Thermal Effects:

Temperature is a critical process parameter for polymers and one which is particularly difficult to measure in-process. Polymers are highly temperature dependent, with viscosity, flow rate, degradation, part strength and levels of orientation and crystallinity all heavily influenced by melt temperature and rate of cooling.

Optimisation of thermal effects is concerned with measurement and control of melt temperature. This field is of interest to material suppliers, processors, sensor manufacturers and simulation software developers.

As part of this research project we aim to address thermal effects, specifically in the following areas:

1. Extrusion melt temperature field measurement - by using novel sensors made up of thermocouple grids, ultrasound, infra-red pyrometry and temperature sensitive fluorescing dyes. Applications to be examined will include the foaming process which is highly dependent upon melt temperature

2. Injection moulding temperature control - to investigate mould temperature control using instrumented cavities and to determine the effects on cooling of techniques such as cyclic and conformal cooling. The effect of using insulated barrel heaters on energy consumption and temperature control will also be assessed.