A Simulation of Crystallization in Injection Molding

Abstract

Injection molding processes of crystalline polymers were simulated with a crystallization kinetics program. Crystallinity and spherulite size were evaluated at various points of a product model, by using pressure, shear stress, and temperature data obtained with a computer aided engineering (CAE) program. It was found that crystallinity and spherulite size have maximum values at the same depth between the surface and center layers, suggesting that they are closely related to each other. It was also confirmed that the variation of crystallinity with depth qualitatively agrees with experimental data in the literature.