Switchover control in the polymer injection forming process

Polymer Injection Forming (PIF) is a new technology to manufacture sheet metal/polymer macro-composite components in a one-operation production process. During the process, a metal blank is formed inside an injection mold by means of the pressure of the molten polymer. Changing from velocity control to pressure control just before the mold is filled is a common practice in the traditional injection molding process. In this paper, different switchover strategies for the PIF process were investigated. Shot to shot consistency obtained by these methods was evaluated by means of process variations in terms of cavity melt pressure.