Open AccessLightweight Medium-Sized Parts Made of Foamed HDPE Processed via Extrusion Blow Moulding: Analysis of Parison Formation
Author(s) -
Víctor Peinado,
L. García,
Jesús J. Fernández,
Pere Castell
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
advances in mechanical engineering/advances in mechanical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.318
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1687-8140
pISSN - 1687-8132
DOI - 10.1155/2014/681293
Subject(s) - blow molding , extrusion , materials science , blowing agent , high density polyethylene , composite material , bottle , cushioning , polyethylene , finite element method , structural engineering , mold , engineering , polyurethane
The manufacturing of medium-sized hollow parts using a foamed high density polyethylene was studied using a conventional accumulator blow extrusion machine and a systematic capture of pictures during the parison formation. To fully monitor the parison formation, several experiments were carried out varying the chemical foaming agent content from 0 wt.% to 2 wt.% and increasing the push extrusion speed. Results pointed out greater wall thickness, diameter, and length of parisons with higher weight percentage of blowing agent and extrusion speed. A full experimental characterisation of parison dimensions was essential to assure a proper prediction of the blowing step. Information was used as input for modelling and simulations of the blowing phase of an industrial container. To validate the proposed methodology, a blow moulding process of a generic container was simulated using Ansys Polyflow v13 software and its finite element analysis which provided an accurate approximation of the wall thickness expected. Further real tests on the simulated container also demonstrated that, in those parisons with a 1 wt.% CFA concentration and higher blowing pressure, there was remarkable improvement on their packaging properties such as decreasing of the total weight of the container and an enhancement of its surface quality