Plastic Link Vol. 07 Issue 01 (April 2015)

PLASTICS

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07 01 2015

www.hipf.edu.sa

Yo u r L i n k t o t h e P l a s t i c s W o r l d

HIPF T r a i n e e s

at 5 th GPCA p l a s tic s e xc e l l e n c e awa r d s J a n ua ry,2015.

1st Place winners:

Trainees: Rayan Zakaria Mubarak

Al-Ahmedi and Khaled Saleh Al-Mosalam, Mentors: Mr. M. A. Ghani and Mr. Ali Abdullah Al-Ramel.

2nd Place winners: Trainees: Sultan Safar Al-Otaibi and Omar Al-Enazi, Mentors : Mr. Rolando M. Padua and Mr. Rameshwar S. Selukar.

Dubai, UAE: HIPF congratulates the winners of 5th Plastics excellence awards which is an initiative of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA). This award recognize the outstanding initiatives in plastics conversion, plastics engineering and product development by companies and individuals from the Arabian Gulf region. HIPF trainees have competed in the final round with three projects under the category of Fikra : Rising stars of the plastics industry and secured the 1st and 2nd place in the competition. HIPF is proud of the achievement of the trainees and their mentors.

I n j e cti o n

m o l d i n g m achi n e w ith i n t e g r at e d m o l d t e m p e r at u r e co n t r o l Mold temperature control is a very important parameter for consistent quality of product. Normally a separate Mold temperature controller unit is used in other machines.

ENGEL has developed mold temperature control system integrated with Injection Molding machine by providing a coolant flow monitoring and control system to keep the mold temperature constant during the production.

There is a water manifold system which helps in process optimization and quality improvement. This is an ENGEL e-flomo series machine, which has electrical control valves to automatically control flow rate.

As the flow is controlled automatically there is no fluctuation in volume of water needed for cooling which helps in process stability and thus reduction of scrap.

Even if the water pressure varies or there is any choke in line, the system maintains constant flow rate of water for mold cooling throughout the production.

This feature also takes care of the temperature control of water by sensing the temperature difference between input and output water of mold. It can work up to 120 degree Celsius. ENGEL e-flomo machine is better in terms of economy of the injection molding process by fast mold set-up, higher machine availability, and scrap reduction. All these benefits are due to increased process stability.

QUARTERLY ISSUED BY THE HIGHER INSTITUTE FOR PLASTICS FABRICATION

Court Courtesy of industry news specialchem / ENGEL news

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S pecial P oints of I nterest:

I n T his issue :

· Recent Path Breaking Innovations in the field of Plastics.

• Injection molding machine with integrated mold temperature control 1 • Automatic diameter change in pipe extrusion while running production line.

2 • Tips to increase the perform production.

2 • Systematic approach to diagnose mold filling and part quality variation for multi-cavity injection molding. 3 • PAF – An Enhancer of durability for plastic materials.

3 • International Plastics Events.

4 • Contact Details.

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· Selected International Plastics centered events and exhibitions. · HIPF trainees at 5th GPCA plastics excellence awards Jan,2015..

Automatic diameter change in pipe extrusion while running production line

The outer diameter of pipe can be altered without stopping extrusion line; it will save both material and time as well. Recently Inoex LLC has innovated new technology in pipe extrusion, suitable for polyolefins material.

Usually, in regular extrusion process, the extrusion line has to pass through shut down and start up process for die changing which consumes a lot of time and generates scrap.

The salient feature of calibration sleeve is, enabling multiple diameter ratio setting up to 1:1.8, for the maximum outer diameter 36�inches, using same extruder and die.

The designed pipe supports are high load bearing and flexible to the size changed. It can seal high vacuum and provide efficient cooling too. Here vacuum is generated by using frequency controlled vacuum pump.

The extruder is equipped with human friendly terahertz frequency based, quantum non- destructive pipe measurement system. It can measure wall thickness of smooth pipe as well as foamed and corrugate pipes accurately.

Courtesy of Inoex

T ips to increase PET P reform production

In the PET perform molding, there are a many ways the molders can optimize and reduce the cycle times up to level of 6 seconds which result in higher productivity.

Few important parameters which effect the cycle time of perform molding are Injection time; Hold time and Cooling time. .

Injection time: Molders should achieve the normal fill rate of 8 to 12 g/sec/cavity for the preforms up to about 4-mm wall thickness. However, thicker preforms can be filled much faster as it is easier for the resin to flow fast through the feed channels. For example, a 525 g preform with a wall thickness of 8.5 mm can be filled at 27 sec, giving fill speed of 19.4 g/ sec/cavity.

Clarified PP has high gloss and low haze.

Hold Time: The purpose of hold time is to apply pressure on the melt after filling the cavity avoid the voids in preforms as they shrink from a melt density of 1.15 g/cm3 to the solid density of 1.33 g/cm3.

This difference is about 13% due to which the void is inevitable but by proper hold on pressure and time, this can be avoided. Considering this, the switchover or transition point setting is an important parameter.

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The transition point should be before the melt fully cool down. The transition point is to be set between 6% to 8% of the total stroke to have switch over from injection to hold on at the right position when the cavity is actually filled.

Cooling during hold time is very effective because the melt is pushed against both core and cavity.

Times are dependent on wall thickness.

Cooling time: Cooling time should be a minimum of 1.5 sec but can be as high as 20 sec for very thick preforms. It should be optimized to get the desired demolding temperature.

diagnose mold filling and part quality variation for multi - cavity injection molding The purpose of the balance fill analysis is to evaluate the thermal and flow balance of the plastic distribution system in the mold. The variation in the plastics flow from cavity to cavity will lead to quality problems. It is important to have the flow balanced to each cavity to get consistent quality products, achieving high Cpk (process capability index) and producing identical parts.

Procedure to estimate Cavity Balance 1. Fill the 90 to 95% of the mold without giving holding/packing pressure. The part should not be completely filled.

2. Set your melt temperature as recommended by the material manufacturer.

3. Set the holding pressure and time to zero.

4. Use screw transfer position for switch over pressure. (i.e.) from injection phase to holding phase.

5. The delay time for screw charging set longer. (close to estimated holding time) 6. Set the adequate cooling time so that your product can eject without problem.

7. Set your injection speed to the value obtained from the Viscosity Curve study.

8. Start to molding.

9. Only by adjusting the transfer position, mold parts that are just short.

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 4

Shot 5

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PLASTICS

S ystematic approach to

If there is a visible cavity imbalance, then the ‘biggest’ part should be just short.

10. Make 3 to 5 such shots and take the average weight of each cavity and plot a excel sheet as like below.

How to use this information: Check the %variation between the maximum and the minimum fill cavities.

If your products are having very tight tolerance (e.g. Electronic, automobile etc) then your variation should not exceed to 5%.

If the variation is more than 5% it means the mold cavities are not balanced and needs correction.

The following should be considered: a. Amorphous materials can tolerate more imbalance than crystalline materials. b. Make sure that the air venting is the same for all cavities.

Steps you could take if there is high variation in filling: 1. Ensure correct hot tip operation, read power usage and temperature setting/variation on display unit.

2. Check the gate area for any interruption. 3. Measure gate size/shape (i.e. circularity) in cavity.

4. Consult with mold makers.

Average

Cavity 1 Cavity 2 Cavity 3 Cavity 4 Cavity 5 Cavity 6 Cavity 7 Cavity 8

Note

Courtesy of faculty.ferris.edu

the table above is for 8 cavity mold,

Courtesy of joloosanitary.com

PAF – A n enhancer of durability for plastic materials .

Poly Aromatic Framework is a new material developed by the scientists in the recent past. This material has been found to blend with the porous polymer materials easily and also improves the durability of the porous polymer products like linings, filters etc.

PAF has proved to be a better additive to improve the performance of the super glassy polymer materials, which are initially porous and permeable and soon loses some of its properties. This additive when blended with polymer materials is, capable of retaining the porosity by absorbing some of the polymer chains within its pores and maintains them intact.

Plastics lining with holes of diameter about one nanometer are widely used in power generators. From many decades, scientists have been

involved in developing stable plastics with larger holes, in order to reduce cost and increase efficiency savings but in contrary the available plastics material with larger holes collapses quickly. Therefore PAF added plastics lining has come out to be a viable option for the innovators and offered a big reduction in cost and increased efficiency savings.

The techniques used to separate gases, liquids and solids consume enormous amount of energy but by using PAF in the polymer material there is a great increase in the rate of separation process and could also be used for separating fuel from the pollutants efficiently.

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01 LINK 2015 PLASTICS

I n t e r n at i o n a l P l a s t i c s E v e n t s

C U RRENT & U P CO M I N G TRA D E S H O W S AN D TRA D E EVENTS F OR P LAST I CS & P LAST I C P RO D U CTS FRONTIERS IN POLYMER SCIENCE 2015

Rive del LGarda (on lake Garda), Italy.

May 20-22, 2015.

Guangzhou, PR China.

May 23, 2015.

Adoba Hotel, U.S.A.

May 3 1- Jun 04, 2015.

South Hadley, U.K.

Jun 14-19, 2015.

Dresden, Germany.

Jun 21 - 26, 2015.

Batumi, Georgia.

July 01 - 04, 2015.

Orlando, U.S.A.

July 08 – 10, 2015.

Gold coast, Australia

July 12 - 15, 2015.

Bussan, South Korea.

Aug 09 – 14, 2015.

Bayreuth, Germany.

Sep 20 – 22, 2015

Yokohama, Japan.

Oct 18- 22, 2015.

Warwick, U.K.

Dec 17, 2015.

4th International symposium focusing on polymer science, Polymer synthesis and Polymer chemistry.

CHINAPLAS 2015 29th International exhibition on Plastics and Rubbers.

APCE 2015 “Plastics in Motion” Automotive Plastics conference and exhibition.

GRC 2015 Gordon Research Conference focusing on fundamental synthesis and macromolecules.

EPF 2015 European Polymer Congress 2015.

ICSP & AM 4 4Th International Caucasian symposium of polymers and advance materials.

ISBPPB International Society for Biomedical Polymers and Polymeric Biomaterials 2nd Annual Conference and Exposition.

APS Australasian Polymer symposium.

IUPAC 4th International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry world chemistry congress.

BPS 2015 Bayreuth Polymer Symposium 2015.

APME 2015 International conference on advanced polymers via Macromolecular engineering.

Polymer Club 2014 Fall symposium

www.hipf.edu.sa

A symposium on applied chemistry, plastics, paints and synthetic materials.

Higher Institute For Plastics Fabrication

PLASTICS LINK

7798 AlKharj Road, New City Industry, Unit #1, Riyadh 14331 - 3244 Facebook: HIPF2010 Twitter: HIPF2012

Your Link to the World of Plastics

Contact Details: Tel.: +966 11 498 9600, +966 11 498 9678 Fax: +966 11 498 9650 e-mail: info@hipf.edu.sa www.hipf.edu.sa

The establishment of HIPF aims to prepare Saudi youth to participate as skilled technicians in the booming plastics industry of the Kingdom and to develop the technical knowledge and skills of Saudi workforce towards localization of plastics fabrication technology.

The Editorial board of the Newsletter would like to remind the reader that the articles in this newsletter are collated from the various sources of information. HIPF does its best to verify the sources and confirm the authenticity of the articles published in the newsletter. The HIPF will not assume any legal liability for the content, quality, accuracy or completeness of said information and materials. The sources of the articles and the ‘terms and conditions’ of the newsletter ‘Plastic Link’ are available with the board of Editors and are available on request.s