METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING HOLLOW ARTICLES MADE OF INJECTION MOULDED PLASTIC MATERIAL

Abstract

A method and apparatus for producing hollow articles made of injection moulded plastic material by a mould having a die within which there is inserted a core, and at least one injector including a pin valve displaceable between a closing position and an opening position for injecting the pressurized plastic material into a space comprised between the die and the core. During the injection, any flexural deflection of the core is detected and the pin valve of the or of each injector is displaced in a controlled fashion to adjust a pressure and a flow rate of the injected plastic material, so as to reduce or eliminate such deflection of the core.

Claims

1. A plastic material injection moulding apparatus including a mould having a die defining a cavity within which a core is inserted, the apparatus comprising: at least one pair of injectors, each including a pin valve displaceable between a closing position and an opening position for injecting the pressurized plastic material into a space comprised between the die and the core, an actuator for controlling displacement of the pin valve of the or of each of the pair of injectors, an electronic unit operatively connected to the actuator so as to displace the pin valve of the or of each of the pair of injectors in a controlled fashion and adjust a pressure and/or a flow rate of the injected plastic material, and at least one sensor designed to detect any flexural deflection of the core during injection and connected to said electronic unit, said electronic control unit, upon receiving a signal from said sensor indicative of flexural detection of the core, commanding the controlled displacement of the pin valve of the or of each of the pair of injectors by adjusting at least one among a position, speed, acceleration and stroke of the pin valve so as to adjust the pressure and/or the flow rate of the injected plastic material thereby reducing or eliminating such flexural deflection of the core, wherein in order to detect the flexural deflection of the core, a position of a free end thereof is measured, wherein the injecting the pressurized plastic material is carried out by the at least one pair of injectors facing the core at opposite sides thereof, and wherein the pin valves facing the core at opposite sides thereof are separately controlled and utilized to correct the detected flexural deflection of the core by adjusting, based on the detected flexural deflection, at least one among the position, speed, acceleration and stroke of each pin valve so as to adjust the pressure and/or the flow rate of the injected plastic material.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one sensor is selected among a position transducer of a free end of the core, a pressure transducer of the injected plastic material, or combinations thereof.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said position transducer of the free end of the core is of an induction type.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one sensor is positioned on the core.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one sensor is installed on the die.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one sensor is positioned in the space comprised between the die and the core.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The invention will now be described in detail, purely by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

[0016] FIG. 1 is a sectional and partial schematic view of an injection moulding apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention,

[0017] FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are diagrams exemplifying injection methods and relative drawbacks according to the prior art,

[0018] FIGS. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 are diagrams similar to those of FIG. 2-6 but regarding the invention, and

[0019] FIG. 12 is a schematic perspective view of an example of a hollow article obtained using the injection moulding method and apparatus according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] The following description refers to production by means of injection moulding of hollow articles made of plastic material such as the one schematically represented in FIG. 12 and indicated with C: it is a container with elongated shape (for example length equivalent to 350 mm) and a thin wall (nominal thickness for example equivalent to 2 mm).

[0021] The recipient C is produced using an apparatus schematically represented in FIG. 1, comprising a mould 1 having a cavity 2, a die 3, a core 4 couplable with the die (3) to delimit a space corresponding to the shape of the recipient C and a system for injecting the plastic material into such space.

[0022] The injection system typically comprises a hot runner or hot chamber 5 supplied by a press and connected, in the case of the illustrated example, to a pair of injectors 6 arranged on opposite sides with respect to the cavity 2 of the mould 1. It should be observed that the number and arrangement of the injectors could be different from the one illustrated in the example.

[0023] Each injector 6 comprises—in a per se known manner—a nozzle 7 in which there is axially mobile a pin valve 8 displaceable between a position of full closure and a position of maximum opening for the injection of the pressurised plastic material into the space comprised between the die 3 and the core 4. The displacement of each pin valve 8 is controlled by a respective actuator 9, of the fluid or more conveniently of the electrical type, for example of the rotary type, controlled by means of an electronic control unit 10.

[0024] The control unit 10 is programmed so as to control each actuator 9, and thus each injector 6, so as to adjust the pressure and flow rate of the plastic material injected by it. The control may in particular provide for the adjustment of the position, speed, acceleration and stroke of the pin valve 8 during the filling step.

[0025] FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing the injection methods provided for according to the prior art for moulding articles such as the recipient C. Such methods do not provide for the aforementioned control of the injectors by the electronic unit 10, hence the plastic material is injected in the same manner, in terms of flow rate and pressure, by both injectors. In particular, the diagram of FIG. 2 (in which it is fictitiously indicated that the two injectors open at different times whereas they actually open simultaneously) shows the position of the pin valves of both injectors during the opening step, as a function of the time, to which there corresponds a bending or a non-controlled flexural deflection of the core 4, which increases over time. At the end of the injection, the core 4 has the bent configuration—represented in fictitiously enlarged form in FIG. 4, with a displacement with respect to the non-deflected condition for example greater than 0.3 mm. Due to such deflection, the recipient C removed from the mould at the end of the injection has the structural defects exemplified in FIGS. 5 and 6: the larger part thereof corresponding to the flexural deflected inner face of the core 4 (FIG. 5) has a thickness progressively decreasing from the end edge thereof towards the bottom, while the other larger wall corresponding to the flexural deflected outer face side of the core 4 correspondingly has a thickness progressively increasing from the end edge thereof towards the bottom wall thereof. With a nominal wall thickness equivalent to 2 mm the less or excess pressure variation can thus also be well above 10%, and this can be unacceptable.

[0026] FIGS. 7-11 are diagrams corresponding to FIGS. 2 to 6 regarding the invention, i.e. with the help of the control of the displacement of the pin valve 8 of each injector 6 performed by the electronic unit 10. Such control, carried out independently for each actuator 9, regards the position, speed, acceleration and stroke of the respective pin valve 8 and it is based on signals coming from transducers suitable to detect the flexural deflection of the core 4 during injection.

[0027] Such transducers can be of various types and they can be arranged in different areas. As regards the type, there can be used one or more deflection transducers of the base of the core, such as those schematised with 11 in FIG. 1, or one or more position transducers of the free end of the core (for example induction sensors), possibly also combined with each other and even with one or more pressure transducers of the injected plastic material. As regards their position, besides what has been already been indicated, the transducers can be arranged on the core 4, on the die 3 and in the space comprised between the die 3 and the core 4.

[0028] The control thus carried out by the electronic unit is such that the possibly detected bending of the core 4 is corrected and eliminated, thus returning the core 4 to the non-deflected condition thereof, by acting on the flow rate and pressure of the plastic material supplied by one and/or the other injector 6.

[0029] The diagram of FIG. 8 shows a correction example: upon reaching a maximum value, the detected deflection of the core 4 is countered and eliminated towards the final step of the injection, so as to return the core 4 to the initial non-deflected condition represented in FIG. 9. Thus, the thickness of the larger walls of the recipient C, as indicated in FIGS. 10 and 11, is almost constant and substantially corresponding to the design nominal value (2 mm).

[0030] Obviously, the construction details and the embodiments of the apparatus for implementing the method according to the invention may widely vary with respect to what has been described and illustrated, without departing from the scope of protection of the invention as described in the claims that follow. Thus, for example, as previously clarified, the number and position of the injectors will depend on the shapes and dimensions of the articles to be moulded. In case of articles of small dimensions, the injector may even be just one.

[0031] Furthermore, though the description explicitly refers to an entirely automatic control process, the scope of protection of the invention also covers a semi-automatic or manual methods, in which for example there is carried out a first injection detecting any deflection, modifying the parameters of the or of each injector if necessary and then injection is carried out a second time, any deflection is detected once again and the subsequent adjustment of the injection parameters are carried out if necessary, up to eliminating it.