Experimental Development of an Injection Molding Process Window

Injection molding is one of the most common and effective manufacturing processes used to produce plastic products and impacts industries around the world. However, injection molding is a complex process that requires careful consideration of several key control variables. These variables and how they are utilized greatly affect the resulting polymer parts of any molding operation. The bounds of the acceptable values of each Control Process Variable (CPV) must be analyzed and delimited to ensure manufacturing success and produce injected molded parts efficiently and effectively. One such method by which the key CPVs of an injection molding operation can be delimited is through the development of a process window. Once developed, operating CPVs at values inside the boundaries of the window or region will allow for the consistent production of parts that comply with the desired Performance Measures (PM), promoting a stable manufacturing process. This work proposes a novel approach to experimentally developing process windows and illustrates the methodology with a specific molding operation. A semicrystalline material was selected as it is more sensitive to process conditions than amorphous materials.