PLASTICS PART DESIGN and MOULDABILITY

Injection molding is popular manufacturing method because of its high-speed

production capability. Performance of plastics part is limited by its properties
which is not as strong (as good) as metal. There are applications where the
available properties of the plastics can be useful. The strength of plastics can be
improved with reinforcement of glass fiber, mica, talk etc.
Plastics generally have following characteristics,
Light weight low density,
Low conductivity of heat and electricity insulating properties,
Low hardness,
Lower strength than metals,
Ductile,
Dimensional stability- not as good as metal,
WALL THICKNESS
Solid shape molding is not desired in injection molding due to following reasons.
Cooling time is proportional to square of wall thickness. Large cooling time
for solid will defeat the economy of mass production. (poor conductor of
heat)
Thicker section shrink more than thinner section, thereby introduce
differential shrinkage resulting in warpage or sink mark etc. (shrinkage
characteristics of plastics)
Therefore we have basic rule for plastic part design; as far as possible wall
thickness should be uniform or constant through out the part. This wall
thickness is called nominal wall thickness.
If there is any solid section in the part, it should be made hollow by introducing
core. This should ensure uniform wall thickness around the core.

What are the considerations for deciding wall thickness?
It must be thick and stiff enough for the job. Wall thickness could be 0.5 to
5mm.
It must also be thin enough to cool faster, resulting lower part weight and
higher productivity.
Any variation in wall thickness should be kept as minimum as possible.
A plastic part with varying wall thickness will experience differing cooling rates
and different shrinkage. In such case achieving close tolerance becomes very
difficult and many times impossible. Where wall thickness variation is essential,
the transition between the two should be gradual.
CORNERS
When two surfaces meet, it forms a corner. At corner, wall thickness increases to
1.4 times the nominal wall thickness. This results in differential shrinkage and
molded-in stress and longer cooling time. Therefore, risk of failure in service
increases at sharp corners.

SINK MARK IS INEVITABLE.
Temperature dependent change in volume - 29% in crystalline and 8% in
amorphous-.
Compressibility of melt under pressure is 10-15%.
On falling temperature of melt in the mould, decrease in volume is more than
the increase in volume on relaxation of pressure.
Therefore void can not be perfectly filled in. Hence sink mark is inevitable.
CHANGE IN VOLUME and DENSITY OF MATERIAL
Materials Specific
volume AT
20 degree C
Specific
volume AT
200
degree C
% age
change
cubic-cm / g cubic-cm /
g

HDPE 1.03 1.33 29 %
(crystalline)
PS
(amorphous)
0.97 1.05 8%
Density Density
HDPE
(crystalline)
0.97 0.75 22.7%
PS
(amorphous)
1.03 0.952 7.8%
To solve this problem, the corners should be smoothened with radius. Radius
should be provided externally as well as internally. Never have internal sharp
corner as it promotes crack. Radius should be such that they confirm to constant
wall thickness rule. It is preferable to have radius of 0.6 to 0.75 times wall
thickness at the corners. Never have internal sharp corner as it promotes crack.

RIBS for stiffness consideration
Ribs in plastic part improve stiffness of the part and increases rigidity. It also
enhances mold-ability as they hasten melt flow in the direction of the rib.
Ribs are placed along the direction of maximum stress and deflection on non-
appearance surfaces of the part. Mould filling, shrinkage and ejection should also
influence rib placement decisions.
Ribs that do not join with vertical wall should not end abruptly. Gradual transition
to nominal wall should reduce the risk for stress concentration.

Ribs should have following dimensions.
Rib thickness should be between 0.5 to 0.6 times nominal wall thickness
to avoid sink mark.
Rib height should be 2.5 to 3 times nominal wall thickness.
Rib should have 0.5 to 1.5-degree draft angle to facilitate ejection.
Rib base should have radius 0.25 to 0.4 times nominal wall thickness.
Distance between two ribs should be 2 to 3 times (or more) nominal wall
thickness.
MOULDABILITY consideration
While designing plastic part, pitfalls in achieving quality, consistency and
productivity must be considered. It is wrong to assume that shapes can be
molded successfully with out any defects. All shapes may not be 100% moldable.
To improve the mold-ability injection molding process has to be understood in
depth.
Part design obviously has to be influenced by the intricacies of the process.
Filling phase of the process is influenced by type of gate, location of gate,
number of gates, size of gate (also dependent on material viscosity). Gate should
be located at such position from where flow path to thickness ratio (flow ratio) is
constant in all direction. The difference in flow ratio could be as small as possible.
In some cases where thickness variation is unavoidable, melt must flow from thin
section to thick section for better mold-ability. Melt flow from thin to thick results
in poor molding. The size of gate should not result in excessive pressure drop
across it. It should be adequate to handle flow rate required.
Resistance to flow and viscosity determines the filling pressure. Filling pressure
variation should be gradual and not abrupt. It should be remembered that flow
thinner section introduces shearing of melt, resulting in lowering of melt viscosity.
This is the shear thinning nature of thermoplastics melt.

Filling phase is influenced by wall thickness variation as it introduces variation in
resistance to flow in all directions from the gate. Melt is held in cylindrical shape
in plasticizing cylinder before injection. When the melt is injected through gate
and runner system, melt streams move equally in all directions only when
resistance to flow is equal in all direction.

It should be realized that variation in wall thickness, hole / slot, variation of mould
surface temperature introduces variation in resistance to flow. Therefore melt
moves in number of streams with different velocity in different direction and
mould does not fill in balanced manner.
When melt streams reach boundary at the same time it can be called balanced
filling. When some stream reaches the boundary early and some other streams
reach late this time lag to complete the filling of part results in induction of
molded-in stresses in the part.





Unbalancing flow can be corrected by using flow-leader / flow deflector and
multiple gates so as to form the melt stream shape very close to the projected
shape of the part.







Ideally all the melt streams should move with the same velocity till the mould is
filled. Variation in cross section area (due to changes in wall thickness or slot)
introduces variation in melt stream velocity. Hence the freezing of melt can not
be uniform through out the part. It should be realized that while freezing, cross
section through which melt can flow reduces thereby introducing increasing
resistance to flow. When some stream freeze faster then other, faster freezing
streams introduce increasing resistance to flow. Therefore, balance in filling can
not occur and molded-in stresses are induced.


WELD LINE IN MOULDING
Weld line occurs when two melt streams join. Melt stream gets divided at cutout
(core) in the part and they join at the other end of the cut out.
Normally weld line region is filled at the end of injection stroke or during pressure
phase.
Strength of the weld line is weak when partially frozen melt front meet. The
orientation at the joint remains perpendicular to direction of flow -a sign of
weakness.
Weld line can form by melt stream flowing in same direction or in opposite
direction.
It is not possible to eliminate weld line, but it can be made sufficiently stronger or
its position can be altered.
MELT STREAM FROM OPPOSITE DIRECTION

CHANGING WELD LINE POSITION

Over cooled region can also freeze faster than lesser cooled region. When
freezing is not uniform, melt moves through narrowing cross section of slow
freezing stream and over packs the slow freezing stream region. Hence uniform
mould surface temperature distribution is very important. This has to be achieved
through proper design of cooling channels for turbulent water flow.
Melt temperature is highest near the gate. Hence freezing is likely to be slower
near the gate. This happens near the gate during pressure phase of the process.
Here over packing can be controlled through proper profiling of pressure -
reducing with time.
COOLING consideration
Volumetric changes associated with changes in temperature and pressure
should be understood well.
EJECTION considerations
Adequate draft angle, good surface finish, mechanism to handle undercut,
strategic location of ejector pins etc should be the consideration of part designer.
SUMMARY
Design Factors To improve mold-ability, understand the following;
Gate Ideally at geometric center of the part.
Melt stream shape is similar to projected shape of
the part by multiple gate or suitable type and size of
the gate.
Locate gate at thickness section so that melt flow
from thick to thin section.
Wall Thickness No variation in wall thickness. Larger the variation
means poorer mold-ability. Rib thickness 50 60%
of wall thickness.
Pressure drop in
runner system
Runner system should be designed for high
pressure drop, thus minimizing material in runner,
in order to give low runner to part weight ratio.
Flow pattern Distance (L/T ratio) from gate to boundary in all
direction, if not same, provide flow leaders or flow
deflectors to balance the flow to improve mold-
ability.
Lower the difference in L/T ratios in different
direction, better the mold-ability.
Melt Variation of melt temperature should be with in 10
temperature
variation in side
mould
degree centigrade. Shearing through narrow wall
increases melt temperature.
Filling Pressure The good mold ability occur when pressure
gradient i.e. pressure drop per unit length, is
constant along the flow path.
Maximum Shear
Stress
The shear stress during filling should be less than a
critical value. This critical value depends on
material and application. This data is available with
Mold flow software.
Melt stream
velocity
Ideally, all melt streams move at same velocity.
This can ensure same cooling time for all melt
streams.
Difference in velocities as less as possible for
better mold-ability
Avoid hesitation
effect
Melt flow from thick to thin section is better for
mold-ability.
Weld-lines Weld-line distance from gate should be as less as
possible for better mold-ability.
Weld line can be shifted by using frame of suitable
thickness.
Hold-on
pressure
(not design factor
but processing
factor)
Multi steps with reducing pressure with time to
avoid molded-in stress near the gate.
Thermal shut off
of runners.
The runners must be sized for thermal shut off
when the cavity is just filled and sufficiently packed,
to avoid over-pack or reverse flow, in and out of
cavity, after the mould is filled.
Heat exchange Consistent mould temperature can only be ensured
when there is balance between heat in and heat out
during molding cycle time. Cooling channels must
be designed with the help of Mold Flow software.
This should ensure uniform cooling time to enhance
mold-ability.
Core and Cavity
dimensions
Core and cavity Dimensions computed taking into
consideration mould-makers tolerance, mould
shrinkage and post molding shrinkage.
Easy ejection Proper taper on the part and smooth polished
mould surface facilitate easy part ejection.
MECHANICAL consideration
BOSSES
The boss is required for fixing or mounting some other part with screw. It is
cylindrical in shape. The boss may be linked at base with the mother part or it
may be linked at side. Linking on side may results in thick section of plastic,
which is not desirable as it can cause sink mark and increase cooling time. This
problem can be solved by linking boss through a rib to the side wall as shown in
the sketch. Boss can be made rigid by providing buttress ribs as shown in the
sketch.

Screw is used on the boss to fasten some other part. There are thread forming
type of screws and tread cutting type of screws. Thread forming screws are used
on thermoplastics and thread cutting screws are used on inelastic thermo set
plastic parts.
Thread forming screws produce female threads on internal wall of boss by cold
flow plastic is locally deformed rather than cut.
Screw boss must proper dimensions to withstand screw insertion forces and the
load placed on the screw in service.
The size of the bore relative to the screw is critical for resistance to thread
stripping and screw pull out.
Boss outer diameter should be large enough to withstand hoop stresses
due thread forming.
Bore has slightly larger diameter at entry recess for a short length. This
helps in locating screw before driving in. It also reduces stresses at the
open end of the boss.
Polymer manufacturers give guidelines for determining the dimension of
boss for their materials. Screw manufacturers also give guidelines for the
right bore size for the screw.
Care should be taken to ensure strong weld joints around the screw bore
in boss.
Care should be taken to avoid molded-in stress in boss as it can fail under
the aggressive environment.
Bore in boss should be deeper than the thread depth.

Quality of screw connection in plastics
Screw connection would obviously be successful only if driving torque is less
than the stripping torque. Torque required to drive in the screw is driving torque.
The torque required to tear away the internal thread is called stripping torque.
Boss should be designed with factor of safety higher than 2. The ratio of stripping
torque to driving torque should be more than 2 and preferably 5.
Stripping torque depends on
Thread size and
Boss material.
Stripping torque increases as screw penetrates and tends to level off when the
screw engagement is about 2.5 times screw pitch.
Driving torque depends on
Friction and
Ratio of bore size to screw diameter.
When force required to hold something down exceeds the screw pull out force,
the screw thread in the plastics boss will shear off.
Pull out force depends on
Boss material,
Thread dimensions and
Length of screw engagement.