Flaws and Defects: The Processing Window, Require Overpacking, and Cause Reject Parts
Flaws and Defects: The Processing Window, Require Overpacking, and Cause Reject Parts
Flaws and Defects: The Processing Window, Require Overpacking, and Cause Reject Parts
Many flaws and defects can be avoided by using good part and tool design
techniques. As a part designer it is a very good Idea to be aware of your
options in tooling and to consider those while designing your part. For
example, have potential gate locations in mind. Try to guess where knitlines
will occur and how different gate locations will affect them. How easy will it be
to trim the gate? The more parts you study, the better you will get at predicting
flow. Be sure to communicate your intentions to the tool designer and get his
feedback to influence your future designs.
Avoiding thick sections can add up to huge savings over the lifetime of a tool.
Thick sections increase the cycletime of each shot, narrow the processing
window, require overpacking, and cause reject parts
BLUSH
COLD FLOW
CONTAMINATION
LOCATION: Anywhere.
CONTAMINATION
DELAMINATION
LOCATION: Anywhere.
DELAMINATION or PEELING
DISCOLORATION
LOCATION: Gate.
LOCATION: Anywhere
PULLING
BUBBLE
SPLAY
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Causes
Material freezing near the gate
Low melt and mold temperature and low ram speed can result in cold material entering the cavity. The
partly solidified material takes on the form of the flow pattern.
where:
a = normal fountain flow with no ripples
b = flow causing ripples(R)
Insufficient material compensation
Early gate freeze-off or low packing pressure may not pack the cavity properly. The material near the
gate then freezes while maintaining the form of the flow pattern.
Remedies
Optimize the cold well
Design the cold well in the runner system to trap the cold material during the filling phase. The proper
length of the cold well is usually equal to that of the runner diameter.
Optimize the runner system design
Restrictive runner system design can result in premature gate freeze-off. It can however, increase shear
heating for better melt flow.
Increase mold & melt temperature
Optimize packing pressure
Solving one problem can often introduce other problems to the injection molding process. Each option
hence requires consideration of all relevant aspects of the mold design specification.