Mechanical properties of the weld line defect in micro injection molding for various nano filled polypropylene composites

The nano filled functional polymer materials have been widely processed with micro injection molding technology for micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication. As the unfavorable defect in micro injection molding parts, weld line brings reduced mechanical and physical properties, especially for nano filled composites. In this study, polypropylene (PP) was compounded respectively with carbon nano fibers (CNFs) and TiO2 nano particles at various weight fractions (10, 20, 30, 35 wt%) through co-screws internal mixing. The morphological, thermal and rheological properties of nano composites were characterized by wider angle X-ray diffraction (WXRD), different scanning calorimeter (DSC) and high pressure capillary rheometer. Additionally, under the constant setting of injection molding process parameters in injection molding machine, micro tensile samples with weld lines for each nano filled PP composite were produced. The tensile tests were served as the characterizing method for weld line mechanical properties. The results show that when the CNFs is filled higher than 10 wt%, the tensile strength of samples with weld lines made of nano composites become lower than neat PP. While the raising CNFs content contributes to the improved E modulus of micro injection molded weld lines. Additionally, with the increasing fraction of CNFs in PP, the weld line area's elongation percent is decreased. Whereas for case of TiO2, the 10 wt% is the threshold for micro injection molded weld line tensile strength turning from decrease trend to increase. The same as CNFs, elongation of micro weld line samples were in general lower than neat PP as well, due to the addition of TiO2 nano particles.

Research highlights▶ PP/CNFs and PP/TiO2 composites with relative high loading fractions (10, 20, 30 and 35 wt%) were fabricated by inner melt mixing process. Micro tensile test samples were formed by injection molding combined with variotherm process for all composites. ▶ The morphological properties of all nano composites were characterized by WXRD, whose results imply the adding nano fillers did not change the crystal form of PP, but the crystallites size and distance between lattices of crystals were changed with various nano fillers and loading fractions. ▶ DSC analysis show that due to the nucleating function of nano fillers, the peak temperature of crystallization was increased and the peak temperature of crystallization melting was decreased by adding the nanofillers. ▶ The flow ability of nano composites was tested by high pressure single capillary rheometer and the results demonstrate that nano fillers increased the viscosity of PP matrix. ▶ Based on these significant information and analysis foundation of the nano filled composites, the micro weld line samples were formed by injection molding process and characterized by tensile test method. From the achieved results, it can be found that in general, for functional nano filled polymer composites, the mechanical property of micro weld lines were obviously influenced by nano fillers’ shape and loading fractions. ▶ The E modulus of micro weld line was increased due to loading CNFs in PP matrix, while the elongation of the micro tensile samples with weld line is considerably decreased comparing with those of unfilled PP samples. The detrimental tensile strength of micro weld lines were observed when CNFs contents increasing, except for at a 10 wt%. ▶ For TiO2 nano particles filled PP, due to the poor dispersion of nano particles, at low loading fraction of 10 wt%, the E modulus and tensile strength of micro weld lines were decreased by filling nano particles, but when the loading fraction is increased to 30%, the E modulus and tensile strength of micro weld line were increased again compared with the low loading level. ▶ Finally, an empirical prediction equation for micro injection molded weld line strength of nano PP composites was proposed for higher nano filler loading fraction than 10 wt%.