ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN PLASTIC

INJECTION MOLDING

GUIDE, PRESENTED BY,

Mr. DIDYMOSE POOVATHUMKAL AJAY KRISHNA R
ASST. PROFESSOR S7-MECHANICAL
DEPT.OF MECHANICAL ROLL NO: 3
ENGINEERING
VISAT
VISAT
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 CONTENTS
Topics2 Slide
number

Introduction 3
Injection moulding 5
Injection moulding process 6
Energy consumption during injection moulding 13
Relationship between cycle time and sec 16
Experiment set-up 17
Selection of process parameter 20
Result 22
References 25

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 INTRODUCTION
• It is a Case study which Energy is consumed during Plastic Injection Moulding
• Injection moulding is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting
molten material into a mould
• In Plastic Injection Moulding Plastic is melted in the machine and then injected
into a mold under high pressure There, the material is cooled, solidified.
• Several products such as mobile phones, computers and automobiles contain
injection-moulded components

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Fig. 1

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 INJECTION MOULDING
• Injection moulding has become the most popular technique for plastic processing due to
its high efficiency and cost effectiveness.
• This forming manufacturing technique can be used to produce components with complex
geometries from polymer materials..
• Injection moulding machines comprise three main components:
1. Clamping unit: which serves to mount the mould,
2. Injection unit: That is responsible for the feeding and melting of the polymer inside the
barrel at a specific temperature and injecting the material into the mould to form the
desired shape,
3. Control unit: whereby the moulding process parameters are defined. The injection
moulding process also requires peripheral equipment such as a hopper, dryer unit and
mould temperature control unit
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INJECTION MOULDING PROCESS

Fig. 2

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INJECTION MOULDING PROCESS

Fig.3

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1. CLAMPING

An injection molding machine consists of three basic parts; the mold plus the
clamping and injection units. The clamping unit is what holds the mold under
pressure during the injection and cooling. Basically, it holds the two halves of the
injection mold together.

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2. INJECTION
• During the injection phase, plastic material ,usually in the form of pellets, are
loaded into a hopper on top of the injection unit
• The pellets feed into the cylinder where they are heated until they reach molten
form
• Within the heating cylinder there is a motorized screw that mixes the molten
pellets and forces them to end of the cylinder. Once enough material has
accumulated in front of the screw, the injection process begins.
• The molten plastic is inserted into the mold through a sprue, while the pressure
and speed are controlled by the screw.

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3. DWELLING

The dwelling phase consists of a pause in the injection process. The molten plastic
has been injected into the mold and the pressure is applied to make sure all of the
mold cavities are filled.

4. COOLING

The plastic is allowed to cool to its solid form within the mold

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5. MOLD OPENING
The clamping unit is opened, which separates the two halves of the
mold.

6. EJECTION
An ejecting rod and plate eject the finished piece from the mold .

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WORKING

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ENERGY CONSUMPTION DURING INJECTION
MOLDING
Due to its large scale, the injection moulding industry is a large consumer of energy and
hence several studies have been conducted in terms of sustainability in this sector.
The specific energy requirements for manufacturing processes are dynamic depending on
the machine’s state and production stage.
 The different machine states are defined as:
1. Off (no energy consumption),
2. Start/ramp up (the demand for energy spikes due to the turning on of components and
heating up steps)
3. Idle (relatively constant energy consumption after the ramp up phase and machine is
ready to start production),
4. Operation (the actual energy used for the value addition process)
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Energy consumption in injection moulding is distributed across the different
process components.
 Approximately 50% ofthe energy consumed was associated with the drives of the
machine,
 while 20% was consumed by the mould cooling,
10% by the supply of pressurised air,
10% by the spindle heating and
10% by material transport and drying

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• Mianehrow et al. attempted to determine the most important parameters
contributing to energy consumption during injection moulding of polypropylene
using a standard test called the Euromap-60.2.
• Tests were carried out on six hydraulic injection moulding machines
• And their energy profile over one complete cycle was measured in five second
intervals using a TES-3600 power analyser.
• Results showed that the cycle time has a significant impact on the Specific
Energy Consumption (SEC) By reducing the cycle time,
• The operation time of the motors and pumps is also reduced and according to
Muller et al. this can be achieved by reducing the cooling and holding times.

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Table no.1 Relationship between Cycle Time
and SEC

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 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

• This study was performed on a hydraulic BOY 22E injection moulding machine
shown in Figure
• And its ancillary equipment in order to measure the energy consumption
• And generate the corresponding power and Energy profiles of the injection
moulding process.

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• The set up consisted of three main units;
1. The injection moulding machine,
2. The temperature control unit and
3. A chiller unit.
Each of the data loggers were connected to a central computer for the
transfer of data.

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Fig. 4 BOY 22E hydraulic injection moulding machine

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SELECTION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS
It was found that the most energy intensive phases were
• The cooling phase,
• The plasticizing stage
• And holding phase.
The selected process parameters for this study included
1. The Nozzle (Barrel) Temperature,
2. Mould Temperature,
3. Cooling time
4. And Screw Rotational Speed.
The portions of energy consumption per phase are shown in Figure

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Fig. 5 Energy Consumed In Each Phase

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 RESULTS
• The energy data showed that the chiller unit was the main consumer of energy (at
52 percent) followed by the injection moulding machine and TCU respectively.
• The individual consumption patterns of each unit for the 16 runs are shown in
Figure

Fig.6 Energy patterns of machine, chiller and TCU

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Figure 7- Percentage of Energy Consumption of each Unit

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• The results showed that the cooling time had the greatest impact on the
energy consumption,
• while the nozzle temperature also had a significant impact.
• The mould temperature and the screw rotational speed on the other
hand had a negligible effect

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 REFERENCE
1. Stephan Kohlitz, Harald Sundmaeker, Crishoph Herrmann Tim Spiering, "Energy
Efficiency Benchmarking for Injetion Moulding Processes," Sustaining Resilience in
Today's Demanding Environments, vol. 36, no. 36, pp. 45-59, 2014.
2. W.Dewulf, B.Lauwers, J-P.Kruth, J.R.Duflou K.Kellens, "Environmental Impact
Reduction in Discrete Manufacturing: Examples for Non-Conventional Processes,"
Proceedings of the Seventeenth CIRP Conference on Electro Physical and Chemical
Machining (ISEM), vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 27-34, 2013.
3. Catherine Azzaro-Pantel Jean-Pierre Dal Pont, New Approaches to the Process
Industries, The Manufacturing Plant of the Future. London, UK: ISTE Ltd and John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014.
4. H. M Mohd R.M Farizal, "Sustainable Manufacturing in Injection Moulding:
Development of Energy Map," School of Technology & Logistics, University Utara
Malaysia.
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Q&A

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THANK YOU

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