Organo-rib

Project background

In the field of lightweight construction, the functionalization of organic sheets through the injection moulding process is on the rise and will play an important role in reducing weight in the future, e.g. in the mobile industry. The project combines two technologies, near-contour, variothermal temperature control with organic sheet reinforcement in the injection molding process.

The integration of local and near-contour variothermal heat reduces the residual cooling time and thus increases the efficiency of the entire process. In addition, the bond adhesion is increased due to the possible local, variable temperature input into the organic sheet in the closed injection mold.

The project includes the design and production of two molds to investigate the bond adhesion of injection-molded rib structures on organic sheets, as well as process development through parameter study and process monitoring using a suitable measuring system. The bond adhesion is investigated as a function of the different temperature control systems.

Project objective

The aim of the project is to use near-contour variothermal temperature control to optimize the bond between the injection-moulded material and the organic sheet. This results in the following sub-goals:

Development of design guidelines for injection-molded rib structures
• Evaluation of the main factors influencing bond adhesion
• Influencing the bond strength through near-contour variothermal tempering
• Reducing the cycle times

Innovation

The challenge in this project is to integrate variothermal temperature control into the process cycle and into the newly designed tools, with additional useful sensor technology. A further challenge is the heating and handling of the organic sheets in the process cycle and the evaluation of the factors influencing the bond adhesion.