ABSTRACT
Enormous amounts of plastic, rubber, and thermoset parts ranging from automobile bumpers and personal computer and refrigerator housings to bottles and tires are produced by molding processes. Several books of a general nature are available describing various polymer processing operations including molding processes. Since the pressure developed during the compression stage is significantly lower than that in the packing stage of conventional injection molding, the injection-compression molding introduces lower residual stresses, lower molecular orientation and birefringence, less, and more even, shrinkage, and better dimensional tolerances. In an attempt to establish realistic processing targets for commercial processing operations, a statistical analysis of weights of thermoformed parts and their wall thickness has been performed. However, a major challenge in this direction is to develop models with a more realistic description of polymer behavior and to include interactions between various stages of molding processes between their various stages and their influence on the microstructure and performance of molded products.
