First progress of integrating projects 2

Small production plastic injection machine

Introduction (Description and definition of the problem, subject matter, and

objectives)

Since the creation of plastic from petroleum (more or less end of World War II), more than
8300 tons have been created around the world, amount of plastic that can be compared with
the Empire State Building in New York, but multiplied for 25,000. This is a very worrying
phenomenon not only because of the amount that is produced, also because of the amount
that goes to the sea or that simply does not have use. According to the national geographic
of the 8300 "some 6,300 million tons are now waste, and 79% of them are in landfills or in
the natural environment." In addition, only 9% of the plastic is recycled. Currently the
production of plastic does not intend to slow down since this material is one of the most
economical and reliable both for packing and for packing different foods or objects, for this
reason it is important to start a change and what better way to generate it by proposing an
alternative of solution within the reach of all people, therefore this project aims to publicize
a machine that allows recycle plastic that we use in our daily lives, plastic left over, and
transform it into a totally new object to avoid using of more plastic than is already produced.
It should be noted that there is not a solid enough recycling culture, just buy us, throw away
and buy again, therefore, it is important to complement this type of work generating
awareness in society about this type of phenomena that apparently is invisible but that It is
really serious.

The following document aims to show the first phase of the construction of a plastic injection
molding machine, which consists in designing the first model of the fuel transfer, its molds
and also its mechanical parts, for which the SolidWorks 2018 CAD program was used. We
consulted different documents about this type of machines so we could adapt it to our needs.
As a result, a very interesting design was obtained that can be a solution for small companies
or even for those fans who want to design their molds to make their own pieces of plastic.

https://www.ecoticias.com/residuos-reciclaje/21178/Reciclado-de-Plasticos-Como-se-
Reciclan
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-42304901
 Overall objective

Design, with the help of a CAD program, a prototype injection machine with its mold, to
create a figure of at least 10g

Specific objectives
• Consult different prototypes and designs that have been created in the industry, in addition
to theses and degree projects that may be useful for our design.
• Adapt the aforementioned designs to a smaller scale for a homemade, non-industrial
production
• Select the appropriate materials (price / benefit), for the construction of the fuel transfer

Theoretical framework (description of the physical principles that govern the

behavior of the phenomenon analyzed).

The injection molding basically consists of melting a plastic material under suitable
conditions and introducing it under pressure in the cavities of a mold, where it is cooled to a
temperature at which the pieces can be extracted without deforming. The great development
that injection machines have suffered in recent years has been influenced not only by the
growing number of materials and type of them available, but also by the growing demand
for plastic items. Many of the common materials such as PS, PA, PVC, PMMA, etc., were
developed in the decade of the 1930s. Injection molding is normally applied to thermoplastic
resins although, with certain modifications, it can be applied to thermosetting materials
already synthetic elastomers.

The injection process is divided by two very important parts, the fusion of the material and
the injection, these two processes are what define the wide variety of existing injection
molding machines and in addition to their use for different productivity, for this reason in the
following section will define the different types of existing injectors, geometries and also to.
Types of injection machines:
Piston machine: In these machines the material, in the form of granules or pellets, enters
the heating cylinder through the feed hopper located in the rear part of the cylinder. The
material is heated and melted in the heating cylinder at the same time as it circulates towards
the front of the latter, pushed in successive times by the strokes of a piston that moves tightly
in the heating cylinder. This piston acts as an injection piston and forces the molten material
to pass from the heating cylinder to the mold cavities, thus carrying out the second phase of
the process. Therefore, in these machines, both injection and fusion are performed in a
single cylinder designed to meet these two purposes.
The heat transfer in the heating cylinder of these machines is quite deficient. Given the low
thermal conductivity of plastics, in practice it is difficult to heat them quickly and uniformly,
the problem of heat transmission is further complicated by the limitation in the time of
permanence of the material inside the cylinder. Another way to increase the heating surface
could be to make the heating chamber too long, and at the same time decrease its diameter.
However, in this type of cylinders unnecessarily increase the pressure losses and the flow
resistance of the polymer, so there really has not been a tendency to build machines with
this type of cameras.

Figure 1. Piston injection molding machine

Source: (Marcilla, Polymer Technology)
http://iq.ua.es/TPO/Tema5.pdf
Piston machines with pre-classification: For the aforementioned reasons, piston machines
were gradually replaced by injection machines with pre-plating. In these machines, the
melting and plasticizing stages are independent, so that the design of each of the zones of
the machine is more appropriate. The idea of pre-plasticizing is to heat the material in a
heating chamber or cylinder and transfer the already hot material (referred to as plasticized
material) from this chamber to the injection cylinder. Generally, two types of preplasticizing
machines are distinguished: piston and spindle, depending on whether they use one or
another element in the pre-plasticising chamber. In addition, they can be parallel or at an
angle depending on the relative arrangement of the plasticizing and injection cylinders. In
piston and angle pre-sorting machines, like the one in figure 2. (Marcilla, Polymer
Technology)

Figure 2. Piston and angle pre-sorting machines

the plasticized material is transferred to the injection cylinder when it is empty. During the
injection of the material into the mold, the injection piston itself acts as a closing valve for
the plasticizing cylinder. Machines with this arrangement have the drawback that it is
necessary to have two different structures to support the stresses originating in each
chamber.
In piston and line pre-sorting machines such as that in Figure 5.5, the body of the pre-
plasticizing cylinder acts as an injection piston once the injection cylinder has finished filling.
The plasticized material enters the injection cylinder through the center drilling of the
injection piston, where a valve is placed to prevent material recoil during the injection period.
Machines of this type offer the advantage of their symmetry and that of forming compact
machines, together with a greater economy of construction compared to the machines of
pre-plasticizing at an angle.

Figure 3. Preplasticizing machine with piston and in line

Spindle machines: The spindle machines provide a uniform heating of the material, as well
as a homogeneous mixing. In these machines the injection of the material is done from the
plasticizing chamber, which is provided with a spindle similar to that of the extrusion
machines. The heating of the material is therefore produced in a similar way as in the case
of extrusion machines: the rotation of the screw transforms part of the mechanical energy
into heat by friction, and in addition the hot walls of the cylinder contribute to increase the
temperature by conduction. The efficiency in heat transfer of these machines is very high
compared to piston machines. However, here, unlike what happens in extrusion machines,
the screw also moves axially to perform the injection. The operation of these machines in
the transport of solids, plasticization and transport of the melt is analogous to what was
studied in the extrusion process. At present they are, by far, the most used, so from now on
we will refer to them as "conventional machines". (Marcilla, Polymer Technology)

Figure 4. Spindle injection machine

b. Geometry of the injectors:

In the plastics industry there are many types of injectors that vary in size depending on the
production they need, in addition to their injection and work form as we will see in the
following image (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Geometry of the injectors
(Design of a plastic injection machine Cesar C, Alejandro M)
http://tangara.uis.edu.co/biblioweb/tesis/2007/124274.pdf
In the industrial world it is more common to see the use of the horizontal work machine, this
due to the ease they have to be automated as mechanical elements are used such as motors
and screws, these can, together, generate movement of the material without needing large
amounts of force or require manual movements. The one that follows in popularity is the
vertical injection, this is used for low production because it requires a manual movement to
perform the injection, using pistons and other elements that help generate the necessary
pressure to inject the material into the mold .
For the project, horizontal injection was chosen, since as mentioned before it is easier to
automatically control its production
c. The injection cycle:
An injection machine usually has different times of individual jobs that together make up
what is known as the injection cycle, this cycle can vary from one machine to another, but
usually there is a predefined cycle in which you see As each individual work is distributed,
this cycle that will be shown in figure 6, will serve as a reference of times of each work, more
exactly in what proportions it should be distributed.
Figure 6. Relative times of an injection cycle
It should be noted that not all of these machines have all of these types of jobs, since in
some they are simply or are necessary, as for example in a simple spindle machine, it does
not require a rework time of the injection unit.

d. Closing force of the injector unit:

The closing force is necessary to consider the force necessary to keep the mold closed
during the injection process, it is not always necessary to use the maximum closing force of
the machine, because this can represent an unnecessary expenditure of energy and
therefore so much, of money.
For the case of the polymers that flow easily, the injection pressure is lower compared to
those that flow less, this causes the closing unit to have to apply greater force to keep the
mold closed, during the injection of the polymer (which stops our case is going to be low
density polypropylene). (Design of a plastic injection machine Cesar C, Alejandro M)
Injection capacity is understood as the maximum amount of material that a machine is
capable of injecting in a single mold in a mold at a certain pressure. The injection capacity
provides an idea of the possibilities of the considered machine. In the catalogs of the
manufacturers of injection machines, the injection capacity is sometimes indicated as the
maximum weight, expressed in grams, that can be injected in a single cycle. (Marcilla,
Polymer Technology)

CAPACITY OF CLOSING FORCE CAPACITY OF CLOSING CAPACITY OF CLOSING

(kN) INJECTOR UNITS (g)
Low 100 to 800 15 to 350
Average (Common) 800 to
1500 350 to 1000
High (Very special cases) 1500
up to 4000 +1000
FORCE (kN) INJECTOR UNITS FORCE (kN) INJECTOR
(g) UNITS (g)
Low 100 to 800 15 to 350 Low 100 to 800 15 to 350
Average (Common) 800 to Average (Common) 800 to
1500 350 to 1000 1500 350 to 1000
High (Very special cases) High (Very special cases)
1500 up to 4000 +1000 1500 up to 4000 +1000
Table 2. Combinations of closing and injection units for plastic injection machines.
Source: Battenfeld Virtual Catalogs (Germany)

e. Choice of plastics:
In this section we can see the different existing plastics and most importantly, its melting
point, for this section it is not so important to define each of the plastics, because for the
project only going to be using low density polypropylene, so only a detailed explanation of
this plastic is going to be made.

 Tm - crystalline melting temperature (some plastics have no crystallinity and are said
to be amorphous).

 Tg - glass transition temperature (the plastic becomes brittle below this temperature).

 Td - heat distortion temperature under a 66 psi load.

  Cte - coefficient of linear thermal expansion.

 Tensile Strength - load necessary to pull a sample of the plastic apart.

 Compressive Strength - load necessary to crush a sample of the plastic.

 Density - aka specific gravitymass of plastic per unit volume.

Table 3. Physical properties of plastics.
Source: (Precious plastic, Hakkens D)

Each of the above plastics have their own "seals" that are what identify them from any
plastic, these "seals" can be found in the plastics we use and thus we identify what type of
plastic it is. There are other ways to identify what type of plastic it is, whether by the way it
is burned directly with the fire, or its buoyancy in different liquids, but the most practical is to
directly identify its symbol.
Figure 7. Symbols of the different plastics
Source: (Precious plastic, Hakkens D)
For the project is going to be use of low density polypropylene because its characteristics is
one of the most affordable plastic when it comes to melting, since these have a melting point
too low compared to the different plastics we observed in Table 3
Low density polyethylene is a polymer of the olefinic polymer family, such as polypropylene
and polyethylenes. It is a thermoplastic polymer formed by repetitive units of ethylene. It is
designated as LDPE (for its acronym in English, Low Density Polyethylene) or as LDPE, in
Spanish.

Like the rest of the thermoplastics, the LDPE can be recycled. It is identified with the
following symbol:

Figure 8. Low density polypropylene

Low density polyethylene is a polymer with a highly branched chain structure; this makes it
have a density lower than that of the HDPE (0.92-0.94 g / cm3).
Low density polyethylene is a polymer that is characterized by:
• Good thermal and chemical resistance. It can withstand temperatures of 80 ° C
continuously and 95 ° C for a short period of time.
• Good impact resistance
• It is milky in color, it can become transparent depending on its thickness.
• Very good processability, that is, it can be processed by the shaping methods used for
thermoplastics, such as injection and extrusion.
• It is more flexible than high density polyethylene.
• Presents difficulties to print, paint or paste on it.
• Density in the environment of 0.910 - 0.940 g / cm3
Some of its applications are:
• Sacks and plastic bags
• Film for greenhouses and other agricultural uses
•Toys
• Household objects, such as glasses, plates, cutlery, ...
• Bottles
• Base for diapers
• Pipes and pipes
• Stretch film
State of the art (documentation that includes title, authors, subject matter and
information relevant to the project)
El diseño que se implemento para nuestro proyecto fue el siguiente:

Model of the injection machine.

A. Cannon model

b. Nozzle model
C. Mold support model

D. Subject mold model

E. Movable mold model

F. Movable support model

G. Hopper model

H. Hopper model

I. Spindle model
alternative solutions, criteria and restrictions, with their respective weighting, for the
selection of alternative solution, selection of alternative, definition of subsystems and
function of each of them
conclusions
bibliography.