Weld Lines and Mechanical Properties of

Injection Molded Polyethylene/

Polystyrene/ Copolymer Blends
B. BRAHIMI, A. AIT-KADI,* and A. AJJI**

Centre de Recherche en Sciences et Inghnierie des MacromoGcules

Dkpartement de Gknie Chimique
Facult6 des Sciences et de Gknie
Universitt.Lava1
Qukbec, Que., G I K 7P4,Canada
In this article, we investigate the effect of weld lines on the tensile mechanical
properties of unmodified and copolymer modified high density polyethylene (HDPE)
and polystyrene (PS) blends. The homopolymers were melt blended in the propor-
tion of 20 wt% HDPE and 80 wt% PS using a twin screw extruder at a temperature
of 200°C.The results show that the mechanical properties are generally lower
when weld lines are present. The decrease of the mechanical properties is much
more pronounced for the blends. The addition of small amounts of a commercial
styrene/butadiene copolymer significantly improves the strength and the elonga-
tion at break of this blend. An optimum copolymer concentration was observed at
3 wt%. This value coincides with the interphase saturation concentration of the
copolymer obtained from the analysis of the DMTA (dynamic mechanical and
thermal) properties of the blends. The copolymer was also found to induce impor-
tant changes in the morphology of the blend. The interdiffusion of the polymer
fronts in the weld region was also improved by the presence of the copolymer. It is
believed that these two aspects contribute to the enhanced properties obtained
with copolymer modified blends in presence of weld lines. An important effect of
the injection temperature on the tensile strength and the elongation at break
of welded samples with copolymer modified blends was observed. The effect of
mold temperature on these properties was less important mainly at low injection
temperatures. Only a slight effect of these two parameters was observed for the
tensile modulus in the range of mold and injection temperatures considered in
this study.

INTRODUCTION
he injection molding process is one of the most
T important polymer processes by which polymeric
resins are converted into useful finished products. A
wide variety of complex geometry articles ranging from
very small parts such as precision gear wheels to
relatively large parts such as exterior and interior
automotive parts (e.g. bumpers) can be produced.
These parts are generally obtained at a high fre-
quency with virtually no wear of the processing
machinery. In the case of large parts, multigated
mold cavities are necessary in order to avoid freezing
of the polymer before the cavity is completely filled. In
this case, the finished product will invariably contain
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
“Current address: Industrial Materials Institute. 75 Bd De Mortagne.
Boucherville. Quebec. J 4 B 6Y4 Canada.
weld lines which will form when the polymer flow
fronts from the different gates meet dunng the filling
process (1-5). Weld lines are also present when the
mold cavity contains inserts around which the flow
front is divided and then recombined at the opposite
side of the insert (2-5). Weld lines are characterized
by poor mechanical properties (3, 6-12). There are
different manners to partially solve this problem.
In the case of homopolymers (either amorphous or
semicrystalline), the mechanical properties of welded
regions were found to be sensitive to the processing
conditions (3, 9-10, 13, 14). Malaguarnera and
Manisali (11) have studied the effect of melt tem-
perature, mold temperature, injection speed, and
injection pressure on the tensile properties of com-
mercial grades of polystyrene (PSI: high impact
polystyrene (HIPS), and polypropylene (PP). They
found that the most important processing parame-

1202 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, Vol. 34, NO. 15
 Weld Lines and Mechanical Properties
ters are melt and mold temperatures. They noticed a
little effect of the injection speed and pressure on the
tensile properties of the samples studied. For the PS,
a higher melt temperature induced a considerable
increase of both the elongation and the stress at
break. However, in the case of HIPS, the effect of melt
temperature (T,) is apparent only for the elongation
at break which substantially increases upon increas-
ing T., Hubbauer (6)investigated the effect of molding
pressure on acrylonitde-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
and found a slight improvement of the tensile p r e
perties upon increasing the injection pressure. The
enhancement was attributed to the material relax-
ation time, melt viscosity, and pressure along the
weld line. Crawford and Benham (7) examined
the creep and fatigue properties of acetal copolymer
samples both with and without weld lines. They found
that the fatigue life of a specimen with weld line was
always about one fiftieth that of a sample without a
weld line over the whole range of stress tested. By
optimizing the molding conditions they found an
improvement to one twenty-fifth of the fatigue life of a
nonwelded sample. Using three test materials,
polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), and polyoxy-
methylene (POM), Criens and MoslC (8)have studied
the relationship between design and processing
parameters as well as the effect of weld lines on
tensile properties of injection molded plates contain-
ing circular inserts. They found that the influence of
melt temperature varies from one polymer to the
other. It was also noticed that both the processing
parameters and the way by which the lines have been
formed, together with the size of the obstacle in the
melt flow has an influence on the weld line proper-
ties. A recent study carried out by Tomari, et al (9).
in which they investigated the relationships between
the properties of welded specimen, their variation
with the sample thickness and molding conditions
ofgeneral purpose injection moldings. They found
that the higher the filling pressure, the higher was
the strength of the weld line. They also found that the
depth of the V-notch observed with welded specimens
depends on molding conditions. They could improve
the weld line strength by raising the holding pres-
sure, even when the fflling pressure was low. Other
particular techniques can be used to either eliminate
weld lines in certain part geometry or to control the
structural characteristics of the weld area ( 13).
In the case of polymer blends, particularly immisci-
ble polymer blends (which is the most general case),
the problem is much more complex In fact, together
with the effect of processing parameters mentioned
earlier for homopolymers, we must take into account
specific features of heterophase systems such as
morphology, size of dispersed phase, and interphase
interactions. Morphologyand dispersed size are highly
influenced by processing conditions ( 15-20). Min and
White (16) found t h a t t h e variation of
the blending temperature (180 to 240°C) during
extrusion, for polyethylene with different molecular
weights, has a slight influence on the morphology
POLYMER ENGWERfNG AND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, YO/. 34, NO. 15
of PE/PS blends. However, they observed that the
increase of the shear rates induced a fine morphol-
ogy. Han and co-workers (18) have studied the
injection molding of high density polyethylene/
polystyrene (HDPE/PS) blends and polystyrene/
polypropylene (PS/PP) blends. After optimizing the
molding conditions for the studied systems, they
investigated the influence of the mode of preparation
on the state of dispersion of a minor phase in the
blend. They concluded that the state of dispersion of
the components has a great effect on the mechani-
cal properties of two-phase systems (18). More
recently, Paul and co-workers (15, 21) studied the
mechanical properties of injection molded and com-
pression molded PE/ PS/ copolymer blends. They
observed an important increase of the ductility and
the impact resistance of the blends as the copolymer
was added. However these improvements induced a
decrease of the elastic modulus and the yield stress.
They observed a difference in the properties of sam-
ples molded by compression and injection, which are
due to the crystallinity and orientation induced dur-
ing molding (1 5 . 2 1). Concerning the effects of copoly-
mer addition to binary polymer blends, literature
reviews can be found in recent publications (22-23).
The literature is however less abundant in the case
of weld lines with heterophase polymer systems
(24-26). In this work, we investigate the effect of weld
line on the tensile mechanical properties of an
HDPE/PS blend, as well as the effect of a copolymer
used as a compatibilizingagent. The effect of process
ing conditions on these propertiesfor injection molded
specimens is investigated for HDPE/PS/KRO1/20/
80/3 wt%.
EXPERIMENTAL
Materials
The homopolymers used in this study are a high
density polyethylene (HDPE, XS 84672.03) and a
polystyrene (PS, CS 55388 1205) provided by Dow
Chemical Canada Inc. The compatibiljzer used is a
styrene/butadiene copolymer (K-resin, KRO 1) s u p
plied by Phillips 66 Inc. Some characteristics of these
materials are presented in Table 1.
Blending
The blends are prepared in the melt state using a
twin screw extruder (Werner & F'fleiderer) at a rotat-
ing speed of 250 rpm and a temperature of 200°C. In
the case of modifled blends, the copolymer is first
combined with the minor phase, and then blended
with the matrix.The blend composition used for this
Table 1. Material Characteristics.
M.F.1 Den89
Material (g/10 min) (g/cm 1
HDPE 6.8 0.91-0.97
PS 8.8 1.045
KROl 8.0 1.010
1203
 B. Brahimi, A. Ait-Kadi, a n d A. A j i

study is 20/80 wt% HDPE/PS. To investigate the Jeol JSM-25s I11 scanning electron microscope (SEMI.
effect of copolymer content, blends with different A gold/palladium alloy was deposited on all samples
amounts of copolymer (1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 wt% of prior to examination.
the overall composition) are prepared. The effect
of injection molding temperature and mold temper- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ature is studied on a selected HDPE/PS/KROl Effect of Copolymer Concentration
(20/80/3) composition.
The stress at break of nonwelded samples (an) and
Injection Molding the ratio u,/a,, a, being the stress at break of the
welded specimens, as a function of the copolymer
All samples are prepared on a NISSEI fully hydraulic content are reported in Fig. 2. In the case of unmodi-
injection molding machine, with a maximum injec- fied blends (0 wt%), this ratio is around 23%. This
tion capacity of 1 14 cm3/shot. The double gated mold indicates that the strength of the samples is greatly
used in this study is shown in Figs. la and b for
single and double filling gates respectively. All blends
are dried at 70°C during 2 h prior to injection. Table 2. Injection Molding Conditions.
The different sets of molding conditions are listed in injection
Table 2. The term “melt temperature” refers to the Mold injection Filling Holding injection Cooling
temperature of the material inside the barrel. The temperature speed pressure pressure time time
upper and lower limits of these injection parameters (“C) (%) (%) (%I (S) (S)
were fured based on the operating characteristics of 240 50 60 80 30 10 25 A
our injection molding machine and on the experimen-
200 30 50 50 65 10 25 t
tal limits. Specimens with and without weld line are 50
prepared. 70
90
Characterization
220 30 50 50 65 10 25
The tensile tests are performed according to ASTM 50 B
D638 standard on an Instron machine, using a 70
90
crosshead speed of 1 cm/min. The measurements
are carried out at room temperature (21°C). The 240 30 50 50 65 10 25
results presented are averaged over ten tensile tests. 50
70
Mechanical properties in the dynamic mode are
90 i
obtained using a Polymer Laboratories DMTA instru-
A Conditions used for the investigation of copolymer content effect.
ment. The experiments are carried out at 1 Hz for 6 Conditions used for the investigation of melt and mold temperatures.
temperatures ranging from -150 to 150°C. Micro-
graphs of tensile fractured surfaces are obtained on a

- 30
0.5
-
m
b’
z - 25
0

b’ b‘
0.4
- 20

0.3
- 15

lmml 10
0 5 10 15 20 25
Copolymer content (wt%)
(a) (b) Fig. 2. Variations of the tensile strength un and the ratio
Fig. 1 . Mold cauityfor tensile specimen: A) no weld line, B) (u,/u,) as afunction of copolymer concentrationfor HDPE/
with weld line. PS (20/ 80) blends.

1204 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, Vol. 34, NO. 15
 Weld Lines and Mechanical Properties
affected by the presence of weld lines. This ratio in-
creased when only few amounts of copolymer are
added to the blends. We should mention here that in
the case of nonwelded specimens, the presence of the
copolymer has no effect on the terlsile properties over
the entire range of copolymer concentrations consid-
ered in this study. The effect of copolymer observed
in Fig. 2 is entirely due to the effect of copolymer on
the tensile strength of welded specimens. The most
important increase is observed for copolymer concen-
trations between 0 and 3 wt% where an optimum is
observed. In fact, the stress ratio is increased from
23% (for the unmodified blend) to 45% (for the 3 wt%
modified ones), that is, the stress at break for
the 3 wt% modifled blend with weld line is almost
doubled compared to that of the unmodified one since
the stress at break for the nonwelded specimen
remains constant upon addition of copolymer (see
Fig. 2). For higher copolymer concentrations, a
decrease followed by a monotonic increase is
observed. We should point out that the copolymer
concentrations of interest are in the low copoly-
mer concentrations range. The copolymer is used only
as a compatibilizer and not as a minor or a major
component of the blend. In this aim the 3 wt%
copolymer content gives the best results.
The ratio of the tensile modulus of welded speci-
mens (E,) to that of nonwelded ones ( E n ) together
with the tensile modulus ( E n )as a function of copoly-
mer content are reported in Ag. 3. The results show
that the effect of the copolymer on the modulus ratio
is less important than that observed for the stress
ratio. The overall variation of the modulus ratio is
inside the experimental precision of the test (except
- t
-
1.8
1.2
- 1.7
1.1
- 1.6
E s
ui
0.9 c 0.1
I 1 1.4
0.8 1.3
0 5 10 15 20 25
Copolymer content (wt%)
a. 3. Variations of the tensile moduius En and the ratio
( E w / E n ) as afunction of copolgmer concentrationfor HDPE/
PS ( 20/ 80)blends.
POLYMER E#G##E€fUffi AND SCIENCE, MfBAUGUST 1994, V d . 34,No. 15
for 0.5%copolymer content). In other words, the pres-
ence of copolymer in the blend hardly affects
the tensile modulus at least in the range of concen-
trations considered in this study. On the other hand,
an increase followed by a decrease of the En modu-
lus is observed upon increasing the copolymer
concentration in the 0 to 3 wt% range.
Figure 4 shows the elongation at break of non-
welded specimens ( E , ) and the ratio of the elongation
at break of welded specimens ( E , ) to that of non-
welded ones. Almost, the same behavior as the one
observed for the stress at break ratio is noticed. The
most important increase occurs when only a small
amount of copolymer is added. This ratio is almost
equal to 21% for the unmodified blends. It reaches
39%for the 3 wt% modified blend where a maximum
is reached. For higher copolymer concentrations,
a decrease followed by a progressive increase is
observed. Again, in the case of welded specimen, the
elongation at break of the 3 wt% copolymer modified
blend is almost two folds that of the unmodified one.
Note that we do not approach the tensile properties
ratio for the homopolymers but we certainly enhance
the stress and the elongational ratios for the 3 wt%
copolymer modified blend. Figure 5 shows the tensile
properties for the homopolymers, the unmodified and
copolymer modifled blends. Except for the elongation
ratio of KRO 1 , the tensile ratios for the homopolymers
will be higher than those of the blends. Note also that
the tensile modulus of the HDPE (semicrystalline)is
not affected by the presence of the weld line. More
over, the fracture during tensile testing for the HDPE
samples occurs (50%times) away from the weld line.
For the PS (amorphous), the copolymer (KROl), and
1
0.4 - 6
0.3 - 5
'u
0.2 - 4
- 3
0.0 -2
0 5 10 15 20 25
Copolymer content (wt%)
a.4. Variations of the elongation at break c, and the ratio
( c w / c n ) as afunction of copolymer concentrationfor HDPE/
PS ( 20/ 80) blends.
1205
 B. Brahimi A. Ait-Kadi, and A. AJi

the blend samples, the fracture invariably takes place
at the weld lines.
In a previous work on the effect of well designed
copolymers on the properties of HDPE and high
impact polystyrene (HIPS) blends, it was found that
the dynamic mechanical and thermal (DMTA) proper-
ties are sensitive to the presence of the copolymers in
the blends (23).The shape of the shear modulus as a
function of the copolymer concentration (mainly in
the low temperature region) is interpreted in terms
of the state of the copolymer in the blend and the
optimum copolymer concentration is associated with
the interface saturation concentration of the copoly-
mer. The same analysis is performed here with the
HDPE/PS blends modified by the commercial copoly-
mer (K-resin, KRO1). The results of the shear modu-
lus as a function of the copolymer concentration are
reported in Fig. 6 for -100,0, and 80°C. It is clearly
seen from this Figure, and according to the interpre-
tation of the DMTA results (231,that the saturation
concentration for this particular system (HDPE/ PS/
KRO l),is situated between 2 and 3 wt% of copolymer.
This result is of particular interest since it corre-
sponds to the copolymer concentration at which
the stress ratio and the elongational ratio shown in
Figs. 2 and 4 are maximum (in the region of interest
as mentioned earlier). The increase and the decrease
of the shear modulus in the 0 to 3 wt% copolymer
concentration region is similar to that observed for
the tensile modulus in the same region (see Fig. 3).
DMTA can then be used to obtain the optimum
copolymer concentration for the particular blend
of HDPE/PS even with commercial copolymers. We
should mention here, that it is not claimed that the
DMTA analysis will be effective for any immiscible
polymer system. Several conditions such as a dif-
ference in the thermal expansion coefficient of the
components and a difference in their low temperature
modulus (both properties should be higher for
the dispersed phase), are required for the analysis
of the DMTA results.
Effect of Operating Conditions
The second objective of this study is to investigate
the influence of processing conditions, during the
injection molding process, on the mechanical proper-

I I El:NO-WELD
- 2.50 -
50
24 -
= ezd [;E9: WELD

40 - 2.00 -
20 -

-
30 - 1.50 - 16

12 -
20 - 1.00 -

. 8 -

10 - 0.50 -
4 -

0 -
1
0.00 - 0
2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
KRO1 PS HDPE HDPEIPS HDPEIPSIKROl
20/80 20/80/3
IQg. 5. Comparison of the stress at break, the tensile modulus and the elongation at break of the homopolymers (HDPE and PSI, the
copolymer (KROl), the unrnodijied HDPE / PS ( 2 0 / 80) blend, and the modiJed HDPE / PS / KROl ( 2 0 /
80/ 3 ) blend, with or without weld line.

1206 POLYMER ENGINEERINGAND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, Vol. 34 No. 15

 Weld Lines and Mechanical Properties
9.2 I , , , , ,
. , . , . , . , . , . , . , .
HDPEIPSIKR01120/80 HDP€lQS1KR01120/0013 wt%

t 30

25

E
20 - 1
0-0
A-A :2200c1
:2 4 o o c

'b 1 5

8.01
0
t "
2 4
I ' "
6 8 10 $2 14 16
'
1
I
20 30 40 50 60 70 00 90 100
Copolymer content Iwt%)
Mold Temperature [OC)
Rg. 6. 7% dynamic storage modulus (E') as function of
copolymer content at &fferent temperatures. Rg. 7. combined effits of mo dl and melt temperatures
on the stress at break (a,,)
of welded specimens of a HDPE/
PS/KR01(20/80/ 3?6) blends.
ties of an immiscible blend. On the basis of the DMTA
and the tensile properties results of our system, a
composition of HDPE/PS/KRO1/20/80/3 wt% is
2.5 . , . , . , . ,. , . , . , .
HDP€IPSIKR01120/00/3wt%
chosen to study the effect of the mold and injection
(melt) temperatures. The following results deal only
with welded specimens. The effect of processing con-
ditions on the mechanical properties of nonwelded
specimens is not reported because the mechanical
2.0
- {/!-I
properties for this particular system were found to be
less sensitive to the processing conditions within the
considered range of parameters. i!
'u
1.5
- '1 0 - 0 : 200oc
A-A
0-0
: 220OC
:24OOC
The data of the stress at break (a,)as a function of -
1.0
mold temperature, for three different melt tempera-
tures, are shown in Fig. 7. A n appreciableincrease of
' b
-
4 /
A
the stress at break upon increasing the melt temper-
ature is observed. The most important raise is 0.5 - 0-0- P
observed when the melt temperature is increased
from 220 to 240°C. The results of Flg. 7 also show
that the effect of mold temperature is not as impor- 0.0.. ' . ' . ' ' ' . ' . ' '

tant as that of the melt temperature mainly at 200

and 220°C.
In Fig. 8,the data of the elongation at break ( E , ) as
a function of mold temperature and melt temperature
are reported. The effect of both parameters is similar
to that observed for the stress at break reported in
Q. 7.
For the tensile modulus the results presented in
Fig. 9 show only a slight effect of the mold tempera-
ture and an effect of melt temperature that is less
important than that observed for a, and E,, (Figs.7
and 8).
The interpretation of the effect of molding parame
ters on the mechanical properties is not an obvious
task. Conclusions drawn for a given system can be
completely different for another system (27).The
mechanical properties depend indeed on the frozen
stresses (dynamic and thermal stresses due to the
nonisothermal cooling and relaxation after mold
FSg. 8. Combined effectsof mo l and melt temperatures on
d
the elongation at break (en) of welded specimens of a HDPE/
P S / K R O I (20.80/3%)blends.
fillmg) which depend on the transport properties
(thermal dasivity, viscosity) and also on the elastic
properties of the material. In the case of semicrys-
talline polymers, the injection parameters may affect
the crystallinity of the material and hence the
mechanical properties of the injected sample. In order
to have a quantitative interpretation of the effect of
molding conditions on the mechanical properties even
for the homopolymer systems, one should solve the
governing equations for the system. However, these
equations are coupled and highly nonlinear. They
require sophisticated numerical methods even for

POLYMER ENW#EERMIO AND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, Vol. 34, No. 15 1207
 B. Brahimi, A. Ait-Kadi, and A. AJi
2.00 ’ , ’ , ‘ I ’ U ’ , . , . ,
.$
rlDPEIPSIKR0112018013wt% P
6’
d
6
J
1.75
-k
2
w

1.50

1.25
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Mold Temperature I°C)
Fg. 9. Combined effects of mold and melt temperatures
on the tensile modulus (En)of welded specimens of a HDPE/
PS / KRO 1 ( 20/ 80/3%) blends.

f f
simple mold cavities (28-30). Moreover, to our knowl- Q
edge, there is no rheological models that can ade-
quately represent the response of a viscoelastic fluid
in all the situations experienced in injection molding
(entrance effects, elongational flows, nonisothermal
startup, and relaxation, etc.). In the case of immisci-
ble blends, the situation is even more complicated
since one must take into account minor phase
dimensions and deformation, interphase interac-
tions, surface tension which characterize these
blends. The rheological models developed for
these systems are based on emulsion models and are
only tractable in small deformation processes (linear
viscoelasticity) (31). However, the results obtained in
Figs. 7 to 10 can be qualitatively interpreted in terms
of interdiffusion of the polymer fronts. In fact, as the
melt temperature increases, the temperature of
the polymer at the meeting fronts is increased result-
ing in an enhanced interdiffusion of polymer at the
weld line due to the increase of the interdiffusion
coefficient (32, 33). The presence of the copolymer
which locates at the interface contributes to the in-
terdiffusion of the polymers at the weld line. The “V- f
notch” generally observed when weld lines are pre-
sent is less pronounced in the case of copolymer
modified blends as shown on the micrographs of Flg.
10. Moreover, it is also well known that the presence
of a copolymer in an immiscible blend reduces signifi- Ftg. 10. Scanning electron micrographs of weld line details:
cantly the dimension of the minor phase (22, 23). It A) unmodijied HDPE/PS (20/80) blend, B) modifid
can be seen from Fig. 1 1 that indeed the morphology HDPE/PS/KRO1(20/80/3)blend.
either with no weld and with weld lines is influenced
by the presence of the copolymer.
mer. It was observed that the optimum copolymer
CONCLUSION
concentration in the case of HDPE/PS/KROl system
The weakness induced by the presence of weld line corresponds to that obtained from the DMTA results
in an immiscible polymer blend can be significantly of this system. The tensile mechanical properties
improved by addition of small amounts of a copoly- (mainly the stress and the elongation at break) of

1208 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-AUGUST 1994, Vol. 34, NO. 15
 Weld Lines and MechanicalProperfies

5 w-n 5 m

Fig. 1 1. Scanning electron micrographs offractured sections during tensile test of HDPE/ €5(20.80)blend: A) 0 WWO( no weld), B)
3 w% (no weld), C)0 w% (weld). D ) 3 WWO(weld).

blends modifled at 3 wt% of copolymer were found to
be sensitive to the injection temperature. The effect of
mold temperature on these properties is less pro-
nounced mainly at low injection temperatures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge the financial support
provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada and by the province of
QuCbec (Action structurante and FCAR programs).
We are also grateful to Dow Chemical Canada Inc.
and Phillips 66 for providing the raw materials used
in this work.
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Received December 10, 1992