A majority of plastic items are produced by injection moulding process. Experiments are conducted to find out the residual stresses developed in mould due to cooling and voids created in the mould cavity due to improper filling of plastic (polymer), therefore producing a weak and objectionable component. There are numerous methods to find voids in the end product, one of them is measuring void rates using optical microscope. Another way of identifying the residual stress is by simulating specimen part in analysis software and studying flow pattern of heat from runner point to end part of component. Also, when the mould is set for cooling procedures, the simulation of cooling from its highest temperature to room temperature could be simulated in a computer to study the cooling pattern. The volume in part where cooling happens fastest relative to other surrounding parts may result in stresses, called residual stress. This phenomenon also leads to redundant results such as warpage, sink marks and weld lines which are extremely costly problems to fix once the mould is in production environment. / Plastic parts that require tight tolerance may warp out of tolerance even if made by the most experienced mould makers. New companies may not have the expertise to start making moulds correctly for even the simplest parts. A lot of capital is invested in moulds and in cost of making parts, and much of the money spent on making moulds goes into reworking them. In order to avoid the huge cost spent on reworks, the mould can be made right the first time. / This objective could be achieved, by the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and advantage of software simulation to study the thermal flow patterns, from this shrinkage due to rapid cooling of plastic injected parts can be predicted. Use of ANSYS to model, mesh and analyse simple plastic components is the aim of this project. / Thesis (MEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267478 |
| Creators | Devanath, Sharath. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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