Flow analysis of the weld line formation during injection mold filling of thermoplastics

To study the weld line formation of colliding flow fronts the filling of a mold cavity was simulated. The thermo-rheological findings were used to investigate the sources of weld line weakness. In this way critical areas of the interface in regard to the lack of interdiffusion and the inappropriate molecular orientation were found to be placed near the surface of the finished parts. The main source for the weld line weakness seems to be the V-notch that arises due to the poorly bonded region near the surface in combination with the large shrinkage as a result of extremely high molecular orientations induced at the end of the filling. Furthermore, the empirical knowledge was confirmed that weld lines are rather more sensitive to the local flow situation than the global processing conditions. Melt and mold temperatures can be considered to be the most important factors which influence the weld line strength.In part presented at the 6th European Conference on Rheology, Erlangen, 2002