In this study, we describe the design and fabrication of an industrial injection moulding system that can be mounted and used on the NCD-SWEET small-angle X-ray scattering beamline at ALBA. We show how highly useful time-resolved data can be obtained using this system. We are able to evaluate the fraction of the material in the mould cavity and identify the first material to solidify and how this varies with the injection temperature. The design follows current industrial practice and provides opportunities to collect time-resolved data at several points within the mould cavity so that we can build up a 4D perspective of the morphology and its temporal development. The quantitative data obtained will prove invaluable for the optimisation of the next generation of injection moulding techniques. This preliminary work used results from the injection moulding of a general-purpose isotactic polypropylene.

We recently introduced the possibility of performing operando small-angle X-ray scattering measurements using a novel industrially relevant injection moulding system for plastics. We show that useful time-resolving measurements can be performed with a time-cycle of 1 s and highlight the possible steps to reduce this to 0.5 s. We show how we can use the transmission measurements to provide a time marker when plastic first enters the mould cavity in the region probed by the incident X-ray beam. We show the opportunities provided by this experimental stage mounted on the NCD-SWEET beamline at ALBA to probe the reproducibility of the injection moulding system on different scales. The design of the equipment allowed for the development of the structure and the morphology to be evaluated in different parts of mould cavity, and we evaluated any differences in a rectangular mould cavity. We identified future prospects for this equipment in terms of novel mould heating and cooling systems and the opportunities for quantitatively evaluating radical approaches to injection moulding technology.

This work presents the design and construction of an automated industrial injection moulding apparatus that can be used with a typical multi-user beamline such as the NCD-SWEET small-angle X-ray scattering at the ALBA Synchrotron Light Source. This apparatus is focused on developing an understanding of how the mould temperature and the injection temperature and pressure affect both the orientation and morphology of the semi-crystalline polymer used to fabricate the injected parts. The system design follows current industrial practice and enables the collection of time-resolved X-ray scattering data at several points within the mould cavity, so we can understand the 4D morphology. In this work we show the effectiveness of the equipment using some results from the injection moulding of a random copolymer of polypropylene and that it can be used with a more demanding material such as polyhydroxybutyrate. This can be seen as the first step toward a multiscale digital twin for injection moulding.

Injection moulding is the most common fabrication technology used to shape plastics

We describe the design and fabrication of an industrial injection moulding system which can be mounted and used on the NCD-SWEET Small-angle X-Ray Scattering Beamline at ALBA. We show how highly useful time-resolved data can be obtained using this system. We are able to evaluate the fraction of material in the mould cavity and identify the first material to solidify and how this varies with the injection tem-perature. The design follows current industrial practice and provides opportunities to collect time-resolved data at several points within the mould cavity so we can build up a 4D perspective of the morphology and its temporal development. The quantitative data obtained will prove invaluable for the optimisation of the next generation of in-jection moulding techniques. This preliminary work used results from the injection moulding of a general purpose isotactic polypropylene.

We present the design and construction of an automated industrial injection moulding apparatus that can be used with the NCD-SWEET small-angle X-ray scattering beamline at the ALBA Synchrotron Light Source. This apparatus is focused on developing an understanding of how the mould temperature and the injection temperature affect both the orientation and morphology of the semi-crystalline polymer used to fabricate the injected parts. In this work we report results from moulding isotactic polypropylene. The system design follows current industrial practice and enables the collection of time-resolved x-ray scattering data at several points within the mould cavity so we can understand the 4D morphology. This work is the first step in the development of a multi-scale digital twin of an injection moulding system.