Title: Mechanical and dimensional characterisation of polypropylene injection moulded parts in epoxy resin/aluminium inserts for rapid tooling

Authors: Anderson De Carvalho Fernandes; Adriano Fagali De Souza; Janaina Lisi Leite Howarth

Addresses: Faculdade de Tecnologia SENAI Joinville, R. Arno Waldemar Dohler, 957, Santo Antonio, Joinville, SC, CEP 89218-155, Brazil ' Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Rua Presidente P. de Moraes, 406, Joinville, SC, CEP 89218-000, Brazil ' Programa de Mestrado Profissional em Engenharia Mecânica, Centro Universitário SOCIESC – UNISOCIESC, Rua Albano Schmidt, 333, Joinville, SC, CEP 89206-001, Brazil

Abstract: The current paper proposes a new hybrid mould manufactured by casting with epoxy resin and aluminium. After manufacturing, polypropylene parts were injected using the proposed mould. The mechanical properties and dimensional deviation were assessed from the injected parts, in order to evaluate the proposed mould. Besides, comparing with the real application, similar parts were injected using a mould manufactured in AISI P20 steel (ordinary mould). The results show that unless the hardness occurs there is no significant difference between the parts injected using both moulds, in terms of yield strength, maximum strength and Young modulus. The geometric deviation of the parts injected using the mould manufactured with AISI P20 steel showed a bit lower shrinkage compared to those parts injected with the mould manufactured with epoxy/Al. These results show that epoxy/Al moulding blocks can be a high-quality alternative for rapid tooling for manufacturing short series of products.

Keywords: injection moulding; rapid tooling; epoxy resin; aluminium inserts; polypropylene parts; additive manufacturing; casting; yield strength; maximum strength; Young's modulus; shrinkage.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2016.073618

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2016 Vol.52 No.1/2, pp.37 - 52

Received: 01 Nov 2014
Accepted: 13 Mar 2015

Published online: 14 Dec 2015 *

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