Injection molding control parameter assessment by nested Taguchi design of simulation experiments: a case study

Injection molding control parameter assessment by nested Taguchi design of simulation experiments: a case study

ILIOPOULOU Vasiliki, VOSNIAKOS George-Christopher

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Abstract. Injection molding of a polypropylene (PP) food packaging container is studied using a dedicated simulation program. Three successive Taguchi designs of experiments (DoE) are performed to identify the influence of control factors and to adjust their levels for optimal result. These are nested, each one narrowing down the decision space of its predecessor. In the first design (L27), seven control factors were considered: polymer material in terms of MFI, melt and mold temperature, maximum injection pressure, filling time, maximum packing pressure and packing time. Part weight, clamping force and a fictitious factor related to premature solidification of the material during packing were quality factors. In the next DoE (L27 again), for fixed material, the four most important process factors determined before are examined in more detail, adding cycle time as an extra quality factor. Dependence of results on melt temperature proved to be strong, so a third DoE (L9), examined a narrower temperature range. Calculation of S/N ratios and analysis of variance (ANOVA) led to optimization of control parameters through a weighted objective function.

Keywords
Polypropylene, Thin-Wall, Injection Molding, Taguchi Methods, Simulation

Published online 4/24/2024, 10 pages
Copyright © 2024 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: ILIOPOULOU Vasiliki, VOSNIAKOS George-Christopher, Injection molding control parameter assessment by nested Taguchi design of simulation experiments: a case study, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 41, pp 2757-2766, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903131-302

The article was published as article 302 of the book Material Forming

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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