In our last tech tip, we started a three phase discussion about viscosity. The first phase talked about how capillary rheometers are used to characterize the viscosity of plastics at a wide range of shear rates and temperatures. However, due to a variety of reasons most people in the injection molding industry prefer to use a simpler device when talking about the viscosity of a plastic – the Melt Flow Index machine. One should be aware that even though MFI is the dominate method used to characterize how plastic will flow in a mold, it does not actually provide a measure of viscosity.
REVOLUTIONIZING INJECTION MOLDING
TESTIMONIALS
“Of all the training seminars that I have attended over the past 10 years, this one ranks at the top! The explanations of clamp tonnage, cooling strategies, viscosity, and key mold design components are just a few of the takeaways that will be very useful in my job function.”

THOGUS®
Russ Wolff, Business Development Manager
“I was amazed at the amount of expertise and knowledge presented in just two days. Many myths were debunked, numerous scientific explanations for the way we should be thinking about plastic flow were given, and various real-world examples were used to show how plastic flows.”

CAPLUGS®
Don Makowski, Design Engineer