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High-Pressure Preform Foam Blow Molding

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Published/Copyright: November 29, 2017
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Abstract

Recently, several companies have started to use the foaming technology in blow molding processes, primarily in extrusion blow molding. Despite the design complexity involved in the preform blow molding method, substantial advantages result when microcellular foaming and blow molding are combined. In preform and extrusion blow molding, the preform (i. e., the parison) undergoes significant biaxial stress during the inflation stage. Since either extensional or shear stress can dramatically improve cell nucleation, an externally applied stress can cause small-scale, local pressure variations throughout the sample, thus reducing the energy barrier for cell nucleation. So, unlike the current low-pressure foam blow molding technology, where cell nucleation occurs before inflating the preform/parison, we used a high-pressure system to prevent premature foaming in the shaping stage. Consequently, cell nucleation was induced after biaxial stresses were created to induce a higher cell density.


*Correspondence address, Mail address: Chul B. Park, Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Rd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G8, E-mail:

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Received: 2017-07-08
Accepted: 2017-08-30
Published Online: 2017-11-29
Published in Print: 2017-11-17

© 2017, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich

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