Online Registration

Purpose & Overview
The need for more in-depth understanding of the injection molding process has become clear as sophisticated polymers and resin systems have been developed to meet challenging applications. This seminar covers the principles of the injection molding process and provides special insights required to understand the connection between flows in the barrel and cavity, behavior of different polymers to process demands and ultimate part properties. Novel process features and unique products will be covered along with many case studies to illustrate the commercial implementation of advanced design concepts for new product opportunities.

Who should attend?
This course will be beneficial to all people involved with injection molding, especially process engineers, mold and product designers and other personnel with direct responsibility for quality. Familiarity with the process is desirable, but not a requirement since molding principles and basic concepts will be introduced and developed on a general process foundation.

Seminar Content

Process Definition

• Basic elements
• Cycle

Material Behavior

• Shear-flow and extensional - flow fields
• Viscous liquids and viscoelastic melts
• Non-linear effects and transient behavior

Process Sequence

• Melt pool generation
• Flow in melt distribution networks
• Cavity flows with non-isothermal walls
• Packing and secondary flows
• Cooling

Flow, Structure, Property Interrelationships

• Mold filling visualization
• Flow front dynamics
• Misconceptions of fountain flow
• Fluid-element relationship between cavity and barrel
• Hydrodynamic skin-core structure
• Macroscopic features
• Microscopic features
• Surface properties
• Property distributions

Analysis of Molding Problems

• Basic design calculations
• Advanced design considerations - underlying principles, CAE codes
• Intriguing phenomena - hesitation flows and haze, surface marks and patterns, read through and transfer of cavity-wall defects, mold surface effect and adhesion

Design Exercises

• Characteristic flows
• Case studies
• Advanced design techniques

Novel Process Technology

• Product-by-process
• Sandwich molding (co-injection)
• Programmed injection rate
• Coining/variable volume packing
• Injection-compression molding
• Moving cavity boundaries

Lawrence R. Schmidt
Larry Schmidt is President of LR Schmidt Associates, a plastics consulting firm specializing in advanced process designs and product concepts, technology assessment and root-cause analysis of viscoelastic processing problems. He earned chemical engineering degrees from Ohio University, Washington University and the University of Colorado, where his Ph.D. research was on polymer processing. Prior to starting his company in 1992, he worked for General Electric for 22 years, including 11 years as manager of the polymer engineering programs in the Corporate Research and Development Center.

Larry has published over 50 papers, given numerous presentations on polymer processing and holds several patents. His novel mold-filling visualization results are used worldwide by engineers, designers, and technologists. He is a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers and serves on the Injection Molding Division Board of Directors.