Projects

Foamed injection molding has a lot of potential as a production technology for plastic products: lightweight design, the possibility of very thin-walled products thanks to viscosity reduction, lower material consumption and cost savings. However, there are also a number of material and process technological challenges that must be addressed in order to successfully apply foamed injection molding. Examples include the negative aesthetic impact ...

Polyolefin (PO) post-consumer recyclaatfracties consist of a mixture of polypropylene (PP) .polyethyleen (PE) and a small amount of residual contaminants. They can be admixed in injection molding and extrusion, in "virgin" material to reduce material costs. Although these are recyclaatfracties to obtain already commercially, remains there for SME's existence a large threshold to switch to its interference with the existing production.

This project aims to bring together and combine the relevant knowledge about injection molding of short fiber reinforced plastics.

It has become increasingly evident that noise and vibration exposure negatively impacts our health and well-being. Classical noise and vibration solutions are, however, typically irreconcilable with lightweight design requirements which arise from ever tightening economic and ecologic demands. In the search for innovative lightweight noise and vibration solutions, locally resonant metamaterials have recently emerged and shown great potential, ...

Microneedles are needle-like microscopic structures used to pierce the skin in order to either deliver medical substances, or to extract fluids from a body for sampling purposes. These needles are usually arranged in an array with individual needle lengths ranging from 25 to 2000 μm. Micro-sized needles offer various advantages compared to traditional hypodermic needles, such as a pain free delivery of medical substances. However, ...

Successful two-component (2K) injection moulding of multi-material products requires an efficient production process and an optimal material combination. Specifically for thermoset rubbers with thermoplastics, this is challenging as during injection moulding these materials have opposite temperature requirements. Therefore, a novel process with a mould containing thermally separated heat cavities was developed by Bex et al. [1]. Available ...

Two component (2K) injection moulding is a production process that combines two polymers in one production process without assembly. Two component injection moulding using thermoplastics is commonly used in industry. The combination of a soft rubber like material and a stiffer material is frequently used in products like toothbrushes or tools. Often a thermoplastic elastomer is used as rubber like material. Thermoplastic elastomers are ...

The aim of the QuAsIM project is to map out the different options for monitoring and controlling injection molding machines (WP1), to develop tools to choose the most suitable system (WP2), to apply it and to demonstrate it ( WP3-4), and to transfer the available knowledge around it to Flemish industry (WP5). In this way, users become familiar with the available technologies and are able to deploy them in the right way and for the right ...