Analisi sperimentale dell'influenza dei parametri di processo sulla resistenza di contatto tra polimero e stampo durante la formatura

Today's computational resources allow a more than satisfactory simulation of most industrial processes, including closure manufacturing. The cooling and cristalization step of the manufacturing process may be simulated, provided all polymer data, process parameters and boundary conditions are known. As to the latter two issues, it is the manufacturer's task to gain the necessary information, but this knowledge is in practice lacking at best, which makes assumptions compulsory. One of the strongest assumptions is that of perfect thermal contact at the interface between mold and polymer, too limiting a hypothesis if compared to the precision with which other conditions and parameters are known. To fill this gap an experimental campaign was devised, starting from scratch, to determine by means of inverse thermal analysis the value of the thermal contact conductance in the case of two families of polymeric materials and its dependence on the main process parameters at play in compression molding. The results, both qualitative and quantitative highlighted which aspects may be discarded and which play a fundamental role in the cooling process.