Fiber injection molding

Figure 17.2 Applications of DuPonT BIOMAX hydrobiodegradable polyester -film, rigid containers, fibers, injection molded parts and paper coatings. Photograph reproduced by permission of DuPonT1...

While other organic esters are commercially available, namely cellulose butyrate and cellulose propionate, by far the most widely used is cellulose acetate, which is available as plastics, in films, sheets, fibers, and lacquers. Cellulose acetate is used in the manufacture of display packaging and as extruded film for decorative signs, and to coat a variety of fibers. Injected molded products include toothbrush handles, combs, and brushes. It is also used in lacquers and protective coatings for metal, glass, and paper. Cellulose acetate films are used in reverse osmosis to purify blood, fruit juices, and brackish water. Some eyeglass frames are... 

Capillary Viscometer. The end products from the liquid mixtures are usually obtained by extruding the liquid mass through narrow tubes or slits (e.g., spinning of fibers, injection molding, or film extrusion). Therefore, the pressure flow through a capillary is of technological interest. Hence, we analyzed the flow of a liquid mixture through a capillary with circular cross-section and compared the results of theory and measurement. 

Other Uses of Ethylene Oxide. About 2 percent of ethylene oxide is consumed in miscellaneous applications, such as its use as a raw material in manufacture of choline, ethylene chlorohydrin, hydroxyethyl starch, and hydrox-yethyl cellulose and its direct use as a fumigant/ sterilant. Production of 1,3-propanediol via hydroformylation of ethylene oxide was begun on a commercial scale in 1999. 1,3-Propanediol is a raw material for polytrimethylene terephthalate, which finds uses in fibers, injection molding, and in film. Use of ethylene oxide in making 1,3-propanediol is expected to be as much as 185 million lb by 2004, up from 12 million lb in 1999. 

The material can be processed through conventional techniques, such as extrusion (shaped profiles, foils, films, fibers), injection molding and thermoforming. 

If the materials are anisotropic, they will present different properties in the different directions. Examples of these polymeric materials are polymer fibers, such as polyethylene terephthalate, PET, nylon fibers, injection-molded polymers, fiber-reinforced composites with a polymeric matrix, and crystalline polymers where the crystalline phase is not randomly oriented. A typical method for measuring the modulus in tension is the stress-strain test, in which the modulus corresponds to the initial slope of the stress-strain curve. Figure 21.4 shows typical stress-strain curves for different types of polymeric materials. 

Orientation. Most articles made of HDPE, including film, fiber, pipes, and injection-molded articles, exhibit some degree of molecular and crystal orientation (21). In some cases, orientation develops spontaneously for example, during melt flow into a mold and its subsequent crystallisation. When blown HDPE film and fiber are manufactured, orientation can be introduced dehberately by stretching. 

Composites. The history of phenoHc resin composites goes back to the early development of phenoHc materials, when wood flour, minerals, and colorants were combined with phenoHc resins to produce mol ding compounds. In later appHcations, resin varnishes were developed for kraft paper and textile fabrics to make decorative and industrial laminates. Although phenoHcs have been well characterized in glass-reinforced composites, new developments continue in this area, such as new systems for Hquid-injection molding (LIM) and sheet-molding compounds (SMC). More compHcated composite systems are based on aramid and graphite fibers. 

Your company receives a prepared mixture, of rosin and chopped fiber to be used in the injection molding of plastic products. The resin contains a listed chemical that becomes incorporated into the plastic. Yourfacilitv processes the chemical. 

In the work reported here, we produced highly fibrillar polypropylene (PP)-LCP blends that were subsequently processed by injection molding without melting the LCP fibers again in order to create tough PP-LCP... 

The composites injection molded at the lower temperature (180°C) did not exhibit any skin/core effect, but rather contained fibers throughout. 

Blends of polypropylene (PP) and liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) processed without melting the LCP were compared with conventional melt processed blends. In a first stage, PP was blended with 20 wt% of LCP in a twin-screw extruder with the take-up speed varied to achieve blends with different LCP fiber dimensions. In the second stage, these blends were processed both below and above the Tm of the LCP by extrusion and injection molding. 

Similar to prepared metallographic samples, the injection molded samples were cut along the flow direction, smoothed, and polished in order to expose their internal surface. After proper etching, the treated surfaces of the flank cross-section were photographed using a polarized light optical microscopy. Based on the color differences between the TLCP and matrix, volume fraction and aspect ratio of the TLCP fibers were measured [23]. 

Table 4 also reports dependence of the mechanical tensile properties of the samples on the processing conditions. The highest tensile properties of sample 1, injection molded with a lower melt temperature and a lower volume flux, are attributed to the highest degree of fibrillation of the TLCP fibers, as shown in Fig. 12, by so-called in situ reinforcement. 

It is, therefore, the intention of this section to present the tensile modulus of dispersed TLCP fibers and pure TLCP bulk materials, respectively, both processed by injection molding. 

Figure 22 Distribution of fiber aspect ratio l/d and fiber number N versus fiber length class for skin and transition layer of the four groups of samples injection molded.

According to the composite theory, tensile modulus of fiber reinforced composites can be calculated by knowing the mechanical constants of the components, their volume fraction, the fiber aspect ratio, and orientation. But in the case of in situ composites injection molded, the TLCP fibrils are developed during the processing and are still embedded in the matrix. Their modulus cannot be directly measured. To overcome this problem, a calculation procedure was developed to estimate the tensile modulus of the dispersed fibers and droplets as following. 

Table 5 compares the tensile properties of Vectra A950 in the form of dispersed fibers and droplets in the matrix by injection molding, microfibril by extrusion and drawing [28], injection molded pure thick sample and pure thin sample, and the pure drawn strand [28]. As exhibited, our calculated fiber modulus with its average of 24 GPa is much higher than that of the thick and thin pure TLCP samples injection molded. It can be explained that in cases of pure TLCP samples the material may only be fibrillated in a very thin skin layer owing to the excellent flow behavior in comparison with that in the blends. However, this modulus value is lower than that of the extruded and drawn pure strand. This can be... 

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