Forming Behavior of ABS and PC Polymers under Plastic Injection Molding Process

Abstract

Remote control devices are tools that are used by people in their daily life. Dimensional instabilities on remote control results in many disadvantages in production, assembly phases, and ergonomic problem in use. Therefore in this study, the effects of various parameters including cold and hot runner system, process temperature on important dimensional measurements such as shrinkage and warpage is investigated. To manufacture remote control covers, two different plastic materials, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC), are used. Thus the forming response of these materials is also investigated and compared in this study. Plastic injection process of these two materials to produce remote control is simulated by utilizing commercially available computer aided engineering software. The experimental findings were compared with the numerical results to compare shrinkage percentage and warpage ratio. Remote control cover part was produced by using cold runner system and hot runner system at constant injection pressure and different process temperatures. The results showed that as process temperature increases, volumetric shrinkage and warpage continuously increase for both ABS and PC raw material. Besides, cold runner system almost always generates much larger percentages of shrinkage and much larger warpage as compared with hot runner system.