The Effect of Injection Molding Process Parameters on the Mechanical Properties of ABS and PP Polymer

Abstract Injection molding parameters play a crucial role in minimizing defects and optimizing part quality. Factors like melt temperature, mold temperature, injection pressure, packing pressure, and cooling time influence the flow, orientation, and solidification of the plastic, ultimately affecting the part's properties and potential defects. By carefully controlling these parameters, manufacturers can achieve consistent, high-quality parts with minimal defects. The impacts of injection molding parameters on mechanical properties of on Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS Plastic) and Polypropylene materials were examined in the current study, the melt temperature and maximum injection pressure are the process parameters that are changed. Two levels are set for three factors in the one-factor-at-a-time experimental design. Moldex3D software was used for the simulation of each experiment. With an increase in melt temperature, the maximum weld line meeting angle, maximum weld line temperature, maximum filling volumetric shrinkage, maximum packing volumetric shrinkage, maximum packing density, maximum cooling temperature, time to reach maximum ejection temperature, cooling efficiency, and maximum total displacement increase in both ABS and PP material. Maximum filling pressure, maximum filling shear stress, maximum packing pressure, maximum packing shear stress, and maximum von Mises stress decrease for both ABS and PP material with an increase in melt temperature. The increase in melt temperature did not show any impact on the filling time, packing time, or cooling time of the PP material. The result shows that filling volumetric shrinkage, packing time, packing volumetric shrinkage, maximum packing density, cooling efficiency, maximum total displacement, and maximum warpage density of PP material are higher than those of ABS material under the same conditions. The results show that the materials behave differently when melt temperature changes. Interestingly, these conditions remain unchanged while pressure is only increased modifying injection pressure does not lead to observable modifications, suggesting a need for further investigation into the extent of pressure changes to elicit significant effects on the studied parameters.