Enhanced efficiency, reduced weight and costs, conservation of resources: Lightweight parts are of interest for many industries, first among them the automotive sector, but also transport and logistics, medical technology and packaging, as well as building services engineering. German injection molding machine manufacturer Arburg has already introduced a number of innovative processes onto the market for the efficient production of lightweight yet strong plastic parts. The latest development is the Profoam physical foaming technique, first presented in 2015, which enables low-distortion parts with a homogeneous foam structure to be produced using conventional injection molding machines.
Working in cooperation with expert partners and universities, Arburg has brought a number of forward-looking lightweight construction processes to maturity. These include Particle-foam Composite Injection Molding (PCIM), in which thermoplastics can be molded onto a foamed primary product, creating a positive bond and enabling additional functions and standard parts (e.g. threads) to be integrated in the part. Fiber Direct Compounding (FDC) makes it possible to produce glass fiber-reinforced lightweight construction parts with individual fiber lengths, fiber content and material combinations in which inexpensive glass fiber rovings can be cut in a side feeder and added directly into the melt. In combination with the overmolding of thermoplastic composite sheets, the FDC process can be used to produce composite parts with additional reinforcements or functions. The spectrum is completed by the new Profoam physical foaming process, which processes fiber-reinforced plastics particularly gently and which uses microcellular structures to achieve significant weight reductions.
Profoam in detail
Arburg has researched the Profoam process in collaboration with the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Aachen (Germany) and developed it to production maturity. Unlike chemical foaming, this physical foaming process entails no risk of mechanical weakening of the parts due to decomposition products and does not corrode or cause soiling of the mold. The single-phase mixture of polymer melt and process gas required for foaming purposes can be generated on conventional injection molding machines with little additional technical equipment.
This article appeared in the March/April issue of Reinforced Plastics. Log in to your free materialstoday.com profile to access the whole article.
Enhanced efficiency, reduced weight and costs, conservation of resources: Lightweight parts are of interest for many industries, first among them the automotive sector, but also transport and logistics, medical technology and packaging, as well as building services engineering. German injection molding machine manufacturer Arburg has already introduced a number of innovative processes onto the market for the efficient production of lightweight yet strong plastic parts. The latest development is the Profoam physical foaming technique, first presented in 2015, which enables low-distortion parts with a homogeneous foam structure to be produced using conventional injection molding machines.
Working in cooperation with expert partners and universities, Arburg has brought a number of forward-looking lightweight construction processes to maturity. These include Particle-foam Composite Injection Molding (PCIM), in which thermoplastics can be molded onto a foamed primary product, creating a positive bond and enabling additional functions and standard parts (e.g. threads) to be integrated in the part. Fiber Direct Compounding (FDC) makes it possible to produce glass fiber-reinforced lightweight construction parts with individual fiber lengths, fiber content and material combinations in which inexpensive glass fiber rovings can be cut in a side feeder and added directly into the melt. In combination with the overmolding of thermoplastic composite sheets, the FDC process can be used to produce composite parts with additional reinforcements or functions. The spectrum is completed by the new Profoam physical foaming process, which processes fiber-reinforced plastics particularly gently and which uses microcellular structures to achieve significant weight reductions.
Profoam in detail
Arburg has researched the Profoam process in collaboration with the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) in Aachen (Germany) and developed it to production maturity. Unlike chemical foaming, this physical foaming process entails no risk of mechanical weakening of the parts due to decomposition products and does not corrode or cause soiling of the mold. The single-phase mixture of polymer melt and process gas required for foaming purposes can be generated on conventional injection molding machines with little additional technical equipment.
This article appeared in the March/April issue of Reinforced Plastics.
