njection Moulding

Understanding linkages between key process variables and critical quality attributes for precision process control in injection moulding
Dr. Subhas Chandra Shit Chief Manager (Project) CIPET BHOPAL

ABSTRACT
The demand of zero-defectplastic prodncts is presently increasing with the growing awareness among consumers about the merits they offer. In order to face this challenge the plastic moulders must use correct know-how for producing demanded consumer products through precision control of injection moulding. This demands clear understanding of linkages between critical quality attributes and key process variables of the mouldings.

Introduction
IN order to achieve desired level of quality during production or avoid undesired levels of defects during production, high level of precision and technically and / or economically feasible moulding, understanding and controlling of the linkages between Key Process Variables (KPVs) and Critical to Quality Attributes (CTQs) of the mouldings are very important. The precision injection moulded component demand a high level of precess performance with corresponding process monitoring and control technologies. For a desired critical to quality attributes of the moulded products the injection moulding process must be consciously disigned so that key process variables (KVPs) are observable and controllable.

Ascertaining the properties of the final part within the moulding cycle is the main difficulty in control of injection moulding. There is no instruments w^hich can yield information about aesthetic structural integrity and other part properties prior to opening of the mould and inspection of the part. For instance, a pressure sensor may be placed at the end of flow to detect the arrival of the melt and pressure decay during cooling. Yet such use of sensor may or may not be able to consistently predict the formation of flash during filling or sufficient part packing so that the moulded components meet the desired level of precision. As such precision injection moulded parts generally require integrated product and process design, in which the product development process provides not only the design of the precision component

(geometry, material, specifications) but also the validated design of the precision moulding process (process parameters, sensors, allowances). In this text fundamental principles of process control and performance measures for precision injection moulding are discussed.

Fundamentals of Injection Moulding

Injection moulding consists of plastication, injection, packing, cooling and ejection stages. It is more complex than extrusion or thermoforming. It is more capable of producing very complex components to tight specification. For example, njection moulding embodies the extrusion process for generation of

34 o POPULAR PLASTICS & PACKAGING J APRIL 2008

Fjta. 1 : Schematic diagram of conventional injection moulding process

polymer melt yet has faster time dynamics than thermoforming over a greater temperature and pressure range. In injection moulding and its variants (coinjection, injection compression, gas assist moulding etc.) thermoplastic melt pellets are fed into a rotating screw and melted. With a homogeneous melt collected in front of the screw, the screw is moved at a controlled , time dependent velocity to drive the melt into an evacuated cavity. Once the melt is solidified and the moulded component is sufficiently rigid to be removed, the mould is opened and the part is ejected while the next cycle's thermoplastic melt is plasticised by the screw. Cycle times range from less than four seconds for compact discs to more than three minutes for automotive instrument panels. Control of injection moulding is significantly challenged by the non-linear behaviour of the polymeric materials, dynamic and coupled process physics, and convoluted interactions between the mould geometry and final product quality attributes. A schematic view of a conventional mjection moulding process is presented in Fig.l The machine parameters are indicated on the left side of the figure, and some common measures of moulded part quality are listed on the right. In this figure, the process is decomposed into five distinct but coupled stages. The output in each stage not only directly determines the initial conditions ofthe next stage, but also

influences some of the final qualities of the moulded part. Every stage of the injection moulding process is complex, and warrants detailed discussion regarding its behavior. Plastication of the polymer melt is accomplished through simultaneous shearing by rotation of an internal screw and heating by an externally heated barrel. As shown in Fig.l the plastication inputs include barrel temperature, screw rotation rate screw plastication pressure, and shot size. This is simplified and most inputs are vectors rather than sealer quantity. For example, a barrel temperature is specified at several location, since multiple heater bands along the length of the injection unit influence the temperature of the plasticized melt. Each local segment and the barrel is typically equipped with a type J or K thermocouple embeded in the barrel steel and the power to each heater band is individually controlled through a closed-loop programmable logic controller utilizing PID control. The resulting melt quality and residence time can directly affect the quality of the moulded part as unplasticised pellets and/or degraded material can reduce the structural integrity and aesthetic of the moulded component. The purpose of the injection stage is to completely fill the mould cavity with the polymer

melt. This goal is achieved by driving forward the screw used for plastication at velocities of the order of lOOcm/sec according to a selected time velocity profile. The velocity profile is selected in such a way that the melt travels at relatively uniform velocity while converging and diverging in the mould cavity. During polymer injection, contact of the hot polymer melt with the cold mould wall results in the immediate formation of a frozen skin. Thermal conduction to the mould is then balanced against thermal convection of the melt. This thermal equilibrium stabilises the growth of the frozen layer, which reduces the flow conductance of the melt. If too low a velocity is selected, the melt front will prematurely solidify. If too high a velocity is selected, the resin may degrade or cause excessive mould deflection and flash. The relationship between the screw velocityprofile and melt front velocity is convoluted by the compressibility and acceleration dynamics of the melt. The specification of time velocity profile is so difficult, in fact, that most moulders utilize the same profile (slow at start, fast at the middle and slow at the end) for all moulding applications. The distributed nature of the melt flow changing with both time and position also precludes simultaneous control of the melt flow at different positions. Considering that the injection stage provides the initial condition for packing stage, the absence of complete controllability of the meet flow does result in uncontrolled (open loop) melt velocity, solidified layer distribution and temperature precision contours('/^ig.2_). Due to volumetric shrinkage during cooling of the melt, additional material

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Fig.2; Pressure distribution of a typical moulding It the end of the injection stage

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Mouli I i I n ^ must be forced into the mould cavity during the packing stage to obtain satisfactory parts. For packing pressure control, the hydraulic pressure behind the screw is adjusted through a high speed servovalve to decrease or increase the melt pressure at the inlet to the mould. The pressure feedback for control may be provided by a pressure transducer mounted at the mould inlet or it may be calculated by multiplying the hydraulic pressure by a screw intensification ratio. Pressure is maintained and additional material is forced into the mould cavity until the part has solidified. However, part solidification is an internal state variable to the moulding process that cannot be measured directly. To determine the correct packing time, multiple moulding trials with various packing times must be performed and the moulded parts weighed. It should be noted that part weight is also dependent on melt temperature and pressure, so a change inputs may result in inaccurate packing time. After packing the polymer melt is solidified but it is to soft for part ejection. As such, coolant is re-circulated at controlled temperature through the mould to remove heat. The cooling stage dominates the moulding cycle time, requiring approximately half of the cycle to complete. Production economics dictate shorter cycle time, but shorter cooling times may lead to excessive part shrinkage andwarpage. From the prior discussion, it should be understood that injection moulding possesses the characteristics of both continuous and discrete processes as well as distributed and dynamic processes. Moreover, there are frequently conflict between multiple critical to quality attributes. In precision injection moulding, as in many constrained manufacturing processes the tendency may be to sacrifice production efficiency for the sake of quality. However, repeated use of such an approach may not guarantee high levels of quality but will likely ensure a lack of competitiveness. As such knowledge of the fundamentals coupled with a rational process control approach is needed.

1
Fig.: : Block diagram of a closed control loop

Process control fundamentals

The Injection moulding process consists of multiple coupled stages, in which the dynamics of each stage are determined through control of different

but related machine elements such as motors, heaters, servo-valves etc. These machine elements arc typically controlled via a closed feed back loop as shown in fig.3, in which the control signal is determined by real time comparison of the desired machine set-points with their corresponding observed state, so that the difference (or error) is used to correct the process. The performance of a closed loop controlled machine element is dependent upon a number of system properties such as the inertia or dynamic behaviour of the machine element, availability and amount of control energy applied to the machine element, the time response and resolution of the sensors providing feedback, and the validity of the control laws which convert perceived error into corrective actions. It should be realized that sustained advances in hardware device and software algorithms have led to substantial gains in process control performance, such that precision process control is no longer limited by the response time or algorithmic complexity of the controller. In fact, white there remain, significant variation between control system suppliers, a control system response time (from input of feedback signal to output of control signal) of 2 msec is quite common, and also with sub lOmicro sec response time widely available. There are two fundamental concepts that should be stressed regarding closed loop control. First, it is important to realize that process control of precision injection moulding is not so dependent upon the response time of the controller but the response time of the system. As a simple example, if one consider the task of increasing the temperature of 100kg steel barrel (heat capacity of 473 J/KgC) by 10 degree Cen., tben theoretically he has to put 473,000J. If four 1000 watt heaters are utilized, then the minimum theoretical response time is about 120 seconds or two minutes. Realistically, however, the response time will be three to ten times

longer than the theoretical minimum depending upon whether the system is over or under damped and how much error is tolerable. As such, a reduction in the control system response time is likely less important than an improvement in the control can controller tuning, heater design barrel design with respect to improving the performance of the precision moulding process. Secondly, it is important to realize that closed loop control of machine elements does not necessarily imply precision process control in other words, there are many key process variables (KPVs) that are controlled in an open loop fashion, even through the machine elements are controlled closed loop, such as (1 ) polymer melt temperature vs barrel temperature (2) mould temperature vs mould coolant temperature (3) cavity pressure vs injector/packing pressure and many others. As such it is important to understand fundamentals regarding the observability and controllability of the precision injection moulding process.

Observability & controllability

As defined by control theory, a system is observable if its mode can be deduced by monitoring sensed outputs. As just discussed, injection moulding machines can only control machine elements with feedback from sensed process data. A fundamental difficulty in polymer processing is that few of the final part properties can be ascertained within the moulding cycle. Instrumentation does not yet exist and may never exist to yield information about aesthetics, shrinkage or structural integrity prior to removal of a plastic part from the mould. Therefore, estimators must be used to predict the part quality based on the sensed state of the machine inputs. Unfortunately the prediction relations, (between KPVs, and CTQs available a priori from simulation

POPULAR PLASTICS & PACKAGING . > APRIL 2008

pii

or expert system) are insufficient to reliably and accurately predict the part quality in-cycle. This limitation severely constrains the performance of general control strategies for precision injection moulding. To develop a practical approach an application development methodology can be described, for determining valid, observable estimator for use with process monitormg and control. A system is desired controllable, if every output mode is connected to a control unit. This definition is not met for most CTQs, and represents another fundamental difficulty in precision injection moulding. If dimensional control in m]ection moulding is compared to that of machining it can be found that in machining, every part dimension is controlled by the specification of the cutting path and cutting tool geometry. Injection moulding, however, is fundamentally different. The moulded part dimension are mostly dependent on the mould dimensions yet will vary significantly with the material properties.

process condition and associated dynamics. As such, the degrees of freedom do not exist to individually control multiple part dimensions. No process control technology currently enables direct control of the output part properties, nor can they ever ii the CTQs are not observable. To develop a practical approach, an application development methodology can be described for identifying the need for advanced process technologies to increase the system controllability.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Subhash C. Shit is the Chief Manager (Plastics) at CIPET, Bhopal, atid is a prolific contributor to this journal for many years now.

should be developed and validated with corresponding control techniques to guarantee a reasonable level of assurance of the quality mouldings.

References Conclusion
The requirement of precision injection moulded components demands high level of process performance which could be achieved by establishing correct level of process monitoring and control. It should be remembered that critical to quality attributes (CTQs) are rarely observable from the process. As a result estimators
1Anon, Information Guide to Temperature controls for Injection Moulding / Extrusion, Plastics design and Processing, 1975,15{3)pI7-19 G.F. Franklin; J.D. Powell; and A.Emami, Naeini "Feedback control of dynamic systems, 3rd ed. Addison Weslay series in electrical and computer engineering 1994, Reading, Mass; Addison Wesley, XX. 778

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