Computer aided injection moulding process analysis of polyvinyl alcohol-starch green biodegradable polymer compound

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the injection moulding processability of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) blending with starch as biodegradable polymer compound. The PVOH-starch polymer compound can be used to produce environmental friendly plastic products. In this study, the injection moulding processability of PVOH-starch compound was computational analyzed by Moldflow ® software. A name tag article design was chosen to determine the appropriate processing parameters of PVOH blending with 50 wt.% (PPV55) and 60 wt.% (PPV46) of starch. The processing behaviour for both compositions of PVOH-starch compounds was characterized according to injection temperature and pressure, volumetric shrinkage and frozen layer fraction. Moldflow ® simulation outcomes exhibited that PPV55 required a higher injection pressure than PPV46. Meanwhile, the simulation outcomes also showed that the volumetric shrinkage of PPV55 is higher than PPV46. Both PPV46 and PPV55 require at least 20 s holding time to achieve stable production. © 2011 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers