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Chinaplas 2021 will take place on April 13 – 16, 2021 in Shenzhen, PR China, with “New Era − New Potential − Innovation for Sustainability ” being the show theme. 3,600 exhibitors from 50 countries present the latest innovation of the plastics and rubber industries.

Verbände, Institutionen, Messen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Chinaplas 2021 to Open on April 13

Tactotek and Amphenol ICC, a leading global manufacturer of interconnect products, have announced that they are collaborating to develop automotive grade in-mold connectors for Tactotek IMSE technology.

Spritzgießen

Gedruckte Elektronik

Technik Trend

KFZ-Schalter für die Autobedienung

Anzeige- und Bedienelemente

Automotive

Amphenol ICC and Tactotek to Create Automotive Connector

A change in leadership has taken place at Movacolor. Gerhard Dersjant is handing over the position of CEO to Marc Aandeweg and will act as a member of the company‘s Supervisory Board in the future.

Kunststoffverarbeitungsmaschinen

Dosierer

Dosierung

Betriebstechnik für Kunststoffverarbeitung (Peripherie)

New CEO at Movacolor

The development of a functioning and efficient recycling economy is strongly dependent on the quality of the recycled plastics. New plant and process technology is promoting this development.

Sortierer

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

KU-Verarbeitungsmaschinen allgemein

Advances in Plastics Recycling Processes Towards the Creation of a Circular Economy

Lupine Lighting Systems manufactures extremely bright mountain bike lights with lenses made of Plexiglas. The molding compounds from Röhm meet the most important standards for e-bike and bicycle lighting.

Technische Optik

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Optik

Polymethylmethacrylat

Bright Lights with Precision Lenses Made from Plexiglas

The plastic components used for radar systems must not disturb the functioning of the sensors. Specialized measuring systems and test setups can greatly simplify to test the radar suitability of the components.

Straightforward Analysis and Characterization of Plastic Materials for Radar Systems

Fahrerassistenzsysteme / Automatisiertes Fahren

Werkstoffprüfung

Perfect Vision for Autonomous Vehicles

The ZKW Group manufactures premium lighting systems for automotive customers. In order to be able to produce trouble-free and in permanently high quality in the injection molding process, several hundred temperature control units from HB-Therm are also used, among others.

The ZKW Group Manufactures Innovative Lighting Systems for the Automotive Industry

Temperiergeräte

Temperiertechnik

Kfz-Leuchten, Beleuchtung

KFZ-Zulieferer

Where Night Becomes Day

When no injection molder could be found who could process the company‘s own electroluminescent foils to a high standard in series production, the Swiss lighting technology specialist Lumitec, with the help of its machine supplier Arburg, took over the injection compression molding technology virtually „overnight“.

Lumitec Masters Injection-Compression Molding thanks to Arburg Application Technology

Folientechnik (IMD, IML, FIM, u.a.)

Spritzprägen

A Luminous Greeting

There is still a need to catch up in terms of ion leaching and hydrolysis resistance of the materials used to date for fuel cells. Specially developed PPS represent one possibility for this.

Material Improvements Make Fuel Cells More Reliable

Brennstoffzelle

Brennstoffzellen

Technische Kunststoffe

Hochleistungskunststoffe

Getting Fuel Cell Vehicles Fit for Use

Leonhard Kurz’s “Iconic Space Grille”, does not only illustrates modern vehicle design but was also produced in a new production process.

Award-Winning Front Panel Combines Exciting Design with an Efficient  Manufacturing Process

Polyurethan

Kunststoff

Polycarbonat

An Eye-Catching Addition  to Electric Vehicles

In the iComposite 4.0 research project, it has been possible to cut the costs for a prototype component by more than 50 percent and throughput time by 40 percent.

Economic Production of Fiber-Reinforced Plastics in High Volumes

Faserverarbeitung

Schröder, Susanne

Pressen von Kunststoffen

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Self-Regulating Production Plant

The design of parts and components made of fiber-reinforced composites needs to take the coefficient of thermal expansion into account because it determines the extent to which a material changes in length when heated or cooled. Neglecting this quality criterion can have far-reaching consequences

The Coefficient of Thermal Expansion Can Help to Ensure Product Quality

Messtechnik

Prüfen von Kunststoffen

Thermische Mess- und Prüfverfahren

A Change of Length Has Consequences

Lightweight parts, energy-saving processing or the practice of combining several process steps into one can all be subsumed under one current buzzword: sustainability. A technology that is highly promising in this regard is thermoplastic foam injection molding.

New Developments in Thermoplastic Foam Injection Molding

Schaumspritzgießen

Künstliche Intelligenz für die Qualitätssicherung

Schnecken und Plastifiziersysteme

A Special Process that Is Becoming a Sustainable Normal Case

Terahertz and microwave methods offer a wide range of applications for testing of plastic packaging. Already established wall thickness measurements and defect detection are now joined by a wealth of other possible applications that promise process reliability and cost efficiency.

Comparison of Terahertz- and Microwave-Testing

Mikrowellenmesstechnik

Industrielle Messtechnik

Inline-Messtechnik

Contactless Testing of Packaging

The cluster of excellence “Internet of Production” at the RWTH Aachen University conducts research on structures to realize a “Google of Production”. The Plastics Innovation Center 4.0 serves as demonstration platform to present real-world solutions to the industry already today.

IKV Offers an Application-Oriented Demonstration Platform for Excellent Research

Digitale Transformation

Industrie 4.0 für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

IoT-Plattformen für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

The PIC 4.0 as Part of the Internet  of Production

The consumables required for In-vitro diagnostics are manufactured in a production process that is subject to high requirements in terms of precision and quality, but also the complex cleanroom manufacturing environment. This has implications for the entire plant technology – especially toolmaking.

Strategic Approach through Classification according to Product Groups

Spritzgießwerkzeuge

Werkzeug- und Formenbau

Medizinprodukte

Mold Platforms for IVD Consumables

To meet stringent flame retardancy demands of areas such as transportation and electronics, components based on thermosets increasingly require a soluble, non-powder flame retardant (FR) due to low layer thicknesses in the final product or due to liquid processing methods. Two flame-retardants developed by Clariant meet these requirements.

Completely Halogen-Free Flame Retardancy of Epoxy-Fiber Composite Components

Füllstoffe für Kunststoffe

Flammschutzmittel

Duroplastische Werkstoffe

Duroplaste

Additive

Avoiding Filter Effects of  Flame Retardants

Short glass fiber-reinforced plastics are exposed to complex load cases during the operating time. Therefore, the influence of alternating load and frequency in the form of load spectra on material fatigue is investigated and an integrative computational method for structural design is presented. With this practical approach, a fast fatigue life estimation is possible.

The Influence of Varying Frequency and Load Level on the Fatigue Life of Short Glass  Fiber-Reinforced Technical Thermoplastics

Glasfasern / -matten

Thermoplaste

Cumulative Failures Prevention

Specialist Articles

Air inclusions in fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) are among the most common imperfections that can affect both the resulting stiffness and strength. For the calculation of the stiffness of a perfect UD layer, semi-empirical mixing rules can be used which show good agreement with experimental data. Since the content of air inclusions is generally low compared to the constituents of an FRP, the Mori-Tanaka scheme can be exploited in a following step to homogenise the perfect phase and air inclusions. By introducing a geometry function into Mori-Tanaka scheme, influence of air inclusions’ appearance can be investigated.

Calculation of stiffness for FRP with air inclusions with respect to their geometry

Investigations and prediction of the melting processes in single-screw extrusion have been of scientific interest for many decades. In this study, the melting zone of a high-performance extruder with a continuous helically grooved plasticizing zone is experimentally investigated for the first time. For this purpose, an axially divisible extruder was developed to expose the barrier screw together with the plastic melt. An optical examination of the frozen melt validates assumptions of the existing melting model. In addition, the results of the experimental investigation are compared with those of the analytical model. These investigations confirm the essential mathematical model assumptions and are in good agreement with previous investigations on an axially grooved single-screw extruder.

Investigation of the melting zone of high-performance extruders using a helically grooved plasticizing zone

In addition to the previous state of the art in science and technology, in this publication spruce fibres from a thermo-mechanical pulping process were directly compounded with polypropylene and coupling agent using an injection moulding compounder. An increasing wood fibre content of up to 30 wt.% was investigated in direct single-stage processing. The characterisation of the material combinations is carried out by tensile tests, melt-flow-rate measurements, density determination, microscopy and impact tests. An increase in tensile properties, viscosity and density is observed with increasing wood fibre content. The impact strength is lower compared to the unchanged base polymer, but remains constant within the standard deviation with increasing wood fibre content.

Reinforcement of polypropylene with wood fibres by direct compounding

Conventional additive manufacturing processes such as Fused Layer Manufacturing (FLM) technology make it possible to produce any structures from a wide variety of materials without tools in a very short time. In addition, layer-by-layer processes hardly make use of the technical manufacturing degrees of freedom with regard to the filling strategy and existing anisotropy. Therefore, in the present publication an optimality strategy for 2.5D-FLM structures shall be presented which is based on a principal normal stress analysis. The goal is to generate a structure design that is suitable for the requirements and production process by means of simulation-based methods. In addition to the methodical imple-mentation, experiments on generic open hole plates with different filling strategies serve to validate and first confirm the method.

Application of a principle normal stress oriented filling strategy for Fused Layer Manufacturing structures

Currently, a nozzle consisting of a series of round tubes (round nozzle) is used as standard for hot gas welding. A newly developed nozzle (top nozzle), which surrounds the weld joint during heating, enables a reduction of the heating time of the resin by up to 60 % during the hot gas welding process. For PA66-GF35, for example, the heating time can be reduced up to 15 s compared to a round nozzle system. In addition, the melting of the resin is much more uniform and does not have a crater-like structure on the surface. The reduction of the heating time leads to lower process gas consumption and ultimately to a reduction of the total energy consumption and thus lower process costs.

Reduction of the heating time for hot gas welding

Contrary to the plastification in injection molding processes, thermoset molding compounds could be more heated in a twin screw extruder due to its stronger shearing effect which leads to the rise of the melting temperature above the initial curing temperature. Besides the screw speed, the screw configuration has an extensive impact on the shear-induced energy input and on the melt temperature profile along the extruder. The aim of this research is the development of an analytical method to investigate the influence of different processing conditions on the flow-curing behavior. Furthermore, possible implications to the resulting properties of the foamed semi-finished parts are discussed.

Analysis of the flow-curing behavior of chemically foamable phenolic molding compounds in the extrusion process

Effects of post-processing thermal treatments of vibration-welded polypropylene and its silica nanocomposite were systematically studied by using a heating cabinet and in-line infrared radiation. Experimental results demonstrate that thermal treatments, independent on the heating sources, exert obviously positive effect on improving the weld quality of polypropylene materials, i.e. stiffness and strength of the weld. Despite the short cycles used for infrared heating, the results are better and the effort is less.

Response of mechanical and thermal properties of a vibration-welded polypropylene/SiO<sub>2</sub> nanocomposite on different thermal treatments

This research work presents a recycling methodology for carbon fibre composites processed with a novel room temperature infusible and curable thermoplastic matrix ELIUM 150 from Arkema. Herein we demonstrate that by dissolving the composites in acetone at room temperature it is possible to separate the matrix from the fibres and to reuse both the matrix and the fibres in form of scrim (preform). A comparison of the thermomechanical, thermal and mechanical properties of the composites shows only marginal performance changes in bulk properties due to the proposed recycling strategy.

Closed-loop room temperature recycling of Elium CFRPs and its influence on the 2nd generation composite properties

Changes in the specific volume during the processing of thermosetting resin systems result in reduced dimensional accuracy of the components due to residual stresses and, in the case of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP), in surface waviness. A specially developed dilatometer is used to characterise the chemical shrinkage close to the process. The tests show a significant influence of the mixing ratio of resin and curing agent, which leads to a reduced chemical shrinkage. An increased moisture content of the resin component tends to lead to a lower chemical shrinkage.

Investigation of the Shrinkage Behaviour of a Fast Curing Epoxy Resin as a Function of Moisture, Gas Content and the Mixing ratio

A flexible air guiding system in blown film extrusion enables a mass throughput increase of more than 60 %. The development encloses the bubble expansion zone and creates a flow gap between the film bubble and a flexible membrane. In this gap, the flow velocity of the cooling air can be increased, resulting in higher heat extraction. As a side effect, the increase in flow velocity creates a local vacuum in the gap, causing the film bubble to open earlier than in the conventional process. Because of this surface enlargement the heat extraction can be improved again. During the extrusion process, the flow gap can be adjusted to the current bubble geometry independent of the process parameters.

Increased cooling capacity when using a flexible air guiding system due to the Venturi effect in blown film extrusion

In this investigation, a possibility for shortening the cycle time in the manufacture of thick-walled optical components by compression induced solidification (CIS) was studied in a numerical manner and experimentally tested for validity. The test specimens produced with a reduced cycle time were compared with the manufacturing processes commonly used for such components, i.e. injection molding, injection-compression molding and conventional CIS, with regard to dimensional accuracy, internal stresses and microstructural impression. It could be shown that by delaying the heating of the mold, the adapting time and thus the cycle time of the process can be reduced by up to 55 %, while maintaining the same high quality of the components.

Application optimized compression induced solidification

In addition to high stiffness, the semi-aromatic polyamide Leona SG series features an improved flowability and a good surface appearance without any additional surface treatment or coating.

Asahi Kasei Introduces a Semi-Aromatic Polyamide to the European Market

Excellent Processability and Good Surface Quality

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