Polymers and Injection Molding Simulation
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 12966
Special Issue Editor
Interests: polymer processing; polymer flow numerical simulation; material characterization; nanocomposites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The molds and plastics industry, like so many other industrial sectors, has farced enormous challenges in a bid to increase competitiveness through the search for a cleaner, less energy-intensive production that makes better use of material resources.
The consumption of polymers throughout the world is continuously increasing, and as new materials are being sought to meet consumer requirements and specifications, innovative ways are being envisaged to fully comprehend plastic waste recycling in an effort to promote a circular economy. It is a fact that new polymers or polymer-based materials require a comprehensive thermophysical and rheological characterization prior to any process numerical simulation when their application is being analyzed. When it comes to polymeric materials recovered from waste, such assessement is paramount, since recyclates from post-consumer waste are subjected to environmental weathering, physical and chemical alterations induced by service life, and pollution and contaminants that may contribute to downgrading the material properties. Moreover, a synergetic interaction between the injection molding/rheological simulation (using properly characterized material models) and their application suitability is fundamental for a wide acceptance of waste-plastic-recycled polymers.
Numerical simulation of injection molding is a powerful tool to be used in the early stages of the process to optimize the design of parts for manufacture, validate and improve the injection mold tool design, trouble shoot molding problems, and reduce cost and lead time to market. Moreover, proper attention must be paid to the different control strategies that may be envisaged during mold production. Highly complex parts are continuously being sought, and with the rapid advance of additive technologies, the use of strategies such as conformal cooling to enhance heat dissipation and improve overall cycle time are also being assessed. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to establish new trends in what concerns mold diagnosis for part quality assessment.
These are a few trends for increasing the competitiveness of an industrial sector that is highly innovative, but which has important goals and is rapidly evolving.
It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.
Assist. Prof. Mónica S. A. Oliveira
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- injection molding
- polymer flow numerical simulation
- polymer characterization
- nanocomposites
- ecodesign and ecoefficiency
- circular economy
- plastic waste recycling
- CAE
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