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Effect of pet parison size on injection moulding mould design

Article in Jurnal Teknologi · September 2015

DOI: 10.11113/jt.v76.5702

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Jurnal
Full Paper
Teknologi
EFFECT OF PET PARISON SIZE ON INJECTION Article history
Received
MOULDING MOULD DESIGN 31 January 2015
Received in revised form
Najiy Rizal Suriani Rizal, Aidah Jumahat*, Ummu Raihanah 30 April 2015
Accepted
Hashim, Mohd Sobri Omar
31 May 2015

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi *Corresponding author

Mara, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia aidahjumahat@salam.uitm.edu.my

Graphical abstract Abstract

Injection molding is one of the most popular manufacturing processes for producing
good finishing plastic products with low cost and high volume production, especially
for the production of plastic bottles. In order to produce high quality plastic bottle
with specific size, the injection moulding mould need to be properly designed. This
study is aimed to design injection moulding mould for producing three different sizes
of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) parison. The actual dimensions of a commercial
bottle preform of parisan of 25g weight were measured. PET was used as
thermoplastic material because it has good strength and light weight properties. The
designing process involved two primary components; (1) Female section consists of
cavity plate as the main component and (2) male section consists of core plate as
the main component. The effect of parisan size on the mould design was evaluated.
Three different designs of female and male sections were constructed using CATIA
software based on 15g, 20g and 30g parisan weight. The designs were also
compared to the existing mould system of 25g PET parisan. It was shown that the
design of insert cavity of female section and core cavity of male section were highly
influenced by the size of the preform.

Keywords: Mould design, injection moulding, parison, thermoplastic

© 2015 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved

1.0 INTRODUCTION Injection molding process involves melting plastic

pellets and injecting it through a core pin forming a
Injection moulding is one of the manufacturing round hollow tube called a parisan. The parisan is
processes to produce parts using injection technique then transferred to a blow molding station where
of a material into a mould. Thermoplastics are the compressed air is injected into the tube forcing the
most frequent materials used for injection moulding. plastic to the interior walls of the mold forming the
In injection moulding, the material chosen is fed into plastic bottle. In order to facilitate the moulding
a heated barrel for mixing process before forced into process, the parts to be injected must be carefully
a mould cavity to let it cools and hardens according designed. All these aspects need to be taken into
the part configuration [1-3]. The product is produced consideration during the design process; the material
by injecting thermoplastic materials into a mould. This used for the part, the desired final shape, the
process is greatly preferred in producing plastic features of the part, the material of the mould, and
components because it can convert thermoplastic also the capacity of the moulding machine [2, 4].
into simple or complex shapes of hollow parts with Due to its capability, the technology on injection
high dimensional accuracy at very short cycle times. moulding has been improved continuously. This is also

76:6 (2015) 115–119 | www.jurnalteknologi.utm.my | eISSN 2180–3722 |

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corresponded to many factors which influenced the 2.0 EXPERIMENTAL

quality of injection molded parts, such as the
property of plastics, mould structure and 2.1 Disassemble Process
manufacturing accuracy, injection machine, and
injection parameters [5-7]. The material which is This is a reverse engineering technique where the first
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is reviewed to step is to disassemble the existing mould in order to
understand its properties and behavior. Polyethylene obtain the actual mould design for commercial use.
terephthalate (PET) exists both as a semi-crystalline The mould was disassembled into several parts
(opaque and white) thermoplastic and an because there are many components in this mould
amorphous (transparent). Usually, it has good and in order to measure each and every dimension
resistance to solvents, acids and mineral oils, but not of the components. The disassemble process was
to bases. The semi-crystalline PET has good ductility, carried out by two primary components which are
strength, hardness and stiffness while the amorphous disassemble of female part and male part. The tools
PET has better ductility [8]. It also can be recycled for needed to carry out this process are chain lock, allen
other applications and has good process ability. In key, hammer, vernier caliper, HDI advance 3D
this study, semi-crystalline PET was used to produce scanner and measurement tape and other
plastic bottles. measurement apparatus.
There are several components in injection
moulding machine which are hopper, barrel, screw, 2.2 Dimensionaling Process
nozzle, mould and others. Mould is one of the most
crucial parts which consist of tie bars, stationary and The dimensions of each component need to be
moving platens, as well as molding plates that house measured. All the data or dimensions were needed
the cavity, sprue and runner systems, ejector pins, to create an accurate design in CAD/CAM software.
and cooling channels. Mould system is an assembly This dimension can be divided into two part; critical
of platens and molding plates typically made of tool part dimension and normal part dimension.
steel. The mould system shapes the plastics inside the Normal part dimension is the part that quite
mould cavity (or matrix of cavities) and ejects the simple and can easily be measured. Thus, the tools
moulded part(s). The stationary platen is attached to needed to be used were only vernier caliper and
the barrel side of the machine and is connected to meter tape. Meter tape was used to measure the
the moving platen by the tie bars. The cavity plate is straight part of mould, while vernier caliper was used
generally mounted on the stationary platen and to measure the part that contain complicated shape
houses the injection nozzle. The core plate moves such as hole in order to get the depth and diameter
with the moving platen guided by the tie bars. of the hole.
Occasionally, the cavity plate is mounted to the As for the critical part of dimension, it focuses on
moving platen and the core plate and a hydraulic PET preform part. It has complicated shape at the
knock-out (ejector) system is mounted to the neck. The angle and length of the thread as well as
stationary platen [9, 10]. There are two types of the diameter inside the PET preform are hardly
mould which two plate mould and three plate measured due to their uneven shape. A 3D scanner
mould. The vast majority of moulds consist essentially has to be used to get the accurate dimension of the
of two halves. This kind of mould is used for parts that PET preform. For the outer side of PET preform, the
are typically gated on or around their edge, with the product was scanned and the dimension of the part
runner in the same mold plate as the cavity. Three was generated. For the inner part of PET preform, the
plate moulds is typically used for parts that are gated product needed to be cut into half section in order
away from their edge. The runner is in two plates, to get the inner dimension. The hacksaw was used to
separate from the cavity and core [10]. cut the preform before the scanner generated the
PET has a good clarity and not leaving any taste dimension in details.
in the water where these properties are important for
plastic bottle application. PET has good barrier 2.3 Modeling Process
properties against carbon dioxide and oxygen. Its
physical properties and chemical inertness made it 2.3.1 Existing Mould
suitable in food packaging applications especially in
drinking water. Many researchers have studied the A 3D Model of existing mould was created by using
technology or parameters to enhance the quality of CAD/CAM software. In this study, CATIA was used as
products produced by injection moulding. This study modeling software. Each component was created
is aimed to design the injection moulding mould with part by part using the dimension that has been
three different sizes of PET parisan and analyze the measured before. The female section part was
results created first which consists of the top plate, runner
plate, cavity plate, insert part, cavity insert lock,
manifold/heater, and heater rod element. Then, the
male part section which consists of the core plate,
the spacer plate, the bottom plate, the core cavity,
117 Najiy Rizal Suriani Rizal et al. / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 76:6 (2015) 115–119

the valve ejector, the packing/wedges, the slider and it was reduced to 19mm at the core cavity
insert, and slider block was created. which can be seen in Fig 2a. Another dimension that
has been changed was the core cavity. The total
2.3.2 New Mould length of existing mould core cavity was 88.67mm
and was modified to 88mm for 15g preform. This
A new model of mould was created based on the modification can be seen as in Fig 2b.
modifications of PET parisan dimension. The first parts
that have been modified are the dimensions of insert
and core cavity. The existing PET preform size of 25g i ii
was modified into the new preform size of 15g,
followed by 20g and 30g.

3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Insert dimension in cavity plate

Figure 3 The dimension comparison on PET preform for insert

of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii) the modified
preform design (15g)

Figure 1 Overall assembly view of injection moulding which

consists of female section consists of cavity plate. i ii

Core dimension in core plate

Figure 2 Overall assembly view of injection moulding which Figure 4 The dimension comparison on PET preform for core
consists of male section consists of core plate. cavity of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii) the
modified preform design (15g)
Figure 1 shows the existing mould that was used to
fabricate 25g PET preform (parisan). For the 15g PET Another size of PET preform that has been
preform, the outer dimension of insert is still the same investigated was 20g preform. Similar as 15g preform,
as the existing insert (25g PET preform). The only the insert dimension remain the same as the existing
dimension that has been changed was the size of insert. However, the insert cavity has to be changed
mould diameter of the preform in the insert cavity. because of the different size of PET preform. The inner
The diameters at the neck of preform were both diameter of insert cavity for a new 20g PET preform
25mm, but the length of preform cavity was modified was modified from 25mm to 20mm. The dimension of
from 70mm to 69.2mm. It can be seen that when the core cavity also needs to be changed according to
size of preform was changed, the design of the the size of preform. The total length of core cavity for
mould was also changed as well as the shape of the a new 20g PET preform was increased after the
preform cavity. The existing cavity has constant modification. Fig 3 shows the comparison on
diameter from neck to bottom, however for 15g dimension for 20g preform.
preform cavity, the diameter at the neck was 25mm,
118 Najiy Rizal Suriani Rizal et al. / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 76:6 (2015) 115–119

the insert size. The cavity plate support and hold the
i ii insert in the female part. The size of cavity plate is
affected by the size of the insert. Once it is larger, the
cavity also needs to be modified to a larger size. Fig
4b shows the comparison between existing cavity
plate dimension and the new cavity plate of 30g PET
preform.

i ii

Insert dimension in cavity plate

Figure 5 The dimension comparison on PET preform for insert

of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii) the modified
preform design (20g) Insert dimension in cavity plate

Figure 7 The dimension comparison on PET preform for insert

of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii) the modified
preform design (30g)

ii

(b) Core dimension in core plate

Cavity plate dimension
Figure 6 The dimension comparison on PET preform core
cavity of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii) the
modified preform design (20g) Figure 8 The dimension comparison on PET preform for
cavity plate of (i) the existing preform design (25g) and (ii)
The third size of PET preform that has been studied the modified preform design (30g)
was 30g preform. As for this case, several parts need
to be changed in their dimension due to the fact
that the size of cavity affects the thickness of the
cavity plate. Components that need to be modified
were insert size, cavity plate, and core cavity. The
insert size was modified from 85mm to 113mm. This is
due to the length of the insert cavity for 30g PET
preform is 103mm, which is longer than the old insert
length (85mm) as shown in Fig 4a. Cavity plate was
also changed because of the modification made on
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4.0 CONCLUSION References

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