Injection Moulding - Properties Customisation by Varying Process Conditions

The process of injection moulding (IM) is one of the most widely employed methods for manufacturing an extremely diverse range of polymeric parts of varying size and complexity. To match the final application requirements a base material is often modified by certain additives to enhance the material performance. However, the objective of the current research is to explore the effect of different process parameters on the toughness properties of IM polyamide (PA) materials with the aim of customizing the material to meet specific needs. Material suppliers provide their customers with discrete values regarding the mechanical properties, but they only suggest broad windows when specifying processing conditions like the melt temperature. Test samples produced within, as well as below and above the recommendations were produced and tested regarding their quasi-static tensile and instrumented impact behaviour, showing significant differences in performance.