Original Question: Assuming steel is uniform which cavities will fill first?
Understanding Rheology
Facts about plastic flow that help explain shear imbalances:
Plastic viscosity is affected by shear rate
As shear rate increases, viscosity decreases (non-Newtonian)
Plastic viscosity is also affected by temperature
As temperature increases, viscosity decreases
Plastic has a laminar flow. No turbulence!! Reynolds numbers are often less than 10. Full turbulence requires a Reynolds number of 4000. Transition zone 2300-4000. Highest Shear Rate is just inside the frozen layer
Highest Shear Rate is just inside the frozen layer. Shear-thinning and shear-heating reduces viscosity in these laminates.
Due to the laminar flow, when plastic encounters a feature such as a intersection in a runner system, the hotter, less viscous plastic hugs the corner and travels along the outside wall, creating a cavity to cavity imbalance.
Cross sections of runner channels showing position of higher sheared, hotter, less viscous material in red. Material that has experienced less shear heating is marked with blue.
Mold Number: LinkedIn
Current Conditions:
The redlines again represent the higher sheared, less viscous material; the bluelines shows the less sheared more viscous material. Various melt properties will be distributed to and across the cavities. The various melt properties will result in 2 Flow Groups (FG) as shown below.
Expectations:
Cavities that receive the high sheared, less viscous material will fill before the cavities that will receive the low sheared, more viscous material.
Dimensional variations, due to volumetric and orientation induced shrinkage differences, may result between the cavities as a result in the variation the melt distribution properties
“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
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