Processes

encountered in
plastic industries:
Injection
Moulding:
injection moulding is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting
material into a mould. Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed,
and forced into a mould cavity, where it cools and hardens to the configuration
of the cavity mould are made by a mould maker (or toolmaker) from metal,
usually either chromium steel and precision-machined to form the features of
the desired part.

Injection moulding machines can be categorised on basis of the

mechanism used in the process of injection moulding. They are as
follows:

1. Toggle injection moulding machine- the pressure that

can be applied by the toggle clamp mechanism is much
higher than its counterpart, however releasing the
pressure In case of sudden shut down is much more
troublesome due to locking of the joints.

Trouble shooting: During such situations, hitting the

elbow joint in the opposite direction and releasing oil

pressure is advisable. special care must be taken

while doing this as this may result in a sudden jerk at
the end. (info source : mondal da)
2. Ram injection moulding machine- here there is direct
axial pressure due to movement of a screw.

Process Description
1. the feed is first allowed to enter the hopper
which may be mechanically or vacuum fed. The
hopper is often attached to a drier which gets rid
of any excess moisture.
2. Then the feed is allowed to enter the injection
barrel which has a thermal jacket surrounding it.
The injection barrel is divided into three
temperature zones .
3. Inside the barrel is a reciprocating screw/
archimedis screw.
4. Forward motion of the screw by rotation of the
hydraulic motor through the injection barrel

compresses the polymer and subsequent heating

leads to reduction in viscosity and it starts to flow
5. Channel depth along the length of the barrel
decreases forcing the plastic through a smaller
area causing increase in frictional forces
generating heat.
6. The tip of the reciprocating screw has a
unidirectional valve. Once the portion in front of
the valve fills up, it releases the pressure and
subsequent forward motion injects the feed into
the mould
7. Cooling lines within the mould allow for hardening
of the product and faster cycle times.
8. Runners and flush on the product is manually
removed before the product is sent for printing
and packing. White lines on products can be
removed by using heat guns, and bending can be
taken care of by the use of custom jigs.

Insert moulding

Pre-moulded or machined components can be inserted into

the cavity while the mould is open, allowing the material
injected in the next cycle to form and solidify around them.
This process is known as Insert moulding and allows single
parts to contain multiple materials. This process is often used
to create plastic parts with protruding metal screws, allowing
them to be fastened and unfastened repeatedly.
Eg lead inserts in battery containers which are pre heated
and insert moulded after lacquering.

Extrusion Blow moulding

It is a molding process in which air pressure is used to
inflate soft plastic into a mold cavity. Blow molding is
accomplished in two steps:

(a) fabrication of a starting tube of molten plastic,

called a parison and
(b) inflation of the tube to the desired final shape. After
the parison is formed, the two halves of the mold come
together and pinch one end of it while the other end is
sealed around a blow pin. When air is blown into the
mold, the tube gets inflated and takes the shape of the
mold cavity. Once it cools, the mold is opened and the
solidified part is removed.

Extrusion

The principle of extrusion moulding is similar to that of

injection moulding.
The only difference is that the end of the injection
barrel comprises of a steel die which casts the molten
plastic into the required shape from which it may be
periodically cut off.

The product is then cooled and sent for finishing.

This method is popularly used for making pipes.

PRODUCTS:

Preform moulding
This process is extensively used for the production of
PET (Poly Ethelene Terepthalate) bottles.
This process mainly comprises of two stages:
1. Formation of small plastic preforms.-the process of
injection moulding is used for formation of the
preforms which are then ejected from the mould
after cooling.
PREFORM:

2. Subsequent heating of the plastic preforms and

inflating it by aid of air pressure within the mould
to form the finished product.

Main products
manufactured
s.n
o

Product
name

Material used

Why is it used?

buckets

PPCP
(poly propelene co
polymer)

Battery
containers

PPCP/SAN(Styrene
acrylo nitryl)

Blow
moulded
bottles

HDPE( MFI 18)

Railway
dowels

HDPE(MFI 0.1)

handles

HDP (High density

polethene)

High strength and low MFI

values ensure lesser
chance of failure.

dhama

Recycled plastics

Used in food or
construction industry for
transportation of
materials, thus use of

To ensure flexibility of
buckets so that it sustains
drop tests since PPCP has
relatively higher MFI
values.
Corrosion resistant ( from
acids)
Lower MFI values ensure
ease of extrusive blow
moulding and flexibility.
In some cases, acid
resistant polymers must
be used to prevent
leakage.

recycled plastic material

is profitable

caps

PPCP/HDP

Masterbatch of different colours are added to the feed in a

specific percentage by weight in order to obtain different
colours.

Products:

Railway Dowel
Testing

Where is the product used: In a

rail fastening system, the plastic
dowel can be considered as the
fastening foundation. It needs to be
pre-inserted into the concrete sleeper
separately before assembling the rail
fastening system parts. It is used to
guarantee the good connection and
linkage of the rail fastening system
with the concrete sleeper, with screw
spikes or bolts.

Figure 1. Railway
Dowels

About the material used: The material used in the manufacture

of railway dowels is HDP (High Density Polyethylene). This material
is used as it provides high strength and resistance to atmospheric
corrosion and rusting.

Tests performed on each batch of dowels: Each batch of

railway dowels consisted of 5000 dowels out of which 25 undergo
physical testing and 3 undergo chemical testing.
The tensile strength of the material, viz. HDP is
also tested using simple tensile test. Given
below, is a description of the tests performed:

Figure 2. Gauge
box
(1)Physical tests: From each batch, 25 dowels were made to undergo
physical tests where each dowel was tested with standard go and nogo gauges. The gauges are shown in Figure 8. The hardness of the
material of the dowel was also tested using a Shore Durometer
Hardness Tester and the value was required to be greater than or equal
to 65(according to the ASTM D2240 standard) for the dowel to pass.
(2)Simple Tension Test: To check the tensile strength of the material used,
a sheet of thickness about 1.9 to 2 mm was produced using the
process of compression molding. From this sheet a dumbbell of
standard dimensions was cut using a cutting die. The dumbbell was
stretched as in the simple tension test and the maximum elongation
(when it breaks) is noted. The maximum force required is also noted.
For the material to pass this test, using a dumbbell of the standard
dimensions, the maximum tensile stress must be above 35MPa and the
elongation must be more than 400%.
(3)Chemical tests: From 3 selected dowels, material
was scraped to perform the following chemical
tests
a) Melt Flow Index (MFI) Material was fed into the
melt flow apparatus and heated to a temperature
of about 190 C, which is well above the melting
point of HDP. Pressure was applied with the help
of a weight measuring 5 kgs. At first, the molten
material was allowed to flow for some time. Then
after removing this initial amount of material, we
start a stopwatch and collect whatever material

flows in 10 minutes. The collected

material was weighed in a single pan
balance. The HDP used was expected
to have an MFI 0.1g/10min.
b)
Specific Gravity Testing The specific
gravity of the material was calculated
using a single pan balance by
measuring the weights of a fixed
amount of material in air and in
respectively. The specific gravity of is
known to be. So, the specific gravity of
Figure 3. Apparatus
the HDP used can be calculated. For the
required for MFI test and
Specific Gravity test
material to pass, it must have a
minimum specific gravity of at least 0.945.
c) Melting Point Testing (Hot Plate Method) A small
Figure 4.
piece of the
Apparatus for
material is kept on a flat surface, a
drop of silicon oil is put on top of it
and then it is covered by a glass
slide. The flat surface (hot plate) is
heated till the material melts and
the oil begins to flow uniformly. The
temperature at which this happens
is noted as the melting point of the
material which must lie between
135C and 137.5C.
Figure 5. Melting Point
Apparatus

Ash Percentage Testing The material used

a maximum ash percentage of 0.5 %.

had

Printing
(1) Silk screen printing: using this process
only one color can be printed at a time,
so
the
process
is
time
consuming
and is used
for
printing
labels
with
only one or
two
colors.
Surface heat
treatment of
the products is required before printing
in order to ensure better adhesion of
colors to the surface.

(2) Shrink sleeving: the labels are put on

the container and passed through a
machine where they get heated and the
label shrinks and adheres to the
container surface.
(3) Heat transfer labelling (HTL): The colors
to be printed are transferred from a plastic
surface to the container surface when the
two come in contact with a heated rubber
surface.