The quality of the molded parts depends on the processing conditions, which creates a continuous demand for advanced techniques
for monitoring and controlling the process. Temperature and pressure transducers are being used increasingly in industry.
Therefore, the use of their measurements to obtain indications concerning the product quality could overcome the traditional
resistance of industry to introduce new sensors in their production. The aim of this paper was to select a parameter, which
can be identified by adopting pressure and temperature transducers, to correlate with the quality. To this goal, several series
of injection molding tests were conducted by adopting a general purpose PS, changing the holding pressure and time, injection
time, mould and injection temperature, nozzle length, gate and cavity thickness. The pressure histories and temperature evolution
at the interface with the mould at several positions along the flow-path were measured by means of pressure-temperature transducers.
The samples were measured after molding, and dimensional accuracy was assumed to be the target quality parameters. The mean
solidification pressure, namely the average along the thickness direction of the pressures at which each layer solidifies,
is a key parameter for quality control. A procedure not requiring simulation of the entire injection molding test and based
on the knowledge of both the local pressure evolution, mold temperature and the polymer thermal diffusivity has been developed
to evaluate the local solidification profile.
Keywords moulding – thermoplastics polymer – shrinkage