porous duct is manufactured with fiber-woven materials. However, it is very costly to produce because of its high material cost and the complex manufacturing process to fabricate it. MAHLE Filter Systems Canada is, therefore, eager to substitute the existing fiber-woven porous ducts with plastic porous ones without compromising their required properties. With the implementation of economical injection molding process, the manufacturing cost would be reduced substantially. In addition, the material cost would be decreased significantly by utilizing inexpensive polymers and fillers. Thus, the proposed alternative has extremely high potential for a positive economic impact on the company. Since the company does not have any significant experience with the processes such as injection foam molding and creating a porous structure using leaching, the Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory (MPML) at the University of Toronto is exceptionally capable to meet the company's needs because it has profound knowledge and experience on the processes. The long-term objective of this joint research program is to produce porous plastic duct as an alternative to the current expensive fiber-woven porous ducts. In order to accomplish this ultimate goal, we are proposing an approach that consists of four short-term goals: (i) the identification of the ideal base resin; (ii) the exploration of the structure-property relationship of plastic open-celled foams using various materials and processing parameters; (iii) the determination of the optimal open-cell morphology for the required properties; and (iv) the extensive investigation of the processing-structure relationship of plastic open-celled foams.