Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

Laboratory Activity (2010)

Unit: Materials and Manufacture 2 (U15585)

Student Number: Student Name:

Submission Date: Mark:

Title: Thermoplastics and Injection Moulding

This laboratory activity consists of six tasks. At the end of these tasks, the student
should be able to appreciate two thermoplastics (HDPE and PS) and their manufacturing
by injection moulding.

Learning Outcomes:
• To understand the basic processes involved in injection moulding.
• To identify the parts and their functions in an injection moulding machine and mould.
• To appreciate the common operations involved in an injection moulding process.
• To explore features and differences between amorphous and semi-crystalline
plastics.
Student Input:
Students are expected to actively participate in the lab activity, to complete six tasks
and to submit a report.
Submission:
The report should be prepared using Microsoft Word and must be submitted to the
Department Office (A1-12) before the deadline given by the lecturer at the lab session.
Assessment:
Assessment on this activity will be based on student’s performance during the
laboratory session and the quality of the report submitted. The marking criteria is listed
as follows:
70-100 Active participation and very good understanding of different aspects of
thermoplastics and injection moulding; High quality lab report in which all
tasks are satisfactorily dealt with.
60-69 Good understanding and good quality lab report in which all tasks are
reasonably dealt with.
50-59 Good efforts in understanding and presentation but has difficulties in some
tasks.
40-49 Attendance at laboratory session but unsatisfactory attempt to follow
laboratory procedure and record relevant results.
1-39 Attendance at laboratory session but poor participation and failing in
submitting an acceptable report.

You can have an electronic copy of this lab sheet at http://www.port.ac.uk/composites/Teaching or go to

L:\Technology\Student\MechEng\ZhangzY\Undergradute

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Task 1: [10 Marks]
(a) Two thermoplastics will be injection moulded in this lab activity. They are High
Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polystyrene (PS), respectively. Write the
chemical reactions of synthesising HDPE and PS by addition polymerisation;

Addition polymerisation of HDPE

Addition polymerisation of PS

(b) The following thermoplastics are commonly used for injection moulding; Fill in the
table to show what they stand for and their structural features;

Morphology
Abbreviation Full Name
Amorphous Semi-crystalline
LDPE
HDPE
PP
PS Polystyrene
HIPS
ABS
PVC
PC
PA
PET
PBT
PMMA
PTFE

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Task 2: [10 Marks]
Below is a drawing of an injection moulding machine. Identify each part (six in total) in
this injection moulding machine and briefly discuss its functions.

i.

ii.

iii.

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.
Iv.

v.

vi.

Task 3: [10 Marks]

Below is a drawing of an injection mould.

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Label each part (seven in total) and briefly discuss its functions.
i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

vi and vii.

Task 4: [10 Marks]

Temperature is an important controlling parameter to successfully manufacture parts by
injection moulding. Two temperature control schemes are implemented to illustrate the
effect of temperature on moulded parts;
(a) Fill in the table below to illustrate the temperature scheme in setup A and set-up B
and weigh the moulded parts;

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 Setup Temperature (o C) Weight of injection
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 moulded parts (g)
Plunger Probe Barrel Screw
Setup A
Setup B

(b) Sketch the injection moulded parts manufactured by two different temperature set-
ups;
Setup A Setup B

(c) Briefly discuss the possible solutions to resolving the incomplete mould filling
problem.

Task 5: [10 Marks]

Dimension accuracy and consistency are important for injection moulded parts. The
mould cavity dimension is shown below. It is expected that the moulded parts should be

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different from the cavity when the molten plastics are cooling down and consolidating in
the cavity.

(a) Measure the dimensions of an injection moulded HDPE part and a PS part and
compare them to the dimensions of the mould cavity;
Length L (mm) Width W (mm) Thickness
L1 L2 L3 W1 W2 W3 T (mm)
Cavity 50.20 22.70 15.20 30.20 22.20 16.20 10.05
HDPE
PS

(b) Briefly discuss what would cause the dimensional reduction of the moulded parts
compared to the cavity and why dimensional reductions in HDPE and PS parts are
different.

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(c) Briefly discuss possible solutions to dealing with the shrinkage.

Task 6: [50 Marks]

Both HDPE and PS are manufactured by injection moulding in this laboratory activity;
(a) Briefly discuss the differences between HDPE and PS in the context of their
chemical structures, processing features, properties, attributes and applications;
(b) Briefly discuss why HDPE is semi-crystalline and PS is amorphous;
(c) Sketch the microstructures of PS and HDPE at ambient and their manufacturing
temperatures;
(d) Recycling plastics are becoming increasingly important. Briefly discuss
methodologies which can be employed to identify and differentiate HDPE and PS
so they can be separated and sorted for recycling purpose;
(e) The physical and mechanical performance of PS can be modified and enhanced by
co-polymerisation of styrene with other monomers. ABS is a copolymer of three
monomers, namely Acrylonitrile (A), Butadiene (B) and Styrene (S). Briefly discuss
general properties and characteristics of ABS resin and each monomer’s
contributions to these properties and characteristics of ABS resin.

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You are welcome to make some recommendations and comments on this lab activity.

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