No-Flow Temperature in Injection Molding Simulation

Most injection molding simulation packages use the no-flow temperature (NFT) as a means of determining whether the polymer flows or is solid. The NFT is not well defined, and a standard method for measuring it does not exist. A sensitivity analysis of the filling stage has been carried out with two different packages [VISI Flow (Vero Software Limited, Gloucestershire, UK) and Moldflow (Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael, CA)] to estimate the influence of the NFT on the main processing parameters. The NFT has a large influence on the thickness of the frozen layer, but it does not appreciably affect the filling pressure. Because the NFT affects the frozen layer, an effect on the estimation of shrinka…

Thermal expansion of Glass fibre reinforced (GRF) thermoplastics: influence of the nature of the polymer matrix and of the fibre content

Dependence of Coefficient of volumetric thermal expansion (CVTE) of glass fiber reinforced (GFR) polymers on the glass fiber content

In a Glass Fiber Reinforced (GFR) polymer, the coefficient of volumetric thermal expansion CVTE (determined as a sum of the coefficients of linear thermal expansion CLTE’s for the three principal directions) is sometimes much smaller than the value predictable on the basis of well acquainted models, such as Chow model, taking into account fibers anisotropy and aspect ratio.

No-flow temperature and solidification in injection molding simulation

The no‐flow temperature (NFT) is a parameter representing the rheological solidification temperature of a polymer. A polymer, during injection molding filling stage, can stop its flow because of its high viscosity, although it is not yet fully solidified by means of glass transition or crystallization. The NFT is used in most of injection molding simulation packages: with this simple parameter it is possible to reduce the errors deriving from viscosity extrapolation at relatively low temperatures. The viscosity measurements for polymers are usually carried out at high temperatures, and the viscosity models can fail in prediction at temperatures close to the glass transition or crystallizati…