Modelling the energy consumption in the injection moulding process Online publication date: Wed, 23-Dec-2015
by Inês Ribeiro; Paulo Peças; Elsa Henriques
International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing (IJSM), Vol. 3, No. 4, 2015
Abstract: Plastic is one of the most widely used materials and injection moulding is the most common manufacturing process to produce plastic parts. Although injection moulding may appear harmless regarding energy consumption, the large scale of this process makes its impacts especially significant and even minor efficiency improvements may lead to high overall energy savings. Moreover, energy consumption affects not only the manufacturing costs but also the manufacturing environmental impact and so it is a critical component in any overall sustainability strategy. This paper presents a model to estimate in an early design phase the energy consumption in the production of injection moulding parts. The proposed model is sensitive to different part designs, different machines and process conditions. An energy balance is proposed, comprising two components, a thermodynamic model and an empirical machine model, integrating coefficients sensitive to both part design and machine characteristics.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing (IJSM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com