FOAM MOULDING | TECHNOLOGY
The use of foaming technologies brings a number of process, cost and design benefits to injection moulding. Mikell Knights finds out about new advances
Finding new dimensions in foam moulding
Part lightweighting technologies such as the MuCell process, structural foam moulding and particle foam moulding are seeing new developments in equipment technologies designed to increase the flexibility and efficiency of their respective process- es. Expanding interest in the application of these technologies is driving the advances. KraussMaffei developed a new universal screw for physical foaming applications with MuCell that delivers 30% higher plasticising performance compared to current screw technologies. The new HPS Physical Foaming screw, developed after intensive development work, is designed to process a diverse range of low and high viscosity materials used in MuCell applications, which often contain different proportions of fibres and fillers, KraussMaffei says. According to the company, “all screw types available on the market were com- pared in extensive laboratory tests”. The HPS Physical Foaming universal screw was
www.injectionworld.com
designed around a modular concept that makes it possible to combine the individual elements by means of bolting so that a new screw does not have to be made for each material or product change. KraussMaffei focused its design optimisation on the mixing and gas supply area, the centre backflow barrier, and the three-zone area of the screw. The three-zone area was made longer – to 17D versus 15D—without a loss of processing quality. The increased length allows the screw to be used for all plastics, including those with and without fibre reinforcement, and increases the plasticising capacity by up to 30%, says KraussMaffei. The mixing and sup- ply area of the screw now has a 4D length. The design changes increased the plasticising performance of the screw and had a favourable effect on the wear behavior. Until now a higher investment in larger screws was required than what was normally dictated by the component weight, to ensure complete homogenisation of the melt
Main image: Foamed storage table for trucks with partial IML decoration produced by KraussMaffei at Fakuma in October
November/December 2023 | INJECTION WORLD 31
IMAGE: KRAUSSMAFFEI
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
