Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

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Polymer Testing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest

Optimization process parameters and adaptive quality monitoring injection

molding process for materials with different viscosity
Chi-Wei Su a , Wei-Jie Su b , Feng-Jung Cheng a , Guan-Yan Liou a , Sheng-Jye Hwang a ,∗,
Hsin-Shu Peng b , Hsiao-Yeh Chu c
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
b Department of Mechanical and Computer-Aided Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan
c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kun Shan University, Tainan, Taiwan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Injection molding is a cyclic process of producing plastics products by injecting molten plastic materials. There
Injection molding process is much complexity in the process because it is a highly non-linear process; many factors affect the product
Peak pressure quality after long-run fabrication processes. In this study, product weight is defined as product quality, and
Viscosity index
this research aims to minimize the variation in the product weight. In this study, a standard process parameter
Clamping force peak
setup procedure is proposed in order to set the process parameters in a close to optimized value based on the
Characteristics of quality monitoring
Switchover point
information collected by the sensors so the adaptive process control system can work well. Three polypropylene
Injection speed materials with low to high MI (melting index) values were used to verify the adaptive control system. The study
Adaptive process control system with the information collected through two sensors installed in the machine—the injection nozzle pressure
sensor and tie-bar strain gauge. Based on a series of results in the preliminary experiments, the appropriate
V/P switchover point and clamping force could be judged from the peak pressure and clamping force peak
for materials with different viscosities, respectively. The viscosity index and peak pressure strongly correlated
with the weight of the injection molded parts toward the materials of different viscosity. The viscosity index,
peak pressure, and clamping force peak are defined in this research as the quality monitoring characteristics
used to guide the adjustment and increase the stability of the process in the presented control system. The
experiment reveals that a combination of nozzle pressure curve-based adaptive process control incorporated
with clamping force peak monitoring can decrease the weight variation of the injection molded parts. With
this system, the coefficient of variation of product weight (𝐶𝑣 ) of different viscosity materials from low to high
can be decreased to 0.031%, 0.020%, and 0.024%, respectively.

1. Introduction
Injection molding is a popular process for mass production of poly-
mer products, but due to the complexity of the process, there are
many factors that will affect the product quality after long run of
the fabrication processes, including environmental factors, plastic flow
resistance, material changes, and human factors as shown in Fig. 1.
Injection molding is a cyclic process which most commonly be used
to produce plastic components, it can be divided into seven major
steps: plasticization, clamping, injection, packing, cooling, demolding
and ejecting. This study mainly focuses on the filling stage and packing
stage which have a greater impact on the quality of injection molded
parts [1].
The timing between filling stage and packing stage is referred to V/P
switchover point, appropriate V/P switchover point settings is crucial
for quality stability of injection molded parts during the injection mold-
ing process. In this study, three different viscosity materials are used,
based on P-V-T (Pressure–Specific Volume–Temperature) relationship
for polymers, which can describe the dependence of the specific volume
on melt temperature and melt pressure. Under the constant setting of
melt temperature, if the injection pressure curves are same for each
cycle, it can be inferred that the same specific volume change for each
cycle and maintain weight consistency of injection molded parts [2].
In order to develop the intelligent manufacturing for injection mold-
ing process, it is necessary to mount the sensors on injection molding
machine to extract the related injection data, such as clamping force,
injection pressure curves, etc. In case of the clamping force data extrac-
tion, C.-Y. Chen et al. installed the strain gage on tie-bar, it also finds
increment of the clamping force during the filling stage and packing

∗ Correspondence to: No. 1, University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.

E-mail address: jimppl@mail.ncku.edu.tw (S.-J. Hwang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2022.107526
Received 12 November 2021; Received in revised form 12 February 2022; Accepted 28 February 2022
Available online 12 March 2022
0142-9418/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
C.-W. Su et al.
Fig. 1. Factors of affecting product weight in the injection molding process [1].
stage, increment of clamping force have the strong correlation with
product weight, thus, it can be used to guide the adjustment of packing
pressure and V/P switchover point during the injection molding pro-
cess [3–5]. Su et al. analyze and verify the points of measurement of
the sensor with computer-aided engineering (CAE) structural analysis
technique, and establish an eigenvalue-injection clamping force peak
value by real-time clamping force measurement with strain gage sensor
for prediction, adjustment, and control of injection product quality [6].
In this study, clamping force was used to identify the appropriate
clamping force and stabilize the process for materials with different vis-
cosity. According to the P-V-T relationship of polymers, it can track the
injection pressure curve to maintain the product quality. Hwang et al.
proposed to predict the cavity pressure by gray prediction model and
determine the appropriate V/P switchover point [7]. Shih-Chih Nian
et al. mentioned that change of injection speed will change the fluidity
of melt. The injection speed is suitable for the injection process as long
as it allows the lowest viscosity fluctuations [8]. Jian-Yu Chen et al.
mentioned that in the injection molding process, the injection pressure
is not easily propagated to the far-from-gate region of the cavity after
V/P switchover. Therefore, the dimensional specification of the part at
the far-from-gate region is determined by the V/P switchover point. The
experiment results show that the appropriate V/P switchover point is
important to improve the quality uniformity of parts produced in the
injection molding process [9]. Jian-Yu Chen et al. mentioned that if
the V/P switchover time is too early, the injection pressure may not
be sufficient to compress the molten polymer into the cavity, resulting
in short shots and warpage, etc. If the V/P switchover time is too late,
it may lead to overfilling. Therefore, an appropriate V/P switchover
time setting can not only ensure that the molten polymer performs
a complete mold filling, but also produces sufficient compression of
molten polymer in the cavity [10]. Zhou et al. established a quality
prediction model based on polymer melt properties and proposed the
pressure integral (PI) based on the prediction model as an effective
process variable to predict the change of product weight [11]. Huang
et al. mentioned that peak pressure in cavity combines the linear
interpolation method to determine the appropriate packing pressure for
each cycle [12]. Krauss Maffie used the viscosity index (VI ) to describe
the pressure curve and used it as an indicator of product quality as
well as to determine the best switchover position [13,14]. In order
to understand the hardware specifications required for the adaptive
control of injection molding parameters, Lin et al. established an in-
telligent servo-hydraulic oil pressure system and used the system to
simulate the pressure control and speed control system during injection
molding to simulate the stability of machine parameters [15]. Y.-S.
Chen et al. verified that changes in the viscosity index have the effect of
amplifying the variation of product weight [16], Tsai et al. developed
an adaptive system that is dependent on a neural network predic-
tion system and used injection speed, switchover position, and cavity
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Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526
temperature through the neural network system to predict pressure
curve characteristics. With this system, variations of product weight
were decreased to 0.14%, and it was proven that injection speed is
an important parameter for the injection process [17]. Fan-Jiang et al.
built the master curve which obtained from the preliminary experiment
and used to be the algorithm of the system, the proposed system can
effectively and correctly adjust the injection speed and switchover
position, and can monitoring pressure data only depending on the only
a nozzle pressure sensor. With this system, the coefficient of variation
of product weight can be decreased to 0.05% [18]. In this study, the
adaptive process control system was developed, three different viscosity
materials were used to test the response toward the adaptive process
control system. Combination of nozzle pressure curve incorporating the
clamping force peak was applied to minimize the variation of product
weight and improve the process stability.
2. Methods
2.1. Injection molding process
The definition of injection molding is a manufacturing process
for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mold. In a
quantitative and intermittent manner, the plastic materials are heated
and melted into a liquid state. And then pressurized into a closed
cavity with low temperature through a plunger or screw. After cooling,
molded parts are taken out to obtain design shapes for various special
applications. The cyclic process of injection molding is shown in Fig. 2.
∙ 1-2: After closing the mold, the screw moves forward to allow the
plastic to fill the cavity.
∙ 2-3: The screw remains stationary under pressure, and the cooling
function begins.
∙ 3-4: The screw moves back to the initial position to allow the material
to fill for the next cycle.
∙ 4-5: The screw remains in a stationary position to wait for the next
mold and stops cooling.
∙ 5-1: After the mold opens, the product is ejected.
2.2. P-V-T relationship
The P-V-T (Pressure–Specific Volume–Temperature) properties of
polymers are important for both engineering and polymer physics.
Under the constant setting of melt temperature, if the injection pressure
curves are same for each cycle, it can be inferred that the same specific
volume change for each cycle and maintain weight consistency of
injection molded parts.
In this study, polypropylene is used for experiments. Fig. 3 shows
the P-V-T relationship of polypropylene. According to the P-V-T curve,
the relationship between pressure, specific volume and temperature
C.-W. Su et al.
Fig. 2. Injection molding process [19].
can be known. Under constant pressure, the specific volume is pro-
portional to the temperature. It can be understood in Fig. 4 that
the pressure generated in the injection process will greatly affect the
specific volume and directly affect the product weight. Therefore, it is
important to maintain similar pressure curve for each cycle in order
to minimize weight variation of the injection molded parts through
adjusting injection speed and V/P switchover point.
2.3. Injection pressure curve
In order to extract the melt pressure data during the injection
molding process, it is necessary to mount the pressure sensor on in-
jection molding machine. Generally, the mounting location of pressure
sensor is installed in the mold cavity or at the injection nozzle. Hwang
et al. [21,22] used multiple pressure sensor to extract pressure data and
calculate the quality indices, including peak pressure, viscosity index,
energy index, and the pressure gradient by feedback data. Based on a
series experimental results of observation, it was found when increases
in the injection speed, these four quality indices will exhibit the same
trend as that of the product weight, the peak pressure, viscosity index,
and the energy index have a strong relationship with the product
weight. Even though the energy index has a strong relationship with
the product weight, the energy index is more cumbersome than the
viscosity index during the extraction process, viscosity index can be
obtained by only using a pressure sensor, which can also reduce the
cost of sensors. Therefore, this study chooses viscosity index and peak
pressure to guide the adjustment of V/P switchover and injection speed
by only using a nozzle pressure sensor, it can be observed in Fig. 5,
three different viscosity materials correspond the different injection
pressure curve.
To describe the different viscosity of polymers during the injection
molding process, the viscosity index is used in this study, which is an
integral of a pressure curve. Both of viscosity index and peak pressure
can be used to describe the pressure curve.
𝑡𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔_𝑒𝑛𝑑
𝑉𝐼 = 𝑃𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑡 (𝑡) 𝑑𝑡 (1)
∫𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛_𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡
where VI is a viscosity index; 𝑡 is time, and 𝑃𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑡 is the melt pressure,
and where injection start is a start signal, and packing end is the
packing end signal.
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Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526
Table 1
Status of mold separation [3].
Status Degree of Influence
mold separation
∙Reduce of working life for mold
S1
∙Possible venting problem
∙Slight mold separation
S2
∙No appearance of flash defect for product
∙Significant mold separation
S3
∙Appearance of flash defect for product
2.4. Clamping force peak
Clamping force is a critical process parameter which greatly in-
fluence the quality of injection molded parts, too high or too low
clamping force settings will generate the appearance defect of prod-
uct, so appropriate clamping force is necessary for injection molding
process. Hwang et al. [3] verify relationship between the degree of
mold separation and appearance of product based on observation of
experimental results as shown in Table 1 and Fig. 6, and proposed
method to identify the appropriate clamping force with increment of
clamping force [10]. Su et al. [6] establish an eigenvalue-injection
clamping force peak value, it refers to difference of the default clamping
force and maximum of the clamping force during injection molding
process which can be seen in Fig. 7, and identify the relationship
between clamping force peak and process parameters (V/P switchover
point, injection speed, clamping force, packing pressure, packing time,
melt temperature, mold temperature) [7]. In this study, the clamping
force peak is used to quantify the degree of mold separation, and it also
can used to identify the appropriate clamping force for materials with
different viscosity. When the clamping force peak decrease close to 0
value, it represents that the default clamping force is sufficient.
2.5. Adaptive process control
Adaptive process control system is one kind of control system
which can has the ability to adapt to environmental changes, and
automatically adjust the structure or parameters of the system. Krauss
Maffei proposed an eigenvalue of injection pressure curve named vis-
cosity index, and used it to guide the control of V/P switchover point
to maintain the product quality [13,14]. In this study, the adaptive
control process system was developed to adjust the V/P switchover
and injection speed automatically based on viscosity index and peak
pressure which were extracted by the system, it can achieve the goal
for minimizing the variation of product weight.
3. Experiment setups
The different viscosity polypropylene which the Melt Index are
8, 14.5, 26, respectively was used to produce the injection molding of
a plastic disk (see Figs. 8 and 9). A pressure sensor with a sensitivity
of 3.3 mV/bar (Dynisco, PT4655XL) was mounted on the nozzle to
measure the melt pressure and a strain sensor (GEFRAN, GE1029) is
installed on tie-bar to measure the real-time clamping force as shown
in Fig. 10.
C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 3. P-V-T Relationship of Polypropylene(PP).

Fig. 4. P-V-T Relationship during the injection process [20].

Fig. 5. Injection pressure curve for materials with different viscosity.

4
C.-W. Su et al.
Fig. 6. Ideal range for clamping force [10].
Fig. 7. Clamping force peak value [6].
A 60-ton hydraulic injection molding machine (CLF-60TX, Chuan
Lih Fa Co., Ltd, Tainan, Taiwan) with a machine controller (MIRLE
automation corporation) was used to fabricate samples under a variety
of process parameters. The maximum injection rate was 115 (cm3 /s),
the maximum injection pressure was 2951 (kg/cm2 ), and the screw
diameter was 30 mm. A data acquisition module (USB-4716, Advantech
Co., Ltd) with sampling rate (65 Hz) was used to obtain the nozzle
pressure and clamping force data.
4. Preliminary experiments
4.1. Short-shot experiments
The experimental parameters in Table 2 were designed.
During the injection molding process, too early or too late V/P
switchover point settings will generate the appearance defect on injec-
tion molded parts, such as flash defect, shrinkage, etc., it also causes
the weight instability for injection molded parts, thus, appropriate V/P
switchover point settings are crucial for injection molding process. In
order to indicate the appropriate V/P switchover point for materials
with different viscosity, Via the results of short-shots experiment as
shown in Figs. 11(a)–13(a), appropriate V/P switchover point could be
judged from the peak pressure. When the melt filled into the cavity
excessively, peak pressure was rose sharply, thus, the previous default
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Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526
Fig. 8. The mold of the disk sample.
Fig. 9. The size of the disk sample.
Fig. 10. (a) Pressure sensor is installed at injection nozzle (b) Strain gage is installed
on tie-bar.
value of V/P switchover point was selected as the appropriate V/P
switchover point. It also can be seen from Figs. 11(b)–13(b) that
viscosity index and peak pressure have strong correlation with weights
of injection molded parts.
4.2. Appropriate clamping force experiments
Clamping force is a critical process parameter for injection molding
process, appropriate clamping force settings can improve the process
stability and maintain the weight consistency of injection molded parts.
The process parameters of appropriate clamping force are shown in
Table 3. The results of appropriate clamping force experiments are
shown in Figs. 14–16, it can be observed the appropriate clamping force
which were judged from the clamping force peak. The default values
of clamping force were sett from low to high, when the clamping force
peak reached 0 value, it represents that no status of mold separation
C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 11. Relationship between (a) the peak pressure and product weight and (b) the viscosity index and product weight for 6331-8 material.

Fig. 12. Relationship between (a) the peak pressure and product weight and (b) the viscosity index and product weight for 6331 material.

Table 2
Process parameters of short-shot experiments.
Injection pressure (bar) Clamping force (ton) Packing pressure (bar) Packing time (sec)
170 10 15 0.1
Cooling time (sec) Injection speed (%) Melt temperature (◦ C) Switchover position (mm)
6331–8 7,8,. . . ,13
10 50 210 6331 7,8,. . . ,13
PT231 8,9,. . . ,14

Table 3
Process parameters of appropriate clamping force experiments.
Injection pressure (bar) Injection speed (%) Packing pressure (bar) Packing time (sec)
170 50 15 3
Melt temperature (◦ C) Materials Clamping force (ton) Switchover position (mm)
6331–8 11,12,. . . ,15 9
210 6331 11,12,. . . ,16 10
PT231 11,12,. . . ,17 11

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C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 13. Relationship between (a) the peak pressure and product weight and (b) the viscosity index and product weight for PT231 material.

Fig. 14. Relationship between the viscosity index and product weight for 6331-8 Fig. 15. Relationship between the viscosity index and product weight for 6331
material. material.

was occurred, thus, the current default value of clamping force are de-
fined as the appropriate clamping force. The appropriate clamping force
from high to low materials are 15, 16, 17 (ton). In order to prevent the
instability of the injection molding machine and influence of different
batches materials, appropriate clamping force are multiplied by 1.2
times, thus, appropriate clamping force from high to low materials are
18, 19, 20 (ton).

4.3. The full-factorial experiments

Integrate the results of short-shots experiments and appropriate

clamping force experiments, viscosity index, peak pressure and clamp-
ing force peak are defined as the characteristics of quality monitoring.
There are 6 modes in each set of experiments in the full-factorial
experiments. Table 4 show the process parameters of full factorial
experiments for materials with different viscosity.
V/P switchover point and the injection speed are set as variable
to observe the degree of mold separation by clamping force peak, and Fig. 16. Relationship between the viscosity index and product weight for PT231
verify the relationship between the characteristics of quality monitoring material.
and product weight. In the case of significant mold separation, it
can be seen in Figs. 17(a)–22(a) that the viscosity index and product so the viscosity index will show a decreasing phenomenon. A large
weight have the negative correlation, however, the peak pressure and injection pressure is required to push the injection speed to the set
product weight have the positive correlation. The reason is that the value of the injection machine, so the peak pressure of the nozzle shows
filling time is relatively shorter at the setting of high injection speed, an increasing phenomenon. In the case of slight mold separation, it

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C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 17. Relationship between the product weight and viscosity index for 6331-8 material: (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

Table 4 system can online calculate the characteristics of quality monitoring

Process parameters of full factorial experiments.
and automatically adjust the V/P switchover point and injection speed
Injection pressure (bar) Packing pressure (bar) Materials and monitor clamping force peak for each cycle.
170 15 6331–8 6331 PT231 The control strategy of the adaptive process control system is as
Packing time (sec) Melt temperature (◦ C) Clamping force (ton) follow: (1) When the viscosity index is too high, the V/P switchover
3 210 18 19 20 point will increase by 0.1 mm, otherwise it will be reduced by 0.1 mm.
Run Injection speed (%) Switchover position (mm) (2) When nozzle peak pressure is too high, the injection speed will
be reduced by 1%, otherwise it will be increased by 1%. (3) Monitor
1 90
2 70 clamping force peak close to 0 value in order to make sure it is a state of
5 6 7
3 50 stable injection. The flow chart of the adaptive process control system
4 30 is shown in Fig. 23.
5 90
6 70 5.1. Appropriate clamping force experiments
7 8 9
7 50
8 30
Two experiments were conducted, one was conducted without adap-
9 90
tive process control system; the other was conducted with adaptive
10 70
11 50
9 10 11 process control system, both of which were performed 100 cycles. The
12 30 process parameter of adaptive process control system experiments is
13 90 shown in Table 5.
14 70
11 12 13
15 50 5.2. Experiment results
16 30
From the results of both experiments which can be seen in Figs. 24–
25, the weights of injection molded parts achieve the initial stability
can be seen in Figs. 17(b)–22(b) that the viscosity index and product without the control system. And with the control system, the weights of
weight have the positive correlation, however, the peak pressure and injection molded parts are more stable than without the control system.
product weight have the negative correlation. The reason why the The process parameters of both experiments are in line with Table 5.
peak pressure and product weight have the negative correlation is In order to determine the stability of the part quality, the variation,
that when the cavity almost be filled during the injection process, standard deviation and coefficient of variation of the part weight
there is a large reaction force that increases the resistance of the melt are calculated. With the Eq. (2), (3) and (4), the variation, standard
when it is injected into the cavity, thereby reducing the weight of the deviation and the coefficient of variation can be calculated in Table 6,
product. From the results of the full factorial experiments, the upper where ‘‘𝑉 𝑎𝑟’’ is the variation, ‘‘𝜎’’ is the standard deviation, ‘‘𝑥’’ is
and lower bounds for switchover point and injection speed are ±2 mm the measured weight of each mold product, ‘‘𝜇’’ is the mean value of
and ±20% relative to the appropriate parameters settings under the 1.2 the product weight,‘‘𝑛’’ is the total amount of the mold, ‘‘𝐶𝑣 ’’ is the
times appropriate clamping force settings for materials with different coefficient of variation and ‘‘𝑈 ’’ is the target value of product weight.
viscosity, respectively. With the adaptive process control system, the coefficient of variation of
product weight (𝐶𝑣 ) from high to low viscosity materials are decrease
5. Experiment results of the adaptive control system to 0.024%, 0.020%, 0.031%, respectively.
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑉𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑉 𝑎𝑟 = × 100% (2)
During injection molding process, even the most optimized pro- 𝑉𝑎𝑣𝑒
cess parameters settings cannot maintain the weights consistency of √
∑𝑛 ( )2
injection molded parts during the long fabrication process, thus, an 𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 − 𝜇
adaptive process control system was developed in this study. Based 𝜎= (3)
𝑛
on the results of preliminary experiments, the viscosity index and
𝜎
peak pressure were used to guide the adjustment of V/P switchover 𝑐𝑣 = × 100% (4)
𝑈
point and injection speed, respectively. The adaptive process control

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C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 18. Relationship between the product weight and viscosity index for 6331 material: (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

Fig. 19. Relationship between the product weight and viscosity index for PT231 material: (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

Fig. 20. Relationship between the product weight and peak pressure for 6331-8 material (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

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C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Fig. 21. Relationship between the product weight and peak pressure for 6331 material (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

Fig. 22. Relationship between the product weight and peak pressure for PT231 material (a) Significant mold separation (b) Slight mold separation.

Fig. 23. Flow chart of the control system.

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C.-W. Su et al. Polymer Testing 109 (2022) 107526

Table 5
Process parameters for the adaptive process control system.
Injection pressure (bar) Injection speed (%) Packing pressure (bar) Packing time (sec)
170 50 15 3
Melt temperature (◦ C) Cooling time (sec) Materials Clamping force (ton) Switchover position (mm)
6331–8 18 9
210 10 6331 19 10
PT231 20 11

Table 6
Performance comparison between with system and without system.
Variation of product weight (𝑉 𝑎𝑟)
Material Without system (%) With system (%)
6331–8 0.15 0.14
6331 0.18 0.11
PT231 0.17 0.15
Standard deviation of product weight (𝜎)
Material Without system (g) With system (g)
6331–8 0.0042 0.0036
6331 0.0050 0.0031
PT231 0.0054 0.0047
Coefficient of variation of product weight (𝐶𝑣 )
Material Without system (%) With system (%)
6331–8 0.028 0.024
6331 0.033 0.020
PT231 0.036 0.031

Fig. 24. Performance without system for materials with different viscosity.
Fig. 25. Performance with system for materials with different viscosity.
6. Conclusion
In the injection molding process, the product quality can be affected
by external factors such as the variation of materials due to changes
in environmental conditions or different material batches. Adequate
setup of the process parameters and machine stability will also affect
the product quality. Thus, in this study, a standard process parameter
setup procedure is proposed to set the process parameters in a close to
optimized value based on the information collected by the sensors so
the adaptive process control system. Finally, feasibility of the process
parameter setup and the adaptive process control system were verified
by materials with different viscosity. The experiment results support
the following significant finding and conclusions:
The nozzle pressure will increase significantly, and the nozzle pres-
sure will show a peak when the cavity is filled with the melt. When
the nozzle peak pressure is too high, the product will lead to flash,
resulting in weight increase; when the peak pressure of the nozzle is too
low, the product will lead to short shots. Therefore, the appropriate V/P
switchover point can be found according to the nozzle peak pressure.
In our preliminary studies, it was found that clamping force plays
an important role in the mass variation of injection molded parts. Thus,
a strain gauge was installed in the tie-bar of the injection molding
machine to avoid mold separation or over-clamped to maintain stable
production of the parts and a standard procedure of clamping force
setup is proposed. When the clamping force peak approaches 0, it is
appropriate and ensures that mold separation will not happen during
the injection process.
According to the Refs. [8–10], V/P switchover point and injection
speed are essential parameters to stabilize product quality. Since our
product is not a thin-walled component, the injection speed has a
limited impact on our product weight, as long as we ensure no mold
separation during the injection process and the melt can flow smoothly
into the cavity. Therefore, the V/P switchover point is the most critical
parameter for obtaining the lowest mass variation of products in this
study.
An adaptive process control system was developed through a stan-
dard process parameter setup procedure to set the process parameters.
The experiment results reveal that a combination of nozzle pressure
curve-based adaptive process control incorporated with clamping force
monitoring can decrease the coefficient of variation of product weights.
With this system, the coefficient of variation of the product weight
of different viscosity materials from low to high can be decreased to
0.024%,0.020%, and 0.031%, respectively.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Chi-Wei Su: Conception and design of study, Acquisition of data,
Analysis and/or interpretation of data, Writing – original draft. Wei-Jie
Su: Conception and design of study, Acquisition of data, Writing – re-
view & editing. Feng-Jung Cheng: Acquisition of data, Analysis and/or

11
C.-W. Su et al.
interpretation of data, Writing – review & editing. Guan-Yan Liou:
Acquisition of data, Analysis and/or interpretation of data. Sheng-Jye
Hwang: Conception and design of study, Writing – original draft. Hsin-
Shu Peng: Conception and design of study, Writing – original draft.
Hsiao-Yeh Chu: Conception and design of study, Writing – original
draft.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by Minster of science under grant MOST-107-
2218-E-035-013. All authors approved the version of the manuscript to
be published.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online
at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2022.107526.
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