Study on defect of aluminium filled epoxy mold insert in injection molding

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to study the used of composite material as an insert in injection molding process. Epoxy with aluminium filled was used and casted to fabricate the cavity insert of the mold. As with most cast products, machining is necessary due to the fact that cast parts can only be made to near net shape. For that reason, CNC machine was used to machine the casted material into desired shape and dimensions. Plastic flow analysis software has been used to obtain optimum injection machine parameters for production of polypropylene (PP) part. It was evident that slight changes had happen to the insert as the composite material itself tends to fail after a number of injection shots. Finite element analysis (FEA) software was used to simulate the insert displacement or deformation due to the effect of molding temperature experienced by the insert. After 300 successful injections were obtained, the insert was inspected and measured physically. It was found that the insert experienced a slight change uniformly and dimensionally after comparing the data against results of the FEA software.