Using supercritical nitrogen as the physical foaming agent, microcellular polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites were prepared in microcellular injection molding. The main purpose of this work is to study effects of content of nano-CaCO₃ on the crystallization, mechanical properties, and cell structure of PP nanocomposites in microcellular injection molding. The results show that adding nano-CaCO₃ to PP could improve its mechanical properties and cell structure. The thermal stability and crystallinity enhances with increase of nano-CaCO₃. As a bubble nucleating agent, adding nano-CaCO₃ to PP improves the cell structure in both the parallel sections and vertical sections. The mechanical properties increase first and then decrease with increase of nano-CaCO₃. The mechanical properties are affected by the cell structure, as well. The mechanical properties and cell structure are optimum when the content of nano-CaCO₃ is 6 wt %.

A combined in-mold decoration and microcellular injection molding (IMD/MIM) method by integrating in-mold decoration injection molding (IMD) with microcellular injection molding (MIM) was proposed in this paper. To verify the effectiveness of the IMD/MIM method, comparisons of in-mold decoration injection molding (IMD), conventional injection molding (CIM), IMD/MIM and microcellular injection molding (MIM) simulations and experiments were performed. The results show that compared with MIM, the film flattens the bubbles that have not been cooled and turned to the surface, thus improving the surface quality of the parts. The existence of the film results in an asymmetrical temperature distribution along the thickness of the sample, and the higher temperature on the film side leads the cell to move toward it, thus obtaining a cell-offset part. However, the mechanical properties of the IMD/MIM splines are degraded due to the presence of cells, while specific mechanical properties similar to their solid counterparts are maintained. Besides, the existence of the film reduces the heat transfer coefficient of the film side so that the sides of the part are cooled asymmetrically, causing warpage.

A combined in-mold decoration and microcellular injection molding (IMD/MIM) method has been used in this paper. The foamed PP/nano-CaCO₃ composites were prepared to investigate their mechanical properties, cellular structure, and surface quality. The content of nano-CaCO₃ varied from 0 to 10 wt %. The results showed that nano-CaCO₃ acted as a reinforcing phase and nucleating agent, which help to improve the mechanical properties of foamed composites. The cellular structure and mechanical properties were optimum when the nano-CaCO₃ content was 6 wt %. In the vertical section, the cell size and density of transition layer on the film side was bigger than that on the non-film side. In the parallel section, the cell ratio of length to diameter of transition layer on the film side was smaller than that on the non-film side, and the cell tile angle was larger than that on the non-film side. With nano-CaCO₃ content increasing, the surface quality showed a trend of decreasing first and then increasing.

In this study, hot stamping tests on continuous glass fiber (GF)-reinforced thermoplastic (PP) composites were conducted under different process parameters using a self-designed hemispherical hot stamping die with a heating system. The effects of parameters such as preheating temperature, stamping depth, and stamping speed on the formability of the fabricated parts were analyzed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The test results show that the suitable stamping depth should be less than 15 mm, the stamping speed should be less than 150 mm/min, and the preheating temperature should be about 200 °C. From the edge of the formed parts to their pole area, a thin-thick-thin characteristic in thickness was observed. Under the same preheating temperature, the influence of stamping depth on the thickness variation of the formed parts was more significant than the stamping speed. The primary defects of the formed parts were cracking, wrinkling, delamination, and fiber exposure. Resin poverty often occurred in the defect area of the formed parts and increased with stamping depth and stamping speed.

In this paper, a three-dimensional thermo-viscoelastic constitutive equation is used to simulate and analyze the hot stamping process of thermoplastic resin matrix composites. Dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) was used to measure the relaxation behavior of resin matrix at different temperatures. Then, the relaxation times and the weight factors of the resin matrix were obtained by regression analysis of the data of the resin matrix relaxation behavior using genetic intelligent algorithm. According to the classical Maxwell model with N Maxwell elements and representative volume element (RVE), the integral constitutive model was established, and the corresponding integral finite element program was incorporated into commercial software ABAQUS with an UMAT subroutine.Thermal expansion was also taken into account in the present model. The constitutive model and its finite element program in this paper were verified by experiments with a self-designed hot stamping die for thermoplastic composites.In addition, the simulation results were compared with the actual failure areas to further verify the applicability of the constitutive model adopted in this paper. The results indicate that the ball edge of the hemispherical part is easy to be damaged.