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Investigation into fibre orientation and weldline reduction of injection moulded short glass-fibre/polyamide 6-6 automotive components

Sarah Mosey, Feras Korkees Orcid Logo, Andrew Rees, Gethin Llewelyn

Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials

Swansea University Authors: Feras Korkees Orcid Logo, Andrew Rees

Abstract

Due to the increasing demands on automotive components, manufacturers are relying on injection moulding components from fibre-reinforced polymers in an attempt to increase strength to weight ratio. The use of reinforcing fibres in injection moulded components has led to component failures whereby th...

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Published in: Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials
ISSN: 0892-7057 1530-7980
Published: 2019
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa48154
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Abstract: Due to the increasing demands on automotive components, manufacturers are relying on injection moulding components from fibre-reinforced polymers in an attempt to increase strength to weight ratio. The use of reinforcing fibres in injection moulded components has led to component failures whereby the material strength is hampered through the formation of weldlines which are also a problem for unreinforced plastics. In this study, an industrial demonstrator component has the injection locations verified through a combination of fibre orientation tensor simulation and optical microscopy analysis of key locations on the component. Furthermore, the automotive component manufactured from 30% glass fibre–reinforced polyamide 6-6 is simulated and optimized through a Taguchi parametric study. A comparison is made between the component, as it is currently manufactured, and the optimum processing parameters determined by the study. It was found that the component can be manufactured with roughly 7.5% fewer weldlines and with a mould fill time 132 ms quicker than the current manufacturing process.
Keywords: Fibre orientation, weldlines, polyamide 6-6, glass fibre reinforced, injection moulding, moldflow