On‐line melt temperature measurements for polymer injection molding through an instrumented annular duct
Résumé
Abstract Polymer processing requires reliable monitoring equipment to ensure product quality, improve energy efficiency and apply advanced control strategies. This work tests an instrumented annular duct as a nozzle on the downstream side of the screw‐barrel to analyze the thermal behavior of the polymer flow in an injection molding machine. The plasticization step is first studied, and then virtual injection molding cycles are performed. The measurements via the instrumented annular duct show that the melt temperature decreases during fast production, due to the lack of residence time in the barrel for the material to be sufficiently heated by conduction. The instrumented annular duct also enables detection of changes in melt temperature over time during a single injection. Moreover, the experiments prove the robustness of the temperature measurements in an annular geometry for process monitoring.