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Injection Blow Moulding Single Stage Process – Approach of the Material

Behaviour in Process Conditions and Numerical Simulation

Article  in  Key Engineering Materials · July 2015

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.651-653.805

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Key Engineering Materials Vols 651-653 (2015) pp 805-811 Submitted: 2014-11-28
© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Revised: 2015-02-02
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.651-653.805 Accepted: 2015-02-12

Injection Blow Moulding Single Stage Process – Approach of the

material behaviour in process conditions and Numerical Simulation
Jordan BIGLIONE1,a , Yves BEREAUX1,b , and Jean-Yves CHARMEAU2,c ,
and Renaud G. RINALDI3,d , and Jean BALCAEN2,e , and Sambor CHHAY2,f
1 INSA-Lyon LaMCoS UMR5259, Lyon, France
2 INSA-Lyon IMP UMR5223, Lyon, France
3 INSA-Lyon MATEIS UMR5510, Lyon, France
a
jordan.biglione@insa-lyon.fr, b yves.bereaux@insa-lyon.fr, c jean-yves.charmeau@insa-lyon.fr,
d
renaud.rinaldi@insa-lyon.fr

Keywords: injection blow moulding, finite element method, polypropylene, oscillatory rheometry, dy-
namical mechanical analysis, crystallinity, thickness measurement, random copolymer.

Abstract. Single stage injection blow moulding process, without preform storage and reheat, could be
run on a standard injection moulding machine, with the aim of producing short series of specific hollow
parts. In this process, the preform is being blow moulded after a short cooling time. Polypropylene
(random copolymer) is a suitable material for this type of process. This single stage process intro-
duces temperature gradients, molecular orientation, high stretch rates and high cooling rates. These
constraints lead to a small processing window. In practice, the preform has to remain sufficiently
melted to be blown so that the process takes place between the melting temperature and the crystal-
lization temperature. To investigate the mechanical behaviour in conditions as close to the process
as possible, we ran a series of experiments: First, Dynamical Mechanical Analysis was performed
starting from room temperature up to the vicinity of the melting temperature (149◦ C). Conversely,
oscillatory rheometry was performed from the molten state at 200◦ C and down to the vicinity of the
crystallization temperature (113◦ C). The influence of the shear rate and of the cooling kinetics on the
enhancement of the mechanical properties when starting from the melt is discussed. This enhance-
ment is attributed to the crystallization of the material. The question of the crystallization occurring at
such high stretch rates and high cooling rates remains open. A viscous Cross model has been proved
to be relevant to the problem. Thermal dependence is assumed by an Arrhenius law. The process is
simulated through a finite element code (POLYFLOW software) in the Ansys Workbench framework.
Thickness measurements using image analysis are performed and comparisons with the simulation
results are satisfactory.

Introduction
Injection stretch-blow moulding is a process whereby a preform is first injected by an injection mould-
ing unit, cooled in a mould, stored and later reheated to be stretched-blown into a hollow part [5, 6,
9–11, 15, 16]. In the so called single stage variant of the process, the preform is only blow moulded
shortly after being injection-moulded, therefore avoiding the need for storing and reheating the pre-
form before final shaping. The stretching ensured by the stretching rod in the conventional process is
not needed here due to the preform being close to the bottom of the mould, so that almost no stretch
is needed to fill the mould in this direction. Thus single stage injection blow moulding is an attractive
way to quickly produce parts in small numbers, using standard injection moulding machine with multi
stage tooling. However, setting up a new production can be delayed by the time needed to design a
preform which has to be blown into a part with a good thickness distribution for mechanical strength
and porosity control. Trial and errors result in delays, over-costs and in a preform design which is not
optimal. With the blowing stage being responsible for the part thickness distribution, numerical simu-
lation of this step is key to gain an understanding and a hold on the overall process, and to advance to
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806 Material Forming ESAFORM 2015

the goal of an optimal preform design. However, blow moulding simulation is a complex mechanical
problem as the polymer material is deformed in a rubbery state, above its glass transition and below
its melting point, where its viscous and elastic performances are both relevant. Unlike the conven-
tional process, the material is not heated before being blow-moulded so that its temperature field is a
direct consequence of the preceding injection-moulding stage. The injected preform is cooled in the
mould at a temperature above the crystallization temperature and is then blown. Moreover, thermal
and mechanical coupling are involved due to the thermal dependence of viscosity and to the thermal
gradients and orientation effects remaining from the injection stage [7]. Therefore, our line of work
has been the following for a polypropylene (injection-blow moulding grade):

-Measurement of the viscosity and dynamic moduli at different temperatures under different cool-
ing rates;

-Numerical simulation of the blow moulding stage with temperature coupling;

-Comparison with experimental thickness measured using image analysis techniques.

Material Characterization

Random copolymers are often used in blow moulding processes [4]. An injection blow moulding grade
was chosen, PPR 3221 provided by Total Petrochemical, among other PP grades available for the study
as the most suitable PP grade for the process due to its high viscosity. The melting and crystallization
temperatures have been determined using differential scanning calorimetry at 10◦ C.min−1 : Tm =
149◦ C and Tc = 113◦ C.

A first study consists in investigating the mechanical behaviour of the material through two differ-
ent approaches. On the one hand, oscillatory tensile tests starting from the solid state are done with the
sample being gradually heated. On the other hand, oscillatory shear tests are performed starting from
the molten state with the sample being gradually cooled. The results of these two studies are shown
in figure 1 and highlight the importance of the protocol to characterize the material behaviour in the
process range conditions.

The conventional process, with storage and reheating stage, should be investigated through the
first approach, starting from the solid state [3]. The single stage process presented here has to be in-
vestigated following the second approach, where the material is in its molten state and cooled down.
 Key Engineering Materials Vols. 651-653 807

MechanicalpCharacterizationpofpPPR3221
uniHaxialpsollicitationpinpsolidpstatepandpshearpsollicitationpinpmoltenpstate
1G4
E’pstoragepmoduluspandpE’’plosspmoduluspxMPaD

1G3 ER

1G2 ERR
Melting
DMA
1G1 Gy4,p4,p4GpHz

1GG
RDA
1GH1 4GHz
4Hz
1G
H2 Crystallization
3GRR Gy4Hz
3GR
H3
1G
2G 35 5G 65 8G 95 11G 125 14G 155 17G 185 2GG 215 23G
TemperaturepxoCD

Fig. 1: E’ (black) and E” (blue) moduli obtained from DMA (solid state) compared to 3G’ and 3G”
(melt) from oscillatory shear rheometry vs. Temperature (◦ C)

The rheological behaviour is investigated under shear mode in molten state, using oscillatory par-
allel plates. Frequency sweeps are performed at different temperatures with different waiting times
between two successive measures, which enables the visualization of the cooling rate effect: the longer
the waiting time, the slower the cooling rate. The viscosity is then deduced and the effects of shear,
temperature and waiting time are highlighted.
The Cross model is used to represent the shear thinning behaviour:

aT η0
η= (1)
1 + (aT λγ̇)1−n
With η0 the zero-shear viscosity, λ the relaxation time and n the shear thinning exponent.
The effect of the temperature is taken into account through the use of an Arrhenius law:
Ea
( T1 − T1 )
aT = e R ref (2)

with R the perfect gaz constant, Ea the material activation energy and Tref the reference tempera-
ture.
The validity of the shear-thinning law under the process condition is investigated through the
variation of the waiting time during oscillatory tests. The process involves high cooling rate and high
stretches. The shear-thinning law assumes that the polymer is in its molten state, with an amorphous be-
haviour. If crystallization were to occur during the process, this assumption would not be valid. Waiting
time of 300s, 30s and 0s have been explored, corresponding to average cooling rates of 0.004◦ C.s−1 ,
0.028◦ C.s−1 and 0.067◦ C.s−1 . The results are shown in figure 2.
 808 Material Forming ESAFORM 2015

10-2
100s
E' 100 s-1
10s E'' 10 s-1
10-3 E' 1 s-1
E’ storage modulus normalized
E’’ loss modulus Normalized

E'' 0.1 s-1

0s
E'
E''
10-4

-5
10

10-6
110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155
o
Temperature ( C)

Fig. 2: E’ and E” moduli for different waiting time at different frequencies - each set of data is nor-
malized by the modulus measured at the first temperature imposed

The increase of the moduli is assumed to be the expression of the crystallization. One can see that
the faster the cooling, the lower the temperature of crystallization [2] [8] [12] [14] [13]. Given the
injection-moulding of the preform involve an average cooling rate much above 15◦ C.s−1 , it is safe to
assume that the chosen law is legit.

Simulation Results

The blow-moulding stage is simulated by the use of the FEM commercial software POLYFLOW.
Polyflow is a Finite-Element Method (FEM) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program dedi-
cated to the resolution of fluid problems involving viscous and viscoelastic fluid flows [1]. Polyflow
uses an Eulerian approach with velocity and pressure fields as primary unknowns. These unknowns
are to be supplemented with the location of the free surface bordering the flow in the case of a blow
moulding simulation.
The geometry allows an axisymmetric representation. Two domains are defined: the preform and the
mould. 2D-mesh is used, composed of quadrilateral elements only in the preform.
The computation accounts for non-isothermal conditions. The temperature of the broach is set to 130◦ C
and the average material temperature at the beginning of the simulation is set to 240◦ C.
The air pressure is imposed constant along the inner side of the preform at a value of 2.5 bar. A con-
tact problem is defined between the mould and preform so that the nodes in contact with the mould
stop moving. The parameters of the Cross law and of the Arrhenius law that account for the material
behaviour are presented in table 1.
 Key Engineering Materials Vols. 651-653 809

Table 1: Parameters of the viscosity model:

η0 [Pa.s] λ [s] n Ea [J.mol−1 ] Tref [◦ C]
2.6E 4 1.37 0.35 34 600 180

Figure 3 shows the evolution of the preform during the process.

Fig. 3: Computation results of the blowing stage at different time of the process - the color map
represents the thickness

Six samples have been cut in half and their profiles have been scanned with a resolution of 2400
dpi. The thicknesses are then determined by image analysis: a threshold treatment is applied resulting
in binary images. The edges of the bottle are then detected and the local thicknesses are measured.
The error of the method is estimated at ± 1 pixels, thus 10 µm. Ten thickness repartitions are mea-
sured, corresponding to five bottles. A median repartition is deduced from the ten measurements. This
resulting median profile is used for comparison with the simulation.
The representation of the thickness repartition along the curvilinear abscissa is used to compare
simulation with experimental measurement. As presented in figure 4, the neck region is the most
deviant, due to the simplification of the geometry there.
2

Z1
Z6
Z2
1.5

Z1 Z3
Thicknessz[mm]

Z4
1
Z3
Z5
Z4
Z5
0.5
Z6
Z2

Experiment Simulation
Simulation
Experiment
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Normalizedzlength

Fig. 4: Comparison between experimental and computed thickness repartitions

810 Material Forming ESAFORM 2015

The real neck presents screw threads, so that the cap can close the bottle. The simulation being run
under axisymmetric approach, and this zone not being concerned by blow moulding, it is simplified
and all the thicknesses there are set to be equal to the distance between the inner border to the peak of
the screw threads. Thus, along the neck, thicknesses are overestimated. Moreover, the measurement
method appears to be irrelevant at the upper part of the neck, due to border effects, and underestimates
the thicknesses in this region where the changes in normal directions are abrupt due to the presence of
screw threads. Considering the other regions, there is 82% of concordance with a tolerance of 100µm
but only 53% with a tolerance of 50 µm. The Z5 areas are not well defined. This comes from the lack
of precision in the cutting operation of the bottle. On some individual measurement, the peak value in
this region is observed inside the range of the experimental one, but not in most of the measurements
so that it does not appear in the median profile. The bottle being cut by a saw, the thickness of the tool
edge has great impact on the experimental measurement. The angle of the cutting can lead to some
overestimation too. The bottle is not cut in its exact middle, leading to some errors of measurement
too. In regard to all the sources of error, there is good agreement between the simulated results and
the experimental thicknesses.

Conclusion
A framework has been set up for the mechanical characterization of the material, in the temperature
range of its processing: above its crystallization temperature starting from its molten state. The validity
of the chosen model has been ensured by the visualization of the cooling rate effect on the crystallinity
through shear oscillatory tests. The simulation results shows good agreement with experimental mea-
surement.

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